NBA 2K25 Review

thesixthaxis.com:

The NBA 2K series has long been up there as one of the best sporting video games, each year putting forward a great recreation of basketball that always makes the most of each era of console hardware. But for over a decade there’s always been the looming shadow of VC, the microtransactions that have spread to almost every fact of the experience. Does NBA 2K25 strike a better balance in that regard than previous games? Yes and no.

The first thing you will see on the home screen is a pop up to go to the current season and buy Virtual Currency (VC), which you might easily open up by mistake when hurriedly tapping through to reach MyCareer. This kind of splash screen is increasingly common in mass market video games, but the difference, as always, is that 2K is pushing people to spend more in an already full priced game to get a leg up for your character.

Once you actually reach the main menu, you have a choice between MyCareer, MyTeam, NBA Eras which includes MyGM, and WNBA. Most players, myself included, will head to MyCareer as that is where a lot of the action is. In NBA 2K25, there are new options to create your player, including Pro Builds. With Pro Builds you select some aspects for your player, like position and playstyle, and NBA 2K25 will pull a few players that your build is similar to and base your stats on them. Do not expect a powerhouse player, as you will start as rookie with a rating of 60.

For the purposes of this review, we were provided with 100,000 VC, which I did spend on improving my player’s attributes. This amount moved the needle from a 60 rating to a 76 rating, which is mid-range for the vast majority of NBA players, but well off the top. I would suspect another 100,000 would get my player to the mid-80s. For context, 200,000 VC is priced at $49.99.

In MyCareer you select the team you want to play for and are already part of the squad, though your first goal is to become a starter. MyCareer brings back the city hub with quests to complete, side