ESPN NBA 2K5 review

I’m wary when it comes to games that look to be cheaper than they should be. Bargain buckets in your local game store normally contain nothing more than games that didn’t sell, and normally this is because they’re rubbish.

When a game is released for less than you would normally expect to purchase a new game for (such as the subject of this review, ESPN NBA 2K5), you tend to feel that it’s the gaming equivalent of a movie that has gone straight to video. For £20 though, with this game I don’t think you can go far wrong.

Ignoring the fact that in the US you can pick up a copy for $20, I can’t help but feel that it is great value for money. Only in my last minute research on the game did I actually look at the price, and discover with glee a more interesting opening to my review. A low price tag however does not give me the right to ignore any shortcomings that present themselves.

A basketball game is clearly going to have all of the normal options, being able to choose a team, how many players, who to play against (CPU or Human) and in ESPN NBA 2K5 (that’s really going to start grating on me) a whole host of other options that to be perfectly frank, I couldn’t care less about, but serious enthusiasts will.

Bucket?

Since the early days of games being produced on CD-ROM, sports games have had varying degrees of commentary, and ESPN NBA 2K5 is no exception. While being performed rather well, with a variety of phrases said, the constant referral to the basket as a bucket really started to grate on me, though maybe the real life commentators are just as annoying. Sound wise, all effects seem accurate, though the timing occasionally seems off on certain things; the common net swish being one that I’ve felt stands out.

While containing a very respectable soundtrack (for its style), the music is rarely heard outside the game menus and select game styles. More often than not it’s subtle, or used as a more diegetic influence on the world, playing out from speakers in the court rather than from an invisible film soundtrack style place.

Swish

Graphically the game looks pretty good. All characters and locations are rendered well with a few nice effects to show off a bit of technical wizardry, with animated crowds and a whole load of realistically portrayed NBA stars.

Fluid movements and presentation cement the action with some realistic ball physics thrown in for good luck. The only real downside is when watching a replay of a slam dunk or for that matter much ball handling when the ball occasionally seems a little off realistic, but during normal gameplay, that’s never an issue.

ESPN NBA 2K5 does a respectable job of mimicking normal Basketball games, and it plays much like the other games on the market. The X button passes or switches player, Square shoots or blocks and Circle steals or does a ‘Crossover’.

While there are many more controls, using the same basics as most other Basketball games helped me get straight into it, however certain actions do seem overly tricky to perform. Stealing and blocking the ball when you are on defence has a rather steep learning curve, while various other actions are certainly going to take time to perfect. Fortunately there is an interesting game mode (present in ESP… this game too, but done with improvements here); 24/7 Mode.

All day, all week mode

While it won’t destroy your life like the title suggests, 24/7 Mode does involve a certain bit of dedication.

You begin with a less than outstandingly talented athlete (better than me though) who can be shaped to look like yourself, or someone slightly better looking, and have to train him up and rise in the ranks to become a superstar.

Stats (i.e. the chances of succeeding in a basket, dunk, steal and all manner of other Basketball skills) grow with the participation in training scenarios, some of which are more obvious to succeed at than others.

An interesting twist is that the onboard PS2 clock will register how long it has been since your last play of the game and if it has been too long (read more than a day or two), your stats will slightly decrease, as if you have been out of training for too long. Some people don’t have the time to play every day, and while it isn’t a marked difference here and there, it may cause frustration.

To gain ranks, you must challenge opponents (who when defeated successfully enough will give you their phone numbers to aid in more training or other multi-person challenges), beat them, and continue the process. It’s a fun varied campaign style feature that I’ve spent most of my time on when playing on my own, but when others join in, you’ve got a whole different ball game. (Well, it’s still Basketball, but you get what I mean.)

The rest of the squad

While 24/7 Mode will help you practise your own skills, the remaining game modes allow you to take professional teams, either in a quick game where all of the difficult decisions are made for you, other modes allowing more team coaching and even full leagues can be tried, though unless you’ve had experience of this kind of game, you’re unlikely to perform so well first time.

I’ve found difficulty in simple actions such as dunking or even blocking and stealing that my opponents seem to be ridiculously good at (even human opponents). When just starting I even decided to avoid switching players to the closest to the ball when on defence because the AI can seemingly perform better than me.

That said, it doesn’t take too long to get the hang of things, and while more professional moves will take practise, feeling like each match relies on you isn’t too far away.

Finally, accomplishing various things in each mode (such as playing an entire match without fouling, or just winning the mini-games in 24/7 Mode) will unlock extras such as ‘bobbleheads’ - figurines of the pros that can have their heads moved in a gallery situation, or extra clothes to put on your own character.

While these all add a bit of durability to the game, since I am one of those annoying gamers who couldn’t stop until he had 100% in FFX-2 and GTA:SA, the mere fact that it is a sports game means that the odd game is never too much effort to pick up and play for single or multiplayer action.

I do believe that the raw gameplay of Basketball has been done better, (maybe even in the classic NBA Jam) but with this price tag and range of interesting options and modes, I’ll have to take a page out of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’s script and say ‘let’s bounce’.