ESPN NBA 2K5 – Review

Since last year the so called “2K” sports games were released by Sega under the official ESPN license. The basketball game in this series was successful enough to produce a 2005 edition: ESPN NBA 2K5. Because of the license, all ESPN statistics are available in the game; the comment sounds real but all in all as a gamer you really get the impression that you’re watching a sports TV show except, you’re the one in control!

Game play:
Although 2K4 was already a good basketball game with great elements, improvements had to be made to make it an even more attractive game for sports lovers. One improvement is the option called IsoMotion 2 if you’re in the attacking mood. With the right character selected you can make some incredible moves to trick the opponent defense. Also there’s an element called Hop Step if your character needs some more game play space to make its attacking move. This ability can be used to lead your character through two or even three defense players. It’s not a guarantee you’re going to make it and it could go wrong from time to time but the defense needs to be very strong to stop you. If you using this Hop Step and you come close to the basket you can take advantage of the IsoMotion 2 as well. Activate it while you’re trying to make your score and a trick shot will help you avoiding defend in air. New in the defense mode is the Double Team option which can be used to control 2 team mates to block an opponent. Sounds cool but I had some troubles with this option as I lost control over my own defense as the focus was on the 2 players and a smart opponent shall play the ball to a team mate. Then your Double Team action doesn’t make any sense as the rest of your defense is lost.

All in all NBA 2K5 is about the play under the basket. The Artificial Intelligent is good and adapt to every situation during the game. But the “computer” opponent always chooses for a dunk or two point score and takes NO notice of specific players’ quality. The opponents’ three point shooters will probably play the ball to a team mate instead of scoring a three pointer.

In the 24/7 mode you’re going to take your character onto the streets. It’s a kind of mini game mode but it contains a lot of cool features! You need to create your own character and try to reach the basketball top position. Besides this career feature you can also one to one game or “who reaches first 21 points” game.

This can be done without paying attention to the NBA rules and all games will be played on the street. If you like collecting things, the 24/7 mode is ideal as you can unlock lots of things; caps, bracelets and many more attributes. This mode is comparable with NBA street, but Sega is so nice to put it into the ESPN NBA game instead of making a separate game of it.

Graphics:
The visual aspect is pretty okay. The characters are very detailed and the animations during the game are presented in a nice way. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the graphics, compared to the previous 2K4 edition it has been hugely improved. It looks as realistic as possible and the characters are truly amazing when it comes to animation. The famous characters’ faces are very recognizable and even the audience has been improved and are now more detailed. When you’re using the camera view that doesn’t zoom in all the way, it might take a second or two before you realize that you’re not watching a real game, oh no, you’re in control of this graphical master piece.

Sound:
This is a tough one as the music isn’t great but on the other hand the comments are excellent. No famous songs are included and they are mostly based on rap music. In the 24/7 mode you only hear some beats without any vocals. I know that rap music is hot in the games business to use but you need to love this rap music, otherwise you need to turn down the sound. But then you won’t be able to hear the comments which is very good and realistic.

Conclusion:
What Konami has achieved with Pro Evolution Soccer 4 in the football game genre is comparable of what Sega has done with this NBA game: shaking and waking up the sports games business. An extra plus is the ridiculous low selling price of this game! It’s available for £16.99 ~ €25.00 ~ $32.00. Amazing isn’t it? The bad thing is, and not only for the ESPN NBA game, that it isn’t a hundred percent perfect basketball play. The artificial intelligent is a little bit disappointing, there’s no good balance between attacking and defense and for European gamers there’s no online play possible. Don’t be so negative as the game provides an excellent ESPN atmosphere, a lot of statistics, many interesting game modes including a very good street basketball mode. For every basketball gamer a must have, especially for that price!

Review by Wencke
Thumb Bandits European Correspondent & manager of GGU.