NBA 2K24 is the 25th entry in the annual NBA 2K series and it brings back a lot of the classic experiences that NBA 2K lovers adore like the MyCAREER, MyTEAM, and MyNBA game modes but upgraded with smoother animations and more realistic graphics. Additionally, the game also boasts a new type of technology called ProPLAY which translates real-life NBA footage into gameplay, resulting in a very high animation accuracy for jumpshots, dunks, passes, and much more. Kobe Bryant fans can also rejoice with 2K24 as the game features the late Kobe Bryant as the cover athlete and a game mode called MAMBA MOMENTS is dedicated to let players relive and experience Bryant’s growth from a young rookie into the NBA legend with a huge legacy. Now all these things sound good on paper but unfortunately, the game is filled with microtransactions so much so that the game feels more pay-to-win than the previous NBA 2K games.

In this article, we’re going to review NBA 2K24 and take a look at the good things that it brings to the table but also discuss the things that ruin them. If you haven’t done so already, check out this guide on how to dunk in NBA 2K24 and learn all the types of dunks and how to do them. Additionally, you can also check out this list of locker codes to keep updated with the latest rewards you can get for free. 

New Features and General Improvements

To kick off this review, let’s start with some positives. 

NBA 2K24 genuinely does feel like an improvement in terms of the basketball gameplay. To start off, the graphics have significantly improved compared to NBA 2K23. Some of the notable graphical improvements are seen in the colors. The colors in this game look much more natural and it does not look like at least one color is overly saturated compared to the other. You will notice this a lot in the players’ uniforms. My most favorite graphical improvement is the lighting improvement on the players’ skin tones. In NBA 2K23, light tends to reflect too much on certain parts of the players’ skin, making it look like the player is made of plastic. However with NBA 2K24, the lighting feels much more natural now and the “glowy” effect from 2K23 is no longer present. This lighting improvement is very apparent on players with dark skin. A lot of the graphical improvements seem to focus more on the players as the visual fidelity of the basketball court remain the same. Overall, the graphics of NBA 2K24 are very impressive and it really makes you feel the power of the current generation consoles. Even if you are playing the game on last generation consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, NBA 2K24 still looks good.

Now let’s talk about the most marketed feature of 2K24, the ProPLAY technology. For the longest time, animations in the NBA 2K series are made using motion capture or mo-cap in which body movements are recorded by a computer from an actor wearing a mo-cap suit and these recorded movements are then transformed into game animations. The problem with this is that mo-cap is still essentially acting a move instead of actually performing the move, so a bit of authenticity is diminished. ProPLAY replaces mo-cap by creating animations based on watching real-life NBA games (which I assume is done with artificial intelligence) and taking the exact movements of a player and translating that into game animations. As a result, you get the most authentic animations in an NBA 2K game so far. All animations like jumpshots, dunks, layups, and more are now powered by ProPLAY so you’ll definitely feel the difference when you play just one game.

NBA 2K24 features Kobe Bryant as its cover athlete and dedicates an entire game mode called MAMBA MOMENTS in his honor. Overall, the game does a decent job in recreating Bryant’s greatest moment however it is lacking in content compared to 2K23’s Jordan Challenge mode which featured the career of Michael Jordan. MAMBA MOMENTS lacks interview segments and only has half the games that Jordan Challenge did. Nevertheless, the game does get its facts correctly and it pays a good tribute to the late NBA legend. Let’s just hope that whoever the cover athlete of NBA 2K25 will be will get a better story mode.

Pay-to-Win Experience

Microtransactions have been the bane of modern gaming and unfortunately, NBA 2K24 doubles down on them. A lot of the games features especially MyCAREER make grinding a very tedious task to the point that you are really tempted to buy VC (virtual credits) to hasten your progress.

Some players have reported that even after getting 100,000 VC from 2K24’s Black Mamba or 25th Anniversary editions, the player grind in MyCAREER is abysmally slow. Even after spending all those VCs, at best they only got their player rated at 75 and only managed to get it to at least 80 after about 10 hours or more playing. If this is the case for people who bought the most expensive editions of the game, then it’s even worse for people who just bought the regular edition, which is most likely a vast majority of the player base. This essentially promotes a system that favors whales, which are players who spend exorbitant amounts of money on microtransactions. 

Additionally, a lot of cool items in the game are locked behind a battle pass (which every AAA games seems to require these days). A lot of awesome rewards like player cards and you can only get these if you have the battle pass which you have to buy with real money. But even then, buying the battle pass is just buying the privilege to unlock its rewards so you will still need to invest so much time to get the rewards you want. What’s worse is that the battle pass period only lasts six weeks which is very short compared to other AAA games. This means that you pretty much have to make playing NBA 2K24 a full-time job if you want to get the most out of the battle pass and also improve your player to its highest possible rating. Ultimately, this tedious grind is designed to make you shell out more money.

Conclusion

In terms of gameplay, 2K24 has made many improvements in graphics and animation quality thanks to ProPLAY technology. The game’s MAMBA MOMENTS tribute to Kobe Bryant lacks content compared to its Michael Jordan predecessor but still gets the job done. However, the good things about this game are overshadowed by its microtransaction problem that you will encounter a lot when you play MyCAREER. Prepare to feel pressured to buy VCs just to give a few extra points to your character’s rating and spend a lot of personal time to grind. Overall, NBA 2K24 is a decent game if you just want the typical basketball game experience played alone or with friends but a nightmare if you want to make a name for yourself in the online leaderboards.