#NBA LIVE 18 REVIEW PRO#
#NBA LIVE 18 REVIEW SERIES#

The RPG-like experience system lets you level up your character in meaningful ways by gating access to special animations while also letting you slowly increase your player's abilities.

#NBA LIVE 18 REVIEW PRO#

The split focus on the NBA and street leagues means that you're capable of getting ample playtime in other leagues and going against a bevy of past and present pro players. If you can get over those issues, you'll find this to be a very well-done mode and a welcome alternative to the usual career narrative. Unless you're a fan of the debate-style show, you'll wish you could skip this segment. The other scenes are truncated episodes of ESPN's 'First Take,' where Max Kellerman and Stephen A. Most of the story is driven through Twitter conversations, where your choices are limited and only a few have an impact on the game.

Compared to what's been seen in Madden NFL 18 and FIFA 18, the story in NBA Live 18 is sparse. The second part that doesn't work is the story itself. As it stands, consider that feature to be nonexistent. Sitting through the playback of a few songs did nothing, and neither did rebooting the game. The app does a good job of scanning your face, and while it states that it uploaded to the servers, the game can't seem to retrieve it when you're making a character. If you opt to use the mobile app to put your face in the game, it doesn't work. The character creation mode is incomplete, so if you're only using in-game assets, you'll be just fine. You both decide to get some name recognition in the street leagues so the NBA will take notice.ДЇrom the outset, two things work against the mode. You recover, but no NBA team seems interested in either you or your friend, who dropped out of college after a year to take a chance with the NBA draft. You're a promising collegiate athlete who's been taken out early in his sophomore season due to a knee injury. The big mode this time around is The One, which is a version of story mode. There are still more positives than negatives in this regard, but it is far from the ideal gameplay experience. The game is pretty bad about letting turnovers occur on bad passes, and there are times when notable superstar players have really bad games when left to their own devices. The AI also needs some work both offensively and defensively. The animations still lack smooth transitions from one action to another, so you'll see some abrupt stops when someone posts up on you, and although there are fewer situations where the ball magnetically reaches someone's hands after a pass, it still happens. NBA Live 18 still needs some work in this area, though. In short, give it a game, and you'll get the fundamentals enough to be more than just a pushover against seasoned players.

The game also lets you know who you should be guarding, so you aren't always chasing down the person with the ball. Defense gets some love, as the box-out mechanic becomes a minigame of sorts as you're constantly trying to anticipate and match a left or right arrow on the screen to prevent your opponent from crossing you up or going for a drive to the basket. The shot meter is a little less cumbersome this time around, but it will still take a game or two to get used to the timing. The right analog stick handles shots and fancy dribbling techniques, but the former can also be accomplished with a button for those who prefer the classic method. It also happens to be the series' best title to date, provided you temper your expectations.ДЄs far as the actual gameplay goes, it's quite good for lapsed or casual fans. As a result, NBA Live 18 is the result of a two-year cycle.

When news came that NBA Live 17 was going to be a mobile-only title, many wondered if EA had surrendered the console basketball market to 2K Games.

#NBA LIVE 18 REVIEW SERIES#

Both NBA Live 15 and 16 showed that some real progress was being made, but it was slow going while the competing NBA 2K series was going strong. After the disastrous debut of NBA Live 14 at the start of this console generation, EA Sports promised that it was going to work on the series to return it to its former glory. There's only so much rebuilding people can take before they want to see the result of all that work.