Another year of MyPlayer targeting YourWallet
The days are getting shorter, school is back in session, the WNBA playoffs are in full swing, and another NBA season will soon be upon us. It’s Autumn, and that means another entry in 2K Games seminal NBA 2K series is dribbling its way onto every platform you might possibly care about in 2025. This year, the team at 2K has set its sights on a host of improvements to the core gameplay, most notably significant changes to the shooting, dribbling, and defense mechanics. While some of these new additions shine, the unfortunate truth is that many of the same problems that players (including this reviewer) have complained about for years continue to hold the game back from being the Dynasty it could be.
When you first log in to the game you’ll be presented (after a full-page ad of course) with an expansive selection of game modes, including a couple of new and returning features tucked in alongside the standard fare. MyGM makes its first appearance on Series X and PS5 and does an OK job of establishing itself as an enjoyable time filler. MyGM plays out more similar to a sports-based RPG, with dialogue options, attributes, and even “classes” for your executive to pick from which each offer specific benefits to the business, recruiting, and on-court aspects of the job. You’ll wander around the MyGM building, talking to the team governor, coaches, scouts and star players in the name of building the next big NBA Dynasty. All the expected features are here: you can raise or lower prices for tickets, parking, concessions, and merchandise. Wheel and deal with other GM’s to put together trades. Sign free agents and draft the next generation of NBA talent. The mode is easy to understand and unintimidating, despite its depth and complexity. Unfortunately, it’s also where the most frustrating and game breaking bugs that I experienced during my time with the game reared their head.
MSRP: $69.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, Switch, PC
Price I’d Pay: $30
The first MyGM game that I actually played (instead of simulating) I noticed my players missing all of their shots. As the first quarter progressed, I noticed the other team was missing all their shots as well. The game was 0-0 at the end of the first quarter, then at the end of the half, then all of a sudden the fourth quarter came to a close and we headed into OT still locked up at 0-0 because no player on either team was capable of successfully making a shot. After closing out of the game and bouncing back to the Xbox menu I was able to correct the problem, but it cropped up several more times during my time with the mode (each requiring a force close from the main Xbox menu to resolve). Additionally, the Team Governor gave me a goal to win the season series against the New Orleans Pelicans. With two games against them, I had to win both, which I did by significant margins. So imagine my surprise when, at the end of the season, I got an “objective failed” message with a disappointed lecture from the Governor about how I “needed to win those games against our biggest rival”. Nothing has the capacity to deflate my enthusiasm faster than putting in the work to accomplish an objective the game has put in front of me only to have the game fail me anyway. Those huge red strikes against the mode took it out of my playtime rotation, which is a shame because it has a lot of promise.
MyGM is buried, for some unknown reason, in the MyNBA menus where you’ll also find the returning “Era’s” gameplay option, allowing you to take control of NBA teams during defined time periods in the league’s history. New this year is the Steph Era, following the 2017 Warriors. If you are the type of player that is a casual NBA fan who wants to experience some of the most legendary teams in the sport, it’s a fun mode to lose some time in.
MyTeam also makes a return. It’s a card collection mode as can be found in just about every modern sports (or sports entertainment in WWE 2K’s case) game. Those of you that have followed my reviews over the years know that these card modes are my least favorite aspect of modern sports gaming and 2K25’s MyTeam is no exception. Those of you that enjoy the mode will get some new modes, a handy new tutorial system, and the return of an auction house to sell or buy cards to build out your team.
Of course the largest and most heavily played mode in the 2K series on an annual basis is MyCareer. The theme of this years version is about dethroning Jordan’s Bulls to form the greatest Dynasty in NBA history. With the exception of that major change, most of the rest of the mode will feel very familiar to returning players. There is significantly more focus on the action on the court than off the court, especially compared to past versions that had your MyPlayer filming coffee commercials, working on your hip-hop album masterpiece, and building your fashion empire. Whether that’s a positive change or not is a matter of perspective, but personally I felt like NBA 2K23 had the best balance of fun off the court activities and story without the overly melodramatic soap opera style of some of the versions prior to that.
While MyCareer is still the main draw here, it’s also the mode where (once again) the biggest issues with NBA 2K25 rear their ugly head. The game has again made the decision to join MyCareer at the hip with your online multiplayer MyPlayer. As we’ve discussed in the past, this completely ruins the MyCareer experience by making the mode overly dependent on paid microtransactions or excessive grinding. As in the past, it forces your MyPlayer to begin his NBA career as the mostly highly touted 60 overall in the history of the league. That’s right, thanks to the games sole motivation of cajoling you to pay real money for fake money to spend on fake attributes, fake clothes, fake scooters and the fake progression system, you’ll once again start out with attributes way below what any significant NBA prospect would ever have. It will cost you about 375,000 VC to max out your MyPlayer, which means you’ll either need to play somewhere around 375 NBA games (give or take a few) or 4.5 full seasons of playing every game to max out your stats. Unless, of course, you want to spend around $100 extra dollars (on top of the price of the game) to buy the VC you’d need. If you’re planning on playing the most popular modes in the game, online multiplayer at the various courts scattered around the city, the game is less an exercise in Pay-To-Win as it is an exercise in Pay-To-Compete. The very nature of the multiplayer component means that it’s nearly impossible to field a competitive player without being 90+ overall. It’s the same ridiculous hamster wheel every year with this franchise where, if you want to play online, you’ve gotta spend at least $170.
Not only are microtransactions egregious on their own, but they also completely ruin the MyCareer mode by association. They can’t offer a dynamic and engaging progression system (like you would find in MLB The Show for example) because if they did there would be no need for players to drop more than the price of another full game on attribute points. Instead, you get GOAT skills which temporarily increase your attributes in exchange for accomplishing tasks within a specific game. These feel like band-aids on the bullet wound of progression, and really only serve to make your MyPlayer competent early on if you’re trying to grind out levels the old-fashioned way. When your GOAT skills aren’t active, you’re cursed with all the standards of a 60 overall player: missing jump shots, layups, and passes to your open teammates, sluggish movement and a completely unprofessional feeling dribble. It does the unforgivable in game design and forces the worst gameplay on the most popular and well-defined mode. A real shame, because the on-court gameplay this year is otherwise solid.
When you first make your way on to the court, you’ll immediately notice the new animation system. 2K has overhauled the animations in the game, adding thousands of new dribbles, shots, passes, and off-ball movements using their ProPLAY system. The biggest changes are to dribbling, which is now controlled by a ProPLAY-powered dribble engine. This engine generates your player’s on-court movement with real-world NBA footage, for the purpose of making the action look and feel more realistic. While this means that you don’t get stuck in animations nearly as frequently as you may have in past games, I found it does have the negative effect of making the ball handling feel more sluggish, stilted, and overall less appealing than before. I think there’s a balance here that will improve with some fine-tuning, and while I wasn’t a fan of how the new dribble animations felt while playing the game I can’t deny that they look pretty great.
Shooting this year can best be described as unpredictable. Shot timing windows vary based on animations, making it more difficult than ever to perfectly time a “green” shot. Animations play a bigger role in the feel of the shooting than before, which means you’ll want to spend most of your time watching your players shot animation rather than the customizable shot indicator. Rhythm shooting using the right stick (where you pull back and then push the stick forward in time with your players shooting motion) seems to be the real winner from the new changes, as I found it much easier to time up shots using the stick, a major change for a long time button shooter like myself. Eventually you’ll get the hang of it with practice, but it can certainly create some frustration, especially paired with the starting attribute issue I mentioned above. Team AI continues to be an exercise in frustration as well, as your teammates once again refuse to acknowledge screens set by your player character, often times ignoring your screen until another teammate comes and sets one directly behind you. This is a legacy problem from the last several years and it’s one that desperately needs to be corrected moving forward, but I worry that little attention is paid to the non-multiplayer aspects of MyCareer.
The W also makes a return this year, and while I’m grateful the mode exists I can’t help but feel like it’s very bare bones compared to the MyCareer mode. You have less control over attribute distribution, fewer off the court interactions and “story” moments, and even the menus feel a little more dated and stripped down. The action on court for WNBA games in 2K still feels fluid and smooth, but I hope with the surge in popularity the league is experiencing based on Caitlin Clark’s incredible rookie season that this mode will get the attention it deserves in next years game.
Longtime players of the NBA 2K series already know what to expect from 2K25. The game has played well for a long time, and this years game is no exception. While there were more glitches and issues than I would have liked, you’re still getting a solid on-court experience from this years edition. With that said, I simply can’t score the game higher than a 7 based on the continued overemphasis on microtransactions to the detriment of what should be the most enjoyable mode in the game. I can’t recommend buying the game at full price, knowing that you’ll need to pay the VC tax if you want to have a shot at being competitive online. I hope for next years game 2K will consider decoupling MyCareer and MyPlayer online and do something more akin to MLB the Show, while making microtransactions much more optional and less intrusive. That feels like wishful thinking however, as the game continues to sell hand over fist. If you plan on taking the dive again this year, just make sure you know what you’re getting into.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
