5 Things We Learned From Our Hands-On Time With NBA Live 18

There's no sports game franchise more maligned by the sports gaming community than EA’s NBA Live. After leaving the scene in 2010 and taking four years off, the series unceremoniously made its return at the beginning of this console generation with a pair of lackluster releases before once again going on hiatus. Now, one year since their last entry, EA Tiburon are back again with their basketball sim and our initial impressions are a bit of a mixed bag. While it’s nice to see competition in a genre that's increasingly becoming more monopolized, NBA Live is far from a genre defining experience it so desperately needs to be to steal the thunder from its competition. We had the chance to go hands-on with NBA Live 18 at a recent EA preview event, and we walked away with a number of thoughts about the developer's comeback to the court. Out of everything we saw and experienced, though, here's what stood out the most. Visuals Modern sports sims, because they feature of hundreds of real life athletes, often show off some of the best player models in gaming. After a year-long hiatus, NBA Live 18 has actually taken quite a step up in the graphical department when compared to the last few efforts. While there are certainly better facial recreations out there, player faces and body models look remarkably better in this year’s outing. Cover star James Harden’s beard and hair look fantastic as do a number of stars from around the league. From LeBron James to Steph Curry, EA has done a great job of creating accurate faces for a number of the NBA’s most recognizable personalities. On the other hand, when it comes to bench players, and the deeper that you look into your team’s roster, player models tend to suffer. Less attention is paid to some journeyman and younger players who haven’t quite made their impression on the league as of yet and left me wanting a little more when it came to the game’s graphical depth. Story Mode Story modes in video games have, for the past few years, been pioneered by the NBA 2K series. From their first adaptation of the dynamic story in 2014 to the Spike Lee directed MyCareer in 2016, they’ve always been on the cutting edge of narrative in sports titles. So, it’s to be expected that in revamping their story mode this year, NBA Live 18 would be playing catch up. However, given the cinematic nature of FIFA’s The Journey and Madden’s Longshot modes, the NBA Live 18 career mode leaves a lot to be desired. The lack of real, impactful choices or character building that I found in the 2-ish hours I spent with the story mode really had me feeling it was less of a cohesive narrative, and more a few video packages thrown together to give pickup games a little bit a background. The primary way the plot's moved along is through live action cut scenes with ESPN’s controversial screamfest First Take. While this section could have been and interesting take on sports media in a video game, it quickly became apparent that all that was happening was EA giving hosts Steven A. Smith and Max Kellerman an un-skippable few minutes to yell about how great/terrible your created player is, and see which one them can give you a headache first. It’s worth noting that I only went through the introduction section of the story mode until my player was drafted, but based on the information that I have, I don’t feel as if anything special is coming from the rest of NBA Live’s career mode. WNBA Players And Teams Coming back after a year off, EA desperately needed to do something new to separate itself from its competition. Adding in a full slate of WNBA players and teams into NBA Live is clearly their solution and kudos to them for doing it. After FIFA’s integration of women’s national teams in 2015, the onus was on the rest of the sports game world to see who would step up to include women in their game. The WNBA is the biggest women’s leagues in all four-major North American sports, so its inclusion in a video game series was something that had been lacking for a number of years and it’s great that EA and NBA Live decided that they were up for the task. While I never went hands on with the women’s teams, their inclusion is enough to warrant comment, if simply because their presence will undoubtedly be a factor in expanding the game’s influence and help set NBA Live apart from what its competition has to offer. Gameplay While I’m far from ready to compete on a professional level at a basketball sim, I feel competent enough to play with, and hold my own against, people online year in and out. My game plan mainly consists of basic pick and rolls and off the cuff spontaneous plays, which don’t work as well in NBA Live 18 as one might think. Going up and down the court I found calling plays to be substantially more effective than I have in any basketball game in the past. While it was occasionally fun to drive and dish, I enjoyed myself a lot more making play calls and carrying out a well-designed offense than just trying to make something happen off the dribble. On the defensive side of the game, man to man coverage felt fantastic and balanced, allowing for the contesting of open shots and forcing players to pick up their dribble before they might have been comfortable. I constantly felt like I was in control during every possession and that I could impact the game and make a stop if I set my mind to it. While it might not be as easily accessible to pick up and play as the game has been in the past, and there are a few issues when it comes to calling some plays and setting screens, the extra emphasis on defense and offensive play calling adds a great amount of depth to NBA Live 18’s on court action. How It Holds Up Against 2K While yes, this year’s game is a massive step up for the franchise as it relates to the past two entries, in a head to head comparison to its main competition (NBA 2K), Live still isn’t living up to its contemporary in enough ways to make any real run at 2K’s throne as the number one basketball sim. From its career mode to its graphically presentation, NBA Live 18 is severely underpowered in its fight for the NBA crown. Despite these shortcomings, the game does have a few silver linings that could build a foundation for the series going forward. The addition of WNBA teams, and its emphasis on gameplay stand out the most and are something that EA can hang their hat on from here on out. And while I don’t think that NBA Live 18 is destined to usurp 2K this season, it could prove me wrong with just a little more fine tuning in some key areas.