NBA 2K25 Review: Stellar Gameplay Continues to Contend With Pesky Microtransactions

Among sports video games that are released annually, the NBA 2K series has established a reputation for producing the most impressive presentation and expansive array of game modes, and the same is true for NBA 2K25.

If you’re using the broadcast angle when playing the game, it’s entirely possible that someone glancing at the screen could believe you’re watching an actual NBA game. The overwhelming number of ways you can play NBA 2K will often leave you questioning how you want to spend your time in the game. It’s the video game equivalent of a movie displaying every penny of its budget on the screen, maximizing its resources in showcasing a premium product.

Unfortunately, the NBA 2K series has also established a reputation for being the most shameless purveyor of a pay-to-play ethos that entices, goads, and all but forces you to engage in microtransactions if you want to truly enjoy some of its key modes. NBA 2K25 pushes both of these reputations to further extremes by boasting the same stellar gameplay and robust variety of modes as usual while nearly ruining this with the kind of unbridled greed that leaves you feeling as if the game were trying to pick your pockets at every turn.

The Pro Play technology that was introduced last year has been further honed to produce on-court animations that are astonishing in their accuracy in bringing real players to life, including new go-to shots. The improved AI, especially on higher difficulties, makes playing against the CPU a greater but welcome challenge, as you’ll see more aggressive attacks from elite players and better strategy on offense. The MyEras mode chugs along as the frontrunner of all franchise modes within sports games, thanks in part to the addition of a Steph Curry Era to go with the unrivaled depth and customization that we have come to expect. Proving that less really is more, The City within MyCareer has smartly been redesigned and renovated to become more condensed and easy to explore. The WNBA has been given more attention within NBA 2K25 and, much like the league itself, the mode is fast becoming impossible to ignore.

It’s hard to overstate though just how much the prevalence of microtransactions threaten to hamper the enjoyment of some of the game’s most popular modes, starting with the effort it takes to earn enough VC (or virtual currency) to significantly improve your created player. Similarly, you’ll be prodded into purchasing VC within MyTeam, the game’s card-collecting mode, where it’s made far too time-consuming to earn viable rewards when playing the lackluster assortment of single-player modes. The MyGM mode is a bland and unimaginative twist on a franchise mode that fails to generate much excitement from a world of board rooms and offices.

With so much to delve into within the game, let’s not waste another second and venture into the paint to assess where the game is raining down buckets and where its shot attempts are clanging off iron.

What I Like

Pro Play

The gameplay in NBA 2K25 is powered by returning technology dubbed Pro Play that seeks to translate the real-life movements of NBA players into in-game animations. It’s the catalyst in another step forward in realism for the series, gloriously rendering the fundamentals while also giving space for the smaller details that are part of basketball.

It starts with ball handling, where an overhauled dribbling system can have you stringing together some nifty moves to evade defenders, but without the overpowered behind-the-back dribble that could too easily be abused to create space in the past. There are some noticeable changes to shooting as well, including a revamped shot meter that’s customizable right down to how much influence you actually want it to have on your shot. The introduction of rhythm shooting offers a new challenge to mastering the right stick to shoot rather than just the press of a button.

Signature shot animations provide another layer of authenticity, as you can perform go-to moves like a LeBron step-back jumper or a Steph Curry hop-step three ball that looks remarkably like the real thing. Defense works a little differently this year as well, as you’ll need to focus on using the right stick to cut off anyone hoping to blow by you and attack the basket.

It all coalesces into moments that can be downright awe-inspiring in how genuine they look. With an astounding amount of variety to be found in the animations, I’ve played so many games now and will still see things on the court that haven’t happened before. NBA 2K25 plays surprisingly well too on default settings without any manipulation of sliders. You’ll organically draw fouls when you get a defender out of position and create contact when driving to the rim.

Players will routinely get their hands on any ill-advised passes and show increased awareness to step into passing lanes to intercept them, particularly when passes have to travel in the air a long distance. There are more instances of the sloppy play that you see in the NBA on a nightly basis, especially from bad players and teams where someone will fumble a ball or leave it exposed enough to get it stripped out of their hands. It’s not uncommon to witness the sad spectacle of an unskilled passer missing a cutter entirely with a bullet pass and instead whipping the ball out of bounds for a turnover.

Improved CPU AI

No matter what difficulty you played on, games against the CPU in previous years of NBA 2K could prove to be a tedious and frustrating experience if you were looking for the game to be a true simulation. CPU players were timid in their offensive approach, limited in their strategy, and susceptible on defense to simple exploits.

These deficiencies have received attention in NBA 2K25, resulting in a CPU opponent that can be considerably tougher to beat. Where CPU players were previously too quick to succumb to tight defense, they will no longer accept being pinned down and now work harder to find high percentage shots. The league’s elite guards are able to drive and score even with your defenders right in their hip pocket and are capable of draining contested shots occasionally from deep.

The CPU will also seek out those shots from the 3-point line more frequently now, running screens and plays to get shooters open looks at a rate in line with league averages. Possessions where you think that you have the CPU’s offense figured out and the shot clock is running down can suddenly end with a slick backdoor cut that yields a dunk. At the other end of the court, CPU defenders are no longer quite so inept at playing the pick and roll, jumping out to contest shots when the time calls for it or falling back to intercept passes to big men rolling to the rim if you’re not careful with the ball.

MyNBA Eras

There haven’t been that many new features added to MyNBA Eras in NBA 2K25, but for the best franchise mode in all of sports gaming for quite a few years running, the few key additions only continue to solidify its vaunted status. They further build upon the Eras that allow you to play as some of the best teams and players in the history of the NBA by introducing a Steph Curry Era.

This puts you in charge of what’s considered the league’s last superteam, with Kevin Durant headlining alongside Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. You can try to keep the band together longer than they were in real life and chase a multitude of titles or take control of a team like the Raptors and see if you can dethrone the kings as they did when they won their first championship. By continuing to add Eras every year, it won’t be long until NBA 2K gives you the opportunity to start at practically any point in the NBA’s past.

If you decide instead to play in the modern era with current teams, one of the first things you’ll notice when starting a season is that you can choose whether or not to have LeBron James retire and go on a farewell tour throughout the season. It’s a smart idea considering it pays suitable homage to a legend of the game and is bound to happen eventually whenever LeBron does really does decide to hang it up. It’s also appreciated how the mode continues to offer a customizable amount of control over your team’s decisions, including the MyNBA Lite option if you’d rather focus more on playing games than making front office decisions.

Looking at the bigger picture, the mode is starting to show its age a little from a cosmetic standpoint and could use at least a fresh coat of paint throughout its menus.

The City

When developers first conceived of The City within the MyCareer mode years ago, they understandably made the decision that designing The City to be as sprawling as possible would dazzle the most people. But as players have continued to gripe about how long it takes to ride around from one location to another, The City has gradually shrunk in recent editions. The City is smaller than it’s ever been in NBA 2K25, and this proves to be a good call that manages to condense everything that you would want within a handful of blocks. In fact, you can get everywhere so quickly on your skateboard (or other vehicle) that the only time you would likely want to use the subway stops at all is to get from one end of the map to the other.

For my money, playing games within The City remains the peak of online sports gaming in NBA 2K25, with no shortage of ways to compete against others and chase rewards via quests. Looking for arcade style? Head to the parks. You prefer a more NBA style? Get yourself to The Rec. Want something different? Hit The Theater and see what playlists are on the marquee this week. There’s even a handy squad finder to assist you in linking up with others and helping to weed out some of the awful random players that inevitably become your teammates.

Of course, should you not want to deal with human teammates at all, you can play your NBA games or take on the streetball quests that have you playing CPU opponents on unique courts throughout The City. You’ll encounter a lot of generic cutscenes along the way that follow a familiar narrative formula of balancing your responsibilities to your team and your burgeoning notoriety, but you can always choose to skip these and get to hooping faster. If you can’t find anything at all to enjoy about The City, there’s a good chance you might just not like basketball.

WNBA

With the WNBA continuing to rise in popularity, it’s hardly surprising to see a mode focused on the women’s basketball league rising in prominence in NBA 2K25. There’s clearly been some attention given to the WNBA in the form of new features, aside from just the inclusion of the league’s newest star, Caitlin Clark. When playing through your career as a player you create who’s trying to make a strong impression in the league, you’ll encounter valuable opportunities to establish your reputation and gain recognition through postgame press conferences. Though its online realm is hardly as extensive as The City’s myriad modes (and we still don’t have a Play Now Online feature for WNBA teams!), it’s still nice to be able to play some 3-on-3 online against other female players, with the backdrop of a redwood forest being an appreciated bonus.

What I Don’t Like

Microtransactions

It may sound like a broken record at this point to continue to lament the rise of microtransactions within sports games, but it’s a better alternative than simply accepting it as the norm. Once again, the scourge of these microtransactions is felt most palpably within the MyCareer and MyTeam modes.

The temptation to improve your created player in MyCareer by investing real money in VC that can raise your attributes instantly is constantly nagging at you and not only through the persistent in-game ads for VC that pop up in menus. (At launch, you were pinged twice within the first couple menu clicks to buy VC via pop-ups.) The amount of VC that you typically earn through playing games and fulfilling quests ensures that you’ll need to play the game often if you’re hoping to ever reach the ceiling of whatever build you choose.

It’s not quite so bad if you only want to play against the CPU and don’t mind watching your player slowly blossom into a superstar. It’s bound to be an issue however if you’re looking to compete against other people in The City who have zero reservations about paying for their player to have superior skills. Every year, it also seems like inflation is real and the VC just doesn’t quite go as far as it did in the past. While you’re focused on your player reaching their full potential, how can you also be expected to afford a decent pair of shoes or a fly T-shirt from one of The City’s many stores?

MyTeam’s biggest issues are hardly new among card-collecting modes like Madden and EA Sports FC that lure you into buying packs to obtain the finest cards available. Faced with a staggering number of objectives and agendas to complete, the sinking realization sets in of just how many hours it will take to earn the truly worthwhile rewards. Even with the addition of the new Breakout mode, there’s not a great return on the investment of your time if you don’t want to play against what can be a toxic online community. If you do want to see how your team stacks up against others though, the popular Triple Threat Online mode has been made worse by moving to a park locale where it now can take a bit to find an opponent.

The underlying problem with both MyCareer and MyTeam isn’t the existence of microtransactions but rather how little you’re compensated for playing instead of paying.

MyGM

It’s hard to tell whether MyGM is a concept with potential that hasn’t been fully realized or simply an ill-advised idea from the jump. It’s admittedly a tough sell to make the job of general manager for an NBA team all that exciting, and it doesn’t lend itself well to the RPG format that serves as its foundation in NBA 2K25.

Once you’ve chosen your GM archetype, you’ll wander through the halls and offices of your team’s facility, interacting occasionally with players and executives by selecting your choice of what you want to say. This involves making decisions on how to delegate your scouts, what kind of promotional nights to have at your arena, and how to keep players happy on losing teams. It can be more stressful than you’d expect.

As a Raptors GM, I found myself getting into a full-blown fight with Scottie Barnes soon after the season began all because I couldn’t realistically promise him that we would win a championship anytime soon. The people you talk to are awkwardly animated as well, often speaking through clenched teeth while barely opening their mouths. As you progress through a season though, you’ll often find that no one in your facility has anything to share with you for weeks at at a time. Because of its limitations, it feels as if MyGM would be best viewed as a supplement to MyNBA rather than its own standalone mode.

Bottom Line

The strengths and weaknesses of NBA 2K25 follow a trend that’s been seen from the series in recent years. The on-court action has undergone another round of refinements that are noticeable in the presentation and gameplay. Pro Play technology that was introduced last year helps to yield more variety and realism from the animations, including signature moves from many of the league’s best players. CPU opponents continue to get more efficient in their execution, implementing strategies and deploying the talents of their players to better effect.

MyNBA Eras builds on its solid framework with the addition of the Steph Curry Era to go with its dizzying assortment of options in taking control of a franchise and chasing championships. The City may have shrunk in a successful bid to become more accessible, but it’s still the same addictive destination to discover a multitude of courts and venues to play games versus others or the CPU. The game’s WNBA mode shines a brighter spotlight on the ladies thanks to updates to its career and franchise.

Just as with NBA 2K24, the omnipresence of microtransactions within the MyCareer and MyTeam modes render the grind of improving your created player and assembling a team of top-tier cards especially frustrating for the no money spent crowd. The MyGM mode is lacking in direction and polish, failing to enhance the experience of helming a franchise in an engaging way.