The latest in the yearly installments of the NBA 2K games has come out, and, to the surprise of no one, is currently running with “mostly negative” reviews on Steam. As is the case with most yearly releases, the main issue with the NBA 2K22 releases is that the game is, essentially, identical.
Most sports games end up launching to similar accusations, as often the games are quite similar, if not exactly the same, barring minor changes in rosters to keep up with players changing teams and other such switches throughout the past year, though sometimes new game mechanics are also added.
However, NBA 2K22, according to its reviews, doesn’t even get that right. Most of the reviews claim that the game is essentially identical to NBA 2K22, barring roster changes, its name, and the badges that players can earn over the course of play. Even the “next-gen graphics” appear to be false advertising, as the game apparently looks the exact same.
Such criticisms aren’t unknown to the NBA 2K games, and the NBA 2K22 reviews are only the most recent problem that the series has run into, as the NBA 2K games have often come under fire for other things such as predatory microtransactions and more in the past.
While some of the blame for the game being in such a state might fall on the coronavirus pandemic, which has hamstrung many game developers and often forced series to be cut down into a reasonable level of development to make release, according to the NBA 2K22 reviews, this is a new low even for those sorts of practices, as it’s almost like nothing changed at all.
While it might not impact just how successful such a game is, hopefully the news will get out to other players about the game and such negative press will make 2K Sports sit up and take notice. If you (for some reason) still want to buy the game though, you can buy it on Xbox One, Playstation 4, PC, Xbox Series X, Playstation 5, and Nintendo Switch.