NBA 2K27 Review – A Missed Alley-Oop
Last year’s NBA season was quite the exciting one as the New York Knicks captured the hearts of many and won their first championship since 1973. It may have felt like yesterday that they clinched the championship against the San Antonio Spurs in game 5 after multiple comebacks in the series, but the NBA season is just about to start again in less than a month.
With that comes 2K’s latest iteration in their long-running annual series with NBA 2K27, which has one major mystifying flaw that holds back some great improvements.
Offense vs. Defense
Even through its ups and downs over the years, one area that the NBA 2K series has always shined is the gameplay, and NBA 2K27 is no different. ProPLAY is back yet again, allowing the game to carry over real footage and player tendencies each year since it was introduced in NBA 2K24. Creativity on offense is a big part of the sport now, and this year’s game aims to showcase that within the gameplay.
One way the gameplay has been improved is the utilization of the step-through up-and-unders to try and catch defenders off guard. This is paired with expanded dribbling customization that are available across multiple categories to try and give players the most options available based on real moves seen in the NBA. Finishes at the basket have also been improved with a dynamic layup engine that makes sure that no two layups at the rim look identical, while also mixing in advanced layup gathers and finishes such as hop-steps and spins that are now unique instead of just using preset animations. Dunks have also been improved as all dunk attempts have to be manually timed using the Dunk Meter now instead of just dunking it every time, adding in a level of realism that wasn’t there before. Upgraded advanced controls play a large part in your overall gameplan too, including signature player breakdowns, no-look passes and more intuitive alley-oops that you can execute to take control of the court.
Offense isn’t the only side of the ball that received some upgrades in NBA 2K27, as the defensive side also saw some improvements. Hands-up defense now has two levels of intensity that you can use by holding the right stick up or down for a more aggressive style or a more conservative style, which will largely depend on certain moments in the game and potential foul trouble. Timing these right will allow you to lock down opposing players and keep them from getting any good shots off. Shot contests are even more visible now too with a Defensive Impact Indication that will pop up after a shot attempt showing how strong of a contest was given on the shot and from what direction. I like having this as a way to help learn player tendencies and the way to get around them in the future.
The Takeover system is back once again in NBA 2K27, but this time it has been revamped around the five disciplines of Shooting, Finishing, Playmaking, Defense, and Rebounding. You are able to unlock and then equip a different Takeover ability to correspond with each of the categories too. The Takeover system features a six level scale that ranges from Frozen to Takeover, so working towards Takeover in each area can help unlock the higher levels within a game. Once you’ve activated Takeover, you have 24 different abilities split across the different categories, including six for Finishing, five for Rebounding, four for Shooting, Playmaking, and Defense, as well as one Universal takeover. There’s something special about unlocking a Takeover and just dominating the opponent with it.
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Build The New Superstar
Starting up MyCareer first jumps you into a retro game between the ’95-’96 Seattle Supersonics and Chicago Bulls, with you in charge of the Bulls in the last two minutes of the game. The change here though is that MP, your MyCareer player, is on the team and is the only players you can control. This is a bit of a tease for something coming up that is quite cool in this year’s game. If you’ve played any recent games, the retro style look should be no surprise, but it’s still always a nice touch to see how you can change the presentation to look like an old game such as this.
From the quick intro game, you are taken to the MyPlayer builder, where you can create a new build entirely or import your existing build from 2KHQ, which you can do outside of the game. Picking a male or female player affects which modes they can be used in too, as the male has access to NBA Career, NBA Eras Career, and The City, while the female player is restricted to The City only. The latter is actually something brand new to this year’s game, where The City is now officially co-ed.
After picking from the limited number of head styles, you then get to build your actual player either from scratch or through what the game calls Signature Blueprints. I always like to take a look at the Signature Blueprints to at least get an idea of the type of player I want to use. As I’m usually more the point guard/shooting guard type, that’s what I usually gravitate towards and there are plenty here to look at.
Even within a single position like shooting guard, they break it down into your Best Skill, which includes Finishing like Vince Carter, Shooting like Devin Booker, and Rebounding like Josh Hart. These are only a few of them available too, and the choice gives you an overall archetype that your character will be based around like Bounce, Buckets, or Utility if you go with the respective Best Skills just mentioned. You can even customize one of the existing builds if you want to tailor it more directly to yourself.
After creating your MyPlayer, you are thrust right into the MyCareer story where you take control of this year’s iteration of MP. After a few cutscenes, you are given three options to play within MyCareer mode, The City, NBA Fire & Concrete, and MyCareer Eras.
Take It to the City
The first is The City, where you can do all of the things of recent years found in The City. Once again, you can take part in competitions, join Crews, and do pretty much whatever you want there. Next is NBA Fire & Concrete, which lets you play through MP’s history from high school up through their first full NBA season. When starting this mode, you can choose to start at the very beginning in high school or skip all of that and start in his rookie year of the NBA. We had a similar flashback style story done last year so that’s cool to see back again. Lastly, there is MyCareer Eras, where you can take your MP and go back in time to face off against the greatest teams and players of the past across the Magic vs. Bird, Jordan, Kobe, LeBron, and Steph eras.
Eras in the NBA 2K series were first introduced back in 2K23 as its own separate thing and have grown in recent years, including the ability to use your MyPlayer in last year’s game. However, the major change this year is the full integration into MyCareer with a player-locked experience as you take on these icons of the past. This also does bring in a hurdle that is strange that the development team decided to keep. Once you select either Fire & Concrete or MyCareer Eras, you are locked into that career mode for that save file in MyCareer. You have to start over again if you want to take on the other one.
Players should be used to The City after the number of years it has been included, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still evolving each year. The big change this year is that The City now allows you to take your female MyPlayers into The City and participate in the various challenges found around the area. This is something that people have asked for and I’m surprised it took this long to finally make it happen.
The City introduces a new place to help players get going and play known as Casual Corner. Within Casual Corner, you can play in either 3v3 or 5v5 games in a rookie-centric setting for those just getting started with the game. There are six levels of competition that you can face, including the most basic where you are playing with CPUs, while higher levels mix in real players and eventually high-level CPUs for the highest rewards. This is a great place to grind early and build a little confidence, instead of getting destroyed by better players if you are new to the game. These matches can be completely co-ed too, which is great to see.
There are also plenty of returning features in The City, such as The REC, Seasonal Parks, and Crews. On top of that, there are random other things you can do here, such as The Track, where you can take part in what are pretty easy go-kart races to earn rewards or go up against others. A lot of these, as per usual, are pretty ancillary tasks compared to the main attractions of the game, but they are always welcome here as something extra to do for those that enjoy them.
Moving on to NBA Fire & Concrete, the setup and story here is pretty much what you come to expect each year, but with a little twist in how you’re having to make a comeback early on. Set to attend Duke University after participating in the state championship game, MP is badly injured in a car wreck and all of his future goals are put on pause. The story jumps two years ahead and you find yourself living at your cousin’s place and going nowhere fast until you take to the streets and get back to who you were before and eventually get drafted. Each year’s MyCareer is usually pretty similar, which this year mostly is as well, but it at least is interesting with the injury aspect and actually is a good bit longer than last year’s when all is said and done.
A major fan request has finally been answered this year by introducing co-op play to MyCareer for the first time ever. This comes about through a character named Trace Miller, a custom teammate from the G League that stays alongside you through your career as you work together and compete against once another. Trace can be built based on one of nine different superstars and your friend will take control of him during the game mode. If you are playing without a friend online tough, Trace will be AI controlled instead and still take on the same role as he would if he was being controlled by a real player. I love that they finally added this feature in this year and was handled pretty well I thought.
As aforementioned, MyCareer Eras is the alternative to NBA Fire & Concrete. From the start, you get to select one of the five eras and then pick the team you’d like to join during that era. Regardless of your stats, your MyPlayer will automatically be placed onto the team of your choosing as a starter. For the first season of each era, there are a unique preset selection of what are known as Era Defining Games. In total, each era has 30 unique Eras Moments based on some of the biggest performances during that time. Something I’ve always enjoyed about the Eras mode since it was introduced was the level of authenticity it brings to the game by tailoring everything to each era itself. For instance, playing the older games will have older presentation styles if you’d like to reflect the time, which I love playing with just for nostalgic sake. Seeing the old TV packages is great, and even old teams like the Washington Bullets are included.
Microtransaction Mistakes
If you had already started NBA Fire & Concrete and then went to take your MyPlayer into MyCareer Eras as well, you quickly notice a very frustrating issue that almost ruins the modes as a whole. We mentioned earlier that once you start either NBA Fire & Concrete or MyCareer Eras, you have to create a new MyPlayer to use in that mode. This means you cannot bring over the same character and if you spent all of your VC on one mode, your other character is going to be stuck at 60 for awhile.
For instance, I got a version of the game that gives you 100,000 VC you can use to level up attributes or cosmetics in The City. When starting NBA Fire & Concrete, I spent all of this to level up my player and was still only around a 75 overall. By the time I got to trying out MyCareer Eras, I could copy the character to use, but had to start from 60 OVR with no VC left to spend without grinding. This is where the awful use of VC and microtransactions continues to come into play year in and year out with this series. If it was just one part of MyCareer it would be one thing, where you can really work to grind for the one character, but to split them like this is absolutely baffling. Adding insult to injury is that MyTeam as a mode is very much reliant on microtransactions as well as always. You can play based on the cards you earn and grind for more, but to really get the full MyTeam, you’re going to need to spend VC.
Speaking of MyTeam, NBA 2K27 has some new features in MyTeam that are pretty exciting for those that enjoy the mode. The card collecting mode now adds more power to all cards via the new Player XP system. Every Player Card in your collection can not be leveled up by earning XP through playing in games. Once you level up cards, you can get access to high-level rewards that stack on top of other boosts and more. You can also, for the first time ever, exchange any Player Cards that you have for rewards. The biggest goal each season will be the Premier Exchange, which makes the actual card collecting much more enticing. In a way, this reminded me of how MLB The Show’s Diamond Dynasty handles things, which is one of my favorites of this style mode across various sports games. The Auction House is now unified across PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2, giving you more opportunities to find the cards you’re looking for, while also giving you a higher pool of buyers for your own cards as well.
MyNBA is also back again in NBA 2K27, which serves as the game’s franchise mode. Most of the changes here are smaller ways to streamline and simplify what had gotten a bit too complicated in recent years, but the big new addition is that of MyNBA Legacy. This single-player, player-locked mode allows you to pick any player to serve as your Legend and play with their current attributes and badges or go with their rookie loadout to earn more XP over time. In this mode, you play as both the GM handling the team and the player-locked Legend of choice. What is really cool here is that not only can you play up to a 25-year career with your Legend, but you can also move on to their son’s career to keep it going further for up to 100 years total. This 100-year franchise length is possible across all of MyNBA, which is an increase from 80 years in the past too. The idea of actually playing that many years is pretty daunting, but it’s really cool to have the option for the hardcore players that dedicate themselves to the mode.
Beyond the mention of being able to use female players in The City earlier, MyWNBA and The W are back again. However, this seemed to be one of the most lacking in updates mode of the game this year. One new feature, though, is Team Badges and Teammate Badges that work based on on-court chemistry between your players. There are two specific upgrade paths with these badges: one that focuses on your player and a specific teammate, while the other focuses on multiple teammates on the roster instead.
The Verdict
NBA 2K27 is not the most innovative entry in the series to date, but it does have some new features like the first co-ed The City and co-op within MyCareer alongside some useful offensive and defensive gameplay upgrades. Even the inclusion of Eras into MyCareer seemed like a great idea on the surface by allowing you to use your MyPlayer in it. Where the game really gets a foul though is the fact that the game chose to separate the two non-City MyCareer modes to where you have to completely build two MyPlayers with VC to even be a viable player in each. The microtransactions have always been bad, but this may be the worst example of them yet in the series to date to diminish what is otherwise a really great game.
Pros
- Gameplay improvements on offense and defense
- Introduction of first co-ed The City
- NBA Fire & Concrete is an enjoyable story mode
- MyNBA Legacy is a cool addition
Cons
- Requiring separate characters for two MyCareer modes, which are tied to VC
- Lack of major revamps to any game modes, especially the W
NBA 2K27 was provided by the publisher. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.
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