NBA 2K21

 Xbox One
User Score
1.7

Overwhelming dislike- based on 130 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 15 out of 130
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 130
  3. Negative: 106 out of 130
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. SkywalkerMcD
    Sep 6, 2020
    7
    The gameplay and graphics are solid, but unless you get the Legendary Edition, which still only helps get you started, you are left with grinding or spending money to progress in everyone’s favorite modes. It’s not worth the money until it gets a heavy discount. You are paying for touch ups and rookies, and repeating the same grind and/or spend every year. It would be nice if youThe gameplay and graphics are solid, but unless you get the Legendary Edition, which still only helps get you started, you are left with grinding or spending money to progress in everyone’s favorite modes. It’s not worth the money until it gets a heavy discount. You are paying for touch ups and rookies, and repeating the same grind and/or spend every year. It would be nice if you could carry over progress, somehow, year to year.… Expand
  2. Xbox_Alive
    Sep 14, 2020
    7
    NBA 2K21 is as fantastic as ever, but too little has changed to get excited about the latest edition of the franchise. Every game in the decades old NBA 2K series has hit consoles between September and November in time for the next NBA season. But what happens when, come early September, the pros are still trying to complete the previous campaign because of, oh, I don’t know, a globalNBA 2K21 is as fantastic as ever, but too little has changed to get excited about the latest edition of the franchise. Every game in the decades old NBA 2K series has hit consoles between September and November in time for the next NBA season. But what happens when, come early September, the pros are still trying to complete the previous campaign because of, oh, I don’t know, a global pandemic that has disrupted just about everything in the world in one way or another? You get NBA 2K21, a game that feels too much like last year’s model. The game makes for a great metaphor for the 2019-20 NBA season. The on-court action is as good as ever, both in the league’s bubble at Disney’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Florida and in 2K21. The virtual basketball is just as smooth as the real thing. Quality simulation gameplay has always been the hallmark of the franchise, and that’s no different this year. But that metaphor works two ways because, just like the real thing, NBA 2K21 is stuck in last season. With no NBA Draft to bring in an influx of new talent, there are no rookies. Offseason player movement hasn’t occurred yet, either. Nobody can accuse NBA 2K21 of being just a roster update from the previous game, because it isn’t even that. The fact that there are no rookies yet created an embarrassing situation when I dipped into MyLeague, the almost completely ignored suite of modes. Playing through MyGM, I guided the Toronto Raptors through a fantastic 2020-21 regular season, having upgraded my lineup with an early-season trade for perennial All-Star Blake Griffin and locking up the best record in the NBA. Upon completion of the campaign, I looked through some of the awards honorees to find that none of the players on my dominant team were honored as either All-NBA or All-Defensive selections. Okay, sure, that can happen I guess. Unusual, but not bizarre. Here’s where it gets strange. I had skipped past the Rookie of the Year winner because I didn’t have any rookies. Turns out that the other teams didn’t have any either. In fact, the options for one of the NBA’s more notable postseason awards were so low that the Cleveland Cavaliers’ Dylan Windler took home the trophy. Windler, a second-round pick in the 2019 NBA Draft who missed this season due to injury, remained a rookie because he didn’t appear in any games, unlike winner Ja Morant or No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson. What makes Windler such a strange award winner are his season averages: basically no stats. The MyLeague modes offer no alternative to starting in the 2020-21 season without any new rookies. Well, it does present an option to start In offseason, but it is designated as “NOT AVAILABLE” during my review time with the game. That means you can’t opt to do a 2020 NBA Draft to inject new blood with made-up players. For that matter, there’s no free agency period before the season starts, and all upcoming free agents are treated as if they signed one-year deals. My Raptors had just one player still under contract after winning the championship: Pascal Siakam. Every other roster spot was open. I know MyLeague and MyGM get short shrift every year, but NBA 2K21 highlights how much of an afterthought these modes were. I know plenty of people who love the series but haven’t bought a new edition in years because so little has changed in these modes. I don’t blame them, and I would encourage anyone looking to play these modes in the new game to think twice about buying. All of the non-gameplay development effort went into new ways to interact with the card-collecting, microtransaction-soliciting MyTeam. And, to be fair, those who are all about MyTeam should be pleased with what’s new in NBA 2K21. Dedicated players can chase rewards during new seasons, which seem to last about 40 days or so judging by the initial offering. Those who can earn 150,000 XP before time runs out will be rewarded with a 96-rated Stephen Curry, plus 39 other rewards levels along the way. It’s the kind of tangible loot chase that’s much more tolerable than relying on RNG to deliver something useful from packs purchased with in-game MyTeam currency or Virtual Currency (VC). VC deserves it’s own paragraph, although it might be more apropos to talk about VC in every paragraph owing to its invasive presence in most modes of play in NBA 2K21. This is not a new complaint about the series, which has never settled for the cash flow that comes from being one of the perennial top sellers in console gaming in terms of units sold. Whether upgrading MyCareer player or looking to buy a MyTeam pack, VC is in your face. I accept microtransactions in the card-collecting modes that take center stage in NBA 2K21 and other sports games. It’s not my thing, but it's wildly popular for those who are diehards of the franchise. Ultimately, a great game just not much newish. I am very excited to see the improvements in the Xbox Series X version of the game.… Expand
  3. ElSeano89
    Dec 3, 2020
    7
    For the purposes of the review I am reviewing solely MyTeam gameplay because, frankly, that is all that 2K devotes real time towards these days.

    You cannot really argue with 2k's on court product. Players move fluidly and respond very well to input. This is really the first year where if I have a fast guard with ball handling skills that it feels like that is a potent advantage against    For the purposes of the review I am reviewing solely MyTeam gameplay because, frankly, that is all that 2K devotes real time towards these days.

    You cannot really argue with 2k's on court product. Players move fluidly and respond very well to input. This is really the first year where if I have a fast guard with ball handling skills that it feels like that is a potent advantage against the CPU. The graphics have peaked for this era, the presentation is slick and the announcing is vibrant and well recorded. The rosters are endless and deep as are the options for customizing them. Players feel noticeably different from one another. The gameplay side of things are solid. 2k is king of its arena and has no competition in its genre. They put out minimally improved games because they know people will buy it. It works for them however and that is both what is perversely admirable about 2k's ethics as a developer and a detriment to the game itself.

    MyTeam has 2k pose you with the age old question of any game with microtransactions tied into in game progession: How much is your time worth? You could play MyTeam with absolutely zero investment besides buying the game. You earn tokens to buy the same packs people pay for. You are usually given anywhere upwards of 7 or 8 packs a week through special "Locker Codes" they send out. But to get anywhere near what a paying player CAN get would take a phenomenal amount of time and gameplay. An often heard brag online is that some are "NMS" or No Money Spent. But to see what goes into acquiring that boggles the mind. It will come down to do you have 40 or 50 hours available to grind and get a singular player that is very good...or do you want to spend perhaps another 20 bucks and POSSIBLY multiple even better cards? What is your time worth?

    Because honestly, the actual "MyTeam experience" is actually pretty cool. You get elated when you pack a good player and there are constantly updated challenges and plenty to do in the mode. You get to play with a wide variety of different historical and modern players, you can evolve certain players by hitting certain goals with them. The carrot you are chasing is definitely appealing.

    But truthfully unless you want to spend a very long time playing this game (and I play every day but certainly not to the degree people must do to claim the top prize each season) you are gonna have to spend money and even then you aren't guaranteed result.

    This is my biggest gripe with 2k on MyTeam. It's a great idea but they're simply too greedy. To earn the currency required to pull a single pack that gleans 5 items you'd have to play around eleven 20 minute games. Then you pull the pack and you could get absolutely nothing of worth. You could get a duplicate. If they even halved the time to get a pack this would sky rocket in my estimation but they don't because they're greedy and they know that eventually you will probably give in and spend money. I have. Nothing I couldn't afford but I needed to have the self control and step back and actually consider what I was getting for my money. It was a gamble with no real pay-off, even if I won. 2k wins no matter what. They already got your money, you get something intangible as a potential reward.

    The whole thing is geared to encourage frustation. A 20 minute game won't take 20 minutes because there are replays that take maybe 5 seconds to skip, timeouts the CPU calls that take
    maybe another 15 seconds. Even with good players you need to go in expecting something frustrating to happen; an average player being unstoppable. offensive rebounds never going you way, loose balls after blocks always magically going to the CPU. You may as well check your phone whilst they shoot free throws because they're going in 9.5 times out of ten. You need to take a breath and expect the game to stack the deck unfairly against you in some way each game. That is because the whole experience is geared towards raising your frustration to where you spend money.

    But even if you pack the most valuable cards they release newer and more powerful ones so often that the market saturates and then your "valuable card" isn't even a virtual commodity. It becomes this bizarre arms race that culminates every year in unbeatable "galaxy opal" cards with 99 ratings in everything that are relevant for maybe a month before the new 2k comes out and they're worthless.

    But that is the rush of it I suppose. It is really and as is being legally proven in some countries gambling with no age restriction. You could and sadly I imagine that people have spent untold amounts of money here with only the argument that you can't put a price on having fun. I agree you can't but the fact remains that whilst a fun game at its core, the microtransactions and the grind bring it down. It will never change, it makes them too much money and thats sad really because there is potential for brilliance here if they decided to make only slightly less    … Expand
  4. FolkTheo
    Sep 12, 2020
    7
    copy paste from 2020 but with a bigger skill gap and a worse shot meter. Park is still fun though and ai is slightly better then previous entries but still needs work. 7/10 still better then madden
  5. FadedInMN
    Dec 15, 2020
    7
    Average year of 2k again... For me the problem with last years game was the dribbling, this year now the shooting is broken and don't even get me started with the constant lag online. Still a decent play though.
  6. jakandjoe
    Apr 22, 2021
    5
    the game is okay the only part i like about 2k is the pack opening and my first pack i got a good card so i like the game lol. but really its the same as any other 2k.

Awards & Rankings

18
#18 Most Discussed Xbox One Game of 2020

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
67

Mixed or average reviews - based on 24 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 24
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 24
  3. Negative: 3 out of 24
  1. CD-Action
    Dec 18, 2020
    45
    I wish I could call NBA 2K21 derivative but still good. It looks great as ever, but gameplay balance was ruined completely by the new shooting system, there are no new features, the MyTeam mode is going downhill plagued by microtransactions, and the game as a whole lacks even a tiniest spark of passion. [12/2020, p.67]
  2. XboxAddict
    Oct 30, 2020
    85
    NBA 2K21 is a good, but severely flawed game. Once those flaws get fixed though, there won't be a better basketball game on the market.
    Read full review
  3. GameCritics
    Oct 9, 2020
    70
    In short, NBA 2K21 is a solid entry for the franchise, and is arguably the smoothest on-court performer of this console generation. However, its value will largely depend on how tolerant users are of a corny, repetitive story mode and mostly the same options as in previous editions. According to most of the web, 2K Games is building the next-gen versions of NBA 2K21 from the ground up to match the improved technology. Here’s to hoping they upgrade more than the graphics, while keeping the on-court play intact.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »