Rajdeep Chahal

Is this game beautiful? Absolutely. Does it have some of the best production value in a video game? Most definitely. Does it have the best career concept in any sports video game? Yes So why 1 star? Well the game is a little bit like that friend from college in a pyramid scheme who is always well dressed and desperate to have you invest in his off brand energy drinks. Behind the facade is a game that is broken to the point where unless you are constantly sinking in money you aren’t getting very far. In your career you can either grind for months to get yourself to being a 75-76 rated player. Endlessly playing matches with a lumbering useless hunk of meat who can’t jump, sprint or shoot to earn those precious vc every game that you can then use to make your acceleration rating a whopping 47 instead of 46. That is if you get any VC in the first place. The game is pretty fast and loose with when it wants to give you this vc you re supposedly earning by playing matches. This leaves only one way to get VC - you guessed it. Spend your real money, to buy some 2K fake money to then buy some fake points to make your player tolerable. Alternatively, you can drop an extra 25 dollars on top of the 90 you have already spent on the game and become 85 rated in a second. This game is the definition of corporate greed at every level, from the retail price you pay in store (guess who was the front runner to jack up prices this year) to the way that creating a meaningful career is impossible without extra investment. 2K are not the only ones trying to gouge players for as much money as they can, but the problem is their gouging is so transparent and obvious that it’s become difficult to look past and just concentrate on what is actually a quite beautiful game.