NBA Live '15 Review

A good basketball coach will always drill into his team that the most important thing they can do is practice their fundamentals. Basics like dribbling, shooting, and moving around the court. That’s NBA Live 15’s problem in a nutshell - no matter what minor additions and improvements it makes, it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t bring the feeling of controlling the moment-to-moment basketball up to standard.

Let’s give NBA Live 15 credit where it’s due. This year’s game looks better in nearly every way compared to last year’s, particularly during close ups. The ESPN license, specifically the lengthy halftime report with Jalen Rose, adds a level of authenticity, even though Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy’s commentary is flatly delivered.

Animations are still stiff, though, and that causes big issues. While slightly improved from a year ago, the controls still feel clumsy and even unresponsive at times.
And because the overall pace has been sped up, NBA Live 15 ends up feeling like NBA Jam, just without the fun of the “Boom Shakalaka!” arcadey movements and a realistic look just clash.

Light physics have been added this year, but only in particular cases, and only within the key. For instance, the players react to each other in a more natural way when fighting for a rebound or taking a charge, and it looks pretty realistic. But when an animated layup or dunk sequence is triggered, it pulls everyone into position in an unnatural way. It makes the outcome feel predetermined.

The best part of NBA Live 15’s gameplay is working the pick & roll, which is extremely satisfying when pulled off. You simply hold L2 or Left Trigger to call a teammate to set a pick for you. He’ll stay in that position as long as you hold the button, however this  is not always reliable. Based on the position of the defenders, and how the player you’re controlling is behaving, an icon above the pick setter’s head will dynamically change, signifying what he’s going to do next. It’s a fantastic idea, and I really wish it worked consistently. But improvements like this give me hope that the Live franchise is, at least, headed in a positive direction.

  Sadly, even when the pick is executed flawlessly, you’re faced with another problem. Scoring points, the main objective in basketball, is counterintuitive in NBA Live 15. This new shot-quality indicator is added beneath your player’s feet, and it’s supposed to help you visualize when you’re open and within range. But it’s too complicated to be useful in the heat of the moment, and seems like it’s not always accurate. I eventually got the timing down, once I figured out that the shot-release point seems abnormally quick, and it’s not close to the apex of the jump as you’d expect. Meanwhile, layups and dunks are still way too easy to pull off, and too hard to stop when playing defense.The game modes from a year ago all return, with a few minor improvements. Rising Star mode, a knockoff of NBA 2K’s MyCareer mode, is almost identical to last year, except there are more opportunities to improve your grade when playing within your role. But it’s still way easier to lose points than to gain points, and it felt like I was getting robbed. Playing as a slashing point guard, I found it nearly impossible to come off a screen and have the computer register my shot as an open jumper. Almost every time, even if I felt like I was wide open, I lost points for taking a so-called “contested shot”, even though the defender had his hands raised on the other side of the screen!The one notable difference to Dynasty mode, the dull front-office managing Franchise mode, is the ability to jump into a simulated game at virtually any point. That’s kinda cool. Ultimate Team, the standard card collecting  game you’ve seen a dozen times, only adds an auction house, where you can buy or sell individual items. And Big Moments mode still promises to add important moments from the NBA season as they happen, like Damian Lillard’s game winning shot in the playoffs. The thing is, the moments don’t feel as “big” as they should. After you complete the challenge, there are no congratulatory animations, or really anything at all. It just dumps you into a leaderboard.

The Verdict

Although NBA Live 15 looks significantly better than NBA Live 14 at a glance, it still suffers from clumsy controls and stiff animations. A few nice changes and additional game modes can’t make up for poor gameplay, but there are some great ideas here that just don’t get a chance to shine, like the pick & roll and the ESPN license. All in all, NBA Live doesn’t feel as hopeless as it did a year ago, but hope doesn’t make a good basketball game. Practice those fundamentals!