Other players can watch games as they happen without interruption, and they can even line up to play the next game. The Neighborhood is a social hub that allows people to meet up and play each other in a public setting. How Long Shadow connects to The Neighborhood has the kind of potential that PlayStation Home once had. Progression comes from using VC coins earned through playing the game to strengthen different attributes but more on VC coins a little later. Couple that with a legitimate sense of progression, after applying my earned credits, and the time invested in my character felt worthwhile the entire time. Long Shadow made every aspect of the story mode worth experiencing fully. With other game modes like it, I always want to rush to get through the high school and college years as quickly as possible. There have been some decent sports narratives in games, but Long Shadow has something special to it. The narrative is a common story in sports, but the writing and execution bring Long Shadow far above the middle ground.
Progression feels so rewarding, as everything I do contributes to my player in some way and the narrative brings extra motivation to the player development. M圜areer has me in the same way that MLB The Show’s Road to The Show came out of nowhere and hooked me. I’ve played sports games for the better part of a decade now, and I’ve enjoyed a lot of their game features and modes along the way. Perks and skills help in this area - and I don’t think that this is an aspect of the game that can be easily remedied - but I also do not think that having the game automatically handle this side of the gameplay would be organic either hence why I won’t count this as a negative or a positive but rather a speculation. At the same time, when players have higher numbers in, say, agility or strength, then those players wouldn’t be so easily overtaken.
What I like the most about NBA 2K is that movement is very tactical and rewarding when executed well but also punishing if done incorrectly. That development requires VC coins, though.Īt the same time, I wish there were some way to allow for stats to improve player movement a bit more. When creating a player, you can even customize his potential for later development. Perfect timing is always rewarded, but skills and perks help to even out the playing field. Once my player started reflecting an adept player with stats that reflected one, the wiggle room built into the shooting system began to show itself. In particular, I felt the limitations of it in the early days of my time in M圜areer simply because my stats were so low. The shooting has been a hot topic and I must admit that I had some growing pains acclimating to this year’s system.