All glitz, no gameplay. A nation of ballers mourn.
A certain software exec once famously said that with the right branding, you can shovel anything into a box and it will sell. Well, if there is a more appropriate example than NBA Live 2002 on the PlayStation 2, I haven't seen it.
First, the good. The graphics in NBA Live 2002 are outstanding. Players are beautifully constructed - ther muscle definition alone is worth booting up the game. The dunks are outstanding, if somewhat generic amongst all the players. They really throw down the rock in NBA Live, thundering it home so you can almost feel it. The franchise mode is nearly as good as Madden’s, allowing you to run a team over several seasons, draft rookies, make trades and grabbing free agents with tons of information available for each player. In fact, you could use the draft mode to run your own roto-league with all the strength and weakness information available in NBA Live 2002, more games could take notes from this game. One nice touch is that you can edit the player attributes of the NBA players themselves, so if you think Kobe Bryant's shooting range is overrated, just drop it down a few notches. Create-a-player is insanely detailed, with multiple tattoos, body types, sneakers and socks to choose from. The courts are sharp, and the instant replays are second to none. The play-by-play isn’t bad, although the color commentary is somewhat sparse and the lines seem to be heavily recycled from last year’s version. The music both in the front end and in-game is awesome – NBA Live always has been the industry front-runner for music and this year’s version is no disappointment in that regard. The licensed tracks and in-house developed tracks fit together seamlessly.
Now, the bad. Are you sitting down comfortably? Good. This'll take a while.
Look up the definition of 'weak-sauce' in Lewinson's Dictionary and you'll find the following: sloppy control, inconsistent player physics, cheating AI, incorrect play mechanics...you can see where this is leading, can't you? For some reason, NBA Live seems to think that players need to slide around on the court in order to generate a feeling of momentum. Real NBA players are skilled enough to stop on a dime without sliding out of bounds, so why isn't this reflected in the game? Turn off the hockey physics and cut down the frustration factor in half. The NBA has introduced zone defense back into the league, removing the illegal defense call in an attempt to increase scoring. Well, the only thing NBA Live 2002 bothered to do was remove the illegal defense call – there are no specific zone sets available to call when playing on D. The defensive strategies are the same as they’ve always been – three-quarter court press, full court press, half court press, half court trap…amazingly, the manual itself states that the quarter court defensive strategy “is as close as you get to running a zone defense.” Huh? How about just including some defense SPECIFICALLY tailored for the zone, instead of throwing out one half-baked defensive scheme? To make another sports analogy, imagine Madden 2002 with no dime package available or NHL 2002 with only four-on-four play through all three periods…then explaining it away by saying that “this is as close as you get” to the play mechanic that should be included in the first place? Not acceptable.
The rebounding is atrocious - no matter the positioning of your teammates or who you have as your team, the opposing team will grab offensive and defensive rebounds the clear majority of the time. There is nothing more frustrating than watching your center stand around while everybody except the opposition’s water boy gets the rock. Changing the defensive strategy to Boxout makes little difference in the number of rebounds pulled down. There’s no technical foul penalty for the defensive three-second call when standing in the lane, but there is in the real-life NBA. To quote the Hurricane, “What’s up wit dat?”
The special moves are worse than useless, they're actually a hindrance to player control. Want to control your crossovers? This isn’t your game. If you attempt a spin move or stutter-step near the sidelines, backing down or not, it's a toss up as to whether your player will go out of bounds. More often than not, you're turning over the ball. To compound the problem, there’s a short delay between pressing the spin button and the animation actually starting, which throws off the timing.
There are a ton of little things wrong in the game that on an individual basis aren’t so bad, but when combined with the terrible gameplay, just grate on the nerves. Why does the referee only appear in cut scenes? The zebra comes out with the ball for the tip-off, but when it’s time for the ball to be tossed in the air, he’s gone and the ball is thrown by Mr. Invisible Man. During free throw cut-scenes, the benches disappear! Where are the coaches? Why on earth does NBA Live only have one court for street ball, while NBA 2K2 has five (count ‘em!)? For that matter, why am I limited to one-on-one for the street ball option, when NBA 2K2 gives two-on-two, three-on-three, even four-on-four? Where’s the huge amounts of trash talking during the street segments? A line or two won’t cut it. Why can’t we have better tuned camera angles that envelop the majority of the court and players? Even when it’s zoomed out, you can’t get the full range of vision that you need, especially from the side angles. When checking the ball in the street-ball mode, why can’t I see the player receiving the ball on the side camera until he actually gets the ball in his hand?
I don't understand how EA Sports can get nearly all other sports correct on next-generation platforms, yet be so completely inept when it comes to the NBA Live series. NHL, NASCAR, Triple Play, the Madden and NCAA Football series...all of these have turned out good to great in their PS2 incarnations. Heck, even EA's first attempt at next-generation console extreme basketball (NBA Street) is the best of its kind on the market - so why is their simulation b-ball title’s gameplay so consistently sub-par?
All I can recommend to the developers – not that it’ll ever happen - is this: take a page from the Madden 97 PSX debacle and take next year off. Retool this series from the ground up. Developing the next version of a game in a 9-10 month cycle only works if the game’s foundation is decent to begin with. The high quality of the other entries in the EA Sports line are only making NBA Live look even worse in comparison, and with Sega burning down the turnpike this year on PS2, Xbox and Gamecube, the luxury of pushing out a borderline product year after year is gone. Personally, I can't wait to play Sega’s NBA 2K2 on my PS2 and attempt to wipe all evidence of this game from my scarred psyche.
Take it from someone who knows basketball - don't waste your time or money on this game.
