Console basketball's Rookie of the Year, and then some.
I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say I was surprised by Microsoft's first two console sports games. NFL Fever was not perfect, but it was a good start for the franchise in an already established field. Simulating basketball on the other hand has not faired quite as well over the years, and it wasn't until the introduction of the NBA 2K series by Sega that began to turn that around. Enter Microsoft's second sports title, NBA Inside Drive 2002, and all of the sudden we have some competition brewing. Inside Drive has not only gotten the franchise off to a good start like Fever, but it I already feel it ranks as one of the best b-ball games on a console.
There's no bones about it, Inside Drive has borrowed liberally from the NBA 2K series of control, as well as others before it. Considering that the control of basketball sim games has never been the problem, it was a wise decision to go with what works. Players familiar with Sega's series will be right at home from the boot up of Microsoft's title. Holding the left trigger puts you in a defensive stance or backs down in the post on offense. There is icon passing and offensive play calling on the fly. Even the gameplay has a similar feel, but there are nuances that help set them apart.
The gameplay menu will leave you wanting more. Exhibition, Season, and Playoffs are all that greet you. Not that you can't have fun playing exhibition game after exhibition game (which I have), but a franchise mode that lets you develop the young kids like Kwame Brown and Tyson Chandler would have been nice. At one point after a few games, I was even wishing there was a practice mode. With all the plays to run, there really should have been an area of the game that let you run through the motions so you could see what it should look like in a game situation. There's always next year.
The options are plentiful, and the coaching menu is filled with minute controls over the actions of the team. As the coach, you can select up to four offensive plays to assign to the directional pad. These are chosen from the coaching menu during the game, and they can be changed at any time. For the most part, these plays really work, which cannot be said about numerous other basketball games. There are situations where the players just won't cooperate, like a power forward that's supposed to set a high screen but hangs out in the post instead. Other times you'll run a play designed for a shooting guard to pop out off a screen when it's actually your small forward or power forward that uses the screen. This situation, however, I've found to be smarter than I had imagined. The play may be designed for the shooting guard, but if the small forward is the best shooter or has the hot hand, then he will be the target. If it's random based on where they are on the court when the play is called, then they have me fooled because it usually makes good sense.
On top of choosing offensive plays, which is the meat of the game, you can also specifically coach other elements of the team or leave them on automatic. Sure, substitution and time outs are among the things you can control, but how about how hard you defense hits the boards? You can control how much your team runs the floor on a fast break. Control is offered over offensive rebounding intensity, the pace of your half court offense, and even how much defensive pressure to apply to the opposing team. This is taken a step further and lets you designate the man on man match ups, how much pressure to apply to a single player, and whether to double team them or not. Say you're playing against the Indiana Pacers. From the coaching menu, I put high pressure on Reggie Miller because I know he has a J, and I want a hand in his face at all times. I'll give him the drive to the hoop if he can take it. I'll also call for the double team on Jermaine O'Neal because he's their only presence inside. The CPU usually makes pretty good decisions for you, but it's nice to have that extra level of control.
The biggest factor of them all is that Inside Drive really portrays the feeling of playing or watching a real basketball game, and for me that's the selling point. There's the right amount of drives to the hoop. The defense can stop a driving player most of the time, but if you get a mismatch off a pick, your point guard can school a big man. Players will get open off screens for a clear shot at the basket. You can play a formidable two-man game between the perimeter and the post, especially if the defense is double-teaming down low. Post players can back down, spin, and shoot a small fade away jumper or crash the hoop. Best of all, the shooting percentages are kept in check. There is no guarantee that you'll knock down an open jumper, and sometimes you CAN make shot over a closely guarding defender.
There are a couple of small problems. One is the lack of zone defenses. They put all this thought into coaching and offensive and defensive schemes, but they forgot the intricacies of zone defense now that it's legal in the NBA. They did however manage to throw in the defensive 3-second penalty. The other downfall is in the area around the basket. I still haven't seen a game do this right. If you get a pass into someone with a deep post position or they happen to be rooted right in front of the basket, nothing realistic ever comes of the situation. Usually the offensive player just dunks over the whole group, which rarely happens unless your name is Shaq. Other times they take a small hook shot, but who uses a hook anymore? I've even seen little baby jumpers in the lane that look out of place. What really happens in an NBA game? They take is up strong! One bounce and power to the hoop off two feet followed by lots and lots of contact. 75% of the time the guy gets hacked, and he goes to the charity stripe. In the right situation, they may get the ball up for a lay up or a rare dunk. This is what I would like to see worked on in future releases.
The visuals didn't blow me away like I thought they would. Maybe I'm just jaded, or maybe I expected too much. It's really a mix of good, great, and poor but definitely leaning towards the good. The character models are excellent. In replays, the players and the stadium are king of the hill, but when playing the game, it doesn't look much better than Live or 2K2. The muscle definition and uniforms are top notch. The models, though, do have this weird black outline on the body that makes them look a little 2D when moving on the screen. Plus, you need the camera panned out far enough to run plays, so a lot of detail is lost during the actual gameplay. In this regard, the screen shots are a little deceiving.
The animation, at times, blows me away, and in other moments I wonder how professional animators could make such big mistakes. They are a bevy of animations for all different situations. The defensive player has a number of ways to steal the ball. They may take a little poke at it, or they may go after the ball by lunging at the ball handler. The fade aways, dunks, crossovers, and off balances jumpers all look superb in motion, in slow motion that is. The whole package is there, it just flies by to fast. While the pacing and speed of the game is perfect, the players actions are sped up to where you can't pick out the details of what happened. Dunks happen in the blink of an eye, where you would normally see some hang time involved. The majority of the shots taken, visually, come out like line drives off the players' wrists instead of off their fingertips. How do you make that mistake? The other biggie is watching a player run from behind. I finally put my finger on it last night. When a human runs or walks, their footprints would almost be in a single file line. In Inside Drive, and a lot of sports games now that I think about it, the players run with their feet shoulder with apart. It makes them look like they have a load in their pants.
The sound also has its ups and downs. It fully supports Dolby Digital, which makes me happy beyond belief. The menu music is tolerable, and the sound effects on the court are standard fare. The crowd, however, is especially intense, and they make reactions to plays like in a real stadium. The only weird thing is, they react to pretty much everything. If Ray Allen dribbles between his legs, they go bonkers. It's nice to see a correlation between what happens on court and the crowd, but they need to be a little pickier. The commentating team is really off to a good start. You have your play-by-play guy and a color commentator, and they both talk like the other is right there in the booth with them instead of in separate rooms. I've heard occurrences where the play-by-play guy interrupts the color analyst because a big play happened on the floor. There was even a situation where they made remarks about something the PA announcer said.
The only two problems should be easily remedied next year. For one, they don't have enough lines, so you'll end up hearing the same stuff after a few games. It wouldn't be as noticeable if Marques (the color guy) didn't say such strange things. He calls a jump shot a "jimmy", which I've never heard in all my basketball playing days, and he calls the area around the basket, "the cup", which I always reserved as a golf term. The other problem is that they often sound like Joe Montana's Sports Talk Football from back on the Genesis. The sentences don't appear pre-loaded, so they pause when announcing a name or the score. Like, "That's five steals for ...... Shawn Marion ..... today." It's nice that they noticed the five steals, but the stilted speech is inappropriate in present day sports games.
I feel like I was really picky on the graphics and animation, but they are legitimate claims that need to be worked on. The game plays so smoothly and really captures the feel of basketball, but the quick release, line drive jumpers out of the wrist almost tear down that feel that the gameplay is delivering. In truth, it is still a darn fine looking baller, and it comes bearing simulation style play that basketball fans have had to look too hard to find. More than starting out on the right foot, I think NBA Inside Drive runs away with rookie of the year and is among the top console basketball games available.
