2K25 was released September 6th 2024. 2K is a game based on the National Basketball Association (NBA) that comes out with another version every year. There has been a new 2K annually with new updates and game modes with each release.
One of those modes new to the 2025 release is My Career mode. It is a single player mode where you go on a journey to build the best NBA player of all time. In this section there are also online games. These games consist of The Rec, Theater, and Affiliations. They also have ranked games such as the proving grounds and Pro-am.
My Career also has special events. The events in 2K25 will be throwbacks to past 2Ks. The developers have not confirmed dates for every event but so far according to nab2kw.com we have had Basketball Gods and 2K15 Old Town Flyers Park.
There is also a system that shows the progress of your play called REP. According to deltaisgaming.com, “The REP System in NBA 2K25 encourages you to keep playing as many games as possible. The more you play, the more REP Rewards you’ll get, as you keep leveling up from Rookie to Veteran. There are a total of 20 levels to climb, and with each level, the rewards just keep getting better.”
NBA 2K was developed by Visual Concepts then published by the company 2K (Wikipedia). They created a game that differs from the last ones with new features they didn’t have before. The game is available on all Next Gen consoles, such as PlayStation 5 and X-box Series X.
On the website Nba.2k.com in the My Career section it states that there is a new Takeover system. The Takeover section of the page states, “Choose from 72 Takeovers and 14 Takeover Abilities using NBA 2K25’s new Takeover System to target different attributes and improve your MyPLAYER during gameplay. Takeovers have five Levels, which you’ll gradually boost with strong performances on the court and by raising your Takeover Meter from heating up to red-hot.”
They also developed a whole new game mode called The Dynasty. According to MSN, “Overall, Heart of a Dynasty features four total missions to complete. Additionally, each mission rewards the player with Stars depending on certain criteria. Essentially, you want to earn the three-star reward for each mission, which offers the player VC.”
There is also a Quick Play mode that has multiple different categories you can choose from: Current, Classics, and All-Time. The Quick Play mode is a mode where you can pick any current team in the NBA. They also have different categories called classics, which offer popular teams from NBA history, for example the Kobe and Shaq duo, the Bill Russell squad who went on a eight finals win streak, and many more duos in the NBA. 2K also has a category with all-time teams that mixes current rosters with every roster in that team’s history.
They have also added another category added just this year called FIBA and it only has one team but the team is very good and people in the 2K community have been asking for this for a long time. The team they have added is Team USA, the most “stacked” team in NBA history.
The standard edition costs $69.99. This version is just the normal; it doesn’t have any add-ons or special perks. The next edition for the same price is the NBA 2K25 WNBA edition. This edition comes with another My Career mode but for the WNBA, but besides that it is the same thing as the standard edition.
Additionally, there is the All Star Edition, which has multiple different bonuses, but it comes at a higher price of $99.99. An article with Men’s Journal declares that the benefits of the All Star Edition consist of “100,000 VC and MyTEAM content, 10 MyTEAM Player Cards (3 guaranteed to be 89 OVR), 3 Diamond Shoe Cards, 3 Takeover Boosts, 1 Amethyst Coach Card, and also MyCAREER content: 150x Skill Boosts (25 Games), 75x Gatorade Boosts (25 Games), Jayson Tatum Cover Jersey, Jayson Tatum Electric Skateboard Skin, and a 2K25 Cover Stars Design T-Shirt.”
Finally the last edition is Hall of Fame edition which costs $149.99. The same article informs that the Hall of Fame edition includes everything in the All-Star Edition plus a MyCAREER Vince Carter Cover Jersey, Season 1 Pro Pass with 4 upfront Pro Pass rewards, and a 12-Month NBA League Pass Subscription.
Many people feel as if the 2K costs to much to just play the game for a year and purchase another one the next year. When interviewing an anonymous person, they stated that “there is no reason people should be purchasing a game for 100 dollars, and it upsets me that everyone shuts down when a new game comes out so they can play it.” While interviewing this person, another interjected and spoke about the bonuses that come with the game. The person being interviewed said, “Why can’t the whole game with the bonuses for 150 dollars just be 70 like the normal version?”
Some reviews online are critical. Some people feel that the game promotes laziness, frustration, and bad spending habits (forumsoperationgsports.com). One review asserts that “2K can be fun but it only gets a one because greed, laziness and disrespect to the fanbase are at the core of the game and thus make it difficult to appreciate the game when you know its not made from passion or for your enjoyment its made to take your money and that’s its only goal.” Another reviewer states “I knew some gamers had wallets, but just doing all these builds, buying VC and not even including the main game, and I’ve seen people claim they’ve spent $300-500 easily and some reaching $1k or even more. Now with 2K24 it seems people who want the best experience will have to go at least $300-500 again, excluding the main game, and potentially more. Several have said they will not do the same as they only now realize how much 2K has taken out of their pockets.”
To conclude everything that has been stated so far, NBA 2K 25 does offer multiple modes made to fit how different people would like to play the game, but its features come with a price.
