Poor fundamentals leave a few good ideas feeling crossed up.
Fundamentals will always be the key to success on a basketball court. How well you can dribble, shoot, and play defense will always determine whether you win or lose. This continues to be the problem in NBA Live 16, where flashy presentation and interesting new game modes can only go as far as the stiff and laggy gameplay will take it.
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Only the biggest names got the full face-scanning treatment … Some Players just look a bit… off.
And it is quite flashy. Building on the graphical improvements from last year, NBA Live 16 continues to look great, especially up close. Updated skin textures and better lighting makes players look more realistic, but it seems uneven – like only the biggest names got the full face-scanning treatment. The ones that did, like Lebron James and Russell Westbrook, look fantastic, but some players just look a bit… off. For example, the facial features of Anderson Varejao make him look like a completely different person. Additionally, only a few body types seem to be used for everybody, which results in some pretty inaccurate looking players. In real life, Kevin Durant is very thin and lanky, but in Live he almost looks bulky.
Presentation has always been a high priority in EA Sports games, and NBA Live 16 is no different. The ESPN licence is used extremely well, giving the feeling that you’re watching a live broadcast. Lively crowds fill the realistic arenas, which were built using EA’s scanning technology, and that adds to the authenticity. Once again, the game commentary is led by Mike Breen and Jeff Van Gundy, with Jalen Rose handling the halftime and postgame shows. Nobody does a particularly good job, though, and Rose in particular feels completely unnatural and more like he’s reading from a script.
Sadly, the real problems with NBA Live 16 begin immediately after tip-off. To start, most players move identically to one another, with stiff, cartoony animations. It’s jarring to see such a good-looking character model move so poorly. Worse, noticeable input lag made the controls feel sluggish, which led to frustrating turnovers.
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The advantages that ball handlers have over defenders is so significant, it makes playing defense feel pointless.
Those sloppy turnovers are disasters, because defense in NBA Live 16 feels like an afterthought. The advantages that ball handlers have over defenders is so significant, it makes playing defense feel pointless – you’re just waiting for them to make huge mistakes. Holding L2 is supposed to help your defender lock on to the player they’re guarding, but proves ineffective since they can just run around you with little to no resistance anyways. Even players with high defensive attributes, like Iman Shumpert, continuously get beat to the hole. The demoralizing sight of my AI teammates just standing around watching the uncontested dunks became uncomfortably familiar.
Since playing defense isn’t very effective or fun, a sort of shootout atmosphere emerged, where I would just let my opponent take open shots, knowing that I had to answer on the other end of the court. If a shot rims out, though, it feels like a complete crapshoot. Six-foot-tall point guards constantly out-rebound centers, and even if you’re in perfect position someone else will most likely swoop in and take the ball away.
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Not every aspect of the gameplay is bad, as there have been a few significant improvements over last year’s mediocre NBA Live 15 (review). The new shot meter, for example, is a much cleaner, simpler way of shooting the ball. After releasing your shot, you’re given a percentage above the shooter’s head, which lets you know the probability of success based on how you timed your shot, as well as a small indication of any mistakes you may have made. Understanding how to shoot properly has never been more clear. Running the pick and roll works pretty well too; holding L2 calls a teammate over to set a pick, and releasing it tells him to roll towards the hoop or sit back for an open shot.
The easy to pick up and play Live Run provides short, sweet hoops fun.
It’s disappointing that the core gameplay is so flawed, because there are a few game modes that really could have been special otherwise. Pro Am Live Run and Summer Circuit are prime examples: the easy to pick up and play Live Run sees 10 players facing off in a five-on-five game to 21, providing short, sweet hoops fun. Sumer Circuit, on the other hand, has more of a co-op feel, since you can group up with friends and play on various real-world basketball courts like Rucker Park and Venice Beach against AI teams of increasing difficulty.
The player you use in both Pro Am modes is the same as your Rising Star, EA’s version of 2K’s MyPlayer. Rising Star returns mostly unchanged, the good and the bad. It’s still fun to take a created player from the draft to superstardom, but the scrupulous grading system in each game continues to be a drag because it encourages you to play selfishly instead of working as a team. I constantly felt punished for passing on my own open looks in favor of a teammate that had an even better position.
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If you want to create a more personal experience, you have the ability to use the GameFaceHD app, which uses your phone to transfer your image into the game. While this seems like it could be cool if it worked, I was never able to make it look right, so I ended up using a preset character.
Ultimate Team is a fun way to make the most of NBA Live 16.
Finally, Dynasty mode and Ultimate Team return, with few noteworthy additions. While Dynasty mode remains bare-bones and featureless, Ultimate Team is still a fun way to make the most of NBA Live 16. You can earn player cards by completing certain goals, like any of the 150+ challenges – like beating a team full of recent free agents, or a team full of sixth men. Highly rated player cards can be earned sooner this year, but the small contracts attached to said cards only let you use them a few times, making every time you use them feel exciting.
New modes and features make NBA Live 16 a bit better than its predecessor, but the clumsy controls and unbalanced gameplay keeps greatness out of reach yet again. Simply put, if the gameplay doesn’t feel right in one mode, it doesn’t feel right in any of them, regardless of how clever they are or how good it looks. NBA Live still has a long way to go.
