NBA 2K25 from developer Visual Concepts has the feel of a championship contender that near-missed the year prior going back on a revenge tour.

While NBA 2K24 made some fantastic improvements to on-court gameplay, it very much felt like things were in only the early stages of something great.

Now, this year’s game offers the promise that said greatness has arrived. Sweeping animation upgrades and greater control—on offense or defense—has produced what appears to be the best on-court gameplay in series history.

Granted, the would-be contender always has to go out and prove it on a nightly basis. A game like this must excel in all its moving parts around the gameplay, too, so whether NBA 2K25 can overcome those annual sports games hurdles is the biggest question chasing it to launch.

A year ago, the 2K series took a dramatic turn away from canned animations through the ProPLAY system, which generated more realistic animations on the fly. This led to a bigger emphasis on actual height and weight advantages, and a more immersive feel, and the reworked stamina system was a boon to top it all off.

But 2K25 isn’t remaining stagnant like those repetitive animations of old.

Instead, it pushes the pace with what feels like a staggering number of new, little details. This doesn’t just extend to ball handlers with distinct movements either, as there are clearly new off-ball movements occurring elsewhere on the court.

Simulating a star-driven league, 2K25 smartly pushes further to make each superstar distinct via signature go-to shots. Although this does seem to be limited to one powerful move per player, the dose of individual flair and the feel of using a star’s best move to dominate is a fun addition.

Shot canceling is perhaps an even bigger addition. In the past, driving to the lane or committing to a shot, then realizing it was a mistake but being trapped in it was a bummer. Now, players can commit, then bail, opening up skill gaps while better emulating real life.

By far the biggest shakeup, though, is an overhauled dribbling system built around footage from real games and players. This lets players have more control than ever over the pacing and types of dribbles. Again, the real-life flair and expansion of player agency in tackling things that have merely been missing from the video game is just impressive.

As a whole, 2K25 goes heavy on player agency and customization in interesting ways

Pro Stick Rhythm Shooting is a nice addition, even if some don’t like using the right stick to shoot and prefer button presses. Using that right stick, though, allows for more seamless moves before shots and after fakes, so it might be in a player’s benefit to try it out.

Shot timing profiles are interesting ways to tweak just how difficult or easy the actual shot meters are. Some profiles simply scale with the chosen difficulty level, while others are more traditional, leaving it up to the player to decide how they interact with the shot meter.

Defense doesn’t go unaddressed, though, with at least one major update that isn’t just animations—defensive cutoffs. A flick of the right stick to quickly change players to get in front of cuts is a welcome addition that swings the balance enough to make sure things don’t get unrealistic.

It almost sounds like a little thing, but being able to slide laterally as opposed to the stiffer movement patterns of the past has a profound impact. And it doesn’t feel unfair—it’s still going to take a player on defense having proper, quick timing to make it effective.

Such an expansion on last year’s stellar progress easily makes 2K25 the best-feeling game on the court to date. Not perfect, but putting more control in the player’s hands while managing to make it feel more lifelike than ever is quite a feat for a series already at the top of the market.

Graphics and Presentation

Another year, more praise for the 2K series’ ability to nail the broadcast-like presentation better than any sports game on the market.

By now, players have heard it all before—realistic jersey and hair swaying, details like beads of sweat, etc. Honestly, more impressive these days might be the painstaking detail of setting individual stars on the court apart from each other, really nailing the feeling of controlling them.

It all comes together nicely in motion. Where graphical fidelity has seemed to peak and proper player likeness a mere expectation at this point, the real exclamation point is the fluidity afforded by the reworked animation system that makes things so lifelike.

That’s not to suggest there aren’t other improvements, as it feels like new camera angles and the like make things fresh for players who pour hundreds of hours into the experience each year.

Actual conversation cutscenes in certain game modes, especially the ones that aren’t voice-acted, are weak points of the presentation. Details of NPC characters, in the crowds and otherwise, compared to the incredible detail of actual players, is pretty funny at this point, although also a nitpick.

For 2K25, it entered this year way ahead of the game compared to most sports games in this area as it was. But the smart, layered and lifelike details certainly keep it well ahead of the pack.

MyPlayer, Features and More

The downright staggering list of game modes returns in 2K25, where one could argue that MyPlayer sits as the top item.

There, players can now create their own superstar through a variety of different means. There are baseline NBA templates, pro-tuned builds and at a later date, even community builds that will help get players started on this in refreshing ways.

Along the way, the mode now offers more information than in the past, including permitting players to see what badges will be earnable for a specific build at later levels of progression.

Takeovers now have five levels to explore, and the game has overhauled the badge system, narrowing the list to just 40. The more a player uses these on the court, the faster they level, too.

Key Games return and have a bigger impact than in the past, too, while Heart of a Dynasty promises to provide a flashback story for players who make it far into the experience.

That’s a lot of information for MyPlayer, yet shows the attention to detail that went into the beloved mode. While it still feels grindy, there’s an RPG-lite element to it that will probably go underrated, yet makes the journey feel rewarding.

MyTeam, the other big-ticket item that tends to capture the most attention of any, gets some notable changes. There are four new game modes that aim to overhaul singleplayer and multiplayer options, including threes action and even a fun King of the Court mode.

For some, far more important will be the return of the auction house after player requests, thankfully. Opening the economy back up and giving players more ways to round out their collections as they choose is never a bad thing.

There’s a new overarching rep system that doesn’t reset after each in-game “season,” a nice touch to combat some of the FOMO feel of the proceedings. It’s not perfect, the grind is still very real and the pressurized weight of microtransactions remains, but it’s a decent olive branch to offer players.

Speaking of attempting to garner some goodwill, some time and effort clearly went into a new tutorial that better explains the how and why of the sometimes-convoluted mode.

The City is smaller, yet manages to feel more alive than in past years because more of the playable space actually matters. Not to get cliche, but “less is more” has always been one of those pervasive thoughts about these open spaces in past offerings.

The hub hits on all ranges of must-have player requests, from a competitive multiplayer court for teams of one on up to five—with difficulty sliders on and shot meters off—to the return of a MyCourt apartment-court player space for fun.

The Steph Era debuts in MyNBA, chronicling recent great Golden State Warriors eras and is a nice, if not niche, addition to that mode.

Over in MyGM new conversation and perk systems offer wrinkles to the expected, though the former can fall flat. Some feel like early conversations in an RPG where NPCs just hand out tasks via conversations because it’s a video game and it needs to get going. Some modes just fall on the backburner of an annual release schedule, clearly, but as a whole, it’s still a deeply immersive simulation for those who want it.

The W again does justice to the women’s game in a big way. A Pursuit of Greatness story loops in press conferences for further narrative control, while The W Online shifts things to an outside court for 3v3 action that is fun to play.

A year ago, MyCareer trimmed a lot of the unwanted fat off the experience by saying goodbye to filler cutscenes and the like. The fun pace remains, with dynasty rankings a new way to see how a player’s performance stacks up against the greats.

Rounding out the almost exhausting list of modes, thankfully, is Learn 2K, a tutorial-like offshoot that will help new players and also includes games and drills.

As always with a release this big and viral, some clips online might show hiccups, but performance, in general, was good, and crossplay and a deep suite of options returns to great effect. That said, the weight of microtransactions across multiple battle passes and the like remains heavier than in most games, regardless of genre.

Striving for realism and putting more control in the hands of players are two goals every sports game should seek to accomplish with every release.

NBA 2K25 makes great strides in both areas. It works overtime to give players more options and better mimic real life, as if it set out to tackle a checklist of details that make it so obvious the game on the screen isn’t the real thing.

Easily the best-feeling game in the series to date, the microtransactions conversation remains incredibly heavy given the grindy feel of the game modes and the cost of earnable items, while real-money options persist.

Like always, this fickle balance will determine the overall reception. But when talking feel and immersion levels of a sports simulation, NBA 2K25 retains the crown.