NBA 2K24‘s release is less than a month away, as the next game in 2K’s long-running series is set to launch on September 8 on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC platforms. With the launch nearly here, 2K is finally pulling back the curtain on NBA 2K24, starting with an in-depth look at the gameplay improvements fans have to look forward to. In a recent sitdown deep dive with 2K gameplay director Mike Wang, we got a rundown on everything, including a look at the new ProPlay technology that’s driving a large portion of this year’s gameplay upgrades.
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To put it plainly, ProPlay is a new way for the NBA 2K developers to capture real-world NBA footage and put it in the game. Previously, the team relied on getting players into the booth for motion capture to improve animations, but now they can take real-world data and add it to NBA 2K24 relatively quickly, in theory making the experience feel much more life-like. ProPlay’s improvements will be seen across the game, improving everything from jumpshots to dribble moves. If it works like 2K wants it to, this should be the most realistic version of 2K in the series’ history. Now, 2K isn’t relying on mo-cap artists to replicate Kevin Durant’s jumpshot. They can just take it directly from their footage.
Of course, that’s not all that’s coming in the gameplay department. One of the biggest annoyances last year, especially for more casual players was that jumpshot timing often came down to “green or miss.” This essentially meant that if you didn’t get a perfect release, the shot wouldn’t go in, regardless of difficulty. Now, 2K has changed shot timing to be different across difficulties, meaning that if you’re playing on lower difficulty, you’ll have a much more “forgivable” shot timing. Wang also promised that you’ll be able to feel the weight of bigs when they post up in the paint and says the team has added new dribble breakdowns that can be initiated relatively easily, giving you a go-to dribble move to size up the defender.
On top of that, the team has worked to better balance Adrenaline Boosts. These got annoying at times in 2K23, especially in Park, so the changes should be welcome for all of the “dribble gods” out there. Plus, defenders can now use the Boosts to help them clamp down on their opponent. You’ll also have the option to select your own Takeover on the fly and can even let the meter build twice to activate two Takeovers at once, making for a much more fluid system. Finally, the team has revamped the playcalling and substitution AI, which should make everything flow more realistically throughout a game.
These changes for NBA 2K24 certainly sound like they could be great for the game. They aren’t going to totally change the game, but if everything works, it should be an improved gameplay experience. “If everything works” is the key in that sentence as we won’t really know how well all of this works until September 8.
