The Kotaku Review of NBA 2K22 from Lambert Kent's blog

There is no way I can go on like this. I've been transformed into the Joker thanks to NBA 2K this year.

This is not to say that the obnoxiousness of this year's game is unprecedented. NBA 2K22 doesn't do anything that will cause long-time fans of the series to do a double-take with bulging cartoon eyes, nor does it do anything to distinguish it as something that, when examined in isolation, it is particularly guilty of by itself. To be honest with you, the thing about straws is that they break the camel's back. Unlike the ones who came before him, the one who finally succeeds does not appear to be all that different.

With each passing year, I've grown more disillusioned with the direction in which the game has gone, moving away from being a "great basketball game with a broken but interesting singleplayer mode" to being an "exploitative psychological and economic trap."

Throughout the years, my reviews have become a little more frustrated, a little more exasperated, and a whole lot less tolerant of this money-driven detour away from what was originally intended for the series. NBA 2K22 isn't a significant step forward in this regard, but after eight years of subjecting myself to it on an annual basis, it's enough to make me want to give up on video games entirely. As an example of where I've gotten to, we can look at my last few reviews from the series, which tell the story of my descent into lunacy:

A basketball game, by definition, is not NBA 2K22. Basketball appears in it, but that isn't what it's all about. instead of a game of chance, it is a massive shakedown, an ornate palace constructed of never-ending attempts to coax more and more money from players despite paying full price to enter. Some of the tactics used are deft and subtle, but the majority are obnoxiously obvious and disgusting in their perseverance.

To be in the presence of this game is exhausting. if it isn't asking you to spend real money, it is asking you to relentlessly grind the most basic and joyless tasks, such as when the worst aspects of MMO and mobile game design came together and thought, "let's launch an exciting new startup venture in the AAA gaming space."Every time I turned it on, it felt like I was putting in a shift in a virtual currency mine, chipping away at inert slabs of menus and advertisements, with the prospect of this being a simple basketball game little more than a distant memory.NBA 2K22: The latest preview trailers, pre-order information, features.

The fact that, when you do manage to get a ball on the court and start playing, the entire experience becomes stale does not help NBA 2K22. NBA 2K22's gameplay, like that of most sports games, is beginning to show signs of wear. In reviewing old reviews from this year, I watched some gameplay from NBA 2K15, then gameplay from NBA 2K22, and while there is an expected increase in fidelity, the overall structure, control and play of the game feels stale.

In addition, I played the game on a PC, which was plagued by last-gen technology, whereas the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions have better graphics and animations as well as a few extra features such as a larger hub world area and WNBA career mode; that said, the game's core mechanics and economy remain the same across both generations).

I'm not the type to join the chorus of "sports games are just roster updates hurnh hurnh," because that's always unfair, but I'm also not the type to just buy these games every year, look over a handful of bullet point upgrades, and think everything is fine with the world, either, because that's always unfair. To be sure, there is an element of elasticity at play here, where I am willing to give these series some wiggle room because creating a game every year is a lot of work, but there is also a point at which one must admit that this is simply getting old, and things must be changed. After a few paragraphs, you may have figured out where I stand with the NBA2K series.

The part of these reviews where I normally move on from my economic and grind-related complaints and say, you know what, it's OK, because the basketball is still good, and then I spend a few paragraphs pointing out that the shooting meter is easier to understand (it is significantly better this year), or that transition buckets are easier this year, or that the AI is a little better at protecting the paint is where I usually end up. As a matter of fact, that's always fair because this is a pretty good game of basketball, even if our standards for what that could and should be are rendered meaningless because there is no competition for this match.