The story and setting in Mafia III are compelling enough to get you to battle past many of these flaws – just to see what happens next – but the multitude of flaws do leave a sour taste in the mouth. There are multiple endings on offer, but these are based solely on one final decision at the end, meaning that there are no consequences if you play the entire affair as a ruthless killer, and no real reward for sparing lives – aside from a small cash boost, but you will never find yourself short on money. As such, the missions sadly turn into a grind just to reach the endgame – just to find out how Lincoln's tale ends. A repetitive and bug-laden affair, the gameplay and mechanics just don't do justice to what is a finely balanced representation of racial tension in 1960's America.
Overall, NBA 2K17 is a brilliant replication of the sport and even with its issues, it still plays a fun and engaging game of basketball. As long as the development team keep tweaking and adding better mechanics to the gameplay, then the series will keep taking the strides in the right direction. Its a shame that the NBA 2K series doesn’t have any competition these days as when theres competition, it pushes the best to get better but even without it, the series is going in the right direction and not only giving us the best representation of the fast and dynamic sport, but also the most polished package of a sports title that we have ever seen.