NBA 2K21 Reviews

NBA 2K21 is ranked in the 37th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
91 / 100
Sep 20, 2020

A goodbye to a good generation, where the final auction is missing in the "El Barrio" mode

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4.3 / 5.0
Sep 20, 2020

Providing a complete NBA experience, NBA2K21 accurately captures and then places you center stage of everything that makes NBA basketball great. The music, the sounds, the energy, the hype, and most importantly the gameplay, this sports sim provides fans of the game the complete experience. With detailed controls and dynamic gameplay which mimics the game's best players, you, the player, can play out your hoop dreams on the world's biggest stage. Just mind your step on the microtransactions on your path to glory.

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8.3 / 10.0
Sep 14, 2020

The best basketball returns with NBA 2K21, a new release that comes with several new features in its most played modes and a totally renewed shooting system.

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8.2 / 10.0
Sep 17, 2020

Since the renovations have been very small, it is a title that we feel strongly to recommend only to those who are really fans of the NBA. Those who have the 2K20 and are not a great basketball fan, but an occasional player, could also opt not to buy it.

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81 / 100
Sep 8, 2020

Coronavirus has extended the previous season of the NBA and next-gen is very close, so the timing is not the best for this entry in the franchise, which is very continuist. However, it is still a great basketball game.

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Sep 8, 2020

2K21 is another solid entry in the series that builds upon the great gameplay strides of the last few years. Visual Concepts has some fires to put out and hopefully that happens sooner rather than later so fans can get on to enjoying the grind.

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8 / 10.0
Sep 15, 2020

NBA 2K21 is a fantastic basketball simulation, but it is a shame that most of the game feels more like an update than an entirely new entry.

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8 / 10.0
Sep 9, 2020

NBA 2K21 executes the fundamentals of basketball to perfection. Add to that a wonderful narrative in Long Shadow, and the package becomes even more appealing - even if MyCareer is linked to an online mode. These modes have a lot of potential, especially My Neighborhood, but some of the ideas still need a year or two of percolation before they're at their true potential.

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Ken McKown
Top Critic
8 / 10.0
Nov 24, 2020

Moving into a new generation of consoles is always exciting. With sports games it is a mixed bag. The games always take the leap in terms of graphics, but seem to trim back the amount of features contained within. NBA 2K21 is a combination of both. While the graphics are next-level, there are also a host of improvements over the previous generation’s offering. Where it falls short though is failing to address the problems from the last gen version of the game. What we end up with is an impressive first outing that feels more like the target the team set out for early on.

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8 / 10
Sep 9, 2020

With a solid new story mode, a greatly improved MyTeam mode and the same high quality of presentation that 2K now brings to the series on Switch, NBA 2K21 is now the new definitive basketball game on the system. The unwanted microtransaction ogre continues to loom over most of the package, ever encouraging you to fork out more cash to accelerate your progress, but as long as you're capable of ignoring this and have the patience to slowly improve your player and team organically, the results will be infinitely more satisfying.

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80 / 100
Sep 15, 2020

While its gameplay is still one of the best in the market and the game mode options are incredibly varied, NBA 2K21 follows the series tradition of sinning by its intrusive microtransactions that limit how much casual players can take from the complete package.

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8 / 10.0
Nov 20, 2020

New Review: NBA 2K21 – PS5 Review https://chalgyr.com/2020/11/review-ps5-nba2k21.html November 20, 2020 NBA 2K21 is generally a great way to usher in the new generation of consoles. The visuals and The City are a big step in the right direction. Some lessons were learned from the earlier release of NBA 2K21 on the last-gen consoles, and that made this a much smoother release experience. That being said, I still can’t shake the feeling I got during my initial review of this title on Xbox One a couple of months ago, that the development team was spread thin between prepping this title for two platforms and the release issues that I’ve encountered only reinforce that issue. Basketball fans will find lots to like here, even though there are some rough patches to be worked out. ---- Original Review: NBA 2K21 – XB1 Review https://chalgyr.com/2020/09/review-xb1-nba-2k21.html September 11, 2020 In all, NBA 2k21 is still the best sports experience on the market. That being said, this feels like a strange year for the series, given the pandemic, altered real life NBA season and split attention between two generations of console. There were few significant changes made, but almost all of those updates were for the better – except arguably the most important one. To change such a core mechanic as shooting so fundamentally is going to be polarizing and while I have been growing used to how it works, I think more tweaks need to be made to finetune the experience. It’s been a strange year and NBA 2k21 reflects that in a lot of ways. All things considered however, NBA 2K20 was easily my most played video game over the last year and I suspect that will be the case for my upcoming year and NBA 2K21.

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8 / 10.0
Sep 11, 2020

This current-gen version of NBA 2K21 definitely feels like a transitory episode of the game, with welcome improvements to MyTEAM, career and shooting mechanic, but without any other meaningful changes to the game's formula over last year.

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80 / 100
Sep 20, 2020

NBA 2K21 is a comprehensive simulation that brings the closest accuracy to actual real-world basketball.

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Sep 17, 2020

One more year, the king of basketball returns to claim his throne. NBA 2K21, the new instalment of the Visual Concepts and 2KGames saga, continues to dominate the basketball simulator market by not having any clear and powerful rivals in front of it. And, although the saga always presents juicy novelties, it begins to suffer from a certain continuity in many aspects.

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7.9 / 10.0
Sep 12, 2020

Gameplay wise, NBA 2K21 is once again an excellent product, and the best basket videogame on the market (also due to lack of competition). While very similar to its predecessor, it is also evolved and revised. However, being a 2K title, microtransactions are inescapable.

Review in Italian | Read full review

7.8 / 10.0
Sep 29, 2020

While it doesn’t feel like a big step from last years entry, 2k21 brings it’s own subtle changes, but it doesn’t wildly change the formula to be honest, but it is still the best sports simulator out there.

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7.7 / 10.0
Sep 8, 2020

NBA 2K21 entertains with a strong gameplay, but the new shooting system lacks precision and may feel frustrating.

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7.7 / 10.0
Sep 15, 2020

As it was predictable, the news of NBA 2K21 in the current gen version are not so many with the team who preferred to keep much of the base of the predecessor by focusing on the refinement of some mechanics and other aspects of the game. To see a step forward we’ll have to wait until the end of the year when it’ll be possible to admire the title in its next gen version, which will be accessible free of charge only for owners of the Kobe Edition, which, in addition to a renewed graphics sector, will contain a new story.

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7.6 / 10.0
Oct 12, 2020

But if you're like me, playing every year, then know this: NBA 2K21 is the best basketball game around, but it's also the only one. And as any high-level competitor will tell you, that's never a good thing for long.

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