NBA 2K has long been the standard-bearer for high-quality sports games. It’s the pinnacle that other series like Madden, FC, and even the oft-beloved MLB The Show aspire to emulate in whatever ways their respective sports allow. That’s not to say it gets everything right, but it often feels like the team at Visual Concepts is competing against itself. It creates trends; it doesn’t chase them.
That’s always been most obvious in The City, the series’ social PvPvE hub and the lifeblood of the game’s community. Though some other parts of the game are more uneven with this year’s entry, The City proves that if you only plan to play one sports game this year, NBA 2K27 is the way to go.
The City is where players can meet up for basketball games of varying sweat levels, buy cosmetics, and complete live-service challenges–it is the center of NBA 2K27’s solar system. This hub is thoughtfully attached to the single-player MyCareer mode at the proverbial hip, and this pairing offers more enjoyable and immersive things to do as a tandem than most other sports games taken in their totality.
This year, The City makes several smart changes. At the core of it all is the long-awaited ability to import custom women characters into the mode. Aesthetically, this is a nice change that lets the hub world better reflect real-life streetball communities–it’s always been true that women have existed in these spaces in real life, so they should be included in NBA 2K, too.
However, this positive change does come with a frustrating caveat: The MyCareer mode doesn’t account for them, thereby siloing these women avatars into The City exclusively. Plus, this requires anyone who wants to run around in The City as a woman to create a second avatar as a man if they want to go into MyCareer’s story mode. So as awesome as this all is to see, it also feels like a frustrating half-step forward.
New landmarks in The City, Casual Corner and Crew HQ, build out the virtual world to be much more inviting and social. In Casual Corner, beginner-friendly pick-up games, including some that are co-op PvE against rather lowly bots, are happening whenever you want to queue for them. Meanwhile, NBA 2K’s clan-like “Crews” system gets a big upgrade in Crew HQ, a space for you and your crew to meet up, practice, play crew-only games, and socialize.
These two additions will better onboard new players and, by being tied to the Learn 2K suite added in recent years, speak to the team’s commitment to not feel so dizzying to new players. They also become two more diverse ways to play in a hub world already full of so many different offerings, from ultra-sweaty Proving Grounds games that ditch the shot meter to The Rec’s full-length 5v5 games.
There’s always The Park too, where some players spend the entire year building out their in-game legend and dominating on a particular court as though they actually live in the neighborhood. In more than one corner of the game’s social world, these various modes feel big enough to allow you to commit to any of them exclusively and still find a lot to love.
My favorite of The City’s modes, Street Kings, is akin to Mortal Kombat’s Towers: PvE games against boss-type ballers that escalate in challenge with every match, and where a hype man and an energetic crowd of NPCs cheer you on like a classic And 1 game. Since it first appeared in the series two years ago, it’s become my favorite way to play multiplayer in NBA 2K because it allows me and my brother to make lots of progress in The City’s various progress bars, like player and season XP, without bumping into players who disrupt the more casual vibe we’re aiming for.
Of course, every year I’m compelled to shine a spotlight once more on the over-monetized aspects of The City. Visual Concepts is extremely adept at partnering with authentic-feeling brands that create aspirational cosmetics to purchase and unlock in The City, and that’s fine with me, even in its abundance. Personally, I loved getting to walk around in a Portland Fire jersey for the first time, as my home city recently rejoined the WNBA.
