I have seen people saying that they want to pick this game up for the pro-am and their arcade experience while the other for a sim experience. To me, that is crazy, this game does have too many blocks, and it is a bit too easy to finish in the paint or dunk on fools, but 2 things make this the most authentic basketball experience ever. User control and the phenomenal AI.
I have played countless play now matches at levels from Pro to Superstar, and this is the truth, this game has the smartest AI of any basketball game ever. They make decisions, try to surprise you, take away the immediate threat, rotate quickly, anticipate passes and drives, hedge properly, switch when they need to, and switch strategies on the fly, even one play to the next if something is not working. It makes for a wonderfully authentic experience and forces you to use your own basketball IQ to succeed giving an advantage not only to players with stick skills, but also players with actual basketball knowledge.
Here is an example. I love the pick and roll. I focus heavily on it with my college team and feel with a great ballhandler/playmaker, some good shooters, and a big that knows how to open/slip/pop the high screen is almost unstoppable. So I did a test with this demo running strictly the pick and roll for the entire game over several games on allstar and superstar levels to see how the AI would react after it had become evident to me that it was special.
I ran a pick and pop with Bron and Love, got brick wall screen animation, the other defender switched leaving Love wide open, I passed and he knocked down the open 3. Later in that game I ran the high screen as Kyrie but again with love and got another brick wall animation. This time the player shaded off love to sort of show help on Kyrie, but quickly ran back to Love. Now other games would not have adjusted so quickly in the past and it would have been the same event but this game forced me to use my knowledge. So I hesitated for a bit with Kyrie and then when stepped into a completely wide open mid range jumper after forcing the D to commit.
I ran the high pick with Thomson and will always roll him (obviously) but sometimes with the great user control you can just hold him there to explode to the basket. Scoring off this Pick a couple of times the D then starts to jump/trap/hard hedge the high screen. Seeing this, using my basketball IQ I can than slip Thompson early and get a quick inside score.
However as good as I am with the high screen AI still stone walled me when I ran it without proper spacing. When running Thompson with the high screen and love still near the paint area, loves defensive player hedged off cutting the pass but also still in proximity to love and not allow for a proper angle for that play. Sometimes the D will jump the screen, or if you are using a poor long range shooter such as rose the D will go under the screen every time daring you to shoot and clogging up the other action. Also they may decide to just switch on the high screen, and seemingly always will if you run a pick and roll against 2 players with similar athletic attributes such as livingston and Iggy. They will switch it every time taking away the disadvantage so it again makes the game authentic forcing you to think about who to run the screen with and the actions you want to take based on how they decide to defend it.
Because the game is authentic a quick skillful guard will eat up a big on the perimeter and a strong talented player like Lebron will easily get to the paint and finish on smaller guards such as Curry. This allows great strategic matchups and I decided to play just like the cavs in real life when curry was in the game. Run the high screen with Bron and Kyrie, force the switch, and then go to work with lebron in the paint against Curry. When Livingston was in instead of Curry I would run more traditional with a pick and pop for love or a dive for Thomson.
Some things I have noticed playing as well. When seeing Zaza get cross matched in the break defending Kyrie, when I slowed the ball up him and Curry tried to switch the match up quickly when they got close to each other. Even though I took advantage of the slight opening it was an awesome moment. Again on cross matches during off ball movement I switched with my teamates and off screen back to our preferred matchups very organically. I really have been struck by these incidents of basketball IQ being displayed. Unlike other games from my past the AI actually did a great job matching up in transition and it felt very real when things actually opened up for a quick transition score. The AI also doubles smartly, if there is a switch from a small on onto a big in the paint, or at an clock situation. They also see the plays open up on offense making quick reads and proper passes. It seems the AI also gets smarter on higher difficulty levels instead of just getting cheaper which is something I feel like has never actually happened in a basketball game before.
I know the other game looks more sim to people on the surface, but when really digging into the game and playing at higher levels, to be successful and the approach needed to win, this becomes easily the most authentic basketball experience to date. The Ai in this game is moving me from a must buy and a purchaser of both games to leaning towards this being the only basketball game I buy this year as it is satisfying what I have really wanted and alleviating my frustrations.
I have played countless play now matches at levels from Pro to Superstar, and this is the truth, this game has the smartest AI of any basketball game ever. They make decisions, try to surprise you, take away the immediate threat, rotate quickly, anticipate passes and drives, hedge properly, switch when they need to, and switch strategies on the fly, even one play to the next if something is not working. It makes for a wonderfully authentic experience and forces you to use your own basketball IQ to succeed giving an advantage not only to players with stick skills, but also players with actual basketball knowledge.
Here is an example. I love the pick and roll. I focus heavily on it with my college team and feel with a great ballhandler/playmaker, some good shooters, and a big that knows how to open/slip/pop the high screen is almost unstoppable. So I did a test with this demo running strictly the pick and roll for the entire game over several games on allstar and superstar levels to see how the AI would react after it had become evident to me that it was special.
I ran a pick and pop with Bron and Love, got brick wall screen animation, the other defender switched leaving Love wide open, I passed and he knocked down the open 3. Later in that game I ran the high screen as Kyrie but again with love and got another brick wall animation. This time the player shaded off love to sort of show help on Kyrie, but quickly ran back to Love. Now other games would not have adjusted so quickly in the past and it would have been the same event but this game forced me to use my knowledge. So I hesitated for a bit with Kyrie and then when stepped into a completely wide open mid range jumper after forcing the D to commit.
I ran the high pick with Thomson and will always roll him (obviously) but sometimes with the great user control you can just hold him there to explode to the basket. Scoring off this Pick a couple of times the D then starts to jump/trap/hard hedge the high screen. Seeing this, using my basketball IQ I can than slip Thompson early and get a quick inside score.
However as good as I am with the high screen AI still stone walled me when I ran it without proper spacing. When running Thompson with the high screen and love still near the paint area, loves defensive player hedged off cutting the pass but also still in proximity to love and not allow for a proper angle for that play. Sometimes the D will jump the screen, or if you are using a poor long range shooter such as rose the D will go under the screen every time daring you to shoot and clogging up the other action. Also they may decide to just switch on the high screen, and seemingly always will if you run a pick and roll against 2 players with similar athletic attributes such as livingston and Iggy. They will switch it every time taking away the disadvantage so it again makes the game authentic forcing you to think about who to run the screen with and the actions you want to take based on how they decide to defend it.
Because the game is authentic a quick skillful guard will eat up a big on the perimeter and a strong talented player like Lebron will easily get to the paint and finish on smaller guards such as Curry. This allows great strategic matchups and I decided to play just like the cavs in real life when curry was in the game. Run the high screen with Bron and Kyrie, force the switch, and then go to work with lebron in the paint against Curry. When Livingston was in instead of Curry I would run more traditional with a pick and pop for love or a dive for Thomson.
Some things I have noticed playing as well. When seeing Zaza get cross matched in the break defending Kyrie, when I slowed the ball up him and Curry tried to switch the match up quickly when they got close to each other. Even though I took advantage of the slight opening it was an awesome moment. Again on cross matches during off ball movement I switched with my teamates and off screen back to our preferred matchups very organically. I really have been struck by these incidents of basketball IQ being displayed. Unlike other games from my past the AI actually did a great job matching up in transition and it felt very real when things actually opened up for a quick transition score. The AI also doubles smartly, if there is a switch from a small on onto a big in the paint, or at an clock situation. They also see the plays open up on offense making quick reads and proper passes. It seems the AI also gets smarter on higher difficulty levels instead of just getting cheaper which is something I feel like has never actually happened in a basketball game before.
I know the other game looks more sim to people on the surface, but when really digging into the game and playing at higher levels, to be successful and the approach needed to win, this becomes easily the most authentic basketball experience to date. The Ai in this game is moving me from a must buy and a purchaser of both games to leaning towards this being the only basketball game I buy this year as it is satisfying what I have really wanted and alleviating my frustrations.
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