ESPN NBA 2K5 is a decent basketball game, but doesn't offer anything significantly new or improve on last year's game.
Among the modes ESPN NBA 2K5 offers are its franchise mode, now called The Association, Street, Tournament, Practice, and 24/7, a career mode which was introduced in last year game.
In The Association, you take control of an NBA franchise over the course of a season. Each week, you set up team training to boost your team's ratings in a particular area, such as close range, passing, or free throws. How much of a boost you receive depends on the level of training (light, normal, or intense), and the support staff you hire, each with a particular area of expertise. One of your players will also have a talk with you, and you can choose one of three responses. Selecting the correct one will boost your team's chemistry, and selecting the wrong one will lower it. As for the games go, you can simulate them, play them in full, or play them in Full Authority, a kind of simulation mode in which you make the strategic decisions.
Street mode is the same as in last year, and allows for one on one to full five on five games, either full court or half court. The venues available include well known street courts, such as The Cage or Rucker Park, as well as some unconventional locations. A nice touch is the ability to select the weather and time of day. Also available in Street mode is 21.
24/7 makes its return, in which you create a player, and attempt to advance to the top of the street ball ranks. You build up your player's abilities by training with different exercises, and gain ranking by defeating other opponents.
As for the gameplay itself, offense isn't too difficult, as you have many scoring options, and for the most part, the post up and midrange games are much more fleshed out than in NBA Live 2005. The game doesn't make any one way to score easier or more effective than others, allowing you to have variety in the shots you take, which is a welcome aspect of the gameplay. Compare this to the most recent installments of NBA Live, where the offensive game is heavily oriented towards layups and shots in the paint, and the midrange game is nonexistent.
In ESPN NBA 2K5, screens work pretty well, and an effective way to score is to call for a screen by clicking the left thumbstick, and then using it to get your player into the lane for a layup, or passing it to the player who set the screen. Midrange jumpers are also effective, and when combined with moving the right thumbstick down to trigger the what the game dubs IsoMotion2, results in a step back to give your shooter some room to get off the shot. In the post, you can back down your defender, and take a hook shot, or try a drop step to get a layup. Preset plays are also available using the d-pad, and these are customizable as well. A minor new feature this year is a marker that appears on the floor to assist with rebounding missed shots.
Unfortunately, IsoMotion2 isn't all that useful, and although you can pull off crossovers and spins, these are canned animations which take too long and rarely allow you to get past a defender. More often than not, they will result in a turnover. With the exception of the step back move, IsoMotion is pretty much useless. This year, the game has added a hop step, a la NBA Live, performed by pressing Y, but like the IsoMotion moves, if you use it incorrectly, you're lose the ball.
The presentation itself is good, but nothing truly stands out. It's too bad Visual Concepts removed 720p support, so if you have a HDTV, you won't get the impressive visuals in last year's version. The arenas look decent, but you can't help notice that the cheerleaders are recycled in each arena, and while having the team mascots on the baseline is a nice touch, they don't do anything else. In addition to the ten players on the court, a full team of three referees runs up and down the court, adding to the realism. Bob Fitzgerald and Bill Walton provide the audio commentary, but it's nothing outstanding. One shortcoming of the game is its seemingly limited number of canned animations when doing layups and dunks, and you may get tired of watching your players do the same up and under moves throughout the game. One thing that caught my eye though, was Jason Kidd blowing kisses while taking free throws, as he does in real life.
Keeping with the trend in sports games, completing predefined in game tasks grants you unlockables, which include special courts, new teams, and bobbleheads of NBA players. Unlike the last game, retro uniforms are available off the bat, and don't need to be unlocked.
Unfortunately, NBA 2K5 has its share of gameplay flaws, and interestingly, these are the same problems present in NBA Live 2005. In both games, the CPU opponents and your CPU controlled teammates have horrible AI, and never seem to be aware of the situation. During an odd man fast break, instead of cutting to the basket, your CPU teammates will run away from it, ruining any chance you may have of a layup. When passing, passes don't always go to the intended player even if you move the thumbstick in their direction, and frequently passes to open players are lobbed in instead of directed, ruining any chance you may have of an uncontested shot. Another problem is that sometimes players aren't interested in rebounding or going after a loose ball. The CPU end game AI is also flawed, as during the end of close games, the other team will continue to intentionally foul you, even after you've made a few free throws to seal the deal, or if the game becomes tied. The CPU also doesn't seem to play with any sense of urgency either, where moving the ball up the court quickly and taking a quick shot is appropriate.
Shooting free throws is a pain, as the free throw mechanic is annoying, and I wouldn't mind seeing a overhaul of this. Another problem with NBA 2K5 (and NBA Live for the matter) is when a defender creates an invisible wall in front of your ball handler, allowing you to run in place with the ball, which looks silly. Lastly, the number of blocked shots is still pretty high, especially on dunks and layups.
What's remarkable about ESPN NBA 2K5 is the number of game modes offered. With Street and 24/7, it feels like you're getting another game in the same package. However, all this was available in last year's game as well. ESPN NBA 2K5 is a decent basketball game, but doesn't offer anything significantly new or improve on last year's game at all.