gem1's Full Review: NBA Inside Drive 2000 for Windows
Let me tell you first, before I get into this review, that I have been very disappointed by every basketball game released to date. Sure, many of them are tremendous fun with another player, but I'm the kind of guy that likes to play seasons alone, and play for the championship against the computer. Each and every basketball game that has ever come out, including the too-hyped NBA Live series from EA, has been a huge failure for one reason: horrendous AI that was too easy to beat even on the hardest of difficulty settings up until NBA Live 2000.
So you see, when NBA Drive 2000 was first booted on my computer, I was a bit cautious of the potential. I really saw no hope that the developer, High Voltage Software (the game is published by Microsoft) could put together anything than what I've seen in the past: a good-looking arcade representation of basketball with no real challenge to the gameplay. I was wrong. NBA Drive 2000 is a winner, and finally I have my basketball game. NBA Drive allows you to play a single game, season, playoffs and practice. The menus are all laid out extremely well, and look fantastic. They took a page out of EA's book by creating a front-end that is pleasant to look at and extremely user-friendly. It's very easy to navigate the menus, and you'll be started in no time.
This game does keep stats throughout the season, and they seem to be realistic, with players performing up to their potential in the season. You can also trade players, but sadly no create-a-player option is given, so I was sadly unable to resurrect the career of MJ. The practice mode allows you to get used to the controls and see what they are all about. You may need to do this, because Drive has a bit more complex controls than the average basketball game.
The graphics and audio in Drive are simply top-notch. They may not blow you away, but they are, for the most part, right-on. The different arenas look fantastic, as does the crowd, floor, basketball hoops, and scoreboards. They took the time and effort to make this game look realistic. The players are also very representative of their real-life counterparts, and you will recognize many of them by sheer size. Shaq is a beast, while some of the other players are scrawny (Bradley comes to mind here). The game runs smoothly even when all the graphics are turned up high, but if you have a slower computer, there are many customizable options that will increase performance. The only problem I have is that the motion-capture was done using Ray Allen, and all the players move shoot and dunk like him. There are certain players in the league that just do NOT go to the hole the way Allen does, ok? I can forgive this from the game simply because the rest of it is done so well, but next year this has to change, if there is another update ever released.
The sounds are nice, maybe not quite in the Live series league just yet, but very good nonetheless. The crowds sound realistic, rising and falling in intensity to the action going on, and the commentary by Kevin Calabro and Marques Johnson is of good quality, humorous, and follows the action well (I still turned them off after a few games though).
Alas, we come to gameplay. Here is where Drive shines. Finally, there is a basketball game that demands more of the player than just going to the hole and dunking the ball every time you go down the court. Imagine my surprise when I played my first game, totally primed and ready to teach the computer a lesson or two, and got SMACKED with a really smart, stingy defense. They stole the ball from me on my first errant pass, took the ball down the court, posted me up, and scored easily against my scrambling defense. As the game went on, I soon found myself down by more than 15 points, and had to put my rally cap on to even keep the game close. I was only playing on the medium difficulty level too. Now, while playing on the hardest level and enjoying a season, I will say that the AI in Drive is among the best in any sports game I've played. The computer actually plays defense and goes after the throat on offense. It takes no prisoners. No longer can you take your best athlete, pound on the turbo button, and fly by dumb-founded defenders for the spectacular dunk. There are spectacular dunks, but you have to work for them, just like in the NBA. I love this game.
There is a host of offensive sets to choose from, you can call plays on-the-go, call for a screen, and play an excellent post game. The computer plays smartly, taking it's time down the court, protecting the ball, and doing its absolute best to free up a man for an open shot. That's another thing too. if you are guarded closely, and don't even attempt to shake your man, you will most likely miss the shot. This game makes you work for your points. Stopping the computer repeatedly is nothing easy, and actually something you become proud in. Finally, the computer is an ample opponent.
The one drawback is that rebounding just doesn't seem right. For some reason my players don't rebound as much as they should, even when you have some great rebounders. The computer constantly beats you to the ball. Still, there are things to be desired from Drive 2000 that will surely put some people off. There aren't hundreds of options available like the NBA Live series. There is no ability to create-a-team, customize gameplay, create-a-player, 3-point shoot-out, etc. Then again, the Live series has been around for a while and these options are one of Live's selling points, and here is NBA Drive 2000, in its first season, already beating EA in the gameplay department. I'm sure Drive will have lots more options and even better gameplay next year.
Simply put, NBA Drive is an excellent game of basketball. It's actual made me a believer that a challenging and accurate basketball game is possible, because Drive is an example. For the price tag (under 20 bucks) it is simply a must-buy for anyone that likes hoops. It's fun, easy to get into, but still has enough under the hood to keep you coming back for more.
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