EA Sports hasn’t had much success with its basketball video game in recent years. NBA 2K has been dominant and it’s been selling millions of copies, while NBA Live struggled to get back on its feet. However, this could change soon as the demo version of NBA Live 19 looks very promising.
The demo was released on August 24 and it is currently available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Surprisingly, the demo allows players to try out many different modes, including drills, The One, as well as NBA and WNBA games.
Once again, players can play on the streets or in the league in The One mode. Players can play solo, but they can also match up against other players or even play co-op online modes. NBA Live 19 demo allows gamers to upgrade their custom players to level 20 with XP currency, while the full game will have 79 more levels.
The Good
It appears that EA Sports has worked hard to turn NBA Live 19 into a decent game. Player movement has improved, animations are much better than in NBA Live 18, and the gameplay feels smooth and fluid. Additionally, playing defense feels better and more responsive in this year’s edition of the game.
Player models and face scans have been improved too. While players still don’t look 100% natural, it is still a huge step forward from NBA Live 18.
The Bad
The video game has its negative sides as well, and we are hoping that EA Sports will fix some of these issues before the full release of the game comes out. Commentary in games is still not good, but it’s slightly better than before. While CPU has improved, a lot of plays are bad or simply broken.
It appears that the game will once again deal with the dunk fest problem. In NBA Live 18, nearly every single game included too many dunks, making the game feel unnatural and sometimes too easy. Dunking on defenders did not feel satisfying, simply because it was easy to perform, and this year’s release is dealing with the same problem. This is one thing EA can change before the official release of the game, so we are hoping that the frequency of dunks will be reduced.
NBA Live 19 will be released on September 7, and it could be a serious competitor to NBA 2K19. Despite its flaws, the demo version is quite impressive, which is why many gamers are hopeful that EA Sports can bring NBA Live its old glory.