NBA 2K17 is the 17^th installment of the basketball franchise loved by millions of fans. Each year the game has always added something new that the fans would either enjoy or dislike. One major feature would be how the dribble mechanics have changed. In previous games, your character would be able to spam a combination of dribble moves without the defender being able to steal the ball. Now, 2K will penalize you if a user continuously dribbles the ball his stamina bar will drain and flash red, allowing the defender to steal the ball with much ease.

Even one of the most popular modes, Mycareer has been changed. In this year’s Mycareer, the way you will build your Myplayer has been completely revamped. The 2K company added “Archetypes” which is how you will build your character. You have the “Sharpshooter” that character will be able to be a phenomenal “lights out” shooter, while he can’t be as effective driving to the hoop. “Slashers” are able to attack the basket with a higher percentage of making it, while they won’t be able to make as many shots. “Shot Creators” the title says it all, being a shot creator means you will have to use your dribbling ability to make shots, so basically it’ll be harder for you to make shots off the pass. “Lockdown Defender” you will have very high defense but have very little offensive ability. “Playmakers” are the ball handlers who set up scoring for his or her teammates.

Unlike last year games once you got a badge, you could upgrade the badge but this year, you can only upgrade badges that go with your archetype.

The up-gradable badges are for each archetype are:

• Sharpshooters: Deep-range Dead-eye, Corner specialist, Mid-Range Dead-eye, Catch and Shoot, and Limitless Range.
• Slashers: Acrobat, Tear Dropper, Relentless Finisher, Posterizer, One man fast breaks, and Lob City Finisher.
• Lockdown Defender: Defensive Stopper, Charge Card, Pick Dodger, Pick Pocket, and Chase down Artist
• Shot Creator: Ankle Breaker, Difficult Shots, Tireless Scorer, Tear Dropper, and Mid-Range Dead-eye
• Playmaker: Flashy Passer, Dimer, Ankle Breaker, Pick & Maestro, and Lob City Passer

These are all the up-gradable badges that you can unlock and upgrade based on your archetype. Mind you that you can unlock every badge to the bronze level. There are 4 levels of how you can upgrade the badge, You have bronze, silver, gold and hall of fame level.

One thing 2K is attempting to get players to do, is to start playing more Mypark which have 3 on 3’s, “21”, and 2v2’s. Basically last year you could reach a 99 overall (the highest overall) by just going to live practices. To achieve a 99 overall Myplayer you need to play park and earn attribute upgrades, which allow you to make your player better.

3 Months after playing: I give the game 7/10. The game isn’t well balanced. Myplayer’s at the park, playmakers just spam dribble moves. Defense isn’t a real thing, you try to stick defense and the defender blows right past you. Sharpshooters make very contested shots, slashers miss layups with little contact. Shot creators miss off the dribble 3’s. and other than that the rest of the game moves smoothly.