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If you've bought a sports game in recent years, you'll probably find that there aren't many surprises in recent sports games. To put it mildly, this type has reached a bottleneck, and even a new generation of consoles has not brought them back to life.
Recent sports masterpieces have not done much well on Metacritic. Madden Football 22 scored a poor 60 points, while NHL 22, which claimed to make a major change in tactics, had only a disappointing 74 points. The latest work of the sports game's hegemonic IP "NBA 2K" "NBA 2K22" scored a measly 76 points, making it the lowest score in the series in recent years. "FIFA 22" and "Major League Baseball 21" scored 78 points, which is considered to be a short general, but neither series can break the 80-point mark, which is very telling.
Sports games have been languishing for some time, and I'm bored with the slightly altered models and bugs that are reproduced every year, as if I'm seeing my favorite team going downhill. If the team you support keeps losing, how long can you hold out? Hopefully next season will be more realistic.
The problem is that putting hope into next season has come up too many times, and not just one or two series, the entire sports gaming world has entered this dilemma.
In the last console generation, sports games have seen a lot of innovation, and the graphics and gameplay have become more and more realistic. Many developers have also made breakthroughs in expanding the player base, taking into account various types of players through various models such as excellent online competition and team management. On top of that, developers are constantly looking for interesting new ways to attract sports fans.
Through NBA 2K's "Brilliant Career" mode, Visual Concepts proves that sports games can also have wonderful narratives, making career mode a must-play part for players, and players can experience the ups and downs of the movie through the eyes of original players.
This opened a new door for other sports games, and later the FIFA series added "Alex Hunter's Football Journey", and NHL's "Be A Pro" became a mode in which players choose to influence the direction. The success of the brilliant career mode even allowed Visual Concepts to add story lines in NBA 2K18 and NBA 2K19, and while the results were mixed, at least developers were trying new things, taking risks and learning from each other.
Now, sports games all choose a conservative strategy, relying on some quality upgrades and new features to support the scene, and no series is trying to really innovate. Even with some attempts, the sincerity of the developer is not seen. For example, NHL 22 follows the madden series by adding the "X-Factors" skill, intending to add new ideas to the gameplay. The result? These X-Factors offer neither more incentives nor make the gameplay more fun, they are completely dispensable, and apart from obvious flaws, the core gameplay has not changed significantly.
What is even more irritating is that many developers have not been seriously updated over the years. I can't remember the last time the team business model of NBA 2K, NHL, and FIFA changed significantly. The team's business model of "Madden" has changed somewhat this year, but it still has not made it a model that cannot be missed.
To make matters worse, a lot of the bad content (or something that needs a lot of improvement) has remained the same. For example, the ridiculous lines and over-OP poke blocking in the "Be A Pro" mode of "NHL", as well as the countless bugs and anti-human UI in "Madden".
The "New Year" nature of sports games gives developers no time to make drastic changes, but they bring improvements to the basic parts of the game every year. Sports games, regardless of the IP, are getting smoother and smoother, and I'm not surprised by that. Individual models can get more attention, and adding some meaningful additions is also expected by me.
When gameplay begins to weaken, developers will spend money on new countermeasures, such as game balance adjustments or new systems to add some spice to gameplay, such as the ice skating system redone in NHL 19. But overall, many IPs have not changed for too long. The "ancestral code" of Madden has been used for an unknown number of years, and the same bugs are being fixed every year, and even if the developers want to add new things, they have to fix the bugs first.
Sports games seem to have reached a crossroads in history, and developers must choose their direction and decide their own position in this generation. I'm glad I didn't have to make this decision, because there are millions of reasons that prompt players to buy a game, and just ask a few players their favorite patterns and reasons, and you'll get a bunch of very different answers.
But one thing will never change: these games require high replayability, enough for players to play for an entire year. As a result, many developers have a blue eye for online models that can be constantly updated, but even the rewards for online models are not much better, and in worse cases, they will give a sense of uniformity.
Limited resources put developers in a dilemma: should they prioritize satisfying their core fans or should they use casual mode to attract new players (such as Volta for FIFA, The Yard for Madden, Pro-AM for NHL). No matter what the developer chooses, someone will always be left out in the cold, and the trend in recent years has been that players who prefer single-player mode have become unappreciated customers. We must admit that the stand-alone model does not bring additional income.
In this year's sports game, NBA 2K22 is probably the one that has changed the most, combining the brilliant career mode with the "city of basketball". In the lively online world of Basketball City, players can compete with others through wildball or leagues, or they can take a tour of the scenery. While in-app purchases are too intrusive and the basketball city is too empty to explore, I can feel its potential.
Not long ago, 2K unusually abandoned the release of a new WWE 2K game in the fall in order to improve the game. While the quality of the series is rather erratic, the innovation of the various modes and the emphasis on core players have always been something I really appreciate.
The series' "2K Showcase" mode can reenact a classic game in history, the equivalent of a playable documentary; MyFaction allows you to build a team that is no less than the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse"; and "WWE 2K22" will also transform "Brilliant Career" into "MyRise" mode, where players can lead a newcomer to WWE into a wrestling star in an adventure full of choices.
To be fair, covid-19 has undoubtedly brought more challenges to sports games over the past two years. But many of the problems were already highlighted at the end of the previous generation, and they will not disappear for a while and a half. Changing the list of athletes every year is obviously not enough to satisfy fans. And loyal fans who are looking forward to new works but see old problems appear again and again will burn out their enthusiasm sooner or later.
What developers need is the determination not to be afraid to reinvent themselves, and perhaps more time to revisit their games. Sports are full of innovation and passion, but that experience doesn't translate into games. Why? Because developers have been following the same tactical manual. They are afraid of failure and do not want to risk miracles, but I would rather see them fail because they try new things than see the "New Year goods" that make me more aesthetically tired.
Translated by 丨 Liu Sheng Non-Love Sword
Edited by 丨 Tony
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