With the release of NBA 2K21 on the latest generation of consoles, we’re witnessing something truly remarkable, with a true generational leap in visual fidelity across the board. To demonstrate this, we played the game primarily on the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 Pro, but we also spent some time with both of the Xbox Series consoles.

Delivering such a significant increase in quality is, in my opinion, a significant accomplishment. While it may not appear this way on the surface, sports games are – from what I can tell – one of the more difficult genres to work on. Truncated development schedules necessitate annual entries in each series, resulting in less time between each release. More than that, these games must match up to a properly’real’ experience, which is frequently delivered through a television-like presentation. A game like NBA 2K21 must deal with real people in real places performing complex, interlocking actions in order to be successful. If you’re off by even a hair, you’re on your way to the uncanny valley.

So what exactly is it that makes this so difficult? Well, capturing the arenas and player likenesses is a huge part of the equation, but it is the motion that makes this so difficult. Realistic animation, momentum, and collision of each player on the court is a significant challenge. Visual Concepts, whose involvement with this franchise dates all the way back to the Dreamcast era, is putting in some excellent work on this title. While it’s easy to pick out the flaws in the visuals, if you just let the game wash over you, it starts to look surprisingly authentic in action. When everything is firing on all cylinders, it really does look like basketball.

NBA 2K21 features a diverse roster of players, ranging from current NBA players to NBA legends from the past. The overall quality of each player’s rendering is of a high caliber. The models themselves are intricately detailed, with realistic skin shading, sweat, and facial expressions. Players look around the court and react to plays in real time. It’s not perfect, as there is a hint of the ‘dead eyes’ effect, but it’s still quite good. As with previous generations, NBA 2K21 MT employs a cloth simulation for uniforms as well – as you move around the court, the cloth flows and reacts realistically.

Speaking of refinement, the upgraded version of 2K21 receives some significant enhancements to the user experience as well.

For starters, the entire user interface has been completely redesigned, and it is completely unique to the next-generation version. Since it is possible to rapidly load in new character models, the speed of the storage allows for a more dynamic team selection screen to be displayed. It’s a significant upgrade, made even better by significant improvements in loading times, which effectively eliminate all loading screens.

While there is still much more to learn about NBA 2K21 MT, I believe this is a good introduction to what you can expect from the new version of the game. The only question now is how this title will be delivered across all of the next-generation systems. The good news is that they’re virtually identical in terms of appearance. Both the PS5 and the Series X are capable of delivering a full native 4K presentation – it appears extremely sharp on both systems, and all visuals appear to be the same on both. By the way, the PS4 Pro version, which I used for last-gen testing, appears to run at native 4K resolution as well, albeit with reduced visual fidelity. The Series S version, as expected, is the only one that differs from the rest. This one, on the other hand, is capable of native 1080p resolution. You get all of the same next-gen visuals as its bigger brother, but at a lower resolution.

Performance is also nearly identical across all platforms: all versions use a mixed frame rate, with gameplay running at 60 frames per second and replays and interstitial scenes updating at 30 frames per second. At these settings, the PlayStation 5 and Series S versions of the game essentially operate flawlessly, while the Xbox Series X version, for some reason, occasionally experiences single frame drops. With one exception, everything is fairly straightforward: the parametric camera option runs at a constant 60 frames per second on the PlayStation 5, but drops frames on the Series consoles. Fortunately, this can be easily avoided by switching to a different camera angle (and the parametric viewpoint isn’t actually that useful for gameplay). It’s really just a matter of academics, but the difference is there, and PS5 ultimately has the upper hand in this situation.

I’d say that NBA 2K21 is a really good release for all consoles, and it’s a lot more impressive than I anticipated. While the limitations of the animation are still visible at times, this is the most fluid and realistic-looking basketball game I’ve ever seen. Visual Concepts has set a high standard for visual quality in this instance, and this is only the beginning, to be honest. It’s also encouraging to see that this version is completely distinct from the previous generation, indicating that they’re starting from scratch with this one. I expect things to continue to improve over time, and I’ll be interested to see how other companies, such as EA Sports, handle the transition. FIFA 21 has recently received its own next-gen upgrade (featuring Frostbite’s much-lauded hair physics, no less), and we’ll be taking a look at that in the near future.