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NBA plus gacha is a deadly combo in NBA Infinite
7K View2023-07-21
I'm far from the biggest sports fan, but if there's one game I've always enjoyed watching (and playing) above any others, it's basketball. So combining my appreciation for that sport with my weakness for gacha games? Well, that's awfully scary.
NBA Infinite is just such a combination, and it comes from the gacha experts at Level Infinite, the studio behind other addictive—some might say manipulative!—mobile games like Tower of Fantasy and Undawn. And while it's not a perfect game, even in its early closed beta form, I can already see how it could pull players like me in to the gacha stuff hard.
Though it has the NBA license and uses real players, the core of NBA Infinite is not proper NBA games; instead it focuses on three-versus-three pick-up matches, where each athlete is controlled by a real player. With a restriction on picking the same characters as other players, there's almost a MOBA-esque quality to how matchmaking plays out. And as in a MOBA, being teamed up with less skilled players can be deeply frustrating—as can being the weak link on your team.
That said, I enjoy the three-on-three setup quite a bit. After I leveled up for a bit, I also unlocked Dynasty mode, which pits players in more traditional five-on-five matches, with one player controlling every athlete on their team. This more closely mimics the console basketball video game experience, but it's much less satisfying from what I played.
Part of the reason that Dynasty mode didn't click as well for me is that I feel like NBA Infinite's controls just aren't up to the complexity of a "full" console NBA game experience. Hitting touchscreen buttons to take a shot, attempt a steal, or do a fancy crossover felt mushy and inconsistent. That could be frustrating in three-on-three games, but at least I only had to worry about my chosen character. Add in the need to swap between players on court and the difficulty the camera had keeping up with those switches, and I found Dynasty to be more trouble than it was worth.
That said, the game didn't force me into that traditional gameplay. It seems like focusing on three-on-three games will be just fine, and so far, at least, NBA Infinite doles out free packs with new players like crazy. Any game like this is inevitably going to have some pay-to-win issues, especially since it's focused on competitive play, but if you're willing to enjoy it more casually, I think it's worth checking out.
Assuming Level Infinite takes the proper time to gather feedback from this closed beta, I'm hopeful they'll improve on the control issues and make sure that the gacha elements don't bring down what could be a very fun mobile take on basketball. If they can pull that off, NBA Infinite could be a killer on-the-go alternative to the NBA 2Ks of the world.
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View desktop siteTapTap looks better
on the app 
thiis game don't opened ,😡
2023-11-28