Recent reviews by GuidoAnchovies

Off of only a few matches here's my first impressions:

The game plays most similarly to LoL. There are no turning restrictions like in DotA, and poking feels quick and snappy.
Similar to LoL's summoner skills, this game has "stolen skills", which seem to have upgrades achieved by mastering the characters that the skills come from. There are equivalents for a lot of the LoL skills, and even some more. Last hitting grants the most gold, but a collectable will be dropped if the last hit is delivered by a minion or turret. It will be worth about %75 or so, must be walked over, and can be destroyed by an enemy champion if they walk over it first. It seems like a good and fair way to implement denying creeps.

Items are handled a bit differently than LoL, seeming a lot more like the direct upgrade system found in Smite. First, there are no wards. Wards are a stolen skill that work similarly to sight stones in LoL (holding charges). Potions are also not consumables, but an upgradable shop item that holds charges like crystaline flask. I haven't played enough to really get in depth for how all the items feel, but the focus on active items is probably even less than what is in LoL (probably more like Smite). Probably one of the most unique features of Infinite Crisis is that all allied turrets count as stores, so it isn't necessary to leave lane in order to buy. It seems like a good, friendly alternative to the courier in DotA. In a game of good players, the courier should never die anyways, so why bother with the headache?

There seems to be a pretty good mix of champions, and I haven't played any that seem like a direct copy of the characters from other games. I'm not a big fan of DC Comics, but the characters represented actually seem pretty cool. Since the story is all about a rift opening between all the parallel universes, there are multiple champions of the same character (such as Batman, Gaslight Batman, Nightmare Batman, etc.) with different skills, stats, and roles.

The main PvP mode available right now is a pentagon-shaped dual lane, with a large jungle in the middle. Due to the urban design of the maps, there are no bushes. Instead, there are clearly marked "stealth areas" that have the exact same functionality. Normal jungle creeps give gold and the boss of the camp drops a hp/mp item pickup to heal. Jungle camps are made up of varying strength, along with one "dragon" style camp and one "baron" style objective boss. Standard creep waves are the usual melee, ranged, and ocassional cannon minion (along with "elite versions" granted for completing objectives).

Early into the game (five minutes or so), a control point will open up on each side of the map's jungle. These do not need to be channeled, but staying on these points for about fifteen seconds will activate (and lock for a time) the portal for your team. These portals give small buffs depending on how many are owned and produce extra elite creeps for your lane. There is also a baron equivalent that appears in the center of the map during late game (with plenty of warnings beforehand). This enemy doesn't require the same firepower needed to kill LoL's baron, but is maybe similar to the damage and health of the dragon in that game. After this enemy is killed, it drops an item that is used to select a point on the map to beam an airstrike. There is a countdown of about one minute or so, and killing the player that is holding the trigger stops it (maybe, I haven't seen the holding player die ever).

The champion shop seems to be standard for the genre. The in-game currency is roughly equivalent to LoL regarding rewards per game. Unlocks are mostly around the 4.5-6.5k mark right now, and skins can only be purchased with cash shop money (some of which are pretty good I must say). One thing that this game seems to be doing right is that along with the weekly rotation of free champions, completing the tutorial missions will unlock up to five champions for free before players get into real PvP matches. There are also metagame quests with currency and champion rewards. These range from "Play seven games to unlock Batman", "Play ten times in one week for currency", and "reach level 30 for currency and maybe cash shop money". I like how Infinite Crisis is approaching rewards at the moment.

Overall, this game seems like it's worth trying out for a while. The champs have interesting and fairly unique skillsets, I haven't run into anything particularly overpowered, and the items don't seem to be as important to memorize for their unique effects like in other mobas. This game has a lot more of a "casual" feel to it when compared to other mobas, and I don't expect this game to ever become an eSports phenomenon. However, it is a lot of fun and feels a bit faster paced than the other major mobas. If you're looking for something to waste some time with, this seems like an okay distraction.

I put a couple hundred hours into 2K13 and 2K14 (almost exclusively in career mode) on PC, and here's what I've noticed:

+Finally a modern version on PC, with all of the online modes present in the other versions

-Modern version = modern specs required: Don't expect to get good performance out of a computer that isn't a dedicated gaming machine.

-Sparse online community: Taking your career mode player online makes you choose one of three factions which divide up the possible people you will be able to play against. I rarely see anyone playing online in the faction that I chose.


There are some definite changes to the feel of the game. Most of this is directly against A.I. opponents, since I never bothered to play much multiplayer in any games in the series.

Defense:
In previous games, it was extremely easy to glue yourself to the ball handler with LT, then easily sidestep into any attempts to drive to the basket. All that was necesssary is that you stop holding your hands up to instantly stop them in their tracks. The only way that the offense usually had a chance was to do a fadeaway jumper or give the ball away for an assist. Getting around screens was also insanely easy.
In NBA2K15, it seems that more attention is put on positioning. opponents aren't able to run directly through you quite so much, so team defense is a lot more playable. To counter this, guarding an opponent 1v1 seems to be how it should; if they catch you with your hands up from mid range, they usually won't have a problem sprinting around you. If you don't have your hands up, you have serious weight without being forced into the canned animations that always played during contact in 2K14. It seems like defense has gotten a bit more challenging, but is more interesting to play and better imitates real basketball.
Your teammates also seem to let you get rebounds a lot more. Even with a moderate skill level in rebounding, the way the new defense works I ended up getting 10 in a game farily early on in my career. I hated how impossible it was to reliably get rebounds in the previous games.
Full court pressing your opponent every game, every play also seems to be gone, as the game doesn't give you control of your character until after you've already gotten near where you should be. Cheesing the AI with pass interceptions due to needing to pass the ball to the originally intended receiver is no longer an option.

Offense:
With defense having more weight, it isn't as simple as just driving to the basket, spinning, pump fake, free layup, repeat. Teammates seem to have a LOT better awareness of when a lane to drive to the basket is open, so it pays to actually spread the floor and pass the ball. Collapsing the defense and then passing the ball out to an open teammate or bounce passing the ball into someone inside the paint seems to have a much larger role this year.
The new jumpshot meter is also extremely helpful. There are plenty of players with weird shots that have immediate or delayed shots that can create extremely early or late missed shots. At least this year I finally know how to time Noah's weird looking free throw.

Career mode:
I'm pretty happy with the changes to the flow of the game, and the career mode is MUCH improved over the PC version last year, which devolves into pointless post-game discussions after every game. There weren't really any exciting moments in 2K14 on PC, but I put time in because I enjoyed the stat-building.
2K14 on modern consoles had a rivalry-based career mode, that followed the story of your created player (absent in PC). 2K15 on PC actually has story mode elements that keep the game fairly interesting as well. It basically devolves into a few brand choices and how often you want to be a jerk to various people, but it's a welcome distraction.
Stat allocation has been streamlined into simple categories that raise a lot of general stats instead of each individually. This is probably a better change, as it was too easy in previous years to just build one or two stats that make you unstoppable early in your career.

The game is good, it's probably worth the extra $30 you have to pay this year to get a modern version. Shame the online is barren.