NBA Live 15 Critic Reviews

While the game isn’t perfect, it is clearly ready to take on all comers and creates a firm foundation for EA to build upon for years to come.

NBA Live 15 is an improvement from the previous year. It contains better graphics, smoother gameplay and feels like a more complete experience when compared to NBA Live 14. That said, there is still some work to be done if it hopes to compete with the NBA 2K series. It isn’t quite to the 2K level, but it’s now officially on the right path.

This year’s installment isn't the most polished basketball title or even the best hoops title in general. But it’s absolutely safe to say NBA Live has returned and will be sticking around as a contender, as long as it continues to take these positive dribbles forward.

After several years in the wilderness, NBA Live is back and it means business. While it’s not yet ready to take on its 2K rival, Live is a fun game of basketball that’s easy to pick and play.

A step forward for the classic basket EA Sports sim. Nevertheless, the game is miles away from the greatness exposed by NBA 2K15.

If you are looking to pick up an NBA game this holiday season the choice is easy but make no bones about it NBA Live is becoming a contender. Let’s just see what they do next year.

NBA Live 15 could have been another basketball game, but the fact that we have other references make it another failure in EA's attempt on a sport they're not good at. The same signs of identity in it's modes, however, it also inherits the same symptoms that have burdened the saga for years. Ignite engine has saved it's visuals, offering nice graphics that try to hide an unbalanced gameplay.

EA makes a lot of progress with it's NBA Live franchise. A tad late for this year though, as the competition is still miles ahead.

A solid game that can’t hold a candle to NBA 2K15.

At least it no longer plays or looks like an experiment gone wrong.

Thankfully NBA Live 15 is an improvement over the diabolical Live 14 but that doesn’t mean it’s perfect – in fact, it’s far from it. Scoring jump shots is still overly difficult, your team AI isn’t up to muster and tall players feel slightly overpowered. However, the pick and roll functionality combined with the freestyle passing can result in some great plays that, for the first time in years, make NBA Live fun to play.

NBA LIVE 15 offers an arcade approach to the basketball game, but despite some nice graphics, it is still a quite average game that hasn't enough to offer to keep basketball fans hooked up. Better than the previous one, but EA Vancouver has still some work to do.

NBA Live 15 is better than NBA Live 14: the gameplay has definitely been improved but it still suffers from clumsy controls and stiff animations. A few good changes and some additional game modes can’t make a good videogame.

It's still a solid Nowitzki's wingspan away from being anything as good as 2K's series, but NBA Live 15 might actually be the most a sports game has ever improved from one year to the next.

Strives for, and achieves, nothing more than competence.

NBA Live 15 may not be ready to stand shoulder to shoulder with its competition, but with much improved presentation and mechanics the series is trending in the right direction. The remaining gameplay issues and lack of mode depth, however, makes it tough to recommend this particular version.

While it’s a big improvement over last year and a clear step in the right direction, NBA Live 15 forgets that basketball is a team sport. Dunks are overpowered, rendering ball movement and teamwork pointless. Hopefully further refinement can produce a great basketball game in the future, but for 2015, NBA Live’s advances are still overshadowed by flawed fundamentals.

Although NBA Live 15 looks significantly better than NBA Live 14 at a glance, it still suffers from clumsy controls and stiff animations. A few nice changes and additional game modes can’t make up for poor gameplay, but there are some great ideas here that just don’t get a chance to shine.

This is not enough, EA. Although you’ll notice significant improvements over last years’ version, compared to 2Ks slam dunks this is conservative low level college basketball.

It’s a shame, but EA disappoints with NBA Live 15. There’s a lot of modes and it looks nice, yes, but other than that, this is a very disappointing experience, with weak gameplay and clumsy game design.