Graphically, EA Sport's NBA Live 2001 is smooth and detailed. Off the players to arenas, everything is lifelike. However, NBA Live is not the jaw dropper that NBA 2K was. The players, although very nicely detailed, lack the distinguishing characteristics, which NBA 2K has. The likes of players'hairstyles and tattoos, free throw mannerisms…things that went beyond, and made the players real. Also, unlike NBA 2K, the players don't show any emotions (smiling or looking angry when dunking, bench players reacting to the state of the sport), which takes out of the games atmosphere. The crowds, once again, as with all EA Sport's games thus far, are flat. What's worse is that they're not very lively, which hurts the game, taking away from home/away atmosphere. Last, your camera angles, specially the default, side view is certainly not too friendly. It's harder to distinguish the depth/position this players located on the opposite baseline. This can be fixed by changing to the more playable NBA 2K camera style, however.
Now, let's see what is the PS2 has been doing with it's superior sound f/x. Right away from the bat…well you see nothing new. Right at the end, you find nothing new. It's seems and indeed feels as though EA has been doing absolutely nothing to use the PS2 more powerful hardware with respect to sound f/x. The commentary totally is very much a similar exact replica for their predecessor, NBA 2000. The crowds are dead, hardly ever do they chant, and whenever they will, it's unlike NBA 2K, from reacting to game situations.
The sole thing that NBA 2K lacked, in comparison to the EA Sport's NBA Live series to date, was if it stumbled on options. This still holds true. NBA Live is filled with playoff, season and options…exhibition 3 pt. Shootout, 1-on-1 with Michael Jordan, Practice, NBA Draft…Unfortunately for PS2, and particularly the various die hard sports fans which stayed loyal to Sony and didn't acquire a Dreamcast, EA's NBA Live 2001 falls short in comparison to the NBA 2K series for all elements of game play.
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First, let's get started with A.I. I'm trying to be as nice as possible, but only stupid, retarded, and dimwitted come to mind. Maybe comatose or dead would be a better representation, because the CPU players are totally unreactive to any game situations. In lowest difficulty, a faster player can blow right beyond the slower defender and dunk or lay-up without having any one of the defenders inside paint react. The defenders don't even react late. They simply remain still, like mannequins, only replying to their counterpart on a opposing team. As you increase the difficulty, the only thing that happens, is the CPU players become faster and quicker, and they seem to double and triple team the ball handler all the time. Now, you can't just zoom past them, forcing consumers to pass in to the 2 or 3 wide-open players. From this situation, it's seems easy and logical to pass to the open players for an easy basket, but it seems that the players move faster then the ball. 2 or 3 defenders enclose the player even before he receives the pass, as you pass to the open player. As far as offense goes, as difficulty increases, the CPU shooting % raises greatly. Now, this is not because they play better, or smarter. They just shoot a greater percentage. Whether they're covered or wide open, it truly doesn't matter, they simply make more baskets. This actually also is true of Free Throws…when you have Shaq going 8-8 at risk, you no doubt know something isn't right. Additionally, you miss more shots, again, whether open or covered doesn't matter. Repeatedly I have missed fast break lay-ups and dunks, not once in a while, but often 3 times a game. This is not just stupid, but totally hurts this game, taking away looking at the realism (whatever little this could have).
Next, let's find out more about playing the overall game itself. First, all players have the same special cross over move, but so did the 1st NBA 2K. Also, like NBA 2K, you might have some control, calling picks, double teams, ally hoops, etc. You can even have the easy 1-button directional passing option. Alternatively, pass to a specific player. The only problem with passing to a specific player is that, unlike NBA 2K, the players specific button passing is not static, always changing from X to O to Square…First, this makes it harder to use that option, b/c you have to look to see what button a specific player is first, before you make that pass. Secondly, and more importantly, it will require out of the flow of the game. Another lacking aspect of the game is the post-up move, or lack there of. You can't back down the defender, or do any special move like a hook, although in NBA Live you can post up. All you should do is turn your back, then a turn around shot, that may be pretty weak, and rather useless option. Last, and perhaps the worst component of game play, the fast break dunk/lay-up. For those unknown reason, EA Sport's has it so that you can't use turbo to perform up and perform a dunk. That is, you can use the turbo to run to, but have to release turbo, before attempting a dunk. Maybe they didn't realize this, but if anyone played the game, they would realize that once again, the flow of the game would stop.
I couldn't believe my eyes, as i saw the following flaw contained in the game. In regards to Free Throws, apparently the every time you foul a player, the 3 players nearest to the basket are the type placed on the line to rebound. This might seem funny, but when you repeatedly have Damon Stoudamire standing where a Center should be, next to Shaq or David Robinson, you know your in trouble. If you stand right outside the paint, the rebounding in general is a farce…you seem to have the best chance of rebounding. Apparently using your players box out, it only helps the players boxed outside the paint to rebound.
Just because I got tired of wasting my time playing this sorry excuse for a basketball game, there are probably a lot more things wrong with the game that I haven't mentioned or realized yet. For all hard-core sports fan, this can't be also referred to as a Sim. I know that EA, just like everybody else has been hurting from the stock market, but I can't believe they would hurt their reputation and name but releasing something like this. If he had played NBA Live 2001, he would probably have refused to be associated with such a joke, in wrapping up, Michael Jordan's presence can't even help this game, and.
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