Narrative storyline modes have been a popular addition to sports video games over the last decade, with them providing players with a story-based experience common in many other genres within the confines of their chosen sport. This year in NBA 2K26, the narrative mode comes in the form of Out of Bounds, which places you in control of main character MP as he begins his professional basketball career.
Over the course of the narrative, you will make selections for MP’s career and play out games, unlocking new story elements as you go. Here’s what to expect when you get started on your own Out of Bounds Career.
A Semi-Branching Narrative
While sports game narrative modes sometimes receive criticism for the lack of impact on the story you have as a player, Out of Bounds looks to add some variety to the game. Although you’re still not dropping into the basketball equivalent of Skyrim, free to take your character wherever you want in the basketball world and cause all kinds of chaos within the narrative, the game does offer a few points of choice early in your development. The choices you make during the formative portion of MP’s career will impact how successfully it goes to allowing you to guide him to as strong a start as possible.
Make Your Name In The Club League
The first opportunity you get to put MP onto the court is also the first time you interact with the semi-branching approach to the mode. When starting, you will join a club league team to help MP get his name on the map. When doing so, you are presented with two options to pick from.
When selecting your team, the key consideration to keep in mind is the type of player you are playing as in MP, and finding the team that better allows you to showcase your talents and utilize the skills you already have. Are you a bucket-getter who just needs a guard to feed them, or do you want to plug in as a cog on a team playing cohesive ball? A better fit with your club team will allow for better performances and better development in MP’s career.
Travel Overseas To Show Your Talent
With your club time behind you, your player now approaches the second key fork in the road for his development, with the decision to move to Europe to try his hand at Euro ball. On a gameplay front, this is a chance to put your pro into action in a different setting from the NBA play that will dominate the majority of your career play, making it a fun way to get things started.
From a development and gameplay perspective, you are again faced with a choice about what type of situation you want your version of MP to be thrust into. Your first option is to try your hand at the French league, where you will suit up in a competition with a higher proportion of young prospects like MP. This allows you the chance to show out against players at a similar point in their career to stake your claim as the leading prospect in the sport that any team should rush to draft.
Alternatively, you can opt to go play your ball in Spain. The Spanish league portion features a league with more established pros in it. Rather than showing out against your competition, it’s an opportunity for your MP to show that he is already prepared to throw down against seasoned professionals and that he can hit the ground running once drafted into the NBA.
Team Workouts Let You Control Your Own Destiny
For many players, the draft is a fun piece of variance in their career, allowing them to end up on a team they might not otherwise ever play with and experience the NBA through their perspective. If that’s not for you, however, the career mode does offer an opportunity to shape MP’s destiny to better match your desires.
As the draft approaches, you can see where things are trending for MP and what teams are interested in acquiring his services. If you want to leave things up to fate and let one of those teams grab you as the balls fall, you can, or you can schedule a workout with your preferred landing destination. If you succeed at the workout for your chosen team, you can ensure they select you in the upcoming draft and that your MP will be playing in the jersey and alongside the teammates you prefer.
Out Of Bounds Documentary Provides 8 Years Of Content
Within the world of MP’s career, he is serving as the star of a docuseries following his journey, and each season, you will be given two opportunities to pick a storyline to follow for the first and second half of the year, respectively. This dictates the off-the-court content you see during that phase of your season, creating a developing narrative as you play through your season.
In total, the mode comes with 16 different storylines you can follow, so players looking to run their career on for many seasons will have the ability to complete 8 full seasons of play before having experienced all the different Out Of Bound contents available.
Unique Storyline For Rookie Year Playoff Runs
In addition to these 16 storylines, you can explore during your time with MP, you also have the potential to unlock a unique story in your rookie season. The mode features a special storyline that only plays out if you make a postseason run as a rookie, so make sure you’re getting good results from the jump to see it all.
While any new mode requires time in players’ hands to see how well it lives up to the promises and explanations on offer, there are a lot of encouraging signs to be excited about when it comes to Out of Bounds. Story modes aren’t everyone’s cup of tea when it comes to their sporting games, but if you’re the type of gamer who likes a little bit of role-playing crossover in your sports titles, then you can get a bit excited about what Out of Bounds may have to offer you and your tastes.
