The world of sports entertainment is built on non-stop action, impressive feats of athleticism, and extreme coordination.
All these elements come together to create a wacky but intriguing show that is adored by fans all over the world.
Its gaming equivalent is no different. They are loved for their bizarre plots and extraordinary moments that aren’t possible in other sports titles.
But after difficulties in recent years, 2K are hoping that their latest edition doesn’t force them to tap out.
About
Long-time readers will already be aware of the circumstances that surrounded the release of 2K’s latest WWE games.
Previous blogs have emphasised the poor state of previous games and why 2K22 has to be a success.
WWE games usually follow an annual release schedule similar to other licensed sports games such as FIFA, NBA, and Madden.
However, developers 2K decided to take a break last year to fix technical problems that had been plaguing the franchise for years.
Their previous title, WWE 2K20, was received poorly by fans and critics due to the plethora of bugs and glitches that made matches unplayable at times.
After years of struggle, this was the final chair shot that left 2K21 down for the count.
Skipping a year was considered a necessary step in order to put the franchise back on the right path.
But this put a lot of pressure on the next game to deliver an improved experience.
In the summer of 2021, WWE2K22 was announced as the wrestling game that ‘hit different’.
WWE2K22 was announced at Wrestlemania 37 in April 2021.
Promotional material focussed on the smother and redesigned gameplay whilst gradually revealing details of new game modes.
The approach suggested that 2K were aware that the release of their newest game would be a make or break moment.
And on 11th March 2022, judgement day arrived.
But does WWE2K22 really hit different?
Gameplay
Since 2K took over development duties from THQ, WWE games have picked up a reputation for possessing poor gameplay riddled with bugs and glitches.
But bugs were not the only issue. Strict stamina and reversal mechanics slowed down matches and limited the ability to perform extravagant moves.
This left fans frustrated as it caused matches to feel repetitive and boring.
Gameplay is arguably the most improved element of this year’s game.
Mechanics and game modes have gone through changes in gimmick to offer an experience inspired by other sports titles.
But this isn’t a simple copy and paste job. Each element has been adapted to fit into the sports entertainment environment.
The most significant improvement is the removal of bugs, glitches, and limitations.
Whilst there are still a few errors present, they don’t appear in every game or break the game entirely.
As a result, matches feel a lot smoother, replicating the performances that WWE superstars compete in on Monday and Friday nights.
Controls have also had a complete overhaul to complement the more natural gameplay.
Simple inputs will feel familiar to veterans, but advanced moves have been adapted so they are easier to perform.
The new system is heavily inspired by traditional fighting games as well as combat sports games such as EA’s UFC franchise.
Traditional fighting mechanics such as combos, blocking, and dodging have been added to offer more variety to move sets.
These enhancements mean that players are more reliant on individual buttons rather than combining face buttons with analogue sticks and bumpers, making it easier for newbies.
However, the ability to chain moves together allows players to slam their opponents in style.
Removing limitations for reversals whilst adding more reversal options has made match ups more competitive by creating a contest that forces players to outthink their opponent.
Along with mechanics, game modes have been refreshed to add variety to the 2K franchise.
Universe and Showcase mode remain fairly similar to 2K20, with only a few adjustments made to the franchise mainstays.
However, every other way to play has been transformed or innovated for 2K22.
MyRise is the newest version of a player career mode that lets you take a custom male or female superstar from the performance centre to the main event of Wrestlemania.
Branching storylines and the ability to choose a male or female career has made the journey to the top more immersive than ever before.
Another feature that got many long time wrestling fans excited was the return of MyGM.
For the first time in over a decade, players can draft a roster and book their own shows to battle for supremacy against another brand and decide what’s best for business.
The match card menu in MyGM mode.
Finally, MyFaction is a brand new card collecting mode similar to NBA2K’s MyTeam and FIFA Ultimate Team.
In this new mode, players can forge a star studded faction and complete challenges to recruit new superstars to their squad.
All of these modes are very welcomed additions as they offer a great range of modes to jump in and out of.
Each mode feels refined and developed with purpose. The detailed structure found in each mode makes the feel like the extra time used to develop the modes was worth it.
However, the new modes do have a simpler nature to them when compared to the franchise mainstays.
This makes the likes of MyFaction, MyGM, and MyRise in this year’s game appear as a steppingstone for future titles.
Laying a solid foundation is always a positive, but not placing enough material on top leaves a lot to be desired for 2K22.
When compared to other sports titles, the lack of substance becomes even more apparent.
For example, 2K’s own NBA franchise arguably has the best player career mode in sports games today.
A look at the detailed city in NBA2K22 MyPlayer.
NBA MyPlayer allows you to roam around a city full of shops, courts, gyms, and people to interact with. It also possesses a lot of RPG elements such as quests accompanied by cutscenes and objectives.
The mode creates an incredibly fulfilling experience that provides players the chance to ball with freedom whilst populating the city with plenty of activity and content for players.
Hopefully 2K can transfer some of these elements into WWE MyRise in the future as it would bulk up the mode and increase the mode’s playability.
Whilst the gameplay in WWE2K22 is a big step in the right direction for the franchise, there are still a few steps to climb in order to reach the gold.
Customisation
One feature that has always been exceptional in WWE games is the character customisation and creative options.
Image is everything in sports entertainment. Walking the walk is not enough if a wrestler can’t talk the talk.
Icons such as Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, and The Undertaker are all great examples of how a gimmick change can write a wrestler into the history books.
Because of this, wrestling games have always placed a heavy emphasis on customisation and the ability to create detailed custom experiences.
This year’s customisation retains the high level found in previous titles in the franchise. Little has changed, but this is by no means a bad thing.
The character customisation is very detailed for a sports game whilst keeping the menus simple and easy to navigate.
Along with the standard options such as altering facial and body features, a truck load of garments are available to create attires that make your character stand out from the crowd.
Each custom character can have two different attires.
The options available offer a variety of different looks so players can decide to make their superstar as wacky or realistic as they like.
But the creation does not stop with just the look, an extensive list of animations offer the chance to edit your character moves, entrance, and celebrations.
And yes, this will take hours or even days to complete but that time and effort will be worth it when your character is lifting the WWE championship in the air.
The customisation does not only allow for new superstars to emerge, but entirely new shows as well.
For those sick of watching the Raw or Smackdown every week, WWE2K22 allows you to create an entirely new brand to compete against WWE.
Using the creation suite, custom shows, championships, arenas, and money in the bank briefcases can be brought into the world of sports entertainment.
An extremely useful tool that accompanies the creation suite is image manager.
It allows players to upload images onto the WWE2K servers which can then be used within the game’s custom creations.
This means personal logos can be stamped onto arena banners, championship belts, superstars jackets, or act as the logo for a new show.
All of these customisation options can then be taken into universe mode to completely transform the experience of playing matches in WWE2K22.
Whilst these options alone are enough for players to create their own universe, community creations blasts everything to the next level.
If you would prefer to spend time playing rather than editing, community creations lets you download characters, shows, and items created by other players.
A lot of the community creations provide realistic versions of wrestlers in other companies or pop culture figures that can be downloaded in an instant.
So if players want to see whether Batman or Spiderman would win in a steel cage match, they can download them and find out.
This year, community creations are now cross-platform meaning that items can be downloaded no matter what platform they were initially created on.
The extensive list of options for character creation with the accompaniment of community creations and the image manager forms a creation suite of the highest quality.
Audio + Visuals
Another aspect that has benefited from the franchise’s year off is the aesthetics.
Both the visual and audio components have received significant upgrades from previous games.
Superstars look better than ever this year due to improvements and corrections to textures and lighting.
Hair and skin textures specifically are more natural after receiving much needed overhauls.
Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson making his way to the ring in 2K22. Credit: WWE2K
As always, some stars look better than others. Top stars like Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre look incredible, whilst those lower down the card receive less attention to detail.
Older legends or those sadly no longer with us are often less accurate too because the developers cannot use scanning to replicate the wrestler’s image.
However, the character models look a lot less like barbie dolls this time around.
Environments within the game have also been enhanced for this year’s instalment.
Lighting and arena textures have been redesigned to provide more realistic lighting and stages whilst complementing the new character models.
Audio enhancements have also been introduced to add to the immersion during matches.
Clip of a custom entrance in WWE2K22.
Crucially, commentary gets a necessary upgrade that makes calls more fluent and relevant to the action.
An increase in commentary options also prevents it from being too repetitive by adding more variety.
These additions helps commentary feel more suited to each match as the calls have more of a natural progression to them.
Most of the other audio changes do little to impact the players experience, but other elements such as sound effects and arena acoustics have been worked on.
My Experience
As someone who has played WWE games for most of my life, I was hoping that 2K22 would live up to the hype and revive the dormant franchise.
For many years, the games had been lacking the character and style found in the classic Smackdown vs Raw series.
Putting the issues with bugs and glitches aside, shifting the focus towards authentic simulation rather than an enjoyable experience caused WWE games to fall from grace.
Each passing year created more problems without adding anything to make the playing experience more entertaining.
An example of a menu from WWE2K16. This menu is very similar to the 2K19 MyPlayer.
This is why the announcement of a franchise reset excited many fans like me.
It may seem strange to be excited about a delay, but the WWE games needed a break from the annual release schedule.
Instead of having to rush the game out in 12 months, the developers could take their time rethink their approach and release a game that met fan expectations.
And for me, the decision seems to have paid off.
For years, WWE games have not interested me as the small improvements would be overshadowed by the technical issues and lack of change.
But 2K22 offered wide-scale changes whilst eliminating a lot of the issues found in previous games.
Like a surprise return in the royal rumble, the initial announcements had fans on their feet and was backed up once they got into the ring.
As soon as I stepped into the arena for the first time, it was clear that this year’s game was finally going to hit different.
Matches felt more natural without the complicated limitations whilst challenging me to think carefully about the next move.
The new modes have given this years game more variety, resulting in hours upon hours of playing time.
In previous 2K games, I would often stick to one game mode for my entire playthrough as the other modes didn’t interest me.
However, this year I have been constantly switching between modes. Each mode has value and purpose in 2K22.
MyRise and Universe mode are always the modes I would play in WWE games, but the introduction of MyGM and MyFaction has caused me to spread out my playtime more.
Screenshot of my starting roster in MyFaction.
It has even made me send Universe mode back to the locker room for a few months as I prioritise the new modes.
MyFaction has definitely been the biggest surprise hit in this year’s game.
I expected the other modes to be enjoyable due to previous experiences, but MyFaction is the mode that has impressed me the most with its potential and replay ability.
Whilst there are a lot of positives to take from the reimagining, some issues have emerged from the ashes.
The main issue throughout the game is a lack of substance. Each mode operates well but are lacking some crucial details.
For example, MyGM mode limits each save to simulating a maximum of 52 weeks and does not include all the active championships that appear on each show’s weekly programming.
Along with this, there are still some issues that lead to progression being stopped dead in its tracks.
My experience of this came in MyRise when I could not progress to the mode’s final chapter because I was unable to activate a required storyline.
Problems like these are likely to deter players from returning to modes and need to be fixed as soon as possible.
Rating
My Rating for WWE2K22 is 4 out of 5 stars.
Overall, WWE2K22 is an electrifying revolution that lays down a solid framework for future instalments.
Whilst some of the issues still linger, it seems like the franchise has managed to kick out of the slump.
Where to Get It
WWE2K22 is available in both digital and physical forms on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.
There are three different versions available on each platform at separate price points.
For more information, go to : https://wwe.2k.com/
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