So recently I decided to pick up every single WWE game on the current generation of console. Not sure what urged me to. But it happened. Now, what does one do with these games? Well play them and rank them of-course. That's a ranking everyone wants right?...Right?
Let us start with 2k15, the first WWE release on the current generation of consoles and if i'm correct the second published by 2k. I picked this up for £2.33 on eBAy. My ranking of these games will be based on creating a character, playing through the career and just noting my general thoughts as I play.
My character Charles Tunkoku (I'm sure a lot of you can see where my inspiration came from on the name). My first character is a heavyweight who's main attributes lie in pace, and ariel offensive. I aimed to make a character who would eventually wrestle much like AJ Styles. This is my favourite style to play in these games and will probably make up the crux of most of my created wrestlers. Anyway the career took me 25 hours (just a bit more) and took me from NXT, on to Superstars, then Smackdown and Raw. Eventually ending up in the Rumble (winning) and then beating Daniel Bryan at Mania. After all that was done Triple H requested my guy wrestle one last match (15 years later) against an up and comer. (some created nobody).
The story...although the outline seems rather interesting in execution its actually quite tedious and dull. You more often than not just get a message from Vicky Guerroro telling you she has nothing for you this week and letting you choose between 2 random matches...which have no bearing on the storyline at all. One gets you more credit which you can use to buy create a wrestler parts and managers. The other more stat points to make your wrestler stronger. Once every so often (probably every 8 or 9 hours) you'll get given a push which comes with a storyline. Most of these were rather dull and resulted in pretty much the same sort of matches but instead of Vicky giving you a choice you just read a message from a wrestler about said storyline. In one I had somehow pissed off The Shield (dunno how). This resulted in me having 3 matches against them (with two random partners) ending in another match against The Shield at a PPV (with two more random partners). Rinse and repeat for most of the stories with slight variations.
As for how the game plays, it seems rather sluggish and slow, the frame rate is poor, quite often even in 1v1 matches. The AI can reverse everything, especially early on when your character's stats are low. So many moves seemed to just bug out. I had the Spear set as my finish. I shit you not but every third or fourth time it would just bug out. No move would happen and I would lose my finisher. Bull shit. Similar happened with a Superkick I was using early on. The chain wrestling mini game is terrible. Starting a match with rock paper scissors for an advantage in stamina. It's just unnecessary. The pin mini game is also impossible at the start. When you upgrade that stat it becomes easier but still rather dull to play. I miss mashing buttons to kick out. You know like Smackdowns of old.
What I did enjoy though was the mini game when you are eliminating a wrestler from the Royal Rumble. DDResque and pretty entertaining. None of the customisation in this game is hidden behind loot boxes either. I think 19 and 20 both had that issue and I hated it. Shockingly the game looks fairly good too. Not quite as good as 19 or maybe 20 but still fairly realistic.
So the game is okay. Not great but for a first crack on new hardware its not, that bad. I had fun for the 25 hours I played it and if the career is cleaned up a little. Made more compelling and the frame rate issues are fixed, the game could be really fun. Maybe speed up the pace of the game a little too. I know it's a Sim but there is no need for the game to be so sluggish to play.
SO WWE2K15 right now is my number 1 WWE game on the current generation of hardware.
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