Oh dear. That’s all I could think about after playing this for the first hour. My age stipulates that I have no idea who half of these new lycra clad numpties are for a kick off in the WWE. This was not my major concern though. I haven’t really played a lot of these wrestling games over the years, with the original Playstation being the last real go on WWF Smackdown and the self titled sequel. Back then the controls were incredibly simple and there was nothing that really gave you cause to lose the rag in a very quick time frame.
Don’t get me wrong though. From an outsider’s view looking in there is a hell of a lot to shake a stick at in here. The “X-Factor for gym freaks” that is NXT is now included in the mix, giving you a chance to play as new superstars and have them fighting both new and more well known members of the roster. “Who Got NXT” mode has you fighting against four competitors per superstar, but, as becomes all too apparent after playing many modes of this game, you’re only really doing it to try and unlock more stuff, although a lot of the stuff you want, much like the real life World Wrestling Entertainment company, is only attainable by forking out over and above to get.
I mean, folk of my age want to play as Hogan, Sting, Bam Bam Bigelow and so on, but you have to splash out to get them. Everything else IS unlockable, but as I had so much difficulty even getting by the first part of the 2K Showcase, my desire to do so waned much faster than I could have possibly imagined. CM Punk vs Cena in the Money in the Bank match to decide whether Punk would leave WWE with the title or if Cena could restore pride back to the company was my sticking point and that was the FIRST MATCH, so that doesn’t really fill you with confidence in your ability. It’s like getting to the front door and forgetting how a key works.
The control system is reasonably solid for most of the time you play WWE 2K15, but my biggest gripe, so much so that I actually wanted to snap the disc at one point, is the counter button. Unless you are a 3 year old gifted with the power of Jedi mind tricks, there is simply NO WAY IN GOD’S GREEN EARTH that you can hit these counter prompts when you are expected to. By the time I see them floating over my character’s head its usually too late. Then in the blind panic to get your hunk of trunk wearing meat off the canvas you end up hitting it way too early. It is an easy way to get people to stop playing something when it becomes more like a tedious chore to play rather than something to enjoy.
I think what I’m trying to say is that a lot of this game is down primarily to luck and not so much the skill of any particular person. There are times where you simply cannot get a hit in because the COM player is just constantly beating you up. Then there are those glitchy moments where the players get stuck in some sort of Tron induced vortex and cannot reach their set mark to perform whatever move it is they need to do to take you out. The older generation looks to have been sacrificed in favour of the Xbox One and PS4 versions, but then if this is what your standard experience is then I’ll happily avoid both thanks very much.
From what I can tell this is a bit like EA’s Hockey sim NHL 15. The reason I say this is that in the game the year before there was more stuff in it than what the following year has ended up with. The only difference is that the Ice Hockey sim neglected the current gen. 2K seem to have just rushed out a DLC version of 2K14 for the older machines and concentrated on the now current level of hardware.
I also think it may just be because I’m not so much a fan of Sports Entertainment as much as I used to be. In terms of a fan I was more an “Attitude” era child, rather than the forced, child friendly version we seem to have nowadays. On the plus side it does look the best it ever has on the older machines and the audio, although still patchy and forced in some areas, is a lot better than it used to be. Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler are your usual announcers, with more unlockable as time goes on (including JBL).
I think the one MAJOR problem I have is that I KNOW what the 2K sports franchises are capable of, as NBA 2K15 proved when it released last year, in that there is always room for a little improvement and that the team can deliver (and boy did they do that) With the WWE series it feels like Yukes have kind of just let it become stale too quickly. There’s no major drive to buy this newer version of 2K14 and judging by the list of what is available on both games you could be forgiven in thinking that all the stuff that has been introduced could have realistically came in a form of DLC at half the price of the actual game, as I don’t see enough change to warrant a hefty price tag. Not to mention you have all the add-ons you then still have to fork out for at a maximum of £20.
In closing, I would say that this game does reflect the WWE well enough and will keep the kids happy enough playing it (even though it has a 16 advisory on it) but it is a Federation with the present being a faded representation of the glorious past and that it shares with 2K15. I gave it a few goes, but always came back to the same conclusion, which was to stop playing because I was getting so frustrated with it that I couldn’t actually be bothered to continue. If you have a next gen console I would think the new version will be worth it just for the graphical upheaval alone, providing you love your squared circle action, but in older console land, I’d say you should stick to WWE 2K14 and make your own versions of the combatants missing from the disc compared to this year. That money you save is worth 4 months of WWE Network and trust me, that will give you more hours of enjoyment than this rushed out for extra cash job would.
Sports Game Developed by Yukes Released by 2K
Xbox 360 version reviewed. We’d like to thank the Xbox Community for contributing the game for review.