WWE 2K24 and other things wrestling
Have Visual Concepts and 2K finally nailed the whole wrestling sim thing and how hyped are you about WrestleMania XL?
It’s been around 30 years since the first time I (well, someone belonging to my family) paid money for a WWF pay-per-view. And it wasn’t money paid to the Federation’s pocket per se; instead it was handed to the video rental clerk for a rather shady copy of WrestleMania X. I say ‘shady’ because the tape began a few minutes into the first match (Owen Hart vs Bret Hart).
This was during a golden period before the time a tiny bunch of idiots (that’s all it ever takes) decided to ruin it for the rest of us. How? Not by performing unsanctioned pro-wrestling moves in school, but by getting caught doing it. And naturally stung by criticism from the teachers, the parents of those idiot kids decided that everyone should be punished because of their idiot kids. And so, they lobbied schools to ban WWF trump cards, stickers, notebooks and the rest — because everybody knows bans are the solution to all of life’s problems. And then at some point the programming was no longer broadcast in India, for a brief period. But, I digress. And turn bitter.
Back to WrestleMania X, and false start with the curtailed match notwithstanding, the event was fantastic with hardly a bad match in sight.
In fact, the card featured almost every variety of match to cater to all appetites:
Giant vs smaller guy? Check (Crush vs Randy Savage).
Technical masterclass? Check (Owen vs Bret).
Giant vs giant? Check (Earthquake vs Adam Bomb)
Comedy match? Check (Doink the Clown vs Bam Bam Bigelow)
Women’s match? Check (Alundra Blayze vs Leilani Kai)
Tag match? Check (Men on a Mission vs The Quebecers)
Ladder match? Check (Razor Ramon vs Shawn Micheals)
Feelgood moment to close things out? Check (Locker room emptying out to celebrate Bret’s title win)
And so on…
From a narrative standpoint, a majority of the matches above were the product of masterfully-crafted feuds with rich backstory involving deceit, betrayal, rivalry, and whatever it was that saw Bam Bam beefing with Doink. I don’t recall a single other WrestleMania in which so many matches left me feeling so entertained, enthralled and sated. Perhaps WrestleMania XX came close.
Flash forward to the present and WrestleMania XL will be upon us in a couple dozen hours. The ‘granddaddy of them all’ has gone from an event that used to last around three hours to one that runs well over eight hours (including a pre-show). It’s no longer the WWF, it’s been WWE for a while — and as of last year, it’s owned by TKO, the same people who own the UFC. The concept of pay-per-views no longer exists, because they are now called ‘premium live events’. WrestleMania has gone from a night that featured one clear main event to two that feature multiple main events. On a positive note, it’s gone from putting on a token women’s match to multiple matches featuring women and getting top billing.
All that said, it’s been a while since I followed the product closely. Perhaps it’s because the current crop of wrestlers Superstars (much like modern music) appeals to me far less than the talent from back in the day. Perhaps it’s because the decades of abuse that are coming to light — such as Dirty Old Man Vince McMahon’s (alleged) dirty deeds — have put me off it. Perhaps it’s that I no longer have that much time to spare anymore. Perhaps it’s that the storylines just don’t do it for me. Perhaps it’s a mix of all these factors that contributes to WWE failing to intrigue me these days.
However, what does currently intrigue me is how Legendary Destroyer of Cinematic Franchises™ Dwayne Johnson has remanufactured The Rock into the latter’s latest avatar. It’s no secret that The Rock is (and will be for a long time) one of the first names (alongside Bret Hart, Hulk Hogan and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin) that comes to mind when you think of pro-wrestling. He has a persona and an image cultivated over many years as a fast-talking, wise-cracking, smackdown-laying and jabroni-beating face (wrestling parlance for good guy). He’s also on the board of directors of the aforementioned TKO, which whether or not anyone cares to admit it, gives him a great deal of control and power over the WWE’s goings-on.
With all this in mind, the way he’s taken it upon himself to be the most villainous heel (wrestling parlance for bad guy) is rather admirable. While it’s not as though this is his first heel run (having even feuded with Hogan in the past), this is the first time he’s relying less on comedy and quips, and more of brute force and violence. His promos are less the spoken-word diss tracks of the past than barely-veiled threats and verbal assaults laced with indignation. What’s more (and markedly different from the past), a significant majority of the fans (both in the arena and on social media) seem to be behind Cody Rhodes (the guy he’s feuding with) in this whole thing.
Of course, the cynic in me is convinced that Johnson is doing what he can to protect his own business interests and right now that means taking people’s attention away from l’affaire McMahon. But the story-enthusiast in me is enjoying the way all of this is shaking out — enough to actually make me watch WrestleMania this weekend.
Will it live up to the high watermark set by the event 30 years ago? We’ll soon find out.
Review: WWE 2K24
Developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K
Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆
The difference four-and-a-half years makes!
October 2019 saw the launch of possibly the jankiest wrestling game known to man, WWE 2K20. At the time, I put down my first impressions for the publication at which I used to work, and decided to call it a day. There would be no review, because the game, I felt, was an un-reviewable mess. I only wish this was an exaggeration.
And so, Visual Concepts went back to the drawing board, took a two-and-a-half year break from wrestling sims and returned with WWE 2K22. The game was an improvement (at that stage, anything would be an improvement), but still had a fair few rough edges and glitches. A year later, WWE 2K23 represented a further improvement. And on March 8 this year, 2K dropped WWE 2K24 on an audience eagerly awaiting the 40th WrestleMania and one of the most hyped ones of all time. Rather appropriately, this year’s 2K Showcase (the part-documentary, part-wrestling sim and part-‘Simon Says’ mode) is a look back at the “Showcase of the Immortals” over the past 40 years.
Memory lane revisited
Over the course of a 21-match curation, you are brought upto speed with some of the most iconic matches at WrestleMania over the past 40 years. You may recall this concept from WWE 2K14’s “The 30 Years of WrestleMania” a decade ago. While that mode features 47 matches, there is, as you’d expect, a sizeable overlap in terms of matches covered by the both games. I’d sit and compare how they match up against one another, but I don’t have a PlayStation 3. And I’m lazy.
As for the mode itself, put very simply, it is a documentary-style (narrated and presented by pro-wrestler-turned-commentator Corey Graves) look at the 21 matches displayed in the video above. The format features Graves in a studio talking about a particular match amid generous sprinklings of archival footage depicting the buildup to that match. Sometimes, a participant or two will appear and speak about the match. Once the match eventually gets going, you have to fulfil a set of objectives that entail doing a particular move (or beating your opponent until they’ve received a certain amount of damage) often in a particular part of the arena. Certain moves cue a shift from in-game graphics to the corresponding archival footage. This was an impressive trick back in the Rey Mysterio Showcase back in WWE 2K22. Right now, it just feels gimmicky.
A combination of the stop-start nature of proceedings and the minutiae of ‘accurately’ replicating the match makes the Showcase a cumbersome exercise by the end, and kills any sense of immersion. Certainly, you can just win the match without completing any of the objectives, but then you won’t unlock those Superstars to use in other modes.
While the production values, access to key talking heads and stacks of archival footage have always been of a very high quality, the execution has always left a lot to be desired. In some cases, it’s unavoidable. For instance, several individuals with whom the WWE may have severed ties (or vice versa) for one reason or another have their faces blurred. That includes several Superstars, referees, commentators, prominent members of the audience and dirty old man of (allegedly) great disrepute Vince McMahon. But it’s not restricted to humans: Disused WWF logos, inappropriate/copyright-infringing signs and t-shirts, and trademarks not owned by the WWE also get the treatment. This exacerbates the lack of immersion. At the end of the day, the mode is a fun nostalgia trip and takes up a large chunk of the promotional materials for the game, but it really needs a rethink, because it’s played out.
Beyond the Showcase
Fortunately, there’s life outside the carefully manicured and controlled confines of the Showcase and it is thriving. I usually make it a point with sports titles to only focus on the modes and parts that I’ve personally played. This means you’re not going to read about the microtransaction-fuelled deck-building mode that is MyFaction in this piece. Instead, we’ll start with the ‘Play’ mode that lets you pick between exhibition matches, tournaments, royal rumbles, gauntlets and last year’s WarGames mode.
You’ll notice very quickly that match types are numerous, stipulations and settings are plentiful, and the roster is heaving with talent. In all the time I spend on this game, I seriously doubt I’m going to play as even half the people on there. MyRise, the story mode of the package, returns with two new career trajectories: Undisputed (male) and Unleashed (female).
The former sees you as a member of the RAW roster who has spent a couple of years stagnating and surprisingly hasn’t found himself ‘future endeavoured’. The undisputed title is vacated and you are in the fight of your life to capture it. Meanwhile, the Unleashed story sees you as the co-founder and champion of an indie promotion. She carries a chip on her shoulder about the WWE and has declined several tryouts. Hers is a journey of deciding whether to hang on to her indie roots or to make it big in the WWE.
Then there’s the Universe mode, the franchise’s sandbox mode that lets you build out storylines, factions, PPVs PLEs and more. If I’m honest, I barely spent a couple of hours on it, so I don’t know how deep it goes, but if last year’s Universe is any indicator, it could provide dozens of hours of fun. MyGM, which is probably my favourite form of cosy gaming, is the series’ management mode. I’m pleased to report that while it’s fairly similar to last year’s version, there are little tweaks (such as the ability to trade Superstars with other managers, employ talent scouts and such-like) that have made the overall experience a lot deeper and more rewarding.
Slow and steady improvements
This, I feel, is an apt way to describe WWE 2K24 as a whole: Strides forward through little improvements in a sort of kaizen1. And nowhere is this more visible than in the gameplay. Most noticeably, collision detection and rope physics are for the large part solid and almost entirely unrecognisable from WWE 2K20. That Bianca Belair’s ludicrously long ponytail behaves like normal hair at least 95% of the time is a testament to the fact that perseverance has paid off for the Visual Concepts team.
Then there’s the actual action. The window for reversing attacks seems to have been made a shade more forgiving, and as such, while reversals are still a challenge to pull off, they are more doable. The process of stringing together attacks has been made smoother, and there’s something more believable about the rate at which stamina runs out. The rate at which your finisher and signature bars fill up also seems to reflect the match state, which is a nice touch. I could be wrong with the technical details, but the whole experience of playing a match has been made a bit more fluid and a lot more fun than in prior editions.
Finally, we have the customisation suite and it is as deep and detailed as you’d like. As it should be, because what pro-wrestling game worth its salt doesn’t have a decent customisation suite? WWE 2K24 builds on its predecessor with more options to customise virtually every aspect of the game, and lets you cook up some truly glorious creations. However, the quality of ready Superstars does vary, with a John Cena character model and a Big Boss Man one being oceans apart.
‘And that’s the bottomline…’
The first wrestling game to ever blow my mind was WWF No Mercy on the N64. Then WWE Smackdown! arrived on the PlayStation and changed the game once more. Years later, WWE Smackdown! Here Comes The Pain on the PlayStation 2 would again alter our perception of wrestling games. Over the years, SmackDown vs Raw 2007 on the same console and WWE '13 on the PlayStation 3 would achieve similar status.
WWE 2K24, on the other hand, doesn’t so much revolutionise the wrestling sim as much as make it a lot more entertaining to play. Certainly there are a few blips on the report card, such as the dated nature of the Showcase — at the end of which I found myself thinking I’d have been happier watching the entire match rather than all the stop-start malarkey that I had to endure. However, there hasn’t been a wrestling game that plays as well as this for a long time. And for that fact alone, it’s well worth your time and money.
Game reviewed on PlayStation 5. Review code provided by publisher
In closing…
This week, I had a go at the playable demo for the upcoming Shift Up-developed and Sony Interactive Entertainment-published Stellar Blade. It wasn’t a very long demo, but it certainly was fun, and has me quite enthused about the full game that releases on April 26.
Kaizen, a cornerstone of Japanese business philosophy, advocates for continuous, incremental improvement across all aspects of life. It encourages constant, small changes that lead to major improvements over time, emphasising efficiency, productivity, and the elimination of waste, fostering a culture of sustained growth and development.