Another year, another victory. Is what I hope to see for the supreme Roman Reigns, who is scheduled to defend his undisputed title on April 7th against the cover athlete of WWE 2K24, Cody Rhodes at WrestleMania XL [That match has been and gone by the time we published this, sorry! – Ed]. Nothing against Cody, who’s talented no doubt, but as the very game he graces the cover of demonstrates, it is tough to root against greatness, even when that greatness has taken years of refinement to reach.
Much like Reigns himself, the WWE 2K franchise has traversed a rough road to get to this place of brilliance. Who could forget 2K18 on the switch, or 2K20… on anything. I certainly haven’t forgotten the latter, considering I paid full price for it and the game hard crashed enough to make launch day Cyberpunk blush. So, what elevates WWE 2K24 above the entries that came before?
For one, it continues to simulate the in-ring wrestling incredibly well. Strikes are crisp, moves are motion captured with amazing attention to detail, even down to the slight pause a superstar may take, to rile in the crowd before unleashing a finisher. The combo system that lets you seamlessly cancel flurries of strikes into grapples or heavy attacks remains enjoyable to experiment with, especially when using different superstars and getting a sense of their unique approaches to dishing out damage. Rhea Ripley, for example, excels at overwhelming opponents with strikes and headbutts. Conversely, a highflyer like Kayden Carter uses her agility and diving moves to reverse the momentum. The player can harness a plethora of playstyles like the two described above, especially when the roster includes over 250 superstars.
Like last year’s release, the controls remain responsive, and framerate drops are nearly non-existent from the 60FPS target, save for a stutter or two when moving wrestlers outside of the ring and up to the ramp and stage. As far as differences from previous entries, the default, normal difficulty appears to have been tweaked, for the better. In my experience, the AI uses reversals and taunts more frequently, and are often content with a count-out victory, whereas in previous years they would have avoided that count-out by throwing the player back in the ring before the referee counted to 10. These are all positive changes, increasing the challenge slightly, without making every match feel like the player is facing Undertaker in his prime. Even the weapon offerings, which can be thrown now, have been expanded. I got a lot of enjoyment simply out of throwing microphones at opponents’ heads.
Superstar likenesses are brilliantly recreated. Obviously, cover star Cody Rhodes and legends like Ricky Steamboat are not going to look rough here, but even non main event wrestlers like Akira Tozawa, an underrated talent, look true to life. Not a single wrestler I have played with has looked anything less than great. Similarly, lighting, camera cuts and entrance pyro all feel incredibly faithful to the real-life presentation, as do the grand sets for events like 2022’s Clash at the Castle. This spectacular attention to detail, combined with the gameplay strengths described earlier, contribute to this game’s unprecedented level of authenticity.
Apart from the AI, I also noticed a reduction in loading times, specifically in the awesome myRise mode. Loading screens are still present, but they are perceptively shorter, and I played last year’s myRise stories as recently as December, so those long load times are still fresh in my mind. As for the new/returning match types, I appreciated the effort that went into the special guest referee match. Playing as the ref really gives you a new perspective on how tricky the job is, particularly since you can choose to be graded on your skills. Not counting a pin fast enough or ignoring a submission attempt, for example, could be grounds to get you removed as the ref from the match. It adds a dimension to the match type I wasn’t expecting, but if you just want to beat the spit out of the wrestlers in the ring, you can do so freely by turning the grading setting off.
As for the Ambulance and Casket matches, they’re certainly not bad. I like the introduction to these two matches done by the ring announcer, which adds gravitas to the stipulations. To win either of those match types, you must engage in the same button mashing minigame as regular submissions, and personally I had a rough time with a specific Ambulance match in the Unleashed myRise story, where I had to mash square and cross so furiously to win that I am sure people outside my room were suspicious of what I was doing behind the locked door.
On a serious note, it did not make a ton of sense why the difficulty of the minigame spiked to such a degree at that specific point, my only guess is the other Superstar had a higher overall rating, so perhaps that’s why there was an overcompensation to accentuate that rating gap? Still, I appreciate these match types being in the game, as they are implemented with care and make WWE 2K24 a more complete simulation experience.
Before I discuss the Showcase and myRise modes, I would like to take a moment to praise the myGM mode. It has made so many strides since it was brought back to the series in 2K22, and this year’s iteration of the game mode makes that original return look like a pre-alpha version. I particularly like the ability to trade roster members, as last year I found myself not utilising a specific talent after paying for their contract, so I was wondering how great it would be if myGM let you trade them to other brands, instead of just firing the talent.
Aspects of the myRise menus have also been redone, the talent details section when you’re scouting for example, now takes up more of the screen and displays additional details. And they also added Teddy Long as a playable GM, which is great because he remains one of my favourite on-screen authority figures in wrestling history. End of the day, this is not a mode that gets played as much as Showcase or myRise, a simple look at the achievement rates for myGM trophies can tell you that, but the developers have still iterated on it, so the select fans who do play it are more likely to be satisfied.
Showcase of the Instructions… and Fun Writing
WWE 2K24’s “40 Years of WrestleMania” showcase mode is okay. It addresses some of my issues with last year’s Cena centred showcase, namely the constant, blaring music in the background, which still exists here but is slightly more palatable, due to the tracks being more varied. It’s personal preference, but the orchestral tracks sound better to me, and it lends weight to the early matches in the showcase, like Macho Man v Steamboat. I appreciated the extra animation work this time around, like the pre-match stare off between Hogan and Andre. To me the highlight of this showcase was the match between Hart and Piper, because while it’s recognised by some as a classic, it could do with a bump to its reputation, something that this mode could help provide.
Part of the reason that Hart-Piper match is so much fun to play is that the list of objectives present within it isn’t excessive. The same can’t be said for most of the other showcase matches. These objectives dampen the mode and are like long lists of instructions, in fact, playing some of these matches made me feel like I was fulfilling a shopping list. There’s no need for Rick Rude to use a specific light grapple and work over Ultimate Warrior’s arm for long periods, when the player could just inflict a decent chunk of damage to the Warrior and hit the Rude Awakening for the win, while having more freedom to explore Rick’s move set for themselves in the process.
Also keep in mind, while this is billed as a “40 Years of WrestleMania” mode, it doesn’t include matches from every Mania event. In fact, the first playable match is from the third iteration of the event, not the inaugural edition. Is this a problem for me? Not really, since it still allows the player to experience most of the high points throughout the event’s history, although some of these points are held back by the previously mentioned objective caveats. Corey Graves does an excellent job of narrating the video packages before each match, which are put together with real life footage. As a neat bonus, certain matches like Hart v Austin are even preceded by talking head segments with the talent involved, in this case, Steve Austin discusses the importance of that match to his legacy. It’s a nice way to add prestige to the showcase mode, which, at its core, is about celebrating the legacy of wrestling and its stars.
To improve the mode further, I think the use of real-life footage should be reconsidered. The forced playback of archive footage during gameplay at regular intervals has an unwelcome impact on pacing, and it is also distracting to constantly see referees, ring announcers or logos in that footage blurred out. If it’s feasible to fully animate these sequences and integrate them into the showcase as in-game cutscenes, the presentation would benefit in this mode. And as mentioned earlier, the objectives need to be less specific and numerous, as they are overbearing in their current state.
Conversely, I don’t have many ideas to improve WWE 2K24’s career mode: myRise. Both the Unleashed and Undisputed stories on offer here are immaculately produced, with intriguing main storylines, irreverent side content and fantastic voice acting throughout. In both stories, player choices are meaningful, and can change the personalities of the playable characters, the opponents they face and even the types of matches they participate in.
Unleashed, the female story, deals with an indie veteran named Cap making her way through the WWE system. Where this story really shines is in its expert tip toeing between the real world, backstage politics of pro-wrestling and on-screen presentation of the protagonist. It’s interesting to see how a lot of the plot points are written with double meanings. For example, the writers and Cap aren’t on the same page regarding her on-screen persona, and the way this conflict is explored is interesting because it doesn’t explicitly recognise that pro-wrestling is scripted, but is still written in a way where hardcore fans of the product can draw comparisons to what happens historically to some indie wrestlers in the WWE, where their old personas are discarded by writers who want them to make an identity for themselves.
This layer of backstage politicking is a part of the sophistication of pro-wrestling that is lost to many outsiders. Fans who are aware it is a scripted sport know they can influence the outcomes of future matches and overall direction of the show, so naturally, they also have an interest in what happens behind the scenes, since they are curious whether the stars being actively cheered for are currently favoured by writers and management, and whether they will be elevated within the TV program in the coming weeks. In the Unleashed story, Cap begins by struggling to build that connection with the fans but ends up forming it by “being herself” or breaking free from the writer’s grasp and speaking her mind without a filter, so to speak. It is very compelling to play through that process, and it is elevated further by the extensive interaction between her and the rest of the women’s division, most of whom turn in excellent voice performances, particularly Rhea Ripley, who translates her screen presence to this medium perfectly.
Undisputed, the male story, is a definite improvement over last year’s men’s campaign, the ‘Lock’. Whereas the Lock took a long time to get going, Undisputed starts off hot with tangible stakes. The pacing is rapid, which is why it’s a good compliment to the female story that moves slightly slower. What sells the male protagonist, appropriately dubbed the Dark Horse, is the sink or swim scenarios he is put into. In a way, the story intentionally singles him out as someone who is not worthy of being near the main event of the company, but through his presence around prolific superstars like Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens, and his experience of being thrust into high pressure scenarios, he blossoms into something of a main event talent himself.
This underdog, fish out of water concept is executed in a fresh way, by making the player question whether they are an actual underdog or are only perceived that way, due to the lack of opportunities they’ve had to showcase their talent. The Miz and William Regal are both great here, with the former channelling his villainous, slimy TV personality to be an entertaining foil to the Dark Horse’s more stoic persona.
The optional stories throughout the two myRise stories are similarly impressive. Due to their relative disconnection from the core narrative in each, the writers appear to have been given free reign to go wild here, resulting in a bunch of hilarious side quests. One that comes to mind immediately, involves Nikki Cross spreading the benefits of an app dedicated to breathing, which gains popularity in the locker room, but ends up being revealed as a pyramid scheme. Is it a bit silly? Sure. But the writers and wrestlers involved all fully commit to these outlandish stories, which bring them to life despite their inherent silliness.
So, to answer the question I established at the beginning of the review, what elevates WWE 2K24 over the franchise’s other entries? Honestly, while it has a considerable number of positives, the strengths found in this entry’s gameplay and mode variety were also largely present in last year’s 2K23. Like most annual franchises, it is a product that stands upon years of work and iteration.
At the same time, there are improvements. The roster is much bigger. The showcase is more ambitious, despite being held back by some rigid objectives. The load screens are shorter. And the male myRise story is significantly better than the previous effort. Then, there are all the smaller improvements. Real WWE referees like Charles Robinson have been scanned into a 2K game for the first time. If a wrestler is bleeding, the blood will soak into the ring as the match goes on. You can hear the feedback reverberate throughout the arena when you throw a microphone at the opponent. Those smaller details may not be all that noteworthy on their own, however, they combine to increase the overall simulation quality considerably.
Reviewed on PlayStation 5 with a review code provided by the publisher.
Featuring blistering authenticity, reduced loading times and neat improvements to myRise, myGM and match variety, WWE 2K24 celebrates the legacy, spectacle and sophistication of pro-wrestling in phenomenal fashion.
