WWE 2K15 Review - The Streak is Over

The WWE video game series has been on a roll in recent years. Though it still operated on the same tired graphics engine, developer Yuke’s love for the franchise and the pro wrestling business itself shone through, resulting in a steady stream of titles that appealed to grappling fans both young and old.

WWE ’13 featured the fantastic Attitude Era mode, which took players through one of (if not the) greatest time periods in wrestling history with infamous match-ups to play out and neat video packages to tie them together, while WWE ’14 specifically focused on the Grandest Stage of Them All, WrestleMania. It was a joy to experience these classic matches in wrestling history in video game form, though many wanted the WWE series to return to original storytelling, and this is where WWE 2K15 has stepped in with its highly anticipated MyCareer mode, allowing players to take their created superstar through the ranks of NXT to the main stage.

Unfortunately, while WWE 2K15 certainly has that unmistakeable shine that is so prominent in the NBA 2K series, it’s lacking in a vast amount of other departments, with a plethora of missing features ensuring that long-term fans of the series will be left disappointed.

He’s Broken in Half!

Joined by 2K’s long-term collaborative developer Visual Concepts, Yuke’s has made some fundamental and much-needed changes to the WWE series’ core gameplay in WWE 2K15. The most impactful of these new additions is the stamina meter, which helps each match replicate the ebb and flow of a typical wrestling bout. The stamina meter dictates the pacing of each match by steadily draining when elaborate and more physically taxing moves are performed, with both competitors eventually crawling along the mat if the match divulges into a lengthy slobberknocker.

Strikes and grapples now land with tremendous force.

Watching a superstar make a last-ditch finisher before falling to his knees, being forced to take a breather before going in for the pin mimics the action you’ll see on your typical episode of RAW, and it’s a great addition to the gameplay that gives each match a real sense of urgency. The same can be said for the moves themselves – striking attacks have a great deal of weight behind them, with sweat flying from an opponent’s head when they take a blow to the skull, and grapples now land with tremendous force. While this new change of pace initially seems to make the gameplay more sluggish, in actuality it makes it feel more like you’re playing through real WWE matches. Sure, it’s likely to drive people who prefer more arcade-style action away, but most of the changes made in WWE 2K15 are a natural progression for the series, and are very welcome additions.

The only thing that chain wrestling adds to the gameplay is tedium.

Unfortunately, the introduction of a chain wrestling mini-game is most certainly not welcome. Intended to replicate the tentative opening moments of a match in which competitors try to gain a small advantage over one another, chain wrestling in WWE 2K15 is essentially a game of rock, paper, scissors in which competitors vie to get the upper hand, but it essentially boils down to a mundane quick-time event in which players wiggle the right analog stick around in order hit a sweet spot that will allow them to transition across their opponent’s body, similar to the grappling mechanic in UFC games. However, in WWE 2K15 this new gameplay mechanic is a pointless slog that winds up being unintentionally hilarious due to it typically culminating in a soft elbow to the opponent’s head or back.

Getting on the Grind

So while the gameplay in WWE 2K15 has been slightly improved, it doesn’t account for much if the game surrounding it isn’t solid, and this is where it comes unglued. Its big selling point, the aforementioned MyCareer mode, is hugely disappointing, with it swiftly divulging into dull stat-grinding and half-hearted storylines. The concept behind MyCareer was an exciting one. Taking your player-created superstar from the WWE Performance Center, through NXT and then to the main stage on RAW should’ve been every wrestling fan’s dream, but its execution is so unforgivably poor that it becomes a chore within its first 2 hours.

Twitter is a much bigger aspect of MyCareer than the wrestling itself.

There was real potential here for something great, but after a brief cutscene with head trainer Bill DeMott in which he runs down the importance of the adventure into professional wrestling you’re about to embark on, the rest of the mode’s very thin narrative is mostly laid out to the player in the form of tweets with the likes of William Regal, Triple H and Vickie Guerrero. In fact, Twitter is a much bigger aspect of MyCareer than the wrestling itself: in order to be promoted through the ranks and make your way to RAW you’re asked to gather social media followers, a long an arduous process that isn’t even remotely fun.

Feuds you are involved in are mostly conveyed to you on Twitter. Which isn’t very fun, really.

For the vast majority of my playthrough my very limited agency in the game mostly extended to me picking between ‘Dark’ and ‘Tune Up’ matches, with the former granting me more virtual currency to spend on giving my superstar new abilities, and the latter awarding me with more followers. After a short while I realized that picking the latter option was the only way I was going to progress through the story at a reasonable pace, but even then it took me almost 5 hours before I was inserted into my first real “feud” with The Shield, which only lasted for a couple of dull cutscenes and a few matches before it dissipated into nothingness. MyCareer had the potential to be a fun and compelling rags to riches story, similar to that of the storylines featured in 2K’s NBA series, or even the Rocky-esque plot featured in Fight Night Champion, but instead it’s a miserable, lengthy grind, and a huge waste of a great idea.

The other major single-player mode, 2K Showcase, allows players to live through two famous feuds in wrestling history: John Cena vs. CM Punk, and Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H. This mode operates much in the same way as the single-player modes in the past couple of WWE games, with the most notable matches of these feuds being sewn together with high-quality video packages and players being given sets of objectives during each bout that mimic what happened in reality.

The whole package is competent enough and there are some fun fights to experience, though after playing through the entirety of the Attitude Era and taking on the most historic moments of WrestleMania, it feels a little underwhelming to simply roll through two relatively recent feuds. It’s decent, but it’s not the killer single-player mode that WWE 2K15 needed.

Style Over Substance

Over the past few years the WWE video game series has almost stubbornly retained its shoddy graphics, refusing to “get with the times” with Yuke’s and former publisher THQ continuing to let each game look like something from the Xbox 360/PS3’s launch line-ups. That’s all changed with WWE 2K15, as the series now looks like it has all the production values of a typical WWE PPV.

WWE 2K15 is certainly the best-looking WWE game ever.

While it isn’t as photo-realistic as the almost terrifyingly good-looking NBA 2K series, the majority of the wrestlers look uncannily similar to their real-life counterparts thanks to the superstars actually being motion-captured this time around. Aside from CM Punk, who had left the company before the motion-capturing sessions and therefore looks like a regular guy on the street with a beard in the game, there has clearly been a lot of attention given to the visuals this time around, which is a welcome (if much-delayed) change of pace for the series.

Unfortunately, these improved graphics are almost cancelled out by the things that have been taken away from the game. WWE 2K15 features the least impressive roster in years, with there being only a smattering of “Legends” and, considering the strong emphasis on NXT in the MyCareer mode, only four NXT stars have actually made their way into the game. It also doesn’t help that the roster is very out of date. Though this is typically forgivable due to the ever-changing landscape of WWE, the fact that The Shield are still a stable when their disbandment and respective solo careers are currently the hottest thing in the company right now is a little confusing. The Real Americans are also still a thing despite them having split a while ago, and Cody Rhodes is still plain ol’ Cody Rhodes, with no Stardust in sight.

The one thing that has remained consistent in the WWE series through to WWE 2K15 is the shoddiness of the online multiplayer.

Typically these issues could be rectified by the community using the series’ robust creation suite, though in WWE 2K15 these features have been toned down dramatically. Create-a-Superstar has far fewer options for creating a truly unique superstar, Create-a-Finisher has been completely ripped out of the game and Create-an-Entrance has been diluted so much it’s laughable. In fact, the only custom option in the latter mode that doesn’t ape another wrestler’s entrance is the “Quiet, I’m On The Phone!” animation, which has somehow managed to sneak its way in. It feels like an almost concerted attempt by the developers to strip away most of the features beloved by fans of the series.

Much like the average wrestling fan’s reaction to seeing John Cena every Monday night, WWE 2K15 is decidedly “meh.”

The one thing that has remained consistent in the WWE series through to WWE 2K15 is the shoddiness of the online multiplayer. Input lag still cripples every game, with managing to get out of a pin attempt completely reliant upon your ability to account for said lag, making it a frustrating guessing game and typically leading to unfair losses. Thanks to a variety of match types also being removed from the game, with 1 v 1 Ladder , 4-player Hell in a Cell and Tornado Tag matches all inexplicably facing the chopping block, there’s a lot less to keep you occupied here, too. In order to glean enjoyment out of playing the game online with a friend we eventually resorted to table matches, which still saw us clumsily battling against lag but would at least ensure that each round wouldn’t be over in less than a minute due to an early pin attempt.

Conclusion

WWE 2K15 is a huge missed opportunity. The gameplay replicates the action that takes place in the real WWE better than ever before, but a wide array of cut content and a thoroughly disappointing MyCareer mode makes the overall package less robust than it has been in many years.

Also See: A Complete History of WWE Games: Past, Present and Future

The game will still be fleetingly enjoyable in local multiplayer matches and wrestling fans such as myself will appreciate just how close to the real thing this new entry in the series looks, but there’s so much missing here that it doesn’t really warrant a purchase unless you’re a die-hard WWE fan.