WWE 2K18 Review: Glorious Indeed

WWE has seen a lot of changes this year, good and bad, including the iconic return of The Shield. It’s moments like these that continue to solidify the brand and its title in leading sports entertainment. We’ve transitioned from smelling what The Rock was cooking, to witnessing the demise of who was next, learning what it means to be glorious to even seeing when the champ was here.

One could never truly understand the blood, sweat and tears that are sacrificed night in and night out for the pleasure of the WWE Universe. Some are even willing to lose a few teeth over it, probably wishing to “delete” that moment in time. But it’s also seeing the unexpected that allows us to believe in the phrase: Then, Now, Forever.  2K hopes to drive that same message in WWE 2K18; Oh it’s true! It’s Damn true.

When WWE goes to the next level in sports entertainment, 2K Sports attempts to meet them there as well, delivering the very best video game possible. You can immediately tell WWE 2K18 hopes to make the experience as personal as possible, allowing new customization’s while taking some away as well.

That’s What It Do

While 2K18 allows a plethora of play modes, there even more to explore through creation. That’s right, you can make your very own custom match and have them appear in any of the menus. Not feeling a normal 4-way ladder match? Add your own stipulations and give it a name. The fun only begins there.

WWE Universe returns introducing a few new incentives beginning with power ranking. Every wrestler has a goal and individual ranking that gives them additional attributes depending on where they are in the power ranking. You’re also able to create rivalries as well as control the length of each rivalry, finally shortening the length of every battle from months to weeks if preferred.

WWE Online allows quick play, team up with an online friend and WWE Live where you pick a match based on choice custom game modes. Then there’s the mode with quite a bit of replayability, MyPlayer.

MyCareer Started From the Bottom

As you create your MyPlayer you may be pretty disappointed with the lack of customization beginning in the Wizard. The character appearance comes first only optioning 15 preset faces and hairstyles. Though more options appear later, why would this be an oversight in the beginning? Keeping on, WWE 2K18 then prompts to choose your unique fighting style which comes with a preset cap for each skill, similar to your MyPlayer in NBA 2K18. From there you’re again limited with choices of attire, moves and presentation (entrances and victory moves).

After completing the default character, go right back in and everything will be at your disposal. Again, not quite sure as to why it happen this way but it’s the quickest workaround. Upgrades are available as you earn attribute points and VC to increase skills, abilities, attributes and buy additional moves.

MyCareer kicks off at the performance center but with a twist. Throughout your career you can interact with anyone and everyone before heading into the action. Starting off however, and with you simply being a nobody, interactions are somewhat limited. The more you grow the more people will side with you.

Aside from having way too many loading screens in-between every transition, MyCareer is extremely fun for players that are looking forward to a career filled with unpredictability. The back stages have a bit of length to them giving you different things to do, similar to the Neighborhood NBA 2K18. You can interact with people, including friends from the career invasion. In all, it’s up to you how you create your legacy.

Road to Glory is the new online mode that allows you to play against other online competition for a chance to play in real PPV matches in WWE 2K18. You can earn or purchase loot crates: Grey being good, yellow is better and red promising the best loot available. Loot has a chance of earning you locked parts for customization, moves for your repertoire, boost for each RTG match and additional VC.

How Does 2K18 Play?

Thanks to the new lighting system superstars look more realistic than ever. From the moment their music hit and they walk down the ramp, you can’t help but watch and embrace a whole new level of authenticity in WWE 2K.

There are new camera angles in 2K18 bringing you closer to the action, specifically the new in-ring camera. To compliment the new cameras are new animations, including face expressions. As I performed a finisher on Braun it was crazy to watch his expression change before dropping to the mat.

One of the first matches I played was the all-new 8-Man Battle Royal. I was excited to see how smooth gameplay was; more people in the ring didn’t sacrifice frame rates or gameplay one bit. In this match I was also able to see how much the collision improved. During one match when AJ Styles was on the mat, I was able to body slam Randy Orton over him, watching Randy slide off Styles. What we used to see was AJ glide (glitch) across the ring due to some sort of barrier that stopped them from touching.

Reversing is a bit different this year, presenting a bit more of a challenge than WWE 2K17. A typical session played by us excludes limited reversals as A.I. difficultly is high enough to give us competition, reversing our moves quite a bit. It takes some getting used to, especially for a veteran of the 2K series. On a positive note however, the pinning system was switched back to WWE 2K16 where it’s based on the actual input opposed to the small lag when attempting to kick out.

Overall, gameplay feels fun and provides the potential back and forth nature you would expect from the WWE in real life. Presentation is the key update in WWE 2K18 as each match has the greatest overall feel in years, from the hype of the crowd to the tempo of each main event, especially the personalization in MyCareer.

Create Your Universe And Be Like No One

WWE 2K18 grants the opportunity to create entrances, championship belts, videos, custom matches and more. One thing that stood out the most was being able to import outfits to WWE superstars. Fans of the community tend to create some of the greatest outfits close to their real life PPV costumes and house show updates. It’s now easier than ever to keep your roster looking like what you see on T.V., Believe That.

My biggest complaint however has to be the lack of content available when making your custom video.  The highlight reel is horrible at times failing to playback a key moment. Instead it believes an entrance is a highlight rather than a special, finisher or OMG. In WWE 2K17 players could also choose between pre-rendered scenarios, this year there’s nothing to choose from behind what you manually save mid-match, which disrupts the fluidity of the action taking place.