WWE 2K15 Review

The WWE is the most absurd soap opera in the world. A collection of the most ridiculous characters of inhuman proportions playing out storylines that make as much sense as Vince McMahon’s walk. The problem with WWE 2K15 is that it is too sensible. It offers a very down-to-earth interpretation of wrestling, with some novel ideas to represent the flow of matches, but in doing so doesn’t match the spectacle of the real thing. It strips away much of the character which keeps viewers entertained, creating a game that nobody really wanted.

Much of the hype surrounding the new-gen upgrades has been around the visuals. Most of the roster in the game has been face-captured, and it certainly pays off. Stars like Ryback, John Cena, Daniel Bryan and Triple H look eerily like their real-world counterparts. However, the face-capped wrestlers only help to emphasise how bad the non-captured personalities look, with WWE boss McMahon looking like Morph with Tony Hart’s hair, and Shawn Michaels inexplicably sporting purple chest hair.

On the plus side, ring entrances have been recreated to excellent detail. HHH’s classic, water-spewing rage is brilliantly mimicked, as is old-school Kane’s menacing saunter into the ring, before setting the four turnbuckles ablaze. Again though, WWE lets itself down elsewhere: while the visuals of the main attractions are top notch, they’re severely let down by the the crowd.

The fans now almost look as detailed as wrestlers did back in the PS2 era: each one individually designed and animated in the first two tiers of the arena. But the added detail serves to the detriment of the presentation, making the crowd look half-filled thanks to the huge chasms between each attendee. Tune in to any TV broadcast and fans are stepping on each other’s faces to get closer to their favourite entertainers, but there’s no such hustle and bustle in 2K15. The crowd also sounds half-empty. A superstar’s entrance should be met with deafening cheers or heel-antagonising boos, but the fans fail to ‘bring the noise’.

While on the subject of noise, that is exactly what commentators Michael Cole and Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler continue to be: repetitious, segmented garbage. 2K’s NBA offering delivers the best and most fluid commentary of any sports game, but what is available here are a series of isolated phrases which sound terrible and are often out of context. An example of many: The Shield entered the ring to boos from the crowd, as most heels do, leading The King to exclaim “listen to these cheers!”. Either Jerry is in denial or the audio needs a drastic makeover.

Once the bell rings, it’s clear 2K wanted to deliver a more measured, realistic wrestling match, but sadly, sucked the fun out of the game attempting to do so. ‘Chain wrestling’ is new to the early part of matches, a glorified rock-paper-scissors which attempts to stop the proverbial immediately hitting the fan. What this actually does is dilute every match with the same monotonous opening. It’s the same sequence of events every time. In wrestling there are different openers, including wristlock tests of strength, back-and-forth arm drags, neither of which are present here. You’ll be seeing the same headlock and belly-to-back throws time and again. These sequences continue until one wrestler loses his or her first bar of stamina, too, so every attempt to actually pull off a move often ends in frustration as you rotate the right stick frantically trying to end this tiresome feature.

Stamina is a prominent concern throughout, with every action now depleting the bar. The trouble with this is it slows down the whole encounter, and can often be at odds with the other bars in play (health and momentum). Wrestlers will stand over motionless bodies just to get a breather and build up enough energy to perform their finishers. Or you’ll completely destroy an opponent’s health only to be both be sprawled out on the mat simply because you’re tired. It doesn’t reflect what has taken place.

These attempts to slow down the wrestling neglect the very idea of what WWE games should be. The best part of older entries was creating as much havoc in the ring with as many wrestlers and instruments of pain as possible: highlights such as TLC matches with more ladders than B&Q, where every attempt to climb was quickly met with a 15-foot drop as a friend pushed the legs out from under you. You won’t encounter any such insanity in 2K15. I can’t think of a single moment that brought anything close to excitement. You’ll simply get to the point where you’re glad the match is over, and fail to remember what happened upon reflection.

This sense of slogging your way through WWE 2K15 translates to MyCareer mode, too. Much like the rest of the game, the creation suite has been decimated. You’ll have a hard time creating anything outside of standard short/tall/fat/thin guy, with just a few outfits to furnish him with. Oh, and anyone hoping to create a Diva, you’re out of luck: much like create-a-finisher, arena or belt, the option doesn’t exist. Once you’ve created your superstar, you’ll find yourself in an exhaustive drag through a career which is mainly lived through social media and other walls of text rather than in the ring. The cutscenes which are actually included are uncomfortably mute, although NXT trainer Bill DeMott does a good job of highlighting why, as his dialogue borders on the intolerable. I don’t think many WWE fans recount the times in which The Undertaker posted a funny GIF on social media: the time he threw Mankind off the top of a Hell in a Cell is probably a little more memorable.

2K15 also fails to deliver online. Rather than be able to search for a specific match type, the game has “Background Matchmaking”, where you can prioritise which wrestlers and events you want to use and to take part in. The trouble is this not only limits choice, and rarely gives you anything other than the first option (which sounds good in theory, but after your third straight match as Cena, it’s a bore), but also severely restricts what you’re able to do while the game finds an opponent.

While matchmaking is switched on, you can only sit in either the main menu or take part in quick play. Jumping into MyCareer or Showcase mode will turn it off. This means you’ll be sat on your phone browsing for a good few minutes while waiting for anything to happen. It’s not worth having a quick offline ‘rassle, as when a match is found you’ll be booted out, with all progress lost in the process.

Disconnecting from an opponent before the fight started was a frequent occurrence, and lag became a major issue, making reversals pretty much impossible. Fans of multiplayer should stick to local play, as you’ll only end up frustrated playing online.

WWE 2K15 has made a lot of sacrifices for little gain. The depleted roster, stripped-back creation suite and restrictive wrestling all in the name of a visual upgrade fail to capture the most important aspects of the real-world franchise: excitement and entertainment. While some may prefer the more realistic approach to wrestling, when I pick up a pad I want to be able to play the most ridiculous form of sports entertainment available. This is a place where a 77-year-old Mae Young was powerbombed through a table by The Dudley Boyz, before she gave birth to a rubber hand… common sense cannot exist in this world.