Review | WWE 2K22 - Can You Smell What Visual Concepts Is Cooking?

The story of WWE 2K22 really begins with 2019’s WWE 2K20 - a game so flawed that 2K took a two and a half year break from the once-yearly series. Yearly franchises taking time off have become more common in the past few years. Sometimes, you get an Assassins Creed where it takes the extra dev time to reinvent itself with positive results. Alternatively, you get series’ like Battlefield where it seems like the developers never really realised the series needed a break in the first place and wind up with a game that is simply different but no better. WWE 2K22 thankfully lands on the positive side, successfully utilising the extra time to make what is undoubtedly the best WWE game under the 2K Sports banner. However, as with almost all WWE games, there are some bumps they haven't quite smoothed out.

Some people call football “the beautiful game” but I think nothing is as breathtaking as 2K20.

WWE 2K22 marks the series’ debut on the Playstation 5 and Series X/S and brings along with it a slate of gameplay improvements. The core gameplay has been overhauled from the now-stale systems of previous games. Rather than leaning into the performative nature of wrestling, 2K22 still presents the ultimate sports entertainment in a simulation style; however, the core mechanics now feel more in line with classic wrestling games. Controls have been stripped back to light, heavy, and grab attacks. The biggest improvement is the overhaul of the series’ defensive mechanics; ditching the reversal stock system (which basically became a game of whoever runs out first loses) in favour of a litany of new defensive moves. Because of this, the pace of matches is far more exciting than they have been in the past, leading to some seriously engaging match-ups; exactly the breath of fresh air the series has needed.

2K22 boasts a roster of over 150 wrestlers from the current day and past eras (although with how often WWE loves to trot out old wrestlers, they may as well be current too…). However, if you’ve followed WWE recently, no doubt you’ll have seen countless batches of talent being released - despite the company’s record profits. The result of this means that the game features a large percentage of wrestlers no longer with the company, most notably the game is home to current AEW stars; Keith Lee and Kyle O'Reilly. Outside of that elephant in the room, the roster features most of the faces you would expect, like Becky Lynch, The Rock, and John Cena (sadly, without his Peacemaker costume). Most of these wrestlers are rendered extremely well, with folks like Alexa Bliss and Steve Austin looking near-identical to their real-life counterparts. However - this being a WWE game - you do get the odd weird looking model like Sami Zayn or the current day version of Shawn Michaels, however. Granted, at least there’s nothing as bad as the monstrosities that were some of 2K20’s models - which is either a big positive or huge negative depending on how you look at things.

The game's main campaign mode is MYRise, which does as most modern wrestling game story modes do, and follows your created character’s career through the ranks of the WWE. Starting out at the performance centre and chronicling your rise to the top of the WWE, in your pursuit of the World Championship. MyRise also offers you a separate campaign for both male and female wrestlers, a first for the 2K series.

As opposed to the more linear career modes of past entries, MyRise allows the player more freedom in choosing which storylines they pursue at any time. While this bodes well for multiple playthroughs, a side effect of this is that sometimes it leads to large continuity errors. For example, minutes after winning the NXT North American Title, I had William Regal offering me a place in a tournament for people who have never had a title shot.

Overall MyRise is a great improvement on the career mode format over the one that was seen in past entries. You’re free to fully customise your character's moves from the start, along with a heavily streamlined upgrade system. The ability to choose which storylines to pursue and the good/evil alignment that comes with them opens up a whole range of possibilities to keep the mode entertaining throughout.

Editor’s note: I know very little about wrestling so writing captions for this images is going to be a challenge, huh?

Another of the series’ campaign modes returns this year with the latest 2K Showcase. For those unaware; 2K Showcase acts as a retelling of real-life events and wrestlers in the history of WWE. While past entries have focused on the careers of Daniel Bryan and Steve Austin, 2K22’s showcase follows cover star Rey Mysterio from his fantastic Halloween Havoc ‘97 and Wrestlemania 21 matches with Eddie Guererro, all the way through to his first-ever tag team win with his son, Dominik at Payback 2020. These are spliced with interviews with the man himself about the matches, and moments featured in the showcase, as well as footage from the matches spliced in during the gameplay - once again, narrated by Mysterio himself.

As someone who grew up with Rey being my favourite wrestler, I found some of the omissions to be shocking. Not only do you not get his first Royal Rumble win and subsequent World Title win at Wrestlemania 22, it omits his run at ECW entirely. Moments like these define Rey’s career in my eyes, so it's disappointing to not see them represented here. Obviously, they likely have reasons for these omissions (Chris Benoit features quite prominently in the 2006 Rumble, for example) but it’s nonetheless disappointing.

If you like watching short clips of matches from a handful of years ago, boy, does 2K have the game for you.

Sadly, it feels like 2K have not learned from their past showcase efforts, as the major faults persist all these years later. Pacing in matches has always felt a bit off, with the game rarely letting you just wrestle for stretches of the match. The main offender of this is the mode's insistence on snatching controls away from you for long stretches. This feels like it's gotten even worse with the use of real-life footage; the Rey vs Shawn match starts with throwing a single punch and then sitting through over a minute of footage before regaining control. Showcase remains a good historical piece - which makes it worth going through - but the mode's persistent issues make the act of playing these matches a bit of a slog.

Making its long-awaited return to the WWE 2K series for the first time since Smackdown Vs Raw 2008 is a GM mode. GM mode puts you in charge of one of WWE’s weekly shows. Firstly drafting your chosen roster, then managing your shows and talent throughout a select amount of weeks to garner higher ratings than your rival by Wrestlemania. This mode can be played against an AI opponent or through local multiplayer (sadly, with no online option, as had been reported before).

One of the first things that struck me while playing this mode is how it simultaneously makes great improvements to the format while also being stripped-back. You’re sure to notice that you can only have two champions per brand, the World and Women’s titles, making you unable to have mid-card belts or tag championships. The next major omission you’re likely to notice is you are only able to book singles or tag team bouts; that means no multi-man matches, which is something that players could do in the mode’s debut, 17 years ago.

I image this is how Vince McMahon see the world.

However, 2K22’s iteration of GM Mode features a major new mechanic in the form of the power card system; allowing you to use consumable cards to do things like help wrestlers heal from injuries faster, reduce costs for your crew or lighting setups and even debuff your opponent by taking their stars out of the picture or upping the costs of their show. Each GM and Show comes with unique cards to give you the edge over your rival; this makes your choices at the outset feel more important than just the cosmetic changes between brands. The power cards offer an interesting spin on the game mode and make it feel far more dynamic than it was in games past.

With the inclusion of a GM mode, you may be wondering why 2K would keep the series’ WWE Universe mode around. 2K clearly thought this too, as alongside the classic style of Universe mode is the inclusion of the new ‘superstar mode’ which limits you to the control of a single character, effectively working as another solo campaign. If you disliked universe mode before; classic mode is unlikely to change your mind as it remains fairly unchanged, and superstar mode - while a neat idea - feels a bit pointless in the face of the more curated MyRise.

I was going to say wrestling fans probably won’t love a game mode focused on menus and management but then I remember this is the fanbase that still argues about cable TV ratings on a regular basis.

New to the series is MyFaction: WWE 2K’s take on the Ultimate Team mode in which you collect cards to form your very own boy stable. This offline-only mode offers 3 game modes, Proving Grounds: which is effectively the campaign mode. Faction Wars: a 4 v 4 tag match where you take on another faction; and Weekly Towers: constantly updated challenge towers to take your superstars through. If you’ve played these modes in other sports games, you have a pretty good idea of what to expect. Weekly and daily challenges allow you to earn two of the mode's three currencies (with the third being a paid currency).

There’s a reason these card collection modes are in every sports game now; it adds longevity to the game that it would not usually have. The problem with MyFaction, however, is that it feels almost unfinished in a way. No online functionality in the mode removes most of the incentive to really build your team up when you can’t show them off. MyFaction has the potential to be great, (especially when it’s the only part of the game to get consistent updates). But it feels like we will have to wait for it to be expanded on 2K23 until it gets there.

Can you guess who makes up like 30% of the created characters by fans?

Of course you can.

Historically, one of the most enjoyable things about the WWE series was using its in-depth character creation suite to make everything from recreations of wrestlers who didn’t make the roster; to unspeakable horrors beyond human comprehension. The last time WWE games made a generational leap with WWE 2K15, most of the creation suite was gutted, with only the bare minimum included. Thankfully - this time around - the generational leap did not ruin the customisation, as all of the elements slowly integrated into the games over the eighth generation console releases return for 2K22.

It only took them nine years, but Visual Concepts has finally got there with WWE 2K22. Not only is this the best WWE game under the 2K banner, but it's also arguably the best one in the main series since the PS2 era games. 2K22 is a great package with a strong selection of game modes and the best core combat in the series. If they manage to flesh out the GM and Faction modes and clean up some of the smaller issues the series has, WWE 2K23 could be something truly special.