WWE 2K24 is out amid the wrestling promotion’s WrestleMania season, it’s biggest event of the year.
If only it’s celebration of it was more festive.
WWE 2K games often have a Showcase Mode that features specific matches from a certain wrestler that players can experience for themselves. Think of this as a playable documentary that mixes gameplay graphics with actual footage from the matches.
Last year featured prominent losses from John Cena’s 20-year career and this year features matches from the 40-year history of WrestleMania.
On paper, this sounds like a blast and I was particularly excited for a stroll down memory lane with WrestleMania. Execution, however, was rough all around.
Let’s start with some good aspects.
WWE commentator Corey Graves narrates the matches and their context. He does a great job at this as I expected since he does fantastic work on TV.
The matches themselves are fun and an interesting way to revisit this historic premium live event. Not only do you get iconic matchups but you get to play as wrestlers from the past such as Bret Hart, Rick Rude, and Hulk Hogan.
What makes these matches rough is presentation and gameplay.
Gameplay is your standard WWE 2K outing with some added objectives to fully beat the match. You only need to win the match to unlock the next one, but if you want all the unlockables, you’ll need to complete all objectives in order.
Each match has over 10 objectives that you must finish in order and to completion. You can’t move onto the next objectives until you beat the ones in front of you. If you lose the match while doing objectives, you have to start all over.
This might seem like a fun challenge, but it borderlines on tedious and mundane. Many of the objectives are “perform three light combos” or “deal out X amount of damage.”
These objectives wouldn’t be so bad if the difficulty on the computer wasn’t ramped up. Make one false move and the computer will be merciless. I was Hulk Hogan against Andre the Giant and there were times I couldn’t land single hit in and he pinned me.
I’ve seen many suggest playing this on easy to lower the challenge and enjoy the experience. The challenge with that is the experience isn’t anything special either.
Again, the idea of a playable documentary is fantastic and one I’m interested in. What we get in Showcase Mode is none of the original commentary, half the faces and logos are blurred out, and stock music playing while you fight.
I’ve watched many of these matches on Peacock or live and the game versions are shadows of what they were. I get that there are some legal hoops to jump through with airing the original footage, but there’s got to be an alternative.
The idea for Showcase Mode is a great one. It needs a lot of polishing in future installments, especially because it’s the main selling point for people to the game each year.
Sports games can fall into a rut where each year doesn’t justify the price of the edition. WWE 2K is unique because its Showcase Mode is different each year and features interesting ideas albeit with rough execution.
Some improvements I would like to see if maybe dropping the actual footage all together. Sure, it’s a great idea but not if you have to blur half the screen.
This would free up more use of game animations to fill the gaps. It won’t look as nice but it would free up the blurry problem. It would also allow for current commentators to maybe provide a voice over to the match instead of the stock music.
I love WWE 2K24 and think it does a lot right. Overall, it’s a solid game that I will be in and out of for the next year. That said, it’s Showcase Mode needs some work and improving it can add to a solid gaming experience.
What do you think? Did you enjoy WWE 2K24‘s Showcase Mode? How would you improve it? What did you enjoy most about it? Let us know in the comments below or head over to our Discord channel to join the conversation.
Featured Image: 2K (via Dexterto)
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