Hi, and we’re back with another game, today we will be doing a WWE 2K22 review. I will be giving you my first impressions, some pros, and some cons of the game.
Today, we’re taking a quick look at “WWE 2K22.” Now, we’ve been covering these games for quite a while now. And last year, the yearly franchise actually took a year off.
This newer style of 2K wrestling game was never perfect but it felt like it was seriously starting to drop off, with the quality and the amount of content kind of roller coaster with each release.
“2K20” was really rough. Thankfully, it seems like taking a year off did them some good because this one is much more solid.
It’s not perfect, but it’s on its way back.
It also has a lot of microtransactions. So, yeah, let’s just dive in.
WWE 2K22 Review
At the base level, the real meat, you know, the gameplay, this is where the game is much stronger.
Just base-level wrestling matches are so fun to play now, where previous games leaned hard into the realistic technical simulation, in some aspects of the gameplay, it wasn’t always fun.
Now, it takes some of those concepts and makes them faster and more engaging.
Grappling is more simplified and less awkward, reversals are still in the same way, but striking is vastly improved, with cool combos and the ability to chain those into insane over-the-top grapples.
Most of those annoying submission mini-games and like weird little extra things you gotta worry about on the HUD, by your health bar, all that stuff is gone, which is great because I did not like a lot of that stuff at all, and it just works to keep matches still very much like push and pull and give and take, but way more entertaining to execute.
I wouldn’t say it’s dumbed down, but slightly streamlined and a better balance of technicalness, and just good old arcade-style brawling.
There’s still a level of mastery required, but it’s much easier to just jump in and get doing cool shit.
To me, it feels like the best playing modern WWE 2K game.
You know, that might not be saying much for some people but I found it just way more straight-up fun compared to other reason games.
It’s still not perfect. Some aspects like positioning stuff can be frustrating.
There’s some clipping sometimes with some weird glitchiness, but, overall, the raw gameplay is the best part of the game.
Then, of course, there’s all the modes, all the content.
WWE 2K22: My GM Mode
Now, we don’t have time to get into all of them too deeply but it’s notable to point out that GM Mode is back in. It’s called My GM. It’s been a while.
This lets you kind of manage out a whole WWE campaign by picking a character, Forming a roster, organizing fights and lineups and rivalries, and marketing.
And it might be cool if you’re a big wrestling nerd.
I don’t know how much depth it really has for longevity, but it’s there if you want it.
Then there’s also Showcase Mode.
This time around, it’s focusing on the complete career history of Rey Mysterio.
Now, I love these modes. I really love the Stone Cold one a few years back.
Showcase Mode is like a sequence of matches based on real matches throughout wrestling history that are broken up with documentary-style clips with Rey Mysterio actually narrating the whole thing and talking you through his career.
The way it flips between gameplay and classic wrestling footage, just straight up, for me, never gets old.
And the curated matches are fun.
The only problem is that this time around, it really, really focuses on like wanting you to do exact specific moves and positions to progress, and it kind of breaks the flow a little bit sometimes because sometimes that stuff is tricky or finicky to pull off.
But, still, the Showcase Mode, even just as a concept, continues to be pretty awesome for me, personally.
I’ve kind of found myself like, even with a lot of these games having problems, always just looking forward to seeing who they’re gonna highlight in the next showcase mode.
WWE 2K22 Review: My Rise Mode
Also, My Rise is here again as kind of like a career progression story mode.
With cut scenes and decisions to make, a morality system, and customization, it’s way less cringeworthy than it has been in the past, but, you know, it’s still not great.
There are now separate career paths for both male and female fighters, which is really cool, and the character creator is once again here to make whatever weird character you want.
It’s not quite as deep as I was hoping, and loading in the items takes way too long and kills the fun a little bit, but, yeah.
Still, the ability to create a bunch of stuff, more than just your character, is nice.
You can spend a lot of time in all that. And, once again, if you’re into it, it’s mostly worth it.
Now, that My Rise mode itself, as I said, is really for die-hard WWE
fans who just love the whole, I don’t know, corporation or whatever, but it’s really ugly to look at.
The voice acting is okay, thankfully, but the characters are awkward and glitchy, and sometimes, it’s just painful.
And that’s a shame because most of the time, like, in just regular old matches, the visuals are pretty decent.
You know, in certain lighting, it can still look a little off but, mostly, characters sweat, they get bruised, they have muscle definition and some really good animations, and, yeah, every so often, characters like will float a little bit off the ground or clip, But most of the time, there are some really impressive moves going off and seamlessly chaining together, all while the camera angle will like sometimes shift from more cinematic views.
The presentation is simple and good and technically wise, even if it’s got some bumps here and there, it’s not a complete disaster like previous games.
My Faction Mode
Then there’s My Faction mode, which is kind of like an NBA 2K My Team mode, I think, it’s called, Or like FIFA Ultimate Team Mode.
So yeah, that’s what you need to know. It’s basically micro-transaction mode. This stuff, straight up, does not appeal to me at all.
Like, it just wants you to spend more money and I’m not really interested in that at all.
Microtransactions here and like some wrestlers being able to be unlocked in a store, just really sours the taste here, man.
I thought we were getting better about this stuff but I guess not, at least not for 2K.
This makes the game feel like kind of a step backward.
And it’s a shame because they finally figured out that core gameplay and made it actually fun.
So I do think “WWE 2K22” does go beyond being another just yearly release.
They took feedback and made a significantly better game but it still has more to go.
WWE 2K22 Review: Conclusion
The microtransactions are not good.
And as much as there are a bunch of modes and the ability to create your own stuff, your mileage with each individual mode or thing will vary depending on what type of player you are.
If they keep going from here, it can only get better, but will it ever reach the heights of those awesome THQ games? You know, all those awesome wrestling games from N64 up to like PlayStation 2? I don’t know.
That is of course me as an older school fan with different wants and expectations.
I think there are a lot of different types of people that enjoy wrestling and probably want different things out of the games.
So this is the WWE 2k22 Review and I gave you some pros, some cons, and some personal opinions.
Now, that you know about the game, we wanna hear from you in the comments.
Like, what are you thinking? Did you jump in? Have you been burned too many times by WWE 2K games and you’re still holding off? I totally understand where you’re coming from.
There have been some rough ones in the last few years.
If you have jumped into this one, do you think it’s done enough to really kind of win you back over as a customer, as a fan, as a player, whatever? Are you okay with the microtransactions or do you dislike them as much as we do? Let’s talk about anything WWE 2K down in the comments.
We’d love to hear your favorite of the 2K franchises, really anything. So let us know.
You can also reach out to us on Twitter.
