It may sound like a broken record every year to say the new WWE 2K game is the best installment yet, but Visual Concepts’ commitment to improving the overall game experience every year has consistently shown it to be true, and WWE 2K24 thankfully continues that streak.
It should go without saying that WWE 2K24’s visual presentation continues to be top-notch, making sure to mimic the spectacle of a WWE show, from the bright lights, brighter pyro, and larger-than-life personalities that inhabit it. The character designs and animations are impressively realistic, being nearly 100% identical to their real-life counterparts. I even love how the accuracy in showing the wear and tear on a wrestler’s body the longer matches go on, as face-painted wrestlers like the Ultimate Warrior can have that make-up mostly smeared off by the end of a match or bloodied wrestlers will stain the ring that stain and continue celebrating at the end despite having a huge gash.
That being said, nothing’s perfect, and the glitches that I feel are ever-present in this franchise are still around. Titles will still jitter and phase through jackets during entrances. An awkward landing can possibly have a wrestler sink into the ring for a few seconds. There was even a moment when I was playing a match, and I accidentally leaned a table on a turnbuckle right as Charlotte Flair walked next to it, trapping her inside the table until I lifted it again. None of them is particularly game-breaking, and most of them are downright hilarious, but they are still worth mentioning.
The basic gameplay itself continues to build upon the foundation of the arcade-y, combo-based combat system introduced in WWE 2K22. Players can use light and heavy strikes and grapples to build combos, submissions and high-flying moves to inflict damage on their opponents. You do have to keep an eye on your stamina, as rushing too many moves at once can leave you tired and open to counter-attack. It’s mostly unchanged from the last two games, but it’s still easy for newcomers to pick up and play.
“It should go without saying that WWE 2K24’s visual presentation continues to be top notch, making sure to mimic the spectacle of a WWE show, from the bright lights, brighter pyro, and larger-than-life personalities that inhabit it.”
There are a few new notable additions that add new wrinkles to players’ movesets. On top of new Payback abilities, filling all 3 finishers meters in a character allows access to ultra-powerful Super Finishers, a Trading Blows mini-game that has you going punch-for-punch replicating the back-and-forth duels between exhausted wrestlers, and my personal favorite: throwable weapons. I can’t tell you the amount of times I cried laughing by flinging a steel chair or garbage can in the face of an opponent across the ring. It truly never got old.
There is an absurd amount of new content across WWE 2K24. The game retains all the same match types from last year, expanded on some (Backyard Brawls can now allow four-player matchups, and online Royal Rumbles can fit 8 players in the ring at once), and brings along four new types. The Gauntlet match makes players compete in a series of 1-on-1 matches back-to-back, and is arguably the least interesting. Casket matches and Ambulance matches functionally work the same, where you win by tossing your opponent into said casket or ambulance; the latter of which being more fun thanks to the ability of climbing the ambulance and brawling on top of it.
However, easily the best of the bunch is the long-requested return of Special Referee matches, where players can choose one of the over 200 available Superstars, Legends, managers or even one of the several real-life WWE referees (like the greatest ref of all time,”Lil Naitch” Charles Robinson) to don the striped shirt and call a match themselves. Players can either be as impartial or as biased as they want. I had a blast being a jerk and suddenly calling rope breaks, even if the competitors were in the middle of the ring. The commentary will even hilariously make reference to your transgressions. However, there is a referee meter that will rise or lower based on your actions.
Calling the match fairly down the line will raise the meter, and actions like counting pins too fast or slow, ignoring submissions, or directly attacking the superstars will lower the meter. Emptying it entirely will call for the special ref to get ejected and replaced with a new ref. The meter can thankfully be disabled in the options, allowing you to be hilariously crooked to your heart’s content. Although special referee mode is sadly only available in 1v1 match-ups, I can see Visual Concepts adding tag-team matches by next year.
“There is an absurd amount of new content across WWE 2K24.”
This year’s Showcase Mode, titled “2K Showcase of the Immortals”, is a celebration of 40 years of WrestleMania, where you play through 21 notable matches from 16 different Manias across 4 decades. While most of the matches are the expected classics like Hulk Hogan/Andre The Giant at WrestleMania III or the Shawn Michaels/Razor Ramon ladder match from WrestleMania X, there are a few hidden gems that get the spotlight, like the under-appreciated Roddy Piper vs. Bret Hart match from WrestleMania VIII.
Each match is preceded with a fantastic intro video from commentator Corey Graves, providing historical context for each competitor leading to each match as well as narration during in-game cutscenes. 2K’s Slingshot Tech lets the game seamlessly jump back and forth between the in-game engine and archival footage of that same match, although those shifts can undercut the game. One instance during the Hogan/Andre match, Andre lifted a piece of protective mat to throw Hogan onto exposed concrete, but the moment Hogan was in the air, it reverted back to the engine, and the mat hilariously returned to its place, undercutting the supposed brutality of the attack.
In addition, as impressive as the transitions between the game and reality are, there are long gaps in the footage without Graves’ narration, where you’re hearing a piped-in crowd mixed in with audio from the match without the original commentary. This kills the momentum of what you’re playing. It also doesn’t help that nearly everything outside the match in said footage is blurred out. It’s understandable in some cases like brand logos or Superstars who currently work for rival promotions, but when even the referee’s faces are blurred, it becomes a matter of waiting for the game to start again.
Showcase Mode traditionally has always been more a one-off “wrestling history lesson” than replayable game type, but in comparison to WWE 2K23’s unique focus on John Cena’s losses or WWE 2K14’s earlier Mania-themed Showcase, where it featured at least one match from every WrestleMania from 1-29, WWE 2K24’s version falls disappointingly short of its potential.
“Out of all the modes across WWE 2K24, MyGM has gained the most noticeable upgrade.”
Thankfully, WWE 2K24 has a wealth of other modes to make up for it. Like last year, the narrative-driven MyRise mode is divided into two separate campaigns for male and female superstars. The “Undisputed” campaign has your male custom character chasing the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship after long-time champion Roman Reigns suddenly vacates the title for Hollywood, and “Unleashed” has your female custom character as the co-founder and top star of an indie promotion who finds herself joining the WWE.
In both games, you’ll navigate the world of the WWE by participating in matches, interacting with other Superstars, completing storylines and occasionally encountering branching paths that can change the course of the story and encourage replayability. While I wasn’t able to finish both campaigns at the time of review, I did have a fun time going through the stories. I should also note the Creation Suite is still as robust as ever, allowing you to create custom Superstars, entrances, titles, arenas and referees and fan signs held by the crowd.
Out of all the modes across WWE 2K24, MyGM has gained the most noticeable upgrade. The resource management mode added a new playable brand in ECW, as well as new GMs like Paul Heyman, William Regal and Teddy Long, each with their own exclusive abilities and power cards. Players need to manage budgets, book shows, and maintain Superstar morale in order to be the top brand.
On top of new available match types, players now have the option to trade Superstars and money after every PLE, hire Talent Scouts to scope out new talent, and the new Superstar Journey means that consistently booking certain superstars gives them Ring XP, which can upgrade their stats and give them bonuses. There’s also a GM assistant to keep up with injuries, commissioner goals, Superstar morale and more. It’s all overwhelming to keep up with, and my bad booking decisions made me drop to last, but it’s still a lot of fun to play with others, although there still isn’t any online capability.
In terms of the other modes that WWE 2K24 offers, Universe Mode is basically unchanged outside of the aforementioned match types, cutscenes and a Loser Leaves Town stipulation that can be added to rivalries. It’s still fun to simulate a year of shows and see how random the champions and rivalries can end up. Finally, while I rarely used the “Ultimate Team”-esque MyFaction mode, there are a few quality-of-life changes that fans of the mode will appreciate the ability to purchase individual cards of their choice instead of relying on packs and Persona cards (exclusive cards that unlock alternate versions of Superstars) are now available to access in the rest of the game once unlocked.
The last note comes down to personal taste, but I really hated WWE 2K24’s soundtrack. This year’s soundtrack was curated by Post Malone (who recently was announced as a future playable DLC), and while he did assemble a very eclectic soundtrack, compiling artists like Yeat, Turnstile, Tyler Childers and 100 gecs; but the only licensed song I ended up not muting after a short while was Busta Rhymes’ classic “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See”, the rest of my Jukebox consisting of various Superstar entrance themes. Granted, I haven’t been a big fan of the majority of WWE 2K’s soundtracks since WWE 2K18, so that is where your mileage will definitely vary.
While WWE 2K24 isn’t a massive change from last year’s edition, it thankfully doesn’t need to be. The combination of arcade-y gameplay mixed with sim-like presentation is the winning formula the WWE 2K franchise has needed for years, all while updating every mode with welcome quality-of-life changes or features I didn’t know I needed. It’s easily the best wrestling game on the market today and will probably continue to be until next year.
