Five superstars were going at it in the ring, for a chance to star in the main event of Wrestlemania. The countdown clock came on. As the clock counted down from ten, I was anxious to see who it was. This was my first Royal Rumble, mind you. Leading up to the Rumble, I had lost 3 mini-rumbles and won a singles match. That I was on a bad streak was putting it lightly, and I was more than nervous. But the 17th superstar to enter was none other than me, Phantom. I wasted no time, eliminating three people in quick succession. And then I picked and chose my opponents from the back of the action. Like a vulture, I swooped in and nailed my signature move, an inverted DDT, and then threw my unfortunate victims over the top rope. I was on fire right up until it was me and the last survivor, Cesaro. Four attempts to throw me over the top failed, before I finally eliminated Cesaro and stamped my name on the bill for the main event of the grandest stage of them all.
Take-Two Interactive has now produced two WWE games since buying the license from a failing THQ, the latest being this year’s WWE 2K15. Last year’s game (my review here) was a nostalgic trip down memory lane for old pro wrestling fans like myself, but lacked an evolving campaign. 2K15 tries to remedy that by adding MyCareer mode on Xbox One and Playstation 4.
MyCareer let me build my wrestler from scratch, starting off my career in a development camp. I didn’t have any problems designing a large, long haired, pierced, and well-muscled character. There seemed to be less options than games had years ago, but I forgave them for that when I actually played a few matches (I’ll get back to that). Of course, constructing the moveset is what takes the longest, still, and after 12 hours in MyCareer, I still haven’t finished setting all the moves.
The path from the development camp to the final show, Raw, is a long one. At 12 hours, I was just promoted from Smackdown to Raw. Most of the time, it was week after week of Vicki Guerrero saying “I don’t have anything for you, pick one of these two matches”. Occasionally, something would happen and a small storyline would start, but it always seemed to peter off after a few weeks. I was never once involved in a long storyline that spanned multiple PPV’s.
In fact, once I was given a title shot against Cena, won by count out, was told by Cena via a social message “I’ll win my title back!”, but back at the main menu for MyCareer it said Randy Orton defeated Cena at the PPV. I don’t understand how that all worked out, but soon after, I was thrown into a Royal Rumble angle so it worked out for me anyways. But the message was wrong.
Despite the lack of actual meat to MyCareer, I actually loved taking a character from nothing and making him into an unstoppable beast. I wish it had some statistics to it, because I would like to see how many matches I have won and lost, and more importantly how many people I threw out in the Royal Rumble. But MyCareer has some real potential for the developers to build upon, and it was the mode I played the most and enjoyed the most.
WWE Universe returns, letting you plot out storylines and play through computer-generated matches. And there’s an online mode, of course, but having a peer-to-peer network connection is always a bad idea when precision and timing is needed. I played a whopping two matches, one of which with no other internet activity than my game and it was still a laggy mess.
One of the other new modes is Showcases, a step up from last years “30 Years of Wrestlemania”. Each of the two Showcases focuses on a specific rivalry, one between John Cena and CM Punk and the other between Shawn Michaels and Triple-H. Both have excellent presentation, and even though I followed the Michaels/Triple-H rivalry back in the day, it was great to watch it unfold again. The matches even recreate the set pieces in each match, right down to things like Triple-H destroying Michaels with a chair. These are usually triggered by an on-screen request like “Hit Sweet Chin Music”, and then a short in-engine video of the event happening.
The game modes aren’t the only improvement this year. With the jump to more powerful consoles, character movement throughout the match has drastically changed. This was why I forgave them for the lack of customization choices. Depending on where you are in the ring, you might try to pull yourself up by the ropes if you’re exhausted and trying to get up. If hitting your finisher depletes your stamina, you will most likely drop to a knee and stagger afterwards. Those changes drastically enhance the overall experience, and are littered throughout each match.
Even though the MyCareer lacks major substance, WWE’s entrance onto current-gen consoles is still a win.The major improvements to match presentation, the new Showcases, and just the fact that there is finally a career mode again are all positives that drown out the game’s lesser qualities. Yet, I still find myself wishing the game could firm up that career mode, so it could climb back into the ring and go toe-to-toe with the other big hitters in the sports genre.
This review was written with material provided by the publisher on the Xbox One console. For more on our review process, please read here.
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