Posted in: Movies, Video Games | Tagged: entertainment, playstation 4, video games, WWE 2K15

Underwhelmed – Dedicated Discussions Reviews WWE 2K15

Published Tue, 25 Nov 2014 19:30:10 -0600

By Jeremy Konrad

I have been a wrestling fan my entire life. Part of that fandom has included buying wrestling magazines, action figures, and playing the various video games over the years. Wrestling video games have always been special to me. The old THQ games for Nintendo 64, the first few Smackdown games on my PlayStation, up to WWE 13 (I liked it!) on my PS3, I love them all. Grab some pizza, have some friends over, and commence mayhem. Screw Mario Party; I think wrestling games are more fun.

So it was with great anticipation that I got my hands on WWE 2K15 for PlayStation 4 this week. First things first, it looks pretty good, but not GREAT. Stars like John Cena and Randy Orton (surprise) look phenomenal. But looking at a guy like Rusev or Big Show, and they have some muddy-looking faces going on, and some proportions are pretty off. The Divas are a disaster. Hair looks like a molded piece with knives at the end, and they suffer from the same putty face issues.

As far as modes and character selection, that's where it really starts to underwhelm. Something that always bugs most people: the roster is far from complete. While it is nice to see guys like Rusev, Sami Zayn, and main roster debuts from The Wyatt Family, there are some notable absences like Zach Ryder, Christian, and Sin Cara. Why not just throw everyone in there, and I don't mean as Season Pass content like Paige or preorder bonuses like Sting. Seriously: why would you make Sting a bonus? He is one of the main selling points of the whole game! They put this out to get people excited! Just put them all in there!

The biggest slashes come in the create-a-wrestler mode. You can no longer create finishers, arenas, or Divas, for that matter. Entrances are customizable, but barely. Cutting the available create-a-wrestler spots to 25 is also quite limiting. MYCareer mode is pretty fun, but my character didn't do many exciting things and still rose through the ranks from NXT to the main roster like it didn't matter that he kept losing. Universe mode is there, and it does just enough to hold your attention. The standout for me is Showcase mode, which uses archival footage to highlight two rivalries: Shawn Michaels/ Triple H and John Cena/ CM Punk. It is fun reliving all of those moments and playing through the matches, and hopefully they deliver more of these experiences through their…sigh…season pass.

As far as gameplay, again, it is ok, but not great. Moves are very sluggish; I got really sick of hitting my finisher and it taking forever to actually go for the pin. The chain grappling is very annoying, and if anyone can figure out the counter system I would love to hear how they did it. There is no rhyme or reason to it whatsoever. The only nice part about the grappling system is that it slows the beginning of the matches down a bit and they are not just slugfests that wear you out after only two minutes. The stamina meter returns in this game, and I for one love it. It provides opportunities for some serious comebacks and momentum swings, coming pretty close to an actual match. Not enough effort was placed on making the game more fluid looking though; there are still quite a few moments where it takes forever to even throw a punch, and any kind of offense off the ropes takes way too long to develop.

All that being said, I still found the game quite enjoyable to play. Far from flawless, WWE 2K15 still has its moments. While this game feels a little incomplete, I am willing to give them a pass since it is their first stab at making a WWE game. Unfortunately, that will not benefit those of us playing this year's edition. Next year should be great. Until then, I would wait for it to be on discount or a pick up a used copy.

3 out of 5 stars

DISCLAIMER: For review purposes, the games being reviewed are played on the Normal, or "medium" difficulty and upped to a higher difficulty when necessary. All games being reviewed have been played to completion, or had an adequate amount of time spent with them to provide a thorough review.

Jeremy Konrad is the Senior Star Wars correspondent for Bleeding Cool. He is also the co-host of The Dedicated Server. Talk games, wrestling, or mostly Star Wars with him on Twitter @jeremyohio

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