WWE 2K24 Review

ign.com:

The pressure of an annual release schedule can be a curse for big sports series like WWE 2K - look no further than the maligned 2K20 to see why, a game so rough it actually forced publisher 2K to take two years off and regroup, which led to the redesign that got it to the much better place it’s in today. In many ways, WWE 2K24 seems like the final form of this new vision for the series. Some nagging bugaboos persist, like this year’s Showcase mode that suffers from the inability to recreate genuine moments in wrestling history in video game form, while also trying to rewrite that history. And yet, It’s marginally better in almost every other way than the last two, touting small but smart additions to well-tested systems and modes as opposed to taking bigger risks.

It doesn’t take long to see that the title for “Best Looking Wrestling Game” is still locked firmly in the hands of the 2K series. There are far fewer wrestlers that have outdated gimmicks this time around, and besides a couple noticeable exceptions, all of the top stars look just like their real-life counterparts, from their signature hair dos to the details of their gear and tattoos. The few that are clear misses, like Bayley, make you wonder if they even used the same tech to get people like Asuka so right. Announcers who have special flourishes for particular wrestlers also belt them out here, so Samantha Irving’s nasally “ChElSeA GrEeEeEnNnN” lives immortalized in this game. Referees even resemble the ones you can see on weekly television instead of just generic stand-ins, which was maybe not a necessary change but is a welcome one considering they are also recurring characters, even if they aren’t the center of attention.

When you dig past the looks and into its mechanics, you’ll need to sift through 2K24 with a fine-toothed comb to find significant differences between this and last year’s edition. The biggest addition is the Super Finisher, which lets you spend three finisher stocks to do a bigger,