WWE 2k15 thoughts

Hey guys, the game unlocked for me yesterday at midnight, and though I tried to stay up all night and play, I only made it to about 1 am. I created a character for MyCareer and played through a match or two but then had to go to bed. What can I say, I'm old. However, I did take today off of work, and have been playing the game for about eight hours so far. I have played all three modes in about equal measure, but for some damn reason the PS4 store hasn't updated with the accelerator yet, so I can't get Universe exactly how I wanted. Also, the 2k servers are down all day. Nice job you ass clowns. So, I'm not ready to give the game a full review, as I want to play through all of Showcase and two or three months of both Career and Universe before I offer a final verdict, but here are some preliminary thoughts:

The idea of MyCareer is awesome, and you are definitely invested in the guy you create. The game encourages you to put on interesting, exciting matches, and rewards you with more superstar points if you do. The graphics are incredible, and the sound of punches connecting and throwing guys to the mat has some real meat to it. The stamina system is a good addition as each match really does start to feel like it's own little epic contest. Though I haven't yet done it, I think it will be possible to tell really great stories within matches with the stamina system and an AI that is at least as good as 2k14. The one drawback of MyCareer is that it takes a while to get going. You get called up to NXT quickly, but then the matches get a lot tougher because your character is so weak. You have to grind through matches to get points to make your guy stronger. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because the matches are fun to play, but I think more could have been done in the presentation to make you feel like you were doing something more than fighting ANOTHER match to earn 300 superstar points to upgrade your stamina so you can beat the guy who just beat you.

The Showcase mode is really fun, but not much different from what was offered in 13 and 14. You play matches. You complete objectives. You unlock things. The presentation is cleaner this year, and the quicktime events flow more seamlessly into the actual match itself which is nice. I have played about half way through the HHH/HBK feud and am stuck on a 6 man tag match in which I have to pin Diesel with HHH. Booker T and HBK keep running in and disrupting my pin, and Flair and Jericho sit back and do nothing which is annoying. I'm sure there is a way to game the system here, but it doesn't seem like your teammates rush across the ring and take out the opposition when you hit a finisher which they did in 2k14.

Universe is similar to previous iterations as well. They have removed the option to interfere in a match which is annoying. They have these different stories you can unlock now, and it looks as though you can choose what kind of rivalry you want to create ala GM Mode in the SvR games of the past. That's a really cool idea, but I haven't played enough matches in Universe to really understand how it works. I've set my Universe up with RAW, NXT, and SD. Each brand has it's own title belt with the US belt on RAW, the IC belt on SD, and the tag belts on SD. Right now, I'm taking over Lesnar in a mission to beat Cena down and kick him to the back of the line for a title shot. I found a cool idea for Universe this year on some forum a while back. Instead of doing a universe draft after Wrestlemania I'm going to do relegations and promotions like in the EPL. So after Mania of the first year, the bottom four wrestlers on RAW will go to SD, and the best 4 on SD go to RAW. The 4 bottom on SD go to NXT, and the best 4 on NXT go to SD. The bottom 4 on NXT will be "retired" and 4 new guys will come in. I haven't decided if new guys will come in all at once or come in gradually throughout the year by starting feuds with established stars on that brand.

Anyway, I've had a blast playing the game today, and I'm really glad I have it, and I think it will provide me with hours and hours of fun ahead. I'm not really a big score guy, but the best game I've ever played is Skyrim. I don't think this game is as good as Skyrim in terms of presentation and attention to detail, but the replay value is huge because I'm such a huge Universe fan. I'm excited to play more of MyCareer, and really pumped to see what happens when I import friends CAWS so that they can interfere in my matches randomly. I'm looking forward to unlocking everything so I can set up my brands just how I want them, and I want the servers to get up so I can start CAW hunting. All in all, this game looks awesome, and if you're interested in wrestling and have a PS4 or XB1, I would heartily recommend it.

Update: MyCareer mode is quite hard. I was able to win the NXT championship quite quickly, but lost to Rusev in the very next match. Since then I'm on a 5 game losing streak. What's weird, is that the game keeps promoting you regardless of how the matches go. I mean, I'm getting sent up to Superstars, but Neville, Rusev, and Zayn, who all beat me are left in NXT? You just have to suspend your disbelief I guess. There aren't really any feuds to speak of as of yet, and I'm four hours in. You basically play matches against a variety of opponents who are usually better than you, and you try to not get your ass kicked. In my rematch against Rusev, we had a barn burner. I was able to hit him with my finisher outside of the ring. I rolled him in, but couldn't get back in before the ten count. It was like something you might see on TV. It would be nice if there were an option where you could just start with a medium powered character on Smackdown or Raw, and then got into feuds immediately. Back to the squared circle.

Update: The pin meter moves very quickly and can be tricky to kick out. I've lost a few matches on moves that I think I should kick out of, but miss the bar. While this is frustrating at times, it hasn't happened that I've lost a match too quickly because of the mechanic. Usually, it's because we've been having a match for about ten minutes or so, and then I get hit with an uppercut let's say, and I miss the bar on the first count, panic, miss again, and then it's over. However, just as frequently, I've been able to kick out of a finisher at like 2.9 seconds, which feels boss.

Universe mode is definitely improved in terms of its booking. Right now I've got rivalries turned on, and Cena and Lesnar are in a rivalry. It's been three weeks now, and in the first week, Brock distracted Cena during a match causing John to lose, then they had an extreme rules match against each other the next week, then in week three Cena came out and distracted Lesnar during his match causing him to lose. Interestingly, both of the other matches were against Orton, so he's picked up victories over the champ and the number one contender in the last three weeks. It would be epic if when I get to the PPV, it's a triple threat match, but I'm not sure the booking is THAT good. However, I'll probably make it a triple threat since Orton got the job done.

Update: MyCareer is a really fun mode, but does take some grinding. I've made it to Superstars and win about 50 percent of my matches, but generally score at least three star matches. Vicki tells me she's thinking about putting me on a PPV, so puts in a match against Mark Henry to determine my worth. Needless to say, I get squashed like the jobber I am. I've never had so much fun getting my ass kicked. Knowing I was probably going to get beat down, it was great trying to dodge Henry's attacks and get in some brief offense of my own. After the match, Vicki told me it was a terrible match which it was from a fan's point of view, and I'm back to grinding it out again. What I like about the mode is that after a few matches of grind, you get an opportunity to do something. If you win, then you rise up a bit, if you lose, you go grind some more.

Update: Tag matches seem broken to me. I have found it almost impossible to gain a pinfall on my opponent because his partner(s) keep running into the ring faster than my guys. 2k14 did this really well, as the CPU would see you getting ready for a finisher and go and knock down the opposition. That doesn't happen in this game, which means that you have to hit a finisher then go and knock the other guy off yourself, and then go and try to pin your opponent before they get up. This is all quite difficult, especially if you are low on stamina since you can't move around quickly. The only consistent way I've found to win is to get a guy in a submission hold when they are red, and hope that they tap out quickly before their buddy can run in to save the day. I have never had my partner stop someone from breaking up a match. This is annoying and makes me not want to play tag matches. In fact, I stripped the Usos of the belts and deleted the titles out of Universe since it was frustrating me so much. I want to do a tag division but I'm going to look around and see if others have found a solution before re-establishing teams in my Universe.

DullChameleon wrote:

Update: Tag matches seem broken to me.  I have found it almost impossible to gain a pinfall on my opponent because his partner(s) keep running into the ring faster than my guys.  2k14 did this really well, as the CPU would see you getting ready for a finisher and go and knock down the opposition.  That doesn't happen in this game, which means that you have to hit a finisher then go and knock the other guy off yourself, and then go and try to pin your opponent before they get up.  This is all quite difficult, especially if you are low on stamina since you can't move around quickly.  The only consistent way I've found to win is to get a guy in a submission hold when they are red, and hope that they tap out quickly before their buddy can run in to save the day.  I have never had my partner stop someone from breaking up a match.  This is annoying and makes me not want to play tag matches.  In fact, I stripped the Usos of the belts and deleted the titles out of Universe since it was frustrating me so much.  I want to do a tag division but I'm going to look around and see if others have found a solution before re-establishing teams in my Universe.  

I'm not sure if it's possible on xbox one or on 2k15, but when I was playing tag matches in 2k14, I'd hit the finisher on the guy I was wrestling, then press back and switch to my partner as the finisher was being hit, so I could smack the other guy off the apron, then switch back to the one who hit the finisher and go for the pinfall. That might be a pretty solid solution for you if it works.

That's a good idea. I didn't know you could switch to your partner any time you want. Thanks.

Update: I've put in about 20 hours into the game now, and I can say it's the best wrestling game I've played. It's definitely a bare bones version of what we are used to in the last two or three games in the series, but the gameplay is so damn good, the AI is difficult and aggressive (especially on Legend with my reversals turned way down), and the graphics are amazing. So many of the wrestlers look incredible and their entrances and movements are so well replicated. The women look terrible so I'm not sure if they weren't scanned it or what, but I never play with divas so I don't care about that. Triple threat matches work well. I just had a triple threat between my guy, some random created character from 2k15, and Rusev. It didn't play like a handicap match. The AI didn't stand around and watch hardly at all, and Rusev even went out of the ring to grab a weapon at one point before the ref took it off him when he rolled into the ring. There were at least four or five false finishes, with kickouts or one of us barely breaking up the pin, and I even got the victory after kicking Rusev in the face, hitting my finisher on random blondie and going for the pin. The stamina system makes every match feel amazing. Showcase, MyCareer, and Universe are all good modes, and so if I get annoyed or bored with one, I can just switch over and be instantly interested again. My favorite mode is MyCareer, and though you have to grind it out to level up your guy, it never feels cheap when you lose, which you do a lot. I just finished my first PPV match which was great, and it really felt like I was moving slowly up in the company. The crowd reaction is quite good, they look amazing, and even the commentary is better. I give this game my highest recommendation. I hope you guys get a next gen system and pick it up. I even hope you go PS4 so we can play each other. The game isn't perfect, far from it, but it's just so much damn fun.

DullChameleon wrote:

The women look terrible so I'm not sure if they weren't scanned it or what, but I never play with divas so I don't care about that. 

That's odd really considering on current gen they really upgraded the Diva models and they look almost as good as the in-game models. But that's probably what makes them look so bad on next gen. They updated the models but didn't use scans for whatever reason.

Glad to hear the game as a whole is solid despite there not being much. I can only imagine 2k wishes they could have delayed the next gen game for at least another year. I still predict WWE 2k16 will be "The Best Wrestling Game of the Past Decade" (even though it doesn't have much to really complete with. The SvR series were meh, 12 didn't live up to the hype, and the first two 2k games in the series were decent. I think the only one it'll really have to contend with is 07 [which was really just 06 with fancier graphics and sweat technology] and 08. Hell, it might be the best since like No Mercy or Here Comes the Pain.).

Update: I just finished my first Money in the Bank match. Wow. The framerate does dip a bit with six guys on the screen competing in such frantic action, but they play far more smoothly than they have ever done. In years past, I always felt it was too easy to pull down the briefcase. It always seemed that the second or third guy to go up the ladder would grab it. In this match however, I think it took seven (six?) attempts from various participants until Dean Ambrose won. The action was frenetic and fun. The AI actively tried to prevent me (Cody) from winning. At one point, I was on the ladder with HBK and Ambrose pushed the ladder over. We both hit the ring ropes, HBK between his legs, and me with my chest. I bounced back off the ropes and landed in the ring. The collision detection is fantastic, although there were still a few crazy glitches like me climbing the ladder and suddenly teleporting a few feet back and crashing to the mat. It still got a bit crazy in the ring, and it definitely didn't play out like a real MITB match, but it was a ton of fun. Looks like Ambrose is coming after WHC Goldust.

Update: The idea of switching to the tag partner as you are hitting a finisher has made tag matches much more enjoyable, though it's still annoying you have to do that. The other major problem I've found is that top rope diving finishers are essentially useless, especially for the computer. I am able to hit a top rope finisher about fifty percent of the time before the opponent gets up, but the computer has never hit one on me. Simply put, the opponent gets up too quickly to really be able to do them properly. I was playing a match against Swagger as Neville, and I was able to finish the match with his top rope move, but only because I was super fast to do it and I hadn't exhausted most of my stamina. If there is almost any delay in the guy climbing the turnbuckle, it becomes almost impossible to hit the move. This is extremely annoying and something they definitely should address in a patch.