2K Sports
WWE 2K14 is an old dog that hasn't learned enough new tricks.
LOVED IT: Undertaker’s The Streak mode yields fun moments, Wrestlemania retrospective is fun, well-crafted entrances
HATED IT: Matches lack drama far too often, collision detection continues to be an issue, strikes are overpowered
GRAB IT IF: You buy a wrestling game every year
Twenty-two times, the Undertaker has walked into a Wrestlemania match. Twenty-two times, he has walked away victorious. You almost always seem to know that he’s going to win these big-time matchups, and yet somehow, they’re always filled with plenty of drama.
It’s the story of WWE. But unfortunately, it’s not a story that’s properly reflected in the latest video game in the franchise, WWE 2K14. The latest wrestling video game is now under the 2K Sports umbrella, and it gains at least one successful idea from this new partnership. But that new idea only serves to underscore how the rest of the title has struggled to evolve.
The new mode is the 30 Years of Wrestlemania Mode. And one of its highlights is easily The Streak mode, an homage to the great Undertaker. It’s a mode that can be played in one of two ways. You can play as the slightly overpowered Undertaker, taking on wrestler after wrestler, seeing how long you can survive in what’s essentially a slobber-knocker match. Or you can face the overpowered Undertaker as the wrestler of your choice, seeking to end the streak against a fearsome grappler who mimics his real-life counterpart and gets some supernatural help just when you think you’ve won. Either way, you’ll be scored for how you perform, and that score can be posted onto online leaderboards.
It’s definitely fun, and it’s part of a nice nostalgic package in 30 Years of Wrestlemania. You’ll get to recreate a bevy of classic matches, and it’s about more than winning. You must complete objectives, winning in ways that mimic history, and you’ll smile when you think back to how this or that might have happened in your favorite old match.
It’s easy to draw parallels to the NBA 2K series, the sports jewel in the 2K portfolio that’s delivered a handful of nostalgic Michael Jordan modes in recent years. This doesn’t have quite that same mass appeal and it’s best appreciated by longtime fans, who will understand all the historic references. But even without those, there are enough objectives to keep you going, and plenty to learn about the WWE.
If only the rest of the game were that good. Instead, the solid handling of that mode serves to remind you of what’s missing elsewhere. The in-ring action is aging, and the out-of-ring customization is so wide-reaching that it seems increasingly unfocused. You can’t help but notice these deficiencies when you watch the well-crafted brilliance of an episode of “WWE Raw,” then flip back to the clunky action and synthetic feel of 2K14.
The entrances, as always, look great. The wrestling game template has always been a little bit fuzzy, part QuickTime and only partially letting you control the action, and that seems even more noticeable here. All too often, the action boils down to minigames, to a series of well-timed counters to get the action rolling followed by button-presses when you see the prompt to execute signature moves. Strikes are now so quick that they drive the action far too much, too, and grappling with any wrestler is often almost unnecessary.
This is how you “win” matches, and all too often, you’re doing that instead of putting on a good show. Completely blah commentary doesn’t help matters, either.
The show itself, meanwhile, is brimming with customization. As usual, you can build your own wrestlers, tweak the shows themselves, redo rivalries and other such things, and the options are endless. This year, you can store up to 100 custom characters It’s fun for a few minutes, sure, but the lack of structure eventually will have you turning to another game.
WWE 2K14 isn’t a bad game by any means. But it certainly is an aging one.
Reviewed on Xbox 360
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