Before getting straight to the point, a little preface. I’m a fan wrestling. And if after this phrase you didn’t add a bunch of minuses and didn’t close the tab, simultaneously spitting on the monitor and in my soul, then perhaps the next block of text below will be interesting to you. In general, I am more than partial to wrestling and wrestling games. The first time I watched wrestling was in 1999 on a tape that was brought to me from America and since then I have been continuously interested in and watching this sport. And yes, I do consider wrestling a sport. Many, of course, can say “Yes this is a production", "Yes, it’s all a setup"etc.d. To such people I can simply say: “And you yourself try to do what these guys do». This requires considerable athletic training and years of training. That’s why wrestling is a sport for me. But this blog is not about wrestling as a sport, but about wrestling as a game. So let’s get started!
Many may not know, but over the past 15 years, about two dozen games about wrestling have been released. I got to play almost all of them. Unfortunately, last year’s WWE 2K14 I missed it, but it only made me wait for the release WWE 2K15, especially considering the fact that this is the first wrestling game for new generation consoles. Nextgen after all. In this regard, I had certain expectations, but were they met? Visual Concepts And Yuke’s these expectations? Now we’ll figure it out.
In general, it is quite difficult for me to complete my impressions of WWE 2K15 in one sentence. But if I give an example from the video game environment, then, perhaps, after playing 2K15, I felt approximately the same emotions that, judging by the comments and reviews, the players experienced after playing for a day in Assassin’s Creed: Unity after Black Flag. For many, Black Flag became a real breath of fresh air against the backdrop of all the Assassins, from the second part to the third. In Black Flag, players experienced what Assassins had been missing for so long – a sense of real adventure and a feeling of “free hands” or something. And after such euphoria, they slip us Unity, which at first looks promising, but in the future it is very disappointing. It’s probably a strange explanation, but I’ll try to justify it.
I’ll say right away that there are improvements and new features in the game, and they are good. For example, in previous games in the series the fights themselves looked as if it were not wrestlers fighting in the ring, but tin soldiers. 2K15 tried to correct this situation by adding more realism. Firstly, this year they added a new stamina system. Well, that is, like new, in Smackdown vs Raw 2007 there was a similar system, but in 2K15 it looks completely different. Stamina respectively reflects fatigue and, as they said Yuke’s, "fighting spirit" of wrestlers. As the match progresses, the fighters get tired and in most cases, at the end of the fight, we are faced with two exhausted wrestlers, trying with their last strength to hold each other. There’s even a fatigue animation, and it looks pretty good. At first, of course, it may seem that this feature kills the pace of matches, but in the future it simulates real fights in the ring quite well. In addition, you need to think about strategy at high difficulty levels and think carefully about when to attack and when to rest (that is, now you won’t be able to perform powerful grabs and throws over and over again).
Secondly, in 2K15 they introduced the so-called https://vanguards-casino.co.uk/ Chain Wrestling. It’s sort of like a rock-paper-scissors game in which fighters move from one position to another. It looks stupid at first, but over time it becomes an integral part of the gameplay. Tooltips and a rather strange mini-game “twist the stick to find the right position” can ruin the immersion in the gameplay, but, surprisingly, over time it even sparks some excitement and some pretty cool fights, especially if you play with a friend.
However, despite all the innovations in game mechanics, the game engine (which has not been changed since SVR 2006) makes its presence felt. Here and there small “irritants” pop up, which in total can ruin the overall impression of the game. Reversals are still tied not so much to timing, but to specific frames of animation, which can be learned by heart in a day. System kick-out (I don’t know the Russian equivalent) so this is a completely separate song. Sometimes it seems that it is even more sensitive than the sensor on the iPhone. For example, it cost me several matches. This mechanic is already outdated, and there is no justification for its existence (generally infuriating!)……well, unless Yuke’s can’t come up with a replacement for it.
But as for the audiovisual side, the developers did their best. I’ll simply say: “The differences between the versions for the previous and new generation of consoles are visible to the naked eye.”. 2K did their best here. They created wrestlers in the game from their scanned models, and captured not only facial animation, but also bodily. And this is true – most of the characters in the game and their movements were completely captured and transferred into the game using Motion Capture. And it’s noticeable. And from some camera angles you can’t tell the difference between model fighters and real ones (John Cena, for example). In general, in this regard, progress is evident. Although, to be honest, I expected a little more. There are some mistakes. This is very noticeable in managers whose faces sometimes look worse than homemade Halloween masks.
Commentators, despite promises to expand their vocabulary threefold, very often repeat. During the 10-minute match, I started to feel sick from “educated feet", which Jerry Lawler mentioned every 30 seconds. In addition, often their comments are simply out of place. The roster of fighters more or less corresponds to today’s equivalent, but there are a couple of failures; NXT fans will be a little upset by the roster of fighters, although they’re likely being saved for DLC.
Among other things, new modes were introduced into the game and old ones were improved. So, for example, it migrated straight from 2K14 to 2K15 Showcase Mode, which focuses on two significant rivalries in WWE history: 1) Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H 2) CM Punk vs. John Cena. As in last year’s game, the player is invited to complete special tasks during the battles in order to recreate “historical events” in these confrontations and unlock hidden content and bonuses (wrestlers, costumes for them, championship belts, arenas, etc.d.). True, unlike last year, in 2K15 these tasks are much easier to complete, thanks to clearer instructions and tips during the match.
The most interesting innovation is the career mode (MyCareer mode). By the way, it is very similar to the career mode in NBA 2K15. In this mode, you create your own wrestler and start at the “foot of the mountain” of WWE, namely the training center, then move on to NXT and even further to the big shows, winning titles along the way. Along the way, you can increase the stats of your wrestler, add new ones abilities, new techniques, even hiring managers. This mode even has a certain storyline, within the framework of wrestling, of course (there will be no 5 on 5 battles to save the galaxy). Your status for the public will depend on your actions: you can be either good (face), or bad guy. Naturally, there are shortcomings, and there are quite a lot of them, but I liked the idea itself, and I’m more than sure that it will be improved in subsequent games in the series. After all, this is the first full-fledged career mode with Smackdown vs Raw 2008 (over the last 7 years). There’s even a grind that’s inherent in most RPGs – if you want to increase your stats, fight in the ring more often.
But, despite all these innovations, this year players received very limited opportunities in terms of customization. If you want to create your own female character, title, arena or storyline, then go to hell… that is, sorry…… not this time. And even the customization of the male character was smaller compared to previous games, although no, it wasn’t cut down, rather they simply didn’t add anything new…… nothing new in one of the most important modes in the game. On the other hand, for the first time since the WWE series of games, we were given the opportunity to edit wrestlers who are in the game by default. Now you can change your Undertaker or John Cena outfit. Although here everything is limited to a pair of pants and T-shirts.
Yes, and the other modes seem somehow chopped up, or something. That is, if you want to create a TLC match or a cage match with the participation of 4 wrestlers, then sorry, not today (although you can put 6 people in a cage). It’s just not clear what reasons there could be for cutting out these opportunities. As a result, it turns out that the game has much less possibilities in terms of customization and gameplay than in previous parts of the series. And this is a huge step back.
Overall, WWE 2K15 is fun to play. BUT! Due to strange design decisions and limitations, the game can easily ruin the initial impression. Like Assassin’s Creed: Unity, the comparison with which I gave at the beginning. So we can only hope that next year everything will be better.