If you’ve ever been a fan of Wrestling in the past, whether it is from the beginning Hulkamaniac days, or like myself during the Attitude era and shortly after that, brace yourselves for a full bodied dosing of nostalgia. For me personally, I lost interest in the WWE after the Attitude era. I dabbled a bit with Cena/Orton/Batista, but didn’t follow it as religiously as I did ‘back in the day’. For this reason I am completely out of touch with who’s who in the world of wrestling. There is some guy with a beard, another with a covering of tattoos and 3 blokes who make up something called ‘Shield’.
But my current lack of knowledge matters not when it comes to WWE 2k14’s headline feature – 30 Years of Wrestlemania. It’s an A-Z of Wrestlemania history, from 1 all the way through to 29. And it is fantastic, and authentic. From historical video clips and images, to re-enacting famous in ring moments. It really got my inner child excited. It took me a while to get to the stuff that I remember watching, but in doing so it taught me about the origins of the legendary sporting event, and the stars that come with it. With over 45 matches, each involving specific objectives (and if you meet them all you unlock wrestlers, arenas, belts etc.) there is plenty to keep you busy in this mode. Within the 30 Years of Wrestlemania there is also a mode which revolves around The Undertaker’s unbeaten streak, allowing you to try to defeat it, or defend it. It’s a great tribute to an all time great.
I’ll go back to the different game modes shortly, as I want to talk about the gameplay mechanics. The last wrestling game I played was one of the Smackdown vs. Raw titles. I can safely say that since then, the controls have had an overhaul. It is now heavily focussed around reversal. I found this very difficult to start with, timing is everything. After a while, I discovered that going by the flashing ‘R2’ sign above the opponents head always made me ‘too early’ or ‘too late’ and the reversal was useless. I learnt that I had to try to read the opponents movement, and after a while, I had successful reversals more frequently, but by no means was I consistent. This is even more apparent as the difficulty is increased, and you’ll find your own moves are frequently reversed aswell. The same is true when you venture online. The rest of the controls fit nicely, using the left trigger to run, and left bumper to interact with the ropes, turnbuckle, under the ring items. And the face buttons take up the role of striking, grappling, Irish whips and finishers.
The games visuals are great. The matches run smoothly, wrestlers entrances accurate from the Titantron and music, to how they walk to the ring. The wrestlers’ likenesses are as good as they have ever been, tattoos are in the right place, subtle stubble gracing their chins, and the oiled up bodies are terrifyingly shiny. One negative I do have is the crowds and arenas. While I’m sure the crowd wasn’t top of the ‘get it right’ list, but when cameras show it off so much, the roughness of their appearance and movement is glaringly apparent. The arenas within the game do little to convey how large they are in real life aswell. It feels like a couple of hundred people watching rather than the thousands it’s meant to be. But it’s a small gripe, because when combined with correct voice-overs from the stars and the commentators alike it is a fantastically presented game.
I have had some annoyances in places with WWE 2k14. Not least the awkwardness when it comes to having more than 2 people in the ring/match. When the amount of characters on screen goes to 3 or more, switching between targets is very clumsy, and because of that, anything above a 1v1 is seriously hampered - which is a crying shame when you think that the most fun to be had could be with a multiple man hell in a cell or elimination chamber. If you can get past the targeting issues there is still fun to be had, but it niggled at me so much that I even resorted to skipping objectives in the 30 Years of Wrestlemania just to get past the matches with more than 2 wrestlers. Along with the targeting problem I briefly hit a glitch where I was stuck in a loop of suplex’s. All I could do was watch as I received suplex after suplex without being able to reverse or fight back. There are also some sound/cutscene issues when at times the voices of the commentators will stop before they have finished what they are saying, then start again with something else in the next scene.
I have previously mentioned the main game mode. But in truth, if you have the time and patience, you’d just be scratching the surface by staying with the one mode. Of course there is the exhibition mode, where you can select whatever sort of wrestling bout you like, Tables Ladders and Chairs? Inferno? It’s all here. WWE Universe allows you to book matches, set rivalries and play through your own PPV’s and weekday events. It’s the creation centre where you can easily lose hours of your time. You can create your own superstar, arenas and championships to name a few. But the highlight, and surely most rewarding is the create a story mode. The depth on this mode alone is just astounding. Creating your own cutscenes with accompanying subtitles, detailing how the characters in the cutscene moves and interacts with others, down to the matches and special moments that happen in the matches. Just creating your story (which can include branching story lines) can take an age if you want it to, then you can of course play through it all. You are also able to upload all of your creations for others to enjoy. There are already some impressive story creations available for downloading.
WWE 2K14 isn’t perfect, but if you’re a present WWE fans, or have been in the past, there is so much here to enjoy. Even if I did look embarrassed every time someone asked me what I was playing, I had great fun while doing it.
