Fast Links
Recently, the newest 2K game WWE 2K22 was released. Now available everywhere, the new WWE franchise game coming from the veteran sports game developer brings more wrestling to its fans. After a disastrous launch with the previous game, 2K games took the year off to hopefully get their newest release off on the right foot? So, did the extra year of work pay off. Find out in our review of WWE 2K22.
Story: WWE 2K22 is an intimate letter to the WWE and its history
WWE 2K22 is a celebration of wrestling and its history and what made the organization what it is today. In Showcase, the player will play through the history of one of the greatest high-flying wrestlers in the sport’s history. By joining video games and documentaries, the player will see the wins, losses, and spectacle of their career in the sport.
With MyRise, the player will embark on their own WWE career. Compete with the current superstars of the sport and battle in the dream fights from the past. First, you and your character will move through the business, getting a chance to peek into the background of the WWE. Then, work your way up and become a champion.
MyGM is where you get to take control of the show instead of competing as a wrestler. Everything is now on your shoulders from the rivalries, champions, and story. Make sure the lights, pyrotechnics, and backstage are set to give your fans the best show ever. Can you beat out the competition?
These three modes and the accompanying storylines range from mediocre to excellent. MyGM has no real story outside of messages between you and your boss. Where the story comes out is with the choices of the player. They create rivalries between superstars, build teams, and see their battles come to their ultimate end. Of the three, it’s the weakest.
Between the other two, MyRise and Showcase, MyRise is excellent, allowing the players to participate in the storylines and events within one of the three WWE brands. Yet, MyRise is a close second to the game, really showing its strength with its primary game mode. Showcase is probably the defining game mode of WWE 2K22. Giving players the chance to walk in the shoes of a legend while getting the opportunity to relive wrestling history. So, if you’re playing WWE 2K22, definitely give Showcase it’s due.
Gameplay: Wrestling through history in slow motion
This is where WWE 2K22 begins to have a lot of problems. From what has been seen, these problems are primarily on the Steam version of the game. The gameplay on the Steam version is terrible. Movement is sluggish, characters don’t respond in time, and it almost feels as if you are playing each match in slow motion. On the other hand, it’s fair to say that the controls are good on the console, with virtually no reports of this happening on the console version of the game, according to users across Twitter and Reddit. The poor gameplay and controls on the Steam version are due to the next portion of this review.
WWE 2K22 does have online functionality, but over the course of this review, the online feature did not work or had constant connectivity problems. The problems with the online functionality made it so that also attempting to play the MyFranchise mode was impossible.
Graphics/Audio: Poor optimization on the PC worsens the experience
Here is where all of the issues with this game lie. Playing WWE 2K22 in any full-screen mode at any resolution above 1080 will cause the game to suffer various issues. The gameplay is almost in slow motion until the character begins to do a grappling move or special move when the game speeds up to normal briefly, with many taking to Reddit and Twitter reporting the same problems along with various other issues.
The game forces several graphical settings upon the user, such as texture setting and vSync, which many users may turn off to gain added performance. The lack of proper optimization to the PC creates several problems when players go to set their game up to their specific gaming rig. This particular problem bleeds into the gameplay of WWE 2K22, which makes more headaches for the player.
The audio of WWE 2K22 has its highs and lows. In the beginning, the audio is immersive and adds a layer of excitement to each match. After about ten or so hours, though, it’s pretty repetitive, and the player may begin to notice how generalized the dialogue is.
Conclusion: A fantastic look into the WWE hampered by 2K Games technical trouble
While reviewing WWE 2K22, it was clear that this was a valiant and excellent attempt to honor WWE legends and superstars. It feels like an honest love letter to a sport that has been around for decades. It was a perfect way to come back to a world that I hadn’t been to since childhood getting to experience moments from my youth sitting in front of the television with my uncle.
Yet, even with this attempt, the technical side of the game would ultimately lead to a poor experience for my users wanting to play WWE 2K22 on their PC. Hampered by poor optimization, at moments, the game was just unplayable or headache-inducing. Therefore, playing WWE 2K22 on PC via Steam should be avoided until these problems have been fixed.
For those looking to this review of WWE 2K22 for now, if you’re looking to buy WWE 2K22, pick it up on PlayStation or Xbox consoles. The experience of WWE 2K22 on consoles has been reportedly better compared to the PC. For any information regarding WWE 2k22, check out the games product page. Also, for any information about 2K Games, see their developer website.
[review]