Needs a smackdown
The last year has been a rocky one for Vince McMahon’s sport entertainment behemoth WWE. Among positives like a huge network TV deal on Fox for SMACKDOWN and the recent launch of a new two hour live show on USA for “developmental” brand NXT there have been some major negatives. A brand-new competitor (AEW) entered the marketplace and seems (while it’s early yet) to be making some noise in a way that no one has in more than a decade. The deal with Saudi Arabia continues to be a public relations headache for the company and TV ratings continue to decline.
Behold the latest bit of poor press for the company with the launch of the abysmal WWE 2k20. The newest iteration of 2k’s annual virtual representation of choreographed carnage hits new lows for a series that many already found disappointing and stale. The exit of Yukes from this series was hailed by many as a major victory that may bring the series out of its doldrums and into the 21st century. It’s clear though that Yukes leaving threw the development of this title into disarray. The result, a broken, ugly, technical mess of a game that squanders all the potential the series was starting to show in last years improved outing.
Right off the bat let me say that I’m reviewing this game as it existed on Day 1. 2K has issued a patch which they claim has improved issues with hit detection, clipping, warping of characters and issues with CAW’s and edited wrestlers. I can say that some of the wrestler edit issues have been corrected by the patch, there are still some issues with CAW parts not working correctly, and from my perspective the clipping, hit detection, and strange character behavior have not improved significantly enough for me to consider them fixed.
MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: XB1 (reviewed), PS4, PC
Let me start this review with the few positives that exist in this year’s game. The roster is huge, with a ton of wrestlers from NXT and 205 Live as well as a solid suite of legends. The women’s division is also very well represented here. Like previous iterations, players will find all the classic game modes and match types here. Universe mode (the GM Style management sim where players can build their own shows/storylines/rivalries) has returned and generally functions the way one expects it to (with a few exceptions as we’ll discuss in a bit).
The game brings back the well-received 2K Showcase mode and features the story of the Four Horsewomen. This mode has players switching back and forth between the Horsewomen (Becky Lynch, Bayley, Charlotte Flair, and Sasha Banks) to play out major matches from their rise to superstardom and the Women’s Revolution in WWE. This is the perfect subject matter for this mode and it’s a real shame that the year we finally get a showcase dedicated to the women who have played such a major part in WWE’s product over the last several years is the year the rest of the game completely lets them down. The mode also brings back the dramatically overused objective system from previous games, giving players key moments in the actual match to recreate.
Unfortunately, the novelty of this system has worn off over the years and the objectives not only make the matches very difficult to clear (in conjunction with the miserable AI we’ll discuss later) but scripted to the point of tedium. Wait a minute, “scripted to the point of tedium” is actually a pretty good descriptor for the real-world WWE product right now, but I digress.
Also returning this year is the My Player career mode. This year players create both a male and female wrestler who are best friends and play through their respective careers via a series of flashbacks while they’re on the verge of induction into the WWE Hall of Fame. The voice acting by the main characters in this mode is the highlight and they a do a good job of connecting players to the characters, despite some miserable dialogue around them. The writing in this mode is generally terrible and basically plays out like one would expect a comedy about pro-wrestling, written by people who think the whole thing is a big joke, would play out. The story can’t make up its mind as to whether it wants to be serious or goofy, so it ends up with wild swings back and forth between jokes about dance contests and moments where one of the characters sees insert flashbacks of a major life changing secret. The story is a pretty big letdown after a solid start last year and needs to be redesigned completely in its next iteration.
With the major modes out of the way, let’s get into the real meat of this review. This game is the most glitchy, terrible looking, and generally broken major release from a major publisher I have ever played.
The visuals are an enormous downgrade from the last entry and many of the wrestlers look laughable as stand-ins for their real-life counterparts. Hair and textures are often last-gen quality. The arenas mostly look pretty good, but that’s about it. During backstage brawls I had massive vertical lines all over the background areas, making it difficult to play without developing a headache.
Hit detection is miserable, and from my perspective that feels unchanged post patch. I often missed strikes while standing right next to my opponent, particularly with weapons, and occasionally grapple attempts as well.
The game is littered with movement, positioning, and clipping issues. I have had wrestlers clip through the ropes, and then run away pulling the ropes behind them. I have had wrestlers randomly clip onto the apron from the floor when at the top of the screen. During one match, Finn Balor attempted a dropkick only to be immediately transitioned into walking on air, a condition that could only be solved by grappling him and pulling him back down. Again, this happened post-patch.
The commentary is not only repetitive, but frequently calls the wrong action compared to what’s happening in the ring. You’ll get wrong moves called, for example I had a standing chin lock excitedly referred to as a “SPEAR, SPEAR, SPEAR!” and occasional other mistakes and misstatements.
Worst of all is the Artificial Intelligence. The other issues above can be laughed off or made into funny social media clips. The AI in this game does more to damage its playability than anything of the glitches previously mentioned. Computer controlled characters know how to do one thing in this game and that’s reverse everything. Throw a punch? Reversed. Kick? Reversed. Try a finisher against an opponent that is already in the red? Oh, you know that shit is getting reversed. This series has always had an overreliance on reversals, and it has never shown its ugly head quite as badly as it does this year. Perhaps that’s because when the AI wasn’t reversing my entire existence, it has no idea what to do.
My challenge to anyone who owns this game is to boot up a match that is AI versus AI. You will see no purer distillation of the terribleness of WWE 2k20 than watching these soulless automatons wander in circles, clipping through the ropes and randomly entering and exiting the ring for no purpose while an excitable commentator shouts “HE NAILED HIM WITH THAT CLOTHESLINE” during the other robot’s dropkick attempt. AI controlled wrestlers will frequently pull their opponent up to their feet, only to stare at them until they get punched in the face. I watched a 2v2 tag match between AI controlled characters and one of the characters literally Irish whipped his opponent back and forth into opposite corners 3 times before stopping and staring at the other characters partner. The major wrestling game competitor in this marketplace is Fire Pro Wrestling World, a game whose reputation for stellar wrestler AI makes Twitch and YouTube channels with entirely simulated tournaments a popular watch. Meanwhile I get the sense watching any AI controlled character in this game that they are 5 seconds away from floating into the rafters while they attempt to reverse the other characters taunt.
There are many other areas I could go into in this review. I could spend another paragraph or two giving you detailed information on the Universe Mode and all the options available for setting up shows and feuds. I could walk through the online structure or talk about the returning 2K Towers modes. There are new customization options for weapons and several other admittedly interesting potential features here. Unfortunately, none of that matters, because the fundamental gameplay is busted. I would also love to talk about the addition of the hottest character in the WWE currently, the Fiend Bray Wyatt, but unfortunately that character (as well as a new 2K originals horror themed section of the game) is locked behind preorder DLC that I wasn’t provided.
In the past when I have reviewed these games I have generally come down on the “yeah they are flawed and stale but if you’re a big fan of the product it’s worth checking this new one out”. I genuinely felt like last year’s game was turning a corner for the franchise. Unfortunately the only corner they turned was the corner of the ring and they “turned” it into an unescapable hellmouth where your character clips through the geometry around the stairs. This game is bad- very bad. Even if you’re a huge WWE fan you shouldn’t play it. 2K should take a year off, scrap this engine, and start over from scratch.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
