Over the course of my time playing videogames, WWE 2K25 is the 20th game based on pro-wrestling I’ve experienced. A journey that began with Midway’s WWF WrestleMania: The Arcade Game — and counted among its pit stops such gems as WWF Betrayal, WCW/nWo Revenge, WWE SmackDown! Here Comes the Pain and AEW Fight Forever — culminated in what I believe to be the best WWE game Visual Concepts has ever made (with caveats).
This writeup is also the last time (probably) that I’ll be referencing 2019’s WWE 2K20 as the nadir of the WWE 2K journey. With its incredible array of glitches, bugs and physics issues, the game appeared to be a major misstep by Visual Concepts that stepped in to replace longtime dev Yuke’s in 2018. Course-correction began with the Rey Mysterio-themed WWE 2K22, but the process, it would seem, is finally complete. This year’s edition profiles ‘The Bloodline’ — an extensive ensemble of immediate and distant Anoa’i family members — and its collective impact on the pro-wrestling business.
The main event
A large part of the renaissance of wrestling games that WWE 2K25 represents is down to the quality of in-ring action. Now, said action appears to evolve/devolve in cycles: For starters, it’ll take a few iterations of the game to arrive at gameplay that pleases a majority of players, and for a few more editions, it’ll largely stay the same with tiny alterations. Then, the studio will feel the need to change things around, if for no other reason but to give players an excuse to buy the shiny new one when it drops.
Inevitably, this will lead to a few years where the gameplay is pretty poor, until layer upon layer of refinement make for a fun experience once again. Rinse and repeat. We seem to have arrived at the best part of that cycle with the current instalment, as Visual Concepts has ironed out all the problems with previous games and finetuned some cool minigames.
A handful of in-match moments are presented (and have been for decades now) as minigames that either rely on button-mashing, timing a meter, clicking the right button as a prompt shows up and so on. It’s with WWE 2K25 though that Visual Concepts was able to tweak all these little gameplay mechanics to a state of near-perfection. And here, ‘perfection’ is being used to describe less the quality of the minigames objectively than how well they fit into the overall gameplay loop of a typical wrestling match. Gone are the days where the need to mash buttons would require you to reorient (however slightly) your grip on the controller, and in so doing, disrupt your flow.
Smooth transitions were never quite there over the past few iterations. But now, with chain wrestling (transitioning from one hold to another), trading blows, grabbing a belt/suitcase from atop a ladder and putting on submission holds jumping so seamlessly into one another, WWE 2K25 has the ebb and flow of a pro-wrestling match down pat.
And this brings me to the core gameplay: Every single aspect of the brawling, wrestling, movement, collision detection, weapons physics has been (and I’m aware I’m using this phrase a lot) finetuned to the point where no match/es feel like a burden to get through anymore. A key but simple example is the manner in which the game handles multiple combatants/objects in the ring simultaneously. It feels chaotic, sure, but it’s a very controlled sort of chaos that you’ll eventually find yourself managing with aplomb. In previous games, you’d need to clean up the ring before you could do anything meaningful, but no more. You might find yourself still needing to clear a path, but there’s nothing illogical at play this time. Additionally, opponent and ally AI has also undergone some useful improvements, and nowhere is this more visible than in matches involving three or more wrestlers. For once, they actually behave coherently and tactically.
Pulling it all together is that one crucial piece of the puzzle: The view. Now, this may seem strange primarily because it’s such an obvious move, but nevertheless, it’s worth commenting on and praising. Wrestling games thus far have focussed on bringing the television experience to gaming, and to that effect, games have had TV-like promos, cutscenes, commentary and the rest of it. What they’ve failed to do is graduate beyond that and put you, the player, into the ring. Take a moment with that one, because while you are still controlling the wrestlers, you are viewing it from a TV perspective. There’s the hard camera, the multitude of shots that encompass a wrestler’s entrance and the post-match celebration views. By incorporating a third-person camera that can be controlled with the right thumbstick (on consoles), you actually feel like you’re in the ring, on top of the Hell in the Cell and such-like. This is a small tweak that comes off so much more when you’re playing the game.
The undercard
With everything WWE 2K25 has going for it, I expected ‘The Bloodline’ showcase to also be a high-quality experience. Alas, even though certain enhancements (getting rid of the smash cuts to archival footage, and instead replicating those moments in the game engine, for instance) have been made, one of the biggest issues remains. The horribly tiresome list of objectives — that include when, where and how many times to do particular moves — is still a crucial part of proceedings. Obviously, these are optional and only need to be done if you want to claim all the unlockables, ranging from wrestlers to arenas and other customisations. But then, part of the fun of this mode is the opportunity to unlock character models from obscure eras, cool arenas from back in the day and so on.
I have put myself through this annoying checklist of objectives in the past primarily because I was invested in the story of, say, a Rey Mysterio (WWE 2K22) for instance. However, the Bloodline was not an entity for which I was happy doing so. In fact, the whole concept of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s extended family occupying top billing in the WWE, in my humble opinion, is the most tedious thing on TV and in gaming today. Yes, we get it, he’s a third-generation, blue-chipper, and his cousin Roman Reigns is the longest-reigning champion blah-blah-blah. I find myself completely saturated with this storyline-turned-programming mainstay. But I save my greatest opprobrium for someone who isn’t even part of the Anoa’i family: Paul Heyman.
In his pomp, the baseball cap-and-ponytail-rocking Heyman was the creative genius behind the disruptive Extreme Championship Wrestling. He would migrate over to the WWE as part of the ECW buyout, and the rest is history. However, his greatest moments always came when he was anti-establishment. As manager to mainstream wrestlers and factions, he’s been reduced over the years to little more than a noisy and irritating mess. And as the narrator of this year’s 2K Showcase, he squeezes every little bit of his cloying on-screen persona all over the mode. The way he was clutching desperately at the Ula Fala, pouting his lips, over-enunciating every syllable and folding his palms and staring skywards (quite idiotically, if you ask me) every time he uttered the words “Roman Reigns”, I was surprised that the game didn’t come with a complimentary loaf of bread. Why, you ask? Well, given all the ham and cheese on offer, we should at least have the option of making sandwiches, right?
But, I digress. The mode is a drag (particularly after the more entertaining 2K Showcases in the last few years), and is in desperate need of a refresh. Maybe that’s a case of changing up the formula — entailing perhaps a chance to rewrite history rather than simply replay it — or doing away with the mode entirely for a couple of years or so. Another mode that I found to be a major bore was the newly-introduced ‘The Island’. Somewhat reminiscent of Street Fighter 6‘s World Tour, this mode is an open(ish) world full of stores, challenges and other players. I gave it a brief go, before swiftly realising that this is the game’s second microtransaction-driven section (after the card-collecting format known as MyFaction). That pretty quickly ended my interest in whatever Heyman was bellowing about in the introduction to The Island. And I swiftly moved on.
The high-flyers
Among the sections I’ve found to be a consistent high performer is the franchise’s management mode, dubbed MyGM. The premise is as follows: You play the role of one of the handful designated general managerial candidates (or one of your own created wrestlers) and decide which show (between Raw, Smackdown, NXT, WCW etc) you wish to manage. And then it’s just a matter of picking your roster through a draft, and you’re all set. Booking matches, creating rivalries, upgrading your presentation and sabotaging your rival GMs and their shows are part and parcel of this package, and it’s an addictive one. Every successive WWE 2K game over the past three years has built on the formula to a point where I would even recommend that MyGM be offered as a mobile game. It’s that good!
A major surprise package this time around (particularly after last year’s rather pedestrian effort) is MyRise, the story mode. You are tasked with entering a male and female wrestler into the mix of a story with enough twists and turns to appeal to even the most cynical WWE fans. I’ll concede that the cutscenes can be soporific, the voice-acting (for the most part) is wooden and the sprinkling of match objectives (as seen in the 2K Showcase) is irritating. However, it’s a great journey overall, and is packed with replay value as there are a couple of points where the story diverges based on your choices.
And finally, there’s that consistent performer in the WWE 2K stable — the creation suite. Now rammed to the gills with even more customisation options than before (not including the ludicrously-priced swag in The Island), designing your own wrestlers, belts or arenas remains a very detailed exercise. Assuming you aren’t really the creative type, there’s very little to worry about, because the online community has once again turned up in force. Thousands of creations are available to you as part of the online boutique of player creations, and most of these are quite stellar.
The three-count
One of my major gripes with iterative sports videogame franchises is that year-on-year, there is very rarely a great leap forward. And as we arrive at what I’m told is the 25th game in the series that began with 2000’s WWF SmackDown! (and has since been released under the banners of WWE SmackDown!, WWE SmackDown! vs Raw, WWE SmackDown vs Raw, WWE, and Exciting Pro Wrestling in Japan), this is again no great leap forward from its predecessor.
While the gameplay and a couple of modes (MyGM and MyRise) have certainly been finessed to the point where they are very much key selling points of the game, WWE 2K25 doesn’t, in and of itself, merit buying if you already own last year’s WWE 2K24. At best, you’ll find the improvements make the game more fluid and, consequently, more fun. At worst, you’ll see minimal change and rue spending money on ‘more of the same’. And then you’ll play the 2K Showcase, and if you’re anything like me, find yourself quite underwhelmed, and start up The Island and in turn find yourself rather annoyed.
In the final analysis, WWE 2K25 is a textbook example of a mixed bag, encompassing some stellar highs and a number of grating lows. 2K’s WWE games have always been packed with content, and so it’s unlikely that you’ll have a bad time even if you dislike one or two modes. However, as stated above, unless the last edition of the franchise you played was WWE 2K23 or older, you’re unlikely to truly appreciate the tweaks and changes that’ve been made this time around. The game is recommended wholeheartedly for hardcore fans or those who’ve not played WWE 2K24. For everyone else, maybe pick it up on discount or second-hand.
Game reviewed on PlayStation 5. Review code provided by publisher
