WWE 2K14 Review

Introducing the challenger from Hawaii, weighing 237 lbs, Ricky the Dragon Steamboat. Fred Richani for the Sports Courier here with the WWE 2K14 review. We reviewed the new WWE video game presented by 2K Sports on the Xbox 360. And if you’re wondering what’s new this year, well, instead of attitude error mode, which was critically acclaimed, 2K presents 30 years of Wrestlemania mode. In other words, you’re celebrating 30 years of the granddaddy of them all, the Super Bowl of professional wrestling and sports entertainment by reliving some of the greatest moments in the event’s history. Moments such as Andre the Giant body slamming Big John Stud, Hulk Hogan versus King Kong Bundy, and of course my personal favorite rivalry, Rock versus Stone Cold Steve Austin.

Now, this seems like a lot of fun, and when I was playing this mode, it was a lot of fun. Much like the attitude era mode, you had objectives. You had, of course, your main objective to move on to the next stage. He also had some historical objectives. The more objectives you complete and of course the more often you win, the more unlockables you get. Sometimes you get unlockables such as Wrestlemania 1 and 2 arena. Other times it’s Bobby the Brain Hean, Hulk Hogan from Wrestlemania 2, King Kong Bundy, Big John Stud, Andre the Giant, you name it. Now, if you’re a hardcore wrestling fan like myself and you appreciate pro wrestling history, I think you’re definitely gonna get a kick out of this.

If you’re not a hardcore fan, or maybe you’re a casual fan, or dare I say, maybe you are a fan, but a guy that just quite frankly does not care about stuff that happened 20 to 25 years ago, or even 10 years ago, well, maybe you won’t care so much about winning $15,000 in Big Johnston’s body slam ch. We also have Undertaker’s beat the streak mode or you could defend the streak. This to me was the most exciting part of the game going in, but it turned out to be the most disappointing and I’ll tell you why. First off, defending the streak. Now, I thought when I meant defend the streak, hey, you get to relive all of the Undertaker’s classic Wrestlemania matches.

Hey, you get to go through all of them. Sure, there were some pretty bad ones like against Bundy and Jake Roberts and Snooka and Tensai and Big Show. But hey, there were also a lot of good to great matches with Randy Orton, Adam Edge Copeland. The series of matches with Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and most recently CM Punk. And don’t forget about the big red machine Kane. Instead. This is more of a video game gauntlet. You see, I’m a hardcore wrestling fanosphere and I’m into wrestling history, particularly the history of Wrestlemania and one of its greatest characters in The Undertaker. So, you can imagine my surprise when I picked defend the streak mode only to see the likes of Heath Slater and Brous Clay the Funkosaurus gracing the Undertaker with their presence.

Now, don’t no disrespect to these gentlemen. I am sorry. I find it blasphemous that these men are sharing the ring with the Undertaker. It’s one thing if you had a gauntlet mode in defending the streak. Okay, I can understand that. Okay, if you have want to have a gauntlet mode, but I think the main objective should have been, hey, let’s relive all of the Undertaker’s great Wrestlemania matches. Let’s try to write history again or rewrite history. And you can either play as one of Undertaker’s past Wrestlemania opponents or the Undertaker himself and try to stay undefeated at WrestleMania going up against the likes of his past opponents such as I mentioned before, Triple H, HBK, CM Punk, Kane, Big Show, Diesel, etc.

I did not expect the gaunt. I was kind of disappointed in that to be completely honest. Now, it takes place in the supposed Wrestlemania 30 Arena, which will most likely be very different from the one you’ll see at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome next year. But if you’re wondering, no, the arenas don’t change even if you get new opponents or opponents that Undertaker has actually wrestled in the past. So, we started out with Heath Slater, we had Brous Clay, we had the likes of Santino Mela, and then it’s like bam, all of a sudden you got Triple H. And this might be a drawback to some fans.

While it’s great that, you know, you could take out the guys like Keith Slater and Brous Clay in relatively short order given the fact that, well, you are the Undertaker. There is an issue in the sense that you go from really really easy to oh my god it’s Triple H and you end up getting pedigreed or you get the tombstone used on you and you end up getting pinned one two three and actually losing the streak. There’s a stark contrast there. You know, you would think you’d kind of gradually build up before you get to Triple H, who I guess would be technically the boss of this mode, but nope.

It’s like, okay, you got your midc card, guys, and bam, you got a legend that you all of a sudden have to take out. But hey, it was fun, but again, quite disappointing for me because I thought you could relive some Undertaker Wrestlemania moments. And technically you can if you face a guy that he’s faced before at WrestleMania, but again, I think it would have been better if they just had you go through the actual streak and try to keep it intact like the Undertaker has done throughout his illustrious career. On a side note, one thing I really did like about Wrestlemania mode was the historical videos, much like the attitude era mode in 13.

Why they couldn’t do this for the Undertaker streak mode, I’m not really sure. We got some pictures. We got some nice detailed descriptions of Undertaker’s Wrestlemania wins and it says Star Street, but why not show some great video packages like WWE has produced in the past? I mean, no disrespect, but I kind of felt like I was reading Wikipedia in this video game. But we also have beat the streak mode. In other words, you can pick any wrestler, such as Randy Orton, as I did, try to dethrone the Undertaker. Randy Orton is the legend killer for a reason. Those two did wrestle before way back in 2005 at Wrestlemania 21, but unfortunately, we stayed with the same arena, which was Wrestlemania 30.

I could not choose the Wrestlemania 21 arena. I get it. I get it. They want to save these arenas as unlockables for all the fans. However, you should at least be able to play in the arenas that Undertaker competed in depending on the match. For example, if you wrestled Triple H most recently at Wrestlemania 28, have it automatically changed to the Wrestlemania 28 arena. If you wrestled Randy Or at 21, have it magically changed to the 21 Arena and either Undertaker mode. But that didn’t happen. Now, the Undertaker to me playing him as an opponent seemed like Bowser on crack. The dude is ridiculously hard to put away.

And I understand it. It’s the Undertaker. He is immortal. He is the Phenom. But man, I hit him with multiple chair shots. I put him through a table and I hit him with the RKO three times and he still kicks out. I get the fact that you’re supposed to suspend your disbelief in pro wrestling, but man, oh man, I don’t know about that one. Universe mode I think is improved very similar to WWE 13. However, they now give you rivalry mode. You can actually book rivalries and insert guys programs upwards of 12 weeks. So, it doesn’t matter if you guys first compete in a hell in a cell match, a ladder match, a steel cage match, whatever.

At the end of those 12 weeks, that’s when the feud ends. Not 4 weeks later, not 8 weeks later. And as always, you can edit the universe as well. Of course, we have the usual modes that people love, like create a wrestler, which they made even more in depth. Yes, as you can see right there, I do kind of have a twisted sense of humor. Please don’t judge me. I was just having fun. For real. For real. And don’t ask me how that guy got all that back here. I really really don’t know. Oh, JGeorge. Wow. His name is JGeorge. That sounds really familiar. Like one of my old co-hosts or something.

Graphics wise, it looks a little better than 13. Better textures, better shadows, the models are shinier, but that’s really about it. As far as the gameplay goes, I’d say the controls are a little more fluid, still clunky in some parts. You still get some awkward camera angles when they cut to signature moves sometimes. Commentary. This was a problem for me. Yes, it’s great that we still have Jim Ross in certain situations like Wrestlemania mode. At the same time, man, I love you, Michael Cole, but doesn’t bode well for him. He sounded like he was commentating the PGA Tour at times as opposed to a big Wrestlemania match.

There was one point where I believe it hit the Undertaker with the RKO and Michael Cole no sold and did not mention the RKO whatsoever. On top of that, there was a moment, I believe, where I superlexed the guy outside of the ring and all of a sudden, Michael Cole goes, “Oh man, the barricade is destroyed.” Whoops. Safe to say that might be a little bit of a bug there. So, overall, I think it’s a lot of fun. I think that there are enough modes for wrestling nerds like myself to appreciate and get sucked into. We did not get an opportunity to really test out the online play yet, but we’ll be doing more in-depth videos on each of these modes.

Overall, I give this game a seven out of 10. I think a lot of wrestling fans will find this fun. However, if you bought WWE 13 last year and you’re expecting a significant enough improvement to warrant $60, you may or may not feel it’s worth your money. Again, if you’re not like me and a wrestling nerd and history buff, if you’re a casual wrestling fan or a guy that likes playing wrestling games, but perhaps isn’t a hardcore WWE fan, you may be better served spending your money on Assassin’s Creed 4 and Battlefield 4, which come out the same day as WWE 2K14. Stay with us right here on the Sports Forer for exclusive features, live chats, interviews, and more in-depth coverage of WWE’s 2K14.

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