WWE 2K17 Review – PlayStation 4 / Xbox One

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About This WWE 2K17 Review: Fred Richani reviews WWE 2K17 from 2K Sports on PS4 (also available on Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PS3), featuring Bill Goldberg, a new promo system for Universe Mode and MyCareer Mode, as well as the return of backstage brawls. Does WWE 2K17 live up to its massive hype? Find out in our WWE 2K17 review!

Written Review

What’s up everybody? This is Fred Richani of TSC Gaming here to review the highly anticipated WWE 2K17 from 2K Sports on PlayStation 4, also available on Xbox One, PS3 and Xbox 360. This game features the return of MyCareer, an enhanced Universe Mode and, believe it or not, no more 2K Showcase mode. That means if you were hoping to play through the career highlights of Brock Lesnar or Goldberg, the featured stars of WWE 2K17, you can’t this year. There’s a chance DLC could change that, but for now it is what it is.

Let’s go to the cornerstone of this franchise and the rest of 2K Sports’ franchises: MyCareer. Once again, you have to hone your craft through NXT, getting down the basics not just in the ring and in conditioning, but in how you build your character via VC and through promos. Promos are the biggest addition to WWE 2K17. Whether you’re a face, aka a good guy, or a heel, aka a bad guy, depends on how you do not just in the ring but on the mic. It’s trial and error: you have to learn which choices to make, and every crowd, opponent and situation is different.

But there’s one flaw: there’s no voice-over work. Sure, there’s voice-over for the commentary and for coach Matt Bloom, aka A-Train, aka Tensai, who coaches you up. But when you’re in the ring practicing promos with, for example, Enzo Amore, it’s nothing but written subtitles, no actual spoken dialogue. You’re telling me they couldn’t get Enzo Amore in the studio to drop some bars? Or find a generic one-voice-fits-all option, like NBA 2K17 and past NBA 2K games, where there’s one voice for your created character, and do the same for a female character? It’s very befuddling that they didn’t include this. To me it makes the game drag a bit during training, and even in Universe Mode. Promos are emphasized, which is great and all, but I would have liked some voice-over work, just my humble opinion.

The rest of MyCareer is pretty fun. Of course you have to grind and grind to get to the very top, and you have the option of aligning yourself with the evil Authority of Triple H and Stephanie McMahon or staying a good guy like Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose. Down the road, you can also be a Paul Heyman guy or go up against Paul Heyman and face his client, cover star Brock Lesnar, and yes, it’s as fun as it sounds.

Universe Mode is fully customizable once again. You can edit everything from who holds the titles to how many titles there are, to the shows and what days they air. You can delete shows, reschedule them and add pay-per-views left and right. But it’s noticeably outdated, because SmackDown at the start of the game is on Thursday, when these days it’s SmackDown Live on Tuesday. At the time we got this game, we also don’t have a Universal Championship, a SmackDown Women’s Championship or SmackDown Tag Team Championships. The good news is that the Creation Suite is super in-depth, so you can edit shows, arenas, superstars and championship belts, and luckily the belts added since the brand extension restarted aren’t all that different from each other. Want the SmackDown tag titles? Make the leather blue. Want the Universal Championship? Make the WWE World Championship’s leather red. Much like MyCareer, you can cut promos in Universe Mode, but again without any voice-over, just written dialogue. It’s a little awkward, but it’s a step in the right direction.

With the subtitles, you might also notice a gray rectangular background that takes up nearly half the screen. I found it quite annoying, because I’ve played many games, like Quantum Break, Assassin’s Creed and Uncharted, with subtitles enabled, and none have this gigantic gray rectangle. It’s a minor thing, but if somebody’s hard of hearing, I don’t think they want subtitles with a giant rectangle. Just an aesthetic suggestion. Speaking of aesthetics, the menus and UI are sleeker and way easier to navigate. The graphics, as usual, look pretty good for current gen, but there’s a big disparity among the superstars. Guys like Brock Lesnar, Finn Bálor and Dolph Ziggler look pretty damn good, while poor Dana Brooke looks like she face-swapped with Ursula from The Little Mermaid. There’s always one or two women who look a little weird and quirky. The hair physics aren’t great, as per usual WWE 2K standards, compared to, say, EA Sports UFC 2. I really feel they need to catch up on hair physics and damage. Yes, wrestling is predetermined and entertainment-based, but at the end of the day, beyond the usual blood effects, it’d be nice to see some nicks and bruises and improved hair physics.

The gameplay is very similar to the last couple of years, with the submission, grappling and reversal systems. Reversals can be hit or miss, but most of the time in this game they’re a hit. It’s still a little awkward when you go to grapple somebody who’s getting up or groggy, and multi-person matches can get awkward too. I had a couple of frame rate issues, particularly when the camera goes close up on a superstar and when I was brawling backstage as Shinsuke Nakamura against The Rock. There were also some weird things backstage, like The Rock just standing there for what seemed like an eternity. Backstage brawling is pretty cool, but for longtime pro wrestling gamers like me, it’s nothing we haven’t seen before. You’ll also notice a match rating on the HUD at all times now, not just in MyCareer. So for an industry that says it doesn’t matter whether somebody has a five-star match, it sure is important in WWE 2K to rise up the ranks. It’s a cool cosmetic feature, but I’m not the biggest fan. At the time of this review, we weren’t able to access the WWE 2K17 servers properly populated, so we’ll have a separate review of online play and Community Creations.

So what’s the verdict? Graphically, I give WWE 2K17 a 7.5. The entrances are where it truly shines aesthetically; I never get tired of watching The Undertaker, Sting or Triple H make their entrance in the WWE 2K universe. But there are major improvements to be made with physics. Gameplay, I give it an 8. It has its flaws, especially in multi-person matches, but once you get the hang of it, it’s a whole lot of fun and not too complicated. Content, I give WWE 2K17 a 9. I’d love an improved promo system and the return of 2K Showcase, but there are a myriad of options to keep every wrestling fan entertained. Overall, TSC gives WWE 2K17 an 8.2 out of 10. Until next time, everybody, as always, enjoy the games.