WWE 2K25 Review

Another year and another massive annual franchise does everything it can to convince players to pay for a roster update and a fresh lick of paint.

Following a rather disastrous start to the 2020s, the more recent additions to the WWE 2K franchise raised the bar. However, along with that comes higher expectations – and that’s where Visual Concepts and 2K’s WWE 2K25 struggles.

It’s a solid wrestling game, offering some of the best in-ring action for quite some time, but it lacks any real punch.

WWE 2K25 Review

WWE 2K25 boasts several new and returning features, including new match types, diving off the barricade (yes, this is celebrated as something new), intergender wrestling, and even a brand new game mode in The Island.

There’s also a 3rd person camera, but I’m not going to talk about that.

A year simply isn’t enough time for developers to bring meaningful changes to these annual franchises, and WWE 2K25 is the perfect example of that.

The Island, promising a more socially connected and story-driven online experience, isn’t even available on all platforms, and its episodic approach to content updates leaves the initial experience feeling hollow and repetitive. With more time and resources available, I would love to see what Visual Concepts could do with the blueprints of The Island.

As it stands, it feels little more than yet another game mode built purely for micro-transactions.

Helping the ghost of Paul Bearer reconstruct The Undertaker’s legendary urn or working with Xavier Woods to deal with this video-game alter ego, complete with ridiculous “video-game armor,” are fun gimmicks, but it makes the entire mode feel very juvenile.

I’m still not really sure what purpose this mode serves, outside of the obvious

The lack of any real communication tools left me uncertain if the people I was sharing the world with actually existed, or just behaved like mindless avatars.

Intergender wrestling plays a huge role in many of the modes, and while I’m sure some players celebrate the option of bringing together dream matches, it feels completely ridiculous during the story sequences.

I was able to stomach it for the duration of The Island’s first chapter, the next of which is not yet available, but the constant switching during the MyRise mode just put me off.

This ended up being a Kit Wilson & X-Pac Tag Team match against Ricky Steamboat and Roman Reigns…

Even MyGM, arguably my favorite mode in the modern games, adds new features that just feel off. The addition of online multiplayer is fantastic, and probably the best new feature of the entire release, but the change to PLE’s is confusing.

Instead of building up to epic events, PPV’s are now crossbrand events that bring in wrestlers from each of the different shows. Most of the match types are predetermined, and the Superstars involved are unknown. It takes away from the effort and drive to create meaningful rivalries and stories when the biggest shows on the card are mostly out of a players control.

Oh, and please, someone, give ECW a bloody woman’s championship.

Waiting for the Special Referee match type unlock…

WWE 2K25’s impressive arsenal of game modes is sure to offer something for everyone and the one constant between all these, the in-ring action, is the best the series has seen for some time.

As long as you stay in the ring.

The game still struggles with interacting with objects and special match types, trying to navigate the move set in Hell in a Cell is cumbersome mess. Despite this, if you stay between the ropes, it offers a fast and impactful combat system that continues to stand the test of time.

My time with WWE 2K25 is one of mixed emotions. So much of the game is great, but it’s the same stuff that has been great for some time. It’s a worthy addition to 2K25’s redemption arc, but one that may see the crowd turn if we see more of the same next year.

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