WWE 2K24 Review — A Legacy Refined

It’s officially Wrestlemania season in the WWE Universe, so 2K Games has its annual franchise of WWE 2K24 ready for WWE fans, especially us Aussies, with Australian-born and bread WWE Superstar Rhea Ripley sharing the cover. This year, being the 40th Wrestlemania, they added a special showcase mode to celebrate this monumental occasion. With the bar being set so high after last year’s release, it’s interesting to see what additions they will make and if anything needs changing.

Firstly, when you buy WWE 2K24, know you are getting a great bang for your buck. There are many modes in this game, six in total, many more if you wish to count all the different options in My Faction mode or the two selections in Universe, so there truly is something for everyone here. Whether you want to simulate through an entire calendar year, set up dream matches with WWE Superstars past and present or simply take control of a company and compete against friends or the CPU, if you’re a wrestling fan, you will have everything in your control (pun intended).

I started this great WWE journey with the Showcase Mode. This mode lets you relive some of the greatest matches and moments from the past 39 Wrestlemania’s. Each match has an intro by WWE commentator Corey Graves, giving his insights and personal feelings on the match you are about to participate in. While not every Wrestlemania is represented in this mode, there are also, in some instances, multiple matches from the same Wrestlemania. I understand why not every great match may have appeared on this, as they may have been covered in previous Showcase Modes or licensing issues. 

Each of the Showcase matches in WWE 2K24 is a hybrid of gameplay and archival footage. I can’t express how well they make the shift between these two. It is so seamless that it is hardly noticed, but that brings me to the annoying part of the archival footage they used. For all you young kids out there, WWE wasn’t always World Wrestling Entertainment. It was once World Wrestling Federation with the initials WWF, which was owned by the World Wildlife Fund, so during all the older footage, all of these old WWF images needed to be blurred out and it unfortunately didn’t stop there. Faces of old referees, signs, and wrestlers using the middle finger have all been affected. This, however, didn’t affect the quality of matches WWE 2K24 decided to put into Showcase Mode. 

To complete matches in the Showcase mode, you have to use certain moves or set up scenarios. Once these objectives are complete, the video footage will roll, and Corey will give his insights. The main improvement with these objective-based matches this year is in the pause menu. If you are unsure how or where to do these moves, there are detailed instructions on completing what is required in the pause menu. This addition was fantastic, as the lack of hints in previous games of the series was frustrating. The only other thing that was missing was commentary in this mode. It’s all music but supplemented by the insights provided in between. After each of the matches has finished, you will unlock the competitors involved along with any managers and access to that arena.

Next, I jumped into My Faction mode. This is the card collection/main monetisation game of WWE 2K24, where you build up your card collection of WWE Superstars and collect and upgrade them over time.

You can choose a starter pack between High Flyers, Powerhouse, Strikers, and Technicians, which consists of Superstar cards, managers, cosmetics, and side plates. Some cards will add a persona. Cards can add a visual cosmetic change in the main games as an option once collected. You will earn rewards such as cards, tokens, or My Faction points each day you log in. This mode is kin to EA Sports FC Ultimate Team, where you have the option to grind it out or purchase card packs with real money to bolster your team. Once you select a team, you can duke it out in PVP modes and participate in tournaments or weekly events. This mode is not my cup of tea, but I can understand its appeal to many fans.

Next, among the many things to do in WWE 2K24, I stepped into My Rise, the creator-player story mode, which is split into two stories, one for males and another for females. I love how they have continued this from last year’s WWE. This year, the names are My Rise Unleashed and Undisputed.

Unleashed is the female-created wrestler, starting in the independent scene where you made your own company and are given an opportunity to join WWE due to a long-standing feud you’ve had with Shotzi from WWE over never signing her to your promotion years ago. You are hired as a ‘local talent’ to fight to warm up Shotzi after things get heated at the tryouts. Most of these mainline matches you compete in will require you to complete certain tasks during the match. Once they are completed, the story will continue.

Undisputed has you as a main roster wrestler for the brand Raw who has yet to have any impact over the last few years. But when Roman Reigns vacates his Smackdown title, you are thrown in as a wild card in the tournament for the unclaimed title, winning, and then being drafted to Smackdown, where the GM (General Manager) has it in for you.

These will then branch off and give you multiple options of how to proceed with your story in the form of ‘storylines’. It will then give you objectives to complete throughout the story, which will come to an end where you will either come out on top or lose your title. Either way, it’ll open up new storylines. This is done by talking to other people in the backstage area or simply checking your DMs and social media on your phone. Completing storylines will unlock attribute points and clothing.

I can honestly say the one thing I don’t like about this is the fact that you can’t just play as your favourite male or female superstar. The requirement to create a superstar provides a variety of wrestler choices; however, I desire to play as my favourite WWE Superstar. It does, however, have 6 distinctly different pre-made characters created at the start which can then be adjusted after that, which makes it much easier than starting from scratch to create your own Superstar.

Universe mode was my next stop, and it started off by giving you the option of Classic Mode, a sandbox mode with total freedom, or Superstar Mode, where you follow or take control of a single wrestler. These modes will take you across a full season of the year as you go from weekly shows to PLEs (Premium Live Events). This is more of what I would like from My Rise, playing with my favourite superstars. This was where I spent most of my time. It just annoyed me that the storylines were not as in-depth as the My Rise story modes. While you have the option of who to feud with and request title matches, it doesn’t have the same storytelling as My Rise.

In classic mode, the system generates a wrestling card, and you can edit the superstars’ fighting and change the main events, match types, and power rankings. It’s very much a simple version of My GM, but I loved playing through this with my favourite WWE Superstars and enjoying the ride.

Last but certainly not least was My GM Mode, which is the most popular in the WWE gaming community. It’s the ability to take over a brand and select from 1 of 11 GMs who are either WWE Superstars, Legends, or actual GMs represented on TV. From there, you can select what show you want to run, which features the main RAW, Smackdown, and NXT 2.0 with the addition of ECW, WCW and the old Gold and Black version of NXT, each having their stat boosts, such as the option to select superstars not allowed to compete the next week, popularity boosts, etc. Once all that is selected, the opposing GM can be chosen. This can be played with human or CPU opponents.

You then move into a WWE draft with a budget of $2.75 million to select the talent who will represent your show. With 9 rounds, you can blow your budget on these 9 wrestlers or be conservative with your money and then sign free agents once you start making money back from the shows. The freedom in this mode is what will make WWE 2K24 owners fall back in love with My GM. Although not much has changed as you still book all of the intricacies of a weekly show such as matches, promo sections (where wrestlers come out to talk), set up feuds that will rake in the most money and many more options I can count. 

When selecting your team of Superstars, they have Stamina and ‘Pop’ ratings. These will all add to your overall money intake from each show, which will then let you put on more expensive shows and sign free agents to contact and buy talent from other shows. This mode can be endless fun if you’re into the whole SIM management style of games.

But what about the gameplay in WWE 2K24? They took more of an ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ approach this year. Everything is just more refined. The biggest addition, and the only one I noticed, was the Super Finisher moves. These are accessible by stacking up three finisher bars and then unleashing them to hopefully finish off your opponent, but beware, these are also reversible, so if it does indeed get reversed, you could well have wasted quite a bit of time. Additionally, there is a back-and-forth punching exchange mini-game where you must press the X or Square button and hold it til its sweet spot. This goes back and forth, with the sweet spot getting smaller until there is a winner in the section.

Making a return from the PS2 era of WWE are special guest referees, ambulance and casket matches, and gauntlet matches. Ambulance and Casket matches ultimately have the same objective: incapacitate your opponent, place them in the casket or ambulance and complete a button-mashing game to the point where you can close the lid or door. The main difference between them is that you can climb the ambulance and use it as a tool of destruction. 

The guest referee is always good fun to use in My GM and multiplayer modes, so you can either favour or screw over a Superstar or just your mates if you have them over for some good old wrestling fun. Gauntlet mode consists of selecting a WWE Superstar and participating in a succession of matches until there is a winner. If your selected wrestler loses, you can continue as the winner or just end the match there and then.

As you can see, there is a lot of content in this year’s WWE title. I feel that shows the value in the WWE games that have been coming out, not only in quantity but quality, too. As I said earlier, this game is just more refined after the team took some time off after WWE 2K20. The hair is much better than in years past, the moves look incredible, and there is much less clipping into the ring or surrounding areas. If you are a WWE or a wrestling fan in general, this will do more than tie you over until next year’s iteration.