WWE 2K18: 5 New Things It Gets Right

WWE 2K18 is officially out in the wild for most players, and as a result, reviews have begun to trickle in. Many of them highlight the same positives and negatives – great animation and entrances, wonky gameplay, incredible creation suite, etc.

If you’re a gamer still on the fence, or a WWE 2K18 player looking for a little little positivity, there are several features, additions, and nuances that will validate your interest in the title.

What are they? Read on to find out.

5. Ladder / Table / Chair Moves

In past WWE 2K games, doing moves onto ladders, chairs, tables, and stairs was something of a hassle. You could manuever over to the outside steps, execute a perfect suplex, and the stairs would move out of the way, or your opponent would teleport through them. This was a similar problem as it pertained to doing moves onto the ladder.

I can safely and confidently report of it’s a lot easier, and a heck of a lot more satisfying, to do moves onto foreign objects this time around. In particular during a brutal ladder match my opponent gave me a vicious Sister Abigail onto a ladder, leaving me prone on the apparatus. From there, my opponent ascended the ladder and landed a quality elbow drop. This combination looked brutal (as it should) and highlighted this year’s focus on environmental interaction and animation.

Toss in the ability to ‘carry’ opponents via various moves by hitting R1 (or RB), it’s a lot easier to involve hardware in creative ways…if you can wrangle the controls, of course.

4. The Creation Suite

This is more like a creation hotel. Heck, more like a creation township. You can pour hours into creating the perfect CAW in WWE 2K18, from specifically timed entrances (and entrance attires) to different types of clothing fabric, to the ability to create your own logos and save them; if you’re the creative type, you’re going to find a lot to love in the WWE CAW suite. There are nearly limitless visual combinations.

On the move-set front, there seems to be an ever growing list of places you can execute brutal grapples and strikes, and with helpful and easy to navigate categorizations for certain types of moves, you can find what you’re looking for fairly quickly.

Alas in MyCareer a lot of the moves are locked behind loot boxes, meaning you may need to grind quite a lot to unlock all the moves you want when going online in Road To Glory or when tackling the single-player campaign.

3. My Career’s Ambition

Speaking of MyCareer, you have to give it point for trying. WWE 2K18’s MyCareer seems to offer many things players want: backstage free-roaming, the ability to interact with wrestlers while you’re there, side-quests, and so on.

In fact, there’s even a TV producer you talk to regularly who gives you objectives and suggestions as to how best handle your career.

While this mode can feel a little drawn out and…empty – much like the NBA 2K18 version of the mode, it’s certainly something 2K Games can build upon in future iterations; hopefully by cutting down on load times and adding some personality to the wrestlers you face, as right now they’re all…pretty generic.

2. Road To Glory Mode

The second portion of the MyCareer mode is ‘Road To Glory’ which of all the modes in WWE 2K18, probably offers the most longevity. The idea is you spend each week playing matches against other CAWS, earning reputation and stars in order to level up and qualify for the next PPV. The goal being to unlock more in-game currency to unlock more moves, buy secret wrestlers, and obtain rare loot boxes.

The notion of a ranked online mode like this is pretty exciting; with WWE TV days often coming with specific match-types and theming around them.

Again, for a first try there are hiccups (namely being able to accurately target your enemy in gimmick matches), but of all the moves 2K games could improve upon with fantastic results, this one would be it.

1. The Roster

Holy Hennig, Batman. The gang’s all here.Looking at *just* legends, you have mainstays like The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Sting, Mankind, Stunning Steve Austin, Rikishi, Ricky Steamboat, Macho Man, Papa Shango(?!), Jimmy Garvin(?!!?!?!?!) and many, many, many more are available in WWE 2K18 to play – plus various DLC characters like Batista and Rob Van Dam.

Now, it’s likely you’ll be spending the next 30 years unlocking all these characters, but when you consider the massive regular roster, you have to give WWE 2K18 props for delivering everything and the kitchen sink, roster wise.

Perhaps the only notable omission (and it’s a big one) is Hulk Hogan, due to various legal troubles he was in.

That said, it’s clear the team behind WWE 2K18 have made some strides with this years edition of the game, often times offering a quantity over quality approach regarding the roster and creation options, while teasing out some new ideas for the future.

Is WWE 2K18 right for you? That’s for you to decide – if you have friends that want to play? Absolutely grab it. If you’re by yourself, you’ll likely be spending a lot of time in the single-player modes, which are rarely as exciting as a brawl with a good buddy.

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