WWE 2K18 Review – The Whole Universe In Your Hands

<p>Much like a WWE Superstar tries to stand out with their own personality amongst their peers&comma; so too does the <em>WWE 2K<&sol;em> series in regards to the world of video games&period; Sometimes you have a giant monster running roughshod over everyone&period; Other times you have a superstar get by with quick wits or overall skill&period; <em>WWE 2K18<&sol;em> looks to take the concept of being bigger&comma; with the largest roster to date&period; They then combine it with the idea of adding a few tricks up its sleeve with some new additions and refinements&period; So does WWE 2K18 make it the monster among games&comma; or is this a local jobber that should be squashed by its competition&quest; Have your tickets ready and file into the arena&colon; here’s the review&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Much like its predecessors&comma; <em>WWE 2K18<&sol;em> has refined some core parts of the overall game&period; This being the first installment to forgo last gen consoles&comma; the focus this year is to make the game look and play better than ever&period; In-ring competition has been refined to add a new lift and drag control&period; This allows players to move their opponent into one of four positions to set up or land a move from varying situation&colon; moves that can’t always be performed through grapples&period; It also helps with setting up moves with more accuracy&period; It’s a small touch&comma; but it goes a long way in helping the player set up for extreme moments or more powerful attacks&period; This new mechanic feels like it had more attention given to it than whipping opponents&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;131579" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-131579" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-131579" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;11&sol;09172934&sol;WWE-2K18-Finn&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-131579" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">James Dean Cool&comma; John Wayne Tough &lpar;WWE 2K18&comma; 2K&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Action outside the ring has been expanded from last year&period; Backstage areas from last year have been expanded to include a parking lot and catering area&period; Moves can also be performed from different areas as well as using different weapons&period; This is one of the more interactive backstage areas since the SmackDown video games era&period; More often than not&comma; you’ll find yourself leading a fight that goes to an office&comma; locker room&comma; or an expanded area of the backstage&period; This helps makes the fights feel less stifling because of being stuck in a hallway&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Being an annual franchise&comma; it also means other areas might not shine as much as others&period; Most of the character models do look a lot better&comma; while some still look like they could use some improvement&period; Sound design is a vast improvement to previous installments of the game&period; There’s a noticeable difference in audience noise when in front of a smaller crowd and a larger one&period; The NXT arena&comma; for example&comma; tends to be a bit quieter until bigger moments or chants break out&period; The larger RAW or SmackDown shows will have more crowd noise&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>WWE 2K18<&sol;em> is the first game in the series to allow up to eight superstars in the ring at the same time&period; This makes things like the Royal Rumble a bit more challenging&comma; especially with the new Rumble elimination mini-game&period; Granted&comma; there is a lot of chaos&comma; but this adds to some more fun in the unpredictability of the Royal Rumble&period; Also&comma; this can lead to a more traditional Survivor Series type match&period; It’s a step forward from having six people in the ring at the same time&period; The major drawback of this is the game does noticeably slow down with eight people in the ring&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;131582" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-131582" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-131582" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;11&sol;09173624&sol;WWE-2K18-Kinshasa&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-131582" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">KINSHASAAAA&excl; &lpar;WWE 2K18&comma; 2K&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Like last year&comma; <em>WWE 2K18<&sol;em> has decided to forgo the 2K Showcase this year&period; This makes the game built more for the players in it for the long term&period; MyPlayer mode appears to have more focus this year&period; MyPlayer has been given a new look&comma; which allows players to walk around backstage before matches&period; While backstage&comma; players can form alliances&comma; attack rivals&comma; or strategize for matches&comma; among other things&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The downside to MyPlayer is that there is no longer the ability to import created characters&period; Each MyPlayer has to be created from scratch from a limited supply of attire options&comma; moves&comma; and skill sets&period; To unlock items&comma; players must use in-game currency or play Road to Glory&period; Road to Glory has each MyPlayer take on a set of challenges online&period; Then&comma; they play a match against the AI to unlock exclusive rewards&period; Depending on how you feel about playing online&comma; playing against others can be a mixed bag&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;131583" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-131583" style&equals;"width&colon; 1280px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"wp-image-131583 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;11&sol;09173821&sol;WWE-2K18-MyPlayer&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1280" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-131583" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;WWE 2K18&comma; 2K&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Universe mode in <em>WWE 2K18<&sol;em> has largely been unchanged&period; This allows players to control their version of the WWE as they see fit&period; The players will progress through each show leading up to a Pay-Per-View event and take part in storylines&period; The player can mostly control the outcome of everything by playing through it&period; Although&comma; there are occasions when the game will try to make its own storylines&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Both MyPLAYER and Universe mode has the promo system in place again this year&comma; and it still needs work&period; Players must use the opening line to take the promo in a certain direction&period; From there&comma; dialog options are given to choose from&period; The problem lies in that the options aren’t always clear to take the direction&period; Not to mention&comma; you have a small window of time to pick your option&period; This makes things easy to mess up and it tends to be quite frustrating&period; It would have helped to make options more clear&comma; such as a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;good&comma; bad&comma; and in between” type option&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The best part of <em>WWE 2K18<&sol;em> is the creation features&period; Creating a WWE Superstar is getting as deep as it ever has been in the series&period; New features have been added to just about every part of the Creation mode&comma; not just for the Create-A-Superstar&period; Not to mention the online creation suite will have something if you can’t find&sol;create it yourself&period; While it is time-consuming&comma; it’s pretty sweet seeing your creation when everything is just right&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Issues in <em>WWE 2K18<&sol;em> stop it from reaching the full potential of being great&period; There could have been improvements in Universe mode and the promo system&period; There are a few technical issues that bog the game down&period; However&comma; those issues should be resolved with future patches&period; The game feels geared towards rewarding online players more than those who prefer offline&period; It’s too bad because the game is definitely for those players that like the long haul of Universe and MyPlayer modes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>WWE 2K18<&sol;em> is the game for hardcore WWE fans&period; With more control and creation options added this year&comma; this is a creator-friendly game&period; The game gives you the keys to the WWE Universe to do with it as you please&period; The in-ring &lpar;or out of the ring&rpar; action will find it comes as close to what you would see on Monday&comma; Tuesday&comma; and the occasional Sunday nights as you can get&period; The total overall presentation is still top notch when it comes to sports games&&num;8230&semi;even if you don&&num;8217&semi;t consider it a &&num;8220&semi;real sport&&num;8221&semi;&period; While more improvements can be made&comma; it’s not to take away how much fun WWE fans can have in the game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;