Don’t Buy WWE2K20

This won’t be the first time you’ve heard this, but WWE 2K20 is not only an abysmal game, but perhaps in the running for the worst wrestling game of all time.

Don’t buy it.

I can go on and on about how the game is a glitchy mess, broken and borderline unplayable. But once again, you’ve probably heard that before. Instead, I’d like to make a larger point about the sad state of sports-based video games in 2020.

Two console generations ago, sports games flourished. Games like ESPN NFL 2K5, Madden 2008 and MVP Baseball 2005 are considered to be some of the best games of their genre. The same can be said for WWE SmackDown: Here Comes the Pain, Shut Your Mouth, and even the early years of the SmackDown vs. Raw series are remembered fondly. But why? It all harkens back to three things: gameplay, features and attention to detail, all of which are pretty self-explanatory.

That still doesn’t explain the drop-off in quality. In the case of sports franchises, natural selection took form and killed off the NBA Live series, as well as NASCAR games. The 2K football games and MVP Baseball games died a death at the hands of exclusive rights deals, but for a short amount of time, iron sharpened iron and consumers had the choice of playing any of two critically acclaimed franchises. Wrestling games have never had that problem, though. Nowadays, Madden games are just as insufferable as the WWE 2K franchise, but that’s largely due to the heavy reliance on microtransactions and a lack of competition decaying the abilities of developer EA Tiburon.

In the case of WWE 2K20, 2K Games shit the bed. It’s as simple as that.

She’ll be comin round the mountain when she comes! 🤣 #WWE2K20 #wwe pic.twitter.com/wfGii7PVe1
— Niko Exxtra (@NikoExxtra) October 23, 2019

Yes, Yuke’s, a longtime partner of WWE games going all the way back to the original SmackDown game, parted ways with 2K Games back in August, but the extent of this impact is unknown to the public. Some speculate Yuke’s took its engine with it, forcing 2K to rebuild the game from the ground up in two months, but I don’t buy it. Why? Because 2K had been producing mediocre wrestling games even with the help of Yuke’s for years. This year is no exception to 2K letting wrestling fans down; it’s just that this year’s game managed to regress from previous efforts, something that is extremely hard to do in 2020. At worst, one could put out the same game every year, but this game managed to take a step back in virtually every area.

You already know about how broken the game is (one notable glitch has the referee on his knees shoving his genitals into the face of a female wrestler). But are you aware of how bad the graphics are? Each character portrait has an identical pose to the next, taking away the individuality of the roster right off the bat. At first glance, Braun Strowman would appear to have the same personality as Mandy Rose if I didn’t know any better. Additionally, the hair physics are dreadful, and there is absolutely no excuse for that. This is not 2K’s first rodeo. I’m continually amazed at how lifelike the NBA 2K games are. What happened to the WWE franchise to where the graphics from WWE Day of Reckoning on the Gamecube are now preferable?

The new gameplay has drawn… mixed reviews. Ultimately, it’s going to come down to personal preference and this is a franchise that has strived to become a wrestling SIM over the years (in other words, a lifelike experience to the arcade-like experience of the first five SmackDown games). That’s totally fine. The alterations are slight, but I agree with YouTuber Chris Denker, who said that he believes the only reason there were any changes to the gameplay at all was to give the game its own identity and not seem like a carbon copy of past games. Once again, the glitches are the biggest hindrance to the gameplay, not the controls.

Thread for #WWE2K20 Glitch-Videos/Pics: pic.twitter.com/AtGLFCT2yV
— Lichtspieler (@DerLichtspieler) October 23, 2019

The career mode has gotten off easy, so I’m going to cut it down to size. For a game that prides itself on being a wrestling SIM, there is really nothing lifelike to the story whatsoever. Like last year’s game, there are voiceovers and you basically get to make over the main protagonist who has his own name and identity in cut scenes. However, I by and large enjoyed that story (shout out to AJ Kirsch who provided the voiceover and I BELIEVE mocap).

This time, the player takes control of two characters “Red” and “Tre,” two aspiring WWE Superstars you first meet in high school, with the objective of crossing off as many items of a “WWE to-do list” as possible before getting inducted to the WWE Hall of Fame. Each character has a unique backstory, but holy hell is it corny to the point of the characters actually pulling out the list after matches and crossing off ridiculous items such as “win a dance off” and “find out what’s inside The Undertaker’s urn.” You follow the characters around at the WWE Hall of Fame as you get to endure a loose retelling of the highs and lows of their “careers.”

“Red” gets her name from her temper, which leads to some absolutely absurd soliloquies that just leave you scratching your head. For example:

“I’m going to take that marker, bring it to your grandmother’s nursing home, and cross out parts of her chart so when the nurse goes to give her turn down service, she won’t know to flip her over. That’s right, I’m going to give your grandmother bed sores!”

What?!

The other character “Tre,” if you can believe it, is even worse. He is described as being a C+ entertainer and a D- wrestler and is usually the butt of embarrassing comedy throughout the entire mode. The obnoxiousness of the character gets so bad, you almost find yourself rooting against yourself in matches you’re competing as… yourself. I could probably get to 3,000 words if I listed every cringe-inducing line Tre utters throughout this story. There’s also no rhyme or reason to the things that happen. For example, Randy Orton is the Raw General Manager and Lita comes out of retirement to wrestle you at a minor league baseball stadium just because your character wouldn’t take no for an answer. You have to wonder if Vince Russo ghostwrote the whole thing.

#PS4share https://t.co/6MQGSYtvDw pic.twitter.com/jEEA1hOqIu
— JohnnyGaming (@JohnnyGaming9) October 22, 2019

Remember when I ragged on the graphics a few paragraphs ago? They managed to look even worse in the story mode. Video game graphics tend to look better in cut scenes, but the animations make this year’s iteration look like a subpar PS2 game. One cut scene with Peyton Royce stuck out in my mind when you’re competing at a winter festival. They actually managed to make her look more like Russell Brand than herself, and the fact that wrestlers are made to look like English subtitled Godzilla characters more than lifelike beings does not help matters.

Whereas the writing and voice acting was passable (at worst) in WWE 2k19, it’s downright bad in 2k20. All of it. The writing is laughable. The voice acting is…hollow, and actually makes the characters feel even more wooden than lifelike if that is even possible with respect to the graphics and animations. The WWE talent likely did their best with the low quality lines they were fed, but to say the voice acting of the main characters was subpar would be extremely generous. When you’re taking on the role of two career babyfaces, they HAVE to be likeable and the voiceovers do more harm than good in this case.

I don’t think the Yuke’s departure had anything to do with this year’s career mode being terrible. I think 2K legitimately thought it had something good on their hands. The positive feedback from last year’s story mode got to the team’s head and they really thought what they were doing what was “best for business,” much like the current WWE structure thinking it’s hip to modern times. The career mode might be the worst part of the game (which says a lot), and if this is the best 2K can do it needs to take a long look in the mirror or understand what wrestling fans want out of the career mode in a “wrestling SIM.”

Simulation is the operative word here. This game is supposed to be lifelike, so the story should mirror that and not be a bullshit retelling of two “cosplay wrestlers” as Jim Cornette would say. Give the user some room to tinker with the character. Everyone has different goals in wrestling. Is it to make a lot of money? Main event pay-per-views? Become a Grand Slam champion? This is why Here Comes the Pain and Shut Your Mouth receive the amount of praise they do for career mode. It plays more like a sandbox game, and the options for your character are limitless. Well, almost. I always thought there was still plenty of room to expand on that engine, and the WWE games sort of left it be after HCTP. Some of the older 2K games gave the player a taste of that desired freedom, such as including RPG elements and a skill tree, but once again with room to grow.

An entirely linear career mode does not work in 2020, bottom line.

CAPTION THIS #WWE2K20 #glitch #wrestlethon pic.twitter.com/INZoXaauat
— WRESTLETHON (@Wrestlethon) October 27, 2019

Which brings me to universe mode. This is supposed to fulfill the desires of fans like myself who are into the idea that “anything can happen” in a wrestling career mode. However, universe mode sucks. Again, that is not a hot take. It sucks and has sucked for years. Little has been done to expand upon it in recent years, and the fact that a GM mode has not replaced it is puzzling to me. This is a company that specializes in giving the player unlimited customization in the NBA 2K series. The majority of fans have been screaming their heads off for a GM mode to return to the series and for whatever reason, it has not happened yet, which shows either just how dim this company is or that it just doesn’t care. I miss the story builder, which was removed after 2K14.

Perhaps I could talk about other features like showcase mode, but these are completely worthless in the grand scheme. Instead, it’s worth adding that the audio is mixed horribly, many of the videos included in the game appear to be in 480p and there is a surprising amount of content behind a paywall from day ONE. It doesn’t help that the roster is outdated as is, and you can only play as The Fiend if you were one of the unfortunate saps to have pre-ordered this game. But superstars like Hulk Hogan, who was shown in the commercial for the game no less, can only be used if purchased with virtual currency, which is a horrible look.

I can’t recommend this game to anyone of any age. I really don’t mean to sound like an ingrate or someone overly critical, but when you step back and look at the big picture, it’s amazing how this game ended up being the broken mess it became. Despite the declining quality, the sales of this game are probably going to be great, just like sports franchises in purgatory like the Madden series. The only way these companies are going to change their ways are if the consumers (you and me) speak about it and let our voices be heard with our wallets.

Don’t buy WWE 2k20. Instead, make sure your money goes to indie developers like Mat Dickie (Wrestling Revolution 3D, Booking Revolution, Hard Time, etc.) who are actually interested in giving the fans what they want: a quality, working product with the ability to do as you please.