WWE 2K25, like Cody Rhodes, explores what happens after you finish your story

WWE 2K20 There is no doubt that it is a huge disaster. For a series that is often insulated in its WrestleMania bubble, its trend on social media was at the end of 2019 after launching, and sometimes it was even fun due to the severity of the bugs. The match received so poorly that the series actually took a year off. In the world of sports (and sports entertainment) games of the year, this is actually unheard of. Since then, the WWE 2K has rebounded over the course of several games.

You can say that the WWE 2K series like Cody Rhodes ended the story last year, and it was a great game that does most of the things you want to do well. Now, like the poster boys of WWE are studying every week, the royal family is lying on the crown. Where does the series go from here? To a large extent, the goal has been achieved. The belt is on the waist of the game. Meanwhile, when the next game is always down the pipeline, the “story” still doesn’t weaken, so there is no chance to stop and enjoy the fruits of your labor. A few hours later WWE 2K25the next chapter seems to be another step further, even if the conclusions that may be drawn in the end have not been fully revealed.

WWE 2K22 Chief combat designer Derek Donahue told me it was a “return year”. “We had extra time. There was no 2K21. We also rebuilt the game. We rebuilt a lot of core systems, but we still couldn't do everything we wanted. I think you can watch (2K22), and it's the engine and us The tools used on the 2K20 are almost unrecognizable, but it took many years to reach our games and the abilities we have always envisioned to work hard on and build it.”

Donahue talks about how the last two games helped the series reshape culture. ”((2K23) is a unique challenge, and in a sense, we have to do it in the year as we used to, right? We didn't have extra time. It's really nice to get everything done (2K23) especially war games. (2K24) Finally, it's like “Can you repeat?” and I feel like we're proving ourselves the moments that say, “Hey, we can go back to the annual franchise, make huge improvements to the game every year, stand alone, it's like it feels like OK. 'But that of course can also increase the stakes, because expectations are higher than ever before, so those expectations are met.”

From the outside, it was believed that the WWE 2K20 collapsed because the Japanese studio Yuke, who made WWE games since 2000, left the series, and the team still couldn't overcome this absence. Donahue told me that this was not the case. More precisely, the team that replaced Yuke has not really existed yet.

“Yuke did the game for 20 years,” Donahue said. “It's a lot of institutional knowledge they have. And the goal we have when we go from 2K20 and beyond is to modernize many systems. I think when the game becomes It's an extremely difficult challenge to get something effective when we're as big as us Nowbut it needs to be rebuilt tomorrow;It takes a lot of resources, you have to choose and choose what you want to do, and it seems insurmountable to do it in a personal year.

“So it’s the way we work in the game, the goals we set and the expectations of ourselves and the product. It’s a huge effort to bring everything inside. When we work, we have Yuke’s, it’s like our office The 20s in the same way as those in their 20s include designers, producers, some entry cutscenes, but people who talk to us and translate emails and hold weekly, but almost everything else happens around the world, but It's totally out of touch with our work, making it really challenging.

“We always knew we wanted to be able to sit next to an engineer and work with someone in the same office and work together in a way we knew we could do more. But, the gap between where we were, we wanted to The place to be is so huge that we can finally get there this time.”

One of the new features of this year’s game is the third-person camera controls. While past games have allowed you to introduce the competition through real-life hard camera angles or reinspired entrance cameras, this year’s games also have the option to dynamically control angles with the right stick at any time. When you need the right stick to do something else in a game other than tweaking the camera (like fixing or rotating your opponent), you just hold down the correct trigger while using it, just like the Shift key on your computer Execute accessibility functions the same.

Since the correct trigger hasn't mapped anything before, the effect is a seamless new toy that enhances many of the competitions I've played, giving me the director's control over how each competition is presented. Interestingly, the team initially built this feature for the entrance, but when they loved it so much, they decided to apply it to the competition themselves.

Third person cameras are especially useful in backstage brawls, as I can swing the camera around the entire 360 ​​degrees and it is best to see and utilize the space in old and new settings, for example when I find out that I can climb several structures in the WWE archive and Throwing my opponent on the floor like he was doing the impression of forcing Mick Foley. I ignored that space until I chose to change the camera settings during the match. With the help of cameras, my game is better and can be converted into more stars in the game's Meltzer-like rating system.

The marketing team plans to lead, but in reality, I want players to appreciate it very much, it is not an exciting new feature, and many people want it as their preferred choice. Today, it's a subtle but satisfying change to building the game on a stronger foundation. However, the exciting addition to the wider range of games is – usually – presentation modes and new match types. I participated in three showcase matches and this year, I highlighted the Anoa'i wrestling dynasty. This includes current superstars such as Roman Reign and Nia Jax, as well as past legends such as Rocks and Wild Samoans. Showcase is WWE 2K's annual history class and has a reliable time.

I was disappointed to see the seamless transition from gameplay to stock footage in real life has been removed, but I learned there are several reasons. On the one hand, the team said that players largely disliked the feature – which was ridiculous to me, but I could understand that in the minority, I wouldn't go my own way. Another reason why there is no display aspect in 2K25 is because the display feature is some fantasy competitions we have never seen in real life, such as the Wild Samoans at the table match against Dudley Boyz compared to.

The display cabinet pattern is more obvious. Brock Lesnar, who is an important chapter in the cover star's story of Roman rule. Sometimes you can see the game clean around his survival For the second year in a row, it's like the cutscene tells the story of Seth Rollins' famous cash-making money on Wrestlemania 31. Rollins fixed and had more arguments with Reigns, but Lesnar was also in that game, and he was missing from the cutscene as well – not suggesting that I want him there. It's worth noting when the 2K team had to evade some of the wrestling companies' past scandals.

I'm very much looking forward to this pattern, though, because I found that last year I filled some of my knowledge gaps with WrestleMania's match list, and I undoubtedly have a doubt this year's Family Tree will do that this year, too. It also helps Paul Heyman tell everything. From what I've seen, Heyman did his best and didn't call it at all. I don't think this person even knows how.

While new display cabinets, new display cabinets such as new game types, such as underground and pedigree rules, and others Recently announced WWE 2K25 features All of this seems to be based on last year’s games, with the way players appreciate it, the most anticipated feature in this year’s game is very simple: add online multiplayer in GM mode. The equivalent of something like owner mode in NBA 2K or MADDEN, the GM mode requires you to book, manage production and run the lineup and do it so well that you actually beat the game – in this case, As a cross-company competition like SmackDown, Raw and NXT, not like AEW.

GM mode is already where I spend most of my time on the game. I like to make stars from people who haven't reached that level in reality and put their own stamps on the WWE universe. The prospect of playing it online with three other online might ensure I spent more time this year. I'm eager to see how to implement drafts and deals and things, but if done well, the online GM mode of WWE 2K25 is probably my favorite new sports league – one of my life.

With another fun showcasing theme, interesting new match types, and clever new camera controls, I really like what I've played with the WWE 2K25. There are many more things to see, including several major modes like narratively driven myrise, as well as my information collected by the cards, and probably the biggest influence: the new social space is called the island, so I will keep mine Final comments because when I review the game later this year. But what I play makes the community stronger on a stronger basis than it was just a few years ago. I have more questions to answer for myself and I will find them before posting a comment, but as any patient wrestling fan suggests, for the moment, I will make it work.