‘Thirty years ago, one man had a vision. It began here and it would change our world’. The epic line that sums up a monumental event in sports entertainment. Wrestlemania, also known as the showcase of the immortals, is coming close to its thirtieth anniversary. As World Wrestling Entertainment prepares to put on the greatest show ever, 2K Games have taken on the task of bringing the action to your games console. WWE 2K14 hopes to capture the true intensity of Wrestlemania, but can it become the king of the video game ring? Let us put on our wrestling tights and find out.
We were able to get hands on with the game in a place known as The Crypt in London. It was an eerie and cool looking building with skulls, candlelight and ominous objects all around. A strange setting for a sports game, but the reason behind the location would appear after our introduction to the game. Brain Williams, Senior Designer behind the game, gave us an introduction to some of the new changes of the game and the direction in which WWE 2K14 is going. First he showed the brand new single player game mode, 30 Years of Wrestlemania. In this mode, players will be able to go back in time and take part in iconic Wrestlemania matches from the events. These matches are split up by eras, which hold the events relevant to them. For example, the Rutheless Aggression era houses matches from Wrestlemania 18 through to 24. When you choose a match to participate in, there will be a video package showcasing the drama leading up to the match. Afterwards you will see the superstars walk down to the ring with commentary by Jim Ross and Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler.
Show the older superstars who’s boss with the update roster, including Dolph Ziggler
When the match begins, there are some important details to keep in mind. The most important being a box in the top left part of the screen displaying the stipulations for the match. As well as showing this, the box also shares information behind iconic moments you can perform to get a high score. These can vary from hitting a signature or finishing move, getting your opponent into a pre determined situation or reversing an incoming move. These moments are either completed via a cutscene, quick time event or during gameplay, so players must keep on their toes if they wish to complete all the objectives. After completing the match, you will be rewarded with a score as well as unlockables, depending on whether you completed all the iconic moments or not.
The next mode revealed to us is simply known as The Streak. Anyone who is a fan of wrestling knows how iconic the Wrestlemania streak is of The Undertaker. This mode allows you to turn yourself into a legend by becoming number one on a weekly updated leaderboard. The leaderboards are tied down to two game modes, Beat the Streak and Defend the Streak. Beat the Streak has you go one on one with the Undertaker in a Wrestlemania match with any superstar of your choice. The dead man has increased difficulty, increased health, increased damage, faster recovery speeds and acquires his signature and finishing moves much faster. On top of these improvements, the Undertaker also has some unique counter attacks and signature moves for this mode such as jumping over the top rope, sitting back up from a match ending finisher and turning the lights off to reposition himself. This mode is incredibly difficult and can truly put you to the test. Expect to spend a long period of time on this as you will see the Undertaker never give up.
Defend the Streak instead puts players in the shoes of the dead man as you simply defend your reign at Wrestlemania. In this mode you will be constantly fighting opponents over and over until you just can’t win. The difficulty will steadily grow as you defeat more and more opponents making this just as hard later on as Beat the Streak. When you have completed or failed at these modes, you will be given a high score that takes into consideration important aspects of your match. This score will be placed on the weekly leaderboards so that you can see how you did compared to other players online.
Replicate some of the Undertaker’s greatest Wrestlemania matches, such as his match against Diesel from Wrestlemania 12
As well as showcasing 30 Years of Wrestlemania, Brian also showed improvements to the WWE Universe mode. Universe allows you to control what happens in your game, from rivalries, to champions and which superstars have matches. A big improvement to the mode is the creation of one vs one or two vs two rivalries that can involve any superstars and even affect championship contenders. You can either choose to use existing WWE talent, past wrestlers or even superstars that you have made yourself. Another addition is the ability to add your own created championship titles into universe mode, allowing you to create your own custom series of matches involving your own championship.
Lastly in the introduction, Brian revealed to us the changes behind the creation suite. This area of the demo allowed us to create a wrestler, as well as new threads for existing wrestlers and even lets you create a championship belt. Create a wrestler has changed to allow players to not just create their own wrestlers but also create their own custom attires for existing wrestlers. By selecting the head of an existing superstar, players can change around their clothes to create older, newer or random looks for their favourite wrestlers. As well as this for existing superstars, creating your own wrestler now comes with new additions ranging from hair styles to wrestling tights. Creating a new thread for an existing superstar will allow you to recolour some of their iconic attires. Finally you will be able to make the Undertakers updated Wrestlemania attire bright pink, if you so wish. This mode also allows you to edit their entrance attires as well if they have one.
The stand out mode this time around is the addition of create a belt. In this mode you can customise and create your own title belts, from the main centre piece to the right and left plates. These belts can be fully customised with colours, existing logos and even custom created logos. This allows you to create the belt you have always wanted to see people fight for. All of this, along with the brand new one hundred slots for creating your own superstars, gives players a ton of freedom.
Shawn Micheals and Randy Savage return to the game and bring some other legends with them too
After the introduction we went hands on with the game, so what did we think? The game itself is constructed really well. You can feel the power behind ever single move that is performed and can get behind every superstar as they enter the ring. Some characters look a little outdated in comparison to others and the crowd still look very pixelated and blocked out, as if the game runs on the PS2 or original Xbox. The in-game camera takes focus off of the crowd however and focuses on the ring and the participants, creating a TV style depth of field. On top of this, certain Wrestlemania arenas will also come with their own unique TV screen effect to emulate the time period.
New moves have been included into the games. First up are the catapult and catch finishers. These finishers reverse a move and instantly turn it into a finishing move if you have a finisher ready to go. The catapult is a reversal from a running opponent whilst the catch is a reversal from a diving opponent. There are also new comeback moments which are more prevalent in the 30 Years of Wrestlemania mode. These Comeback skills allow you to perform a quick time event on your opponent that change the course of the fight and can reward you with a finisher. Keep an eye out for these in game as your opponent could sneak in a comeback out of nowhere.
The number one mode to play, as recommended by us, is the Beat the Streak mode. Beating the Undertaker takes all of your skill and timing. It makes hard and challenging titles such as Dark Souls II seem like an easy task in comparison. This is the mode for gamers to play until they just can’t play anymore. Let the greatest survive and thrive.
Overall, WWE 2K14 is a great game that revitalises the series. With an emphasis behind wrestling history, incorporated stars from the present and past and supplying gamers with plenty of content to unlock, this is the wrestling game to get your hands on this year. The game will be released on the PS3 and Xbox 360 November 1st.
So what do you think of WWE 2K14? Will you go one on one with the great ones? Let us know what you think about the title in the comments.
