Character models look terrible.
Here's a long rant about the directionlessness of the 2K Series. I'm glad they're taking time off. I hope they re-evaluate the game over the next couple years. It's a shame that the best major brand wrestling games are still games that came out almost 20 years ago.
People are inevitably going to make the point that "I'm glad they're making an arcady wrestling game instead of a sim..." but the 2K wrestling games aren't sims. They don't know what they want to be. I haven't played the games in two years because they've just been bad videogames and I'm not going to bother getting frustrated doing something that should be simple in a wrestling game, but is needlessly complex. My old examples of how they didn't know what type of game they wanted to be was that it'd be much much harder to perform simple moves like body slams or suplexes, than it is to perform the "WOW" finishers or the"OMG" moments. To perform a body slam, you'd usually have to lock up in some specific way, win a lock-up scenario, and hit two buttons usually a directional and a face button but don't hit the face button twice or hold it down because then you perform a choke or a headlock, or w/e. And finally, after a complex number of button presses, your opponent has a strong likelihood of reversing this basic move, and you get to perform a simple, routine body slam. Meanwhile, to perform an "OMG" moment where you suplex a guy off of a ladder through the announce table or perform your finished or something, you have to hit one button ... R3/Stick... And then the game "performs the awesome" for you.
I know they've changed some of these mechanics, so instead of the marble chase game or the marble puzzle game, you have some other puzzle or complex system. I haven't played the games longer than an hour or two in a few years now, and so while some things have changed and my specific criticism might not apply, the broader argument of the directionless of the series still does.
It's torn in so many more ways. Complex mini games for things that should be simple, like the bizarre marble minigame that used ot pop up whenever you'd perform any submission maneuver, and if you didn't do the marble game right then the move would be an advantage for your opponent, not you. It abstracted so many things that should be simple into these complex puzzles that would turn gameplay into small mini-games ... the MArble chase game where you have to chase your opponents blue marble, the circle marble game where to grab a brief case or belt in a ladder match you have to rotate a marble into a slot ... Like, "the game" in these games was completing these silly mini-games, not a wrestling game.
The 2K games didn't know if they wanted to emulate wrestling, MMA fighting, or Street FIghter-like competitive fighting games. So they just kinda mishmashed everything together. In some ways they emulate wrestling, as matched would get scored for quality in the career mode, or they'd ask you to do certain tasks in the MyPlayer/Superstar mode (e.g., body slam your opponent on the outside to unlock a cut scene), or entertain the crowd with specific moves or actions that give you certain powers/abilities/advantage. In some ways they want to be an MMA game, with complex controls for what should be fairly simple commands. And then in other ways they want to see themselves as a competitive fighting game where people want to win in their matches regardless of who they're wrestling with, and an experienced player should dominate a match much like an experience Street Fighter player would.
The games just don't have an identity. The 2K games have added all of this bizarre complexity but they don't know what they're doing or what direction they're going in. Ultimately, they should be trying to emulate professional wrestling, a worked-contest where both wrestlers are in on the performance. Obviously you still want players to compete to win, but performing wrestling moves should be simple, simple button presses, and the contest/competition in the game should be around strategy, not complexity of performing moves. The best analog outside of the older wrestling games should be a game like NBA Street Vol 3. The core gameplay was easy to learn, and novices could perform cool dribbling moves, cool passes, cool dunks within their first or second game ... A novice could feel like they're competing in the game because they can score, dribble, steal, block shots, and do everything that they want to do in a basketball gmae. But, a novice would still lose every game to a more experienced player, because the skill in the game was understanding the strategy ... Knowing which moves to perform when, knowing when to save key power-up moments, knowing a few offensive patterns and then defense counters to those and mix/matching them, identifying weaknesses and mismatches between the rosters and trying to exploit them or cover up your own.
Pro wrestling games that are trying to attract a large audience should go in this direction. It should be easy and rewarding to control your wrestlers and make them perform cool moves and make an entertaining match ... In WWE 2K games of the past, if you were a novice to the series, it was very complex to do simple manuevers like body slams and suplexes ... I remember when I started playing WWE 2K13 or 14 or something, I was so confused why Hogan or Stone Cold in my career mode kept doing stupid headlocks and sleeper holds, when I wanted them to be power guys or brawlers. It was because of this bizarrely complex input system and poor tutorials. A new player to the series should be able to compete with a seasoned player....... But it should be rare that they should actually win. In WWE 2K, this isn't the case, a person who is familiar with the complex inputs, bizarre systems in the game, and the quirks, can basically keep offense for an entire "match," but that's not how pro wrestling is, especially these days as you have fewer squashes. The advantage should come in the strategy of the match... Knowing when to save a special move, knowing different phases of offense and defense. Those old WCW vs. NWO games, or WWF No Mercy, or Wrestlemania 2000, or the old Smackdowns were fun for that reason. Within about 1 - 2 matches, just about anybody felt like they had a handle on the controls and the inputs to do fun things in the game ... They felt like they were in control of their wrestler and *could* win a match, but the advantage game in the person who as more experienced in the strategy of it.
2K hears what people say, "I want an arcady wrestling game, not a sim!" but they don't get what people are asking. So, instead of making a wrestling game that is easy to pick up and play but has complex strategy, they make a wrestling game where you can feed your opponents to alligators.
Anyway. Long pointless rant but I'm in an online meeting doing nothing.
www.eurogamer.net
wwe.2k.com
