While that opening statement might seem like I hated the experience in WWE 2K17, it’s only a third of the truth. There are some really great aspects of this year’s 2K release that give us a glimpse of what Yuke’s and Visual Concepts is doing to improve the series; really addition by subtraction. They’re taking the Madden NFL route, by focusing on the strong points of the game, while cutting away the unnecessary fat that bloats the product. Madden NFL 16-17 made it a point to simplify the action in its game by focusing on its franchise, training, career and card game modes. By doing so EA Sports made the game better in the areas where people loved it the most. You gotta make the fans happy, right? Yuke’s and Visual Concepts has done that here with WWE 2K17.
The focus of this year’s game seems squarely put on the player experience. Wiping away any unnecessary bells and whistles in the game, Yuke’s and Visual Concepts looked to improve how the mechanics of the game worked during matches. For example, how you gain more buff, where you end up taking the fights and how to pump the crowd up to turn tide of the match to your advantage were several points of interest. There are several gameplay mechanics beyond that, which add to the flavor of the series and show concentrated improvement on the gameplay experience, so they did a helluva job with making the gamer feel like they’re playing an actual WWE match instead of just a wrestling game made with minimum effort. Heck, the WWE turned it up 20 years ago since it’s name departure from the WWF, so there’s plenty of over-the-top methodology that they tried to incorporate into this year’s game.
I can appreciate the the efforts to improve a gamer’s experience. It’s why sequels are supposed to be made and it’s always a challenge when it comes to year-after-year sports titles.
A real part of the game that I had a blast with, one that the developers hang their hat on every year, is the career mode. I loved the deep customization of the characters during the beginning of the career mode. The fact that you can add pieces onto the character and pretty much change the color of anything on the character equals out to a very detailed experience. Hell, you can even add a thick glaze of body oil to any of the characters. Disgusting? Hell, yes, but the fact you can do it is fantastic. What about adding an insane amount of veins? It’s an option, though gross. I think I spent an unusual amount of time making my creation, Mr. Krabs — a seven foot tall, glazed over, demon teeth sporting monster that had a real woman’s face imprinted onto him. He was visibly disgusting, and at the same time amazing. I don’t spend a lot of time on customization for any game, but I had a lot fun with this one.
Beyond the customization, the career mode also featured a really good, yet extensive journey to the WWE ring. Incorporating NXT into the mix, the large amount of effort it takes to get Mr. Krabs from point A to point B in his/her wrestling career was nothing short of fun. It will certainly put one’s patience to the test, as there is an incredible amount of failure along the way, but the detailed experience of the process makes up for the large amount of frustration that a gamer might experience along the journey. In short, the career mode will still be the crown jewel of the title, so definitely expect it.
Following along those same lines as customizing, further improvements to the title this year are the visuals, which appear to be finally tapping into the PS4 and Xbox One hardware quite nicely. While I can’t say much for the crowd reaction, which is loud and rowdy, but glitchy at times (nothing like signs appearing and then quickly disappearing), the actual wrestlers are frightfully detailed. For example, the first ladder match I played was with Goldberg. Goldberg, whom I remember from the 90s as the biggest (bleeping) wrestler I’ve seen — and still the biggest, was detailed as hell. He had those tiny shiny black shoes on, the huge frame with the beautiful bald head attached and even detailed down to the patch of chest hair he sported (guess it left the top and went to the chest) — the guy looked like Goldberg. He was perfectly modeled after the real wrestler. All the wrestlers were either very well done or nearly perfect; there wasn’t a drop-off beyond that measurement. As for the glitches, while I haven’t run into one beyond the crowd, I have heard it has happened in some instances. Regardless, it’s a beautiful game in terms of the gameplay and presentation.
Now, having said all this wonderful stuff, the game has some issues in the controls department.
Controlling the wrestlers feels like a game of NBA 2K1. The movement is linear in some instances, tough to break from once it’s set in motion and just feels a bit disconnected when pulling off moves. There is almost absolutely no flexibility. It’s really a stiff feeling when it comes to controlling the wrestlers, which makes me sad. This has been a point of contention with me and recent wrestling games and it appears to be still a work in progress. It’s truly the only thing holding this series back from standing in the same greatness as the old WCW game on the Nintendo 64. My recommendation for Yuke’s and Visual Concepts is to go back and see what made the arcade style wrestling so much fun. The controls are loosey-goosey in the older wrestling games, but the wrestling is so much fun when the player can go anywhere and do anything pretty easily. Pulling off moves should be quick and mindless, not demanding. Hell, go as far back as WWF Royal Rumble from the arcades to see how much fun wrestling games can be when easier controls are established. Honestly, this isn’t EA’s UFC series, so the controls don’t need to be so restricted and stiff. This one aspect brought down the rest of the good gameplay that shined in WWE 2K17. Honestly speaking, though, it took forever for Madden to break from this type of control scheme too, so it’s not like WWE is the only game that ever suffered from this. I’m optimistic that next year’s game will address this.
Anyway, there is still fun to be had with the title at the end of the day. There’s still enough here in terms of showmanship and ridiculousness, especially in the career mode, to bring some great value to the overall package. The controls will most certainly frustrate some gamers, but the fanbase has been forgiving such a thing for years and with the added value of the gameplay design in this year’s title, people will more than likely be satisfied with the end result. For me, I am hopeful that the controls will improved next year, beyond that if the developers can bring back this same type of package with improved controls, they’ll have a perfect wrestling game on their hands.
With that said, onto the summary!
