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WWE 2K17

WWE 2K17

We've once more entered the ring, fought with chairs, and climbed ladders.

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Brock Lesnar lifts up a chair and gets ready to finish the fight. As Goldust we lie severely bruised on the ground and awaiting a humiliating loss at the hands of the beast. The referee tries to interfere without success, and we have to bet everything on a decisive counterattack. The timing is perfect, Lesnar misses, we grab his chair and slam it into his head, climbing quickly up the corner post with renewed energy so as to jump down with a flying elbow (likely to have registered as at least a six on the Richter scale). Boom! 1-2-3 and a nice victory chalked up. Our buddy on the couch slowly turns to us and looks furious as he stares us down and says: "One more time."

Life as a wrestling fan is not always easy. It's simply not as popular over here in Europe, and when you say you're a fan you're often met with disbelief. It's fake after all and only "stupid Americans" would believe otherwise. Only they don't. After all the E in WWE stands for entertainment, and just as you'd get from an ongoing TV series, this is simply another form of scripted entertainment to consume from the comfort of your couch.

Fortunately, you don't have to love wrestling to have fun with WWE games. They offer quite long matches with fun twists and surprising events that seem to please those who aren't fans of the show. There's something oddly satisfying about smashing your friends up, with thrilling and quick comebacks. And you can fight everywhere; in the ring, outside the ring, in the audience. And you can use all kinds of tools to cheat in order to win.

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WWE 2K17

The problem with Yuke's games has been that the gameplay never really delivered top notch action, instead the games are primarily focused on quantity over quality. Although the games appear in each end of the scale (Japanese anime vs. somewhat vulgar American entertainment), we tend to draw parallels with the Dragon Ball games that often sport well over 100 fighters and for each new entry, more are added. The idea is that more is better, but the quality of the experience suffers as a result.

WWE 2K17 is a huge game. Just on the disc there are a staggering 136 fighters included; a record for the series. With DLC and the alternative versions, the total character count reaches a whopping 169 more or less impressive wrestlers. This is of course more than even the most hardcore fan would demand.

In the very first match, we note how the initial mini-game from its predecessor has been removed. It was a fun idea, because wrestling matches don't usually begin with two people pounding each other to death from the very first second, but there's some finesse and build-up as you to get to know the opponent. However, it became quite tedious after hundreds of matches, and this system has therefore been moved to when both fighters are trying to grapple with each other. A smart move. Another new thing is that taunting your opponent gives buffs, and therefore there is a point to behaving like the real superstars usually do.

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Almost everything new this time seem to focus on presenting the matches as they are shown in real life broadcasts. A good example of this is found in the ladder matches. They have previously been very messy because it has been so difficult to get the ladders positioned just right. Now you can no longer place them anywhere you want, and so you get a more traditional fight for the belt that hangs above the ladder where you have to climb up and get it down. Meanwhile, these ladder matches have been very popular with the community and led to tremendous creativity from the players who built things with the ladders, doing all kinds of insane stuff and causing general chaos (look it up on YouTube). Now it's a more controlled game with a more focused objective, which feels somewhat boring. It's like Yuke's are telling us we've been playing it wrong.

WWE 2K17

In these ladder matches there's also another new thing that exists to make wrestling more like... well, wrestling. In battles where more people are fighting simultaneously, taking too much damage forces you to roll out of the ring and lie there for a while. That's the way it often works on TV in modes like Elimination Chamber, Hell in a Cell and similar variants. All superstars are not in the ring and throwing punches simultaneously. This looks good on TV, but is not as fun in a game. A positive addition is that it's much easier to choose who you want to fight this time, and you pick your victim with a quick press of a button. This way, we can easily avoid the old problem of punching the wrong guy.

As far as the wrestling goes much it is similar to last year and mechanics such as how you kick yourself free when pinned down, counterattacks and the mini-game for submissions - are all identical. If you enjoyed the previous games, you'll enjoy this one as well, and vice versa. It's fun, easy to play, but never really reaches a level of excellence, because of the somewhat uncanny valley feeling, and how everything seems to lack weight.

For those playing alone who really want to simulate wrestling, two available game modes provide the bulk of the entertainment, My Career and Universe. The former is as bad as last year's version and lets you create your own wrestler and fight your way to the top. It could have been good and a stage for great drama, but the system is nearly incomprehensible and you're transported between matches that are almost unwinnable and others that are clearly a waste of time. It's incredibly slow and tedious, which ironically (and unintentionally) mirrors what new talent in the WWE has to go through as it is hard to make a name for yourself in wrestling.

WWE 2K17

Therefore we suggest you start with Universe instead, where you get to put together fun shows and fight for the championship belts. The presentation is superb and it's WWE at its best. There are unexpected things happening all the time, storylines constantly emerge, brilliant promos are cut and so on. Brilliant wrestling entertainment.

WWE 2K17 builds upon what was good in WWE 2K16, but it adds a few new features that don't always feel totally spot on. Matches are more controlled now to get the wrestling to look more like TV with more predetermined elements. We wish more focus had been put on improving the gameplay, rather than adding more content to what is already a game filled to the brim.

The graphics are also due for a major revamp. It's not nearly as polished as UFC 2 technically, and the fluidity and collision detection is still not as good as it should be. Fortunately, it is still wrestling, easily played and often satisfying. If you have good friends to enjoy it with, there is zero chance that WWE 2K17 will fail to entertain, and that's what really counts at the end of the day.

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07 Gamereactor UK
7 / 10
+
Intuitive controls, Incredible range of options and setting, Fun multiplayer, WWE Universe is brilliant.
-
Often comes across as stiff, Lacks weight, More automated and fixed features in the matches.
overall score
is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

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WWE 2K17Score

WWE 2K17

REVIEW. Written by Jonas Mäki

"We wish more focus had been put on improving the gameplay, rather than adding more content to what is already a game filled to the brim."



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