Sierra,
Hotel,India,Echo, Lima, Delta….That time of the year has arrived again. WWE’s
annual video game release is upon us, this time with a slightly reworked title
of WWE2k14.
I really
enjoyed last years game, it was just a pity that a lot of the bugs in the
Attitude and online modes were never ironed out, now 12 months later with a new
publisher is the game sorted?
The Game:
First impressions
Much like
most years, anybody who has played the previous year will know how the gameplay
works, they haven’t changed all that much : Still counter heavy (with the same
timing technique), familiar looking graphics(although bizarrely some look
better/worse) and the Wrestlemania mode is very familiar to Attitude mode-but
who says that’s a bad thing?
To be blunt
’30 Years of Wrestlemania’ is a slight cop out, an easy option to smooth over
the change to a ‘2K’ title. It’s Wrestlemania, it was a very safe bet but that
being said it’s still a heap of fun to relive some of the most famous moments.
It‘s been YEARS since I watched Wrestlemania 1 and there was something magical
about reliving Andre v Studd. Hogan v Bundy is one of my favourite Mania main
events so it was great to play that (the blue steel cage always makes me
excited) so yeah it’s hardly ground breaking but for Professional Wrestling
fans who appreciate Wresting history then it’s a fun mode. I’m not too sure how
‘Casual’ fans will take to it, will they really be excited about Macho Man v
Ricky Steamboat? If nothing else it will educate them on the history of the
Granddaddy of them all and that can’t be a bad thing surely? On paper it may
look the same as last years Attitude Mode but I always Attitude Mode was just
missing something, whatever that is it appears to have been corrected this
year.
A new mode
this year is ‘The Streak’, no this is not a tribute to Mideon but a mode based
around The Undertakers legendary undefeated streak. Now there is no denying
that it feels like a missed opportunity; Beating the streak is just beating the
Undertaker (which was an achievement a few years back) and defend the streak is
glorified SlobberKnocker mode but I really applaud the thinking behind it-Going
into WWE Lore and creating a challenge based around WWE mythology, I hope they
come out with familiar ideas in the future. They have a cool statistics menu
where you can record your bests scores(you get points based on moves, time,
damage etc) which again I really like, the days of ‘High Score’ are now just a
distant memory in Video Games it’s nice seeing them important again.
Speaking of
the Undertaker….
Me being me
I had to get the Phenom Collector’s Edition which comes in the biggest Xbox
case I have ever seen-It’s 15 inches long! (That’s what she said). And then you
open the box and to my amazement it’s not all bubble wrap-the actual coffin steel
tin is just as big, it’s huge! (That’s what she said). It’s a truly epic
package (That’s what she….)
Inside
houses some great goodies; A genuine Undertaker autograph (Which is probably
worth the asking price alone but lack of Certificate of Authenticy is a pity),
Undertaker Bad Ass Gimmick exclusive DLC (which means they are THREE
Undertakers in the game, yet they couldn’t find room for ONE Trish Stratus?), Controller
Sticker (Do people still use these?) and Disk 1 of the Streak DVD Boxset.
The DVD is
actually quite a sweet score. It’s Disc 1 of a 3 Disc set. It has a documentary
and then Takers matches up to Wrestlemania 14. Now any Hardcore Wrestling fan
will probably own most Wrestlemania DVD’s anyway so chances are you will
already have all the content on Discs 2&3, so they are giving you the best
part of the 3 Disc set for free!
The Documentary
is very basic, just a quick recap of every Wrestlemania Match but it’s still a
fun little watch. I would have liked to have seen a bit more in depth about
certain matches but still, it is what it is; a refresher of a legendary
achievement. They are some great talking
heads from Flair, HHH, Dibease,Nash, Micheals, Edge etc.
My initial
impression are very good, they have created a Professional Wresting game that
fans will really enjoy, it may struggle to appeal to the casual market for that very reason but who knows, perhaps
playing through 30 Years of Wrestlemania may convert some of them.
