With adrenaline in its soul, WWE 2K24 builds on the foundations that were planted last year with 2K23. With hopes of finishing the neverending story (Seth was Falkor in that case) we’re simultaneously trying to showcase 40 years of Wrestlemania and hold back the comments on the legal issues facing WWE right now. Yes, Lesner and Vince are in the Showcase mode, there wasn’t a case of Stevie Richards being quickly put in, and yes, you can probably download Bork Lazer along with as many indie darlings as you desire.

Like other yearly releases, 2K24 has its minor improvements graphically that need the Digital Foundry team to find, and gameplay is similar to what it has been since 2022. “Then why bother this year?” good question, one that takes time to answer. To cut it off at the pass, if you want to play online much like many other wrestling titles, there are the issues you’ll reportedly find with prior year’s releases. That isn’t where I find the majority of my time with any wrestling game lies. My copious hours are often found within the play modes, the story modes, the creation suites, and of course, the updated MyGM.

Now with a couple of new match types, a few additions to the roster, and even a small expansion to the MyGM mode, there are plenty of add-ons to the gameplay we’re familiar with from last year. What I think 2K24 does is iron off the imperfections with the gameplay, give a bigger feel to some things, and I think do some things for accessibility, nostalgia, and just preference. Casket and Ambulance matches, ramp cam, and hell, in matches that you are speculating (GM mode-mostly) allow you to free-cam and change up how you watch these matches.

A year later and I’m still terrible at the GM mode, love the sometimes terrible and clumsy storymodes, and the gameplay feels as smooth as ever. I have seen a couple of odd and awkward clipping issues or placements during moves, especially on the outside, being moved around away from the barricades and steps. Minor “problems” aside, this year’s release has peaked above what we saw last year with Tavish, the showcase of John Cena’s Career, and the recovery we’ve seen since the disaster of 2K20 and WWE 2K Battlegrounds.

The “Undisputed” story this year takes a look at a wrestler who wins the vacated WWE Championship as Roman heads off to Hollywood, canonically never letting Cody finish that story. Competing in a one-night tournament, you are given some options: win it all and become the champion, or throw your qualifying match in the pre-show and move to SmackDown with The Miz as your GM. Of course, you take the win and align with RAW GM William Regal, only for contract drama to take hold and you fight against Miz as he drags you kicking and screaming to his show.

“Unleashed” is the MyRise story focused on women’s wrestling, this time on an indie talent and a co-promoter of a hardcore indie promotion. This one is a little lighter on actual detail to get your superstar over as a big deal, mostly in tag teams here, odd match-ups there, and on occasion, joining a cult for a short while. Maybe even co-star alongside Drax to become a star. Where 2K23’s story for “Little Justine” focused on getting out from Justine’s shadow, here it is more a contentious relationship with management because you are the “difficult to work with” independent talent going against the grain.

I love the referential madness and stupidity of these MyRise modes. Being jumped by “Dirty” Dom Mysterio before being told that’s what they did to him in “Maximum Security,” that’s great, especially when your undisputed champion points out it was just general detention. Yeah, to use the term “Smarky” that’s what it is, and if you don’t know the more in-depth references so much, it probably does come off as what the kids call “cringe.” To me, it is self-aware nonsense making fun of the more ridiculous parts of the company’s history, and in at least one case, taking another kick at WCW.

The showcase mode this year of course focused on the 40 years of WrestleMania, obviously trying to avoid certain characters that are integral to its history. Certain people blurred out in footage or images shown when your matches throughout history splice away from the gameplay and back towards clips of Bonesaw McGraw and his red and yellow Wrestle Buddy. What more is there to say about these matchups throughout history? We see it every year, from the history of Stone Cold back in 2K16 to last year’s Cena showcase. Though it is the only place to actively play as Brock Lesner at the time of writing.

Narrated by newly anointed SmackDown play-by-play commentator Cory Graves, you’ll play several of Hogan’s matches, some of Taker’s (including XXX), Austin’s biggest matches, and in the very late game, some big women’s matches. The only Cena match is one of his greatest, which sadly doesn’t include his match at WrestleMania 23 so you can have the 23 stage. Despite being another example of Visual Concepts and 2K’s fantastic blending of gameplay and WWE’s video library, I have seen an odd issue here or there, even freezing completely during Bret Vs Austin with Ken Shamrock in the zebra shirt at 13.

Performance-wise I didn’t see massive issues, just that freeze and an odd frame drop in the single digits. I can’t tell if they are bugs or not, though, beyond these minor performance issues, I’ve encountered points in the Showcase Mode where prompts wouldn’t trigger or were simply incorrect. I think it was Rick Rude and Warrior at WrestleMania V with the prompt suggesting X and holding up while holding your opponent in a grapple, which wasn’t whatever move was suggested; pressing X while holding the stick to the left worked instead.

The only thing I did encounter and was relayed back and forth was a controller bug. For some mad reason while in the “Unleashed” story of MyRise, a secondary controller was supposedly being picked up despite not having one plugged in. This meant I couldn’t pause to quit the match, of course, I couldn’t move or counter, and really, I couldn’t do anything. As we received back from PR people, it may be another peripheral connected causing issues. Supposedly the dev team saw this with some specific mice, and somehow my case was more ridiculous. Otherwise, I’ve seen no major issues in my experience.

If I have a complaint, it is maybe with an idea for MyGM. Admittedly it may be difficult to program/implement, but the current way MyGM is set up it gives very little incentive to play the matches. So without shouting Biscotti every week on NXT or “Shucky Ducky Quack Quack,” why can’t I become a real booker/producer and have similar prompts to those found in the Showcase mode? Not only does it give an incentive to play the matches instead of simulating them, but it could also give you a sense of storytelling to this management mode beyond getting told you are awful by Terror Ryzing.

Maybe not as deep as writing out full paragraphs, which on console would be a nightmare, however, just simple prompts like throwing someone into the barricade three times. Otherwise, I’m left only caring to play matches when someone complains about a losing streak. I’ve said it before, a match star system, now, I need something to give me a reason to engage with the gameplay or I’m just going to skip it to play the far more interesting part. Slowly each year there is a bit more depth to MyGM, but I think this would be the kick up the backside it needs to feel quite engaging.

As I’ve said, the majority of my time has been in the MyRise modes as well as general play and creation suites. This year I created a hard bloke that looks like a less defined real man’s man, William Regal, named Tony Bartlett Duncan (TBD). A fantastic character for this year’s “Undisputed” story, if I do say so myself. Then to test out the look of the long hair types and their physics, my “Unleashed” co-star of Dave Bautista and co-founder of hardcore indie promotion T.B.A., LJ Haku. Her name is a bit more of a blend of random name generation and whatever Samantha can say.

The WWE games have a creation suite that’s about as malleable as wet clay, though this was the first year I’ve been able to compare it with another wrestling game. There is a reason half of the pages of WWE 2K24’s shared creations are that of lovingly recreated stars of NJPW, TNA, Stardom, countless others, and most notably, AEW. I’m not downloading Johhny158’s Steve “The Stabbist” Blade from these things, I’m getting shonky versions of Thunder Rosa, Jordynne Grace, Mayu Iwatani, Gail Kim, and Max the Impaler.

That said, I think there is one thing missing in the creation suite, particularly for creating entrances. We’ve seen it from the days of SDvR 2008 and beyond, I believe, but for some odd reason you can’t preview a motion within the entrances. You can’t preview your music choices, and you can’t preview much without selecting it first. There is no user-friendly UI in this case. I understand what established star’s entrances look like, admittedly, though the generically named ones are a nightmare to look through. Especially the “hush, we don’t have the rights to this person but we’ve got their old entrance here” selections.

The new/returning match types themselves are nostalgia bait. It doesn’t mean they are bad, but there is certainly a sense of “Oh, these again, but with a bit of polish.” As is the ramp camera from prior games such as No Mercy and its ilk, another nostalgia option to point the camera to the stage during matches in several arenas. None of this is bad, it is just an option available for those stuck shouting “It was better during the Attitude Era,” when the in-ring quality wasn’t great and the stories were sometimes incomprehensibly stupid. Here is hoping the next nostalgia addition isn’t the Kennel from Hell match.

If you’ve picked up 2K23 or 2K22, what exactly is going to sell 2K24 to you? I don’t fully know. The MyRise stories and the Showcase Mode on their own are worth at least some of that time with MyGM as an optional offering. This year’s stories from MyRise are just as ridiculous as before and the Showcase Mode, despite blurring faces and omissions/revisionism of histories, offers a delightful showcase (for lack of a better word) of WrestleMania’s history. If all you want is online play, I think 2K forces your hand on that front, closing servers as happened with 2K22 earlier this year.

The gameplay is as fluid as it has ever been which of course means there will be the odd running hip attack that looks abnormal. No matter what you do there will always be the occasional eccentricity to player and AI or player-on-player-based attacks at the same time. As I’ve also already said, I didn’t see any orbiting superstars or Stretch Armstrongs through bugs or other common occurrences in prior years.

Ultimately, WWE 2K24 is another notch above where 2K23 stood, which was already above the rest. With ridiculous, self-referential, and fun stories for both the men and women in MyRise, slight improvements to MyGM, and a star-studded (plus Hogan and Brock) Showcase mode, there is plenty to enjoy about 2K24 from the boot. With a deep creation suite that offers the ability to create or download almost everyone in the wrestling world, it’s the ultimate offering for fans of wrestling as it stands. With hopeful smoothing out of how CAS hair works when it is longer than a couple of inches.

A PC review copy of WWE 2K24 40 Years of WrestleMania Edition was provided by 2K for this review.

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WWE 2K24

$59.99+

8.5

Score

8.5/10

Pros

• Smoothing out of gameplay overall.
• Great ridiculous MyRise modes.
• Lots of nostalgia-based options for those who want it.

Cons

• An ill-timed option of WrestleMania showcase matches.
• Minor omissions in the creation suite such as previews in entrances creation.
• Minor bugs.