Article by Claudio Consoli
I face yet another match, and the feeling of reliving childhood memories is strong, even if that match was fought when I was still too young to remember. I advance in the battles, and the memories materialize, they are more and more recent, and I struggle to understand how many of these are real, how many legacies of films seen and reviewed dozens of times. After all, I was 4 years old when I cried for the defeat of Hulk Hogan against Ultimate Warrior, and perhaps this too is an impossible memory, generated by the idea of how I would have felt to see the childhood idol beaten. WWE 2K14, the first 2K games work in the Wrestling field after inheriting the brand of the failed THQ, aims at the emotion to amaze an audience tired of buying the same game, or a little more, every year. Emotionally, we were impressed, but is the game really quality? Let's find out.
Many modes for the delight of wrestling-fans
With WWE2K14, a title that was born in conjunction with the thirtieth anniversary of Wrestlemania, 2K Games took the opportunity to give life to a mode dedicated to the main WWE event. The idea of the development team was to insert a more or less profound quote from all thirty years of the most famous of the Pay Per View, in a specific way. The player begins his journey in the thirty years with a fight between Andrè the Giant and Big John Studd, and faces one or two matches for each year of PPV, until the twenty-ninth, the eve of the "XXX" which still has to take place, scheduled for April 6. 2014. The need to make possible the main challenges of the thirty years has meant that the roster of this edition of the annual WWE product is among the most complete ever to appear in a wrestling-game. An impressive number of fighters that exceeds eighty, made up of current WWE stars, divas and legends, also destined to expand thanks to DLC already announced. The main Wrestlemania challenges are present, as well as consequently the protagonists of those clashes, even if in some cases historical matches have been omitted probably due to the lack of license for some of the wrestlers, especially in the case of events related to the series of victories. by Undertaker. The impossibility of reliving the streak of the "gravedigger" is an incomprehensible lack, given that an exceptional collector edition has been dedicated to the longest-lived of the Wrestlers active in the WWE, as well as an additional special mode. Undertaker is in fact the protagonist of a double challenge that offers a way to preserve the streak of victories in a sort of survival mode in the role of the champion, or to interrupt it by beating a version enhanced by paranormal abilities, but none of this really concerns his twenty-one victories. in Wrestlemania. Moreover, there are several of the opponents who participated as defeated in the creation of the myth, including Jack "The Snake" Roberts, which will only be available via DLC, Big Boss Man or Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, often present in past chapters, and forgotten right here, where it shouldn't have been missing. Despite sinning precisely on a delicate point, the 30 years mode of Wrestlemania proves to be a blast from the past with attention to detail. Thanks to an agreement with the World Wildlife Fun, it was possible to use the initials WWF (later replaced with WWE for legal reasons) for all the images of historical matches. This and other factors such as a grainy filter and the presence of arenas, audience t-shirts, lyric fonts and referee uniforms perfectly replicated from the early 90s, give perfect feedback from that era, in a journey that, year after year , brings back to the present day allowing you to appreciate the technical and look changes of these thirty years of show, retracing all the five main eras of sport entertainment.
Unfortunately WWE 2K14 does not mark the return of a career mode, loved by players despite often placing wrestlers in unlikely situations, but the WWE Universe has been kept, which allows you to replicate a credible cycle of bets and PPVs, possibly modifiable by the player, but who lacks bite about events to cope with.
On the other hand, there is the usual plethora of ways to engage from one to 6 players, which includes the normal clash, ironman variations, Extreme Rules, Steel Cage, TLC, Table, Inferno and dozens of other combinations for singles, couples, and trios. Additional special modes such as Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber and Gold Rush and King of the Ring tournaments should be based on keeping you busy for several months, also thanks to the large roster, which will require days to even try each of the champions once. Tornado to the wrestlers present, but paying particular attention to the current champions, despite the great variety we report some absences of a certain level that have amazed us. The current intercontinental champion, Curtis Axel (son of Mr Perfect, also a non-playable character, present only as Manager) is missing, as is the Uso's Tag Team, one of the few left in WWE, among other things. present in the past edition albeit via DLC. The absence of the Wyatt Family, a fairly recent stable but which is pushed a lot by the WWE management, not even present among the announced DLCs, leaves a particularly bad taste in the mouth. Last shortcoming, probably the most serious in today's wrestlers, is that of Goldust, a fighter who has always been much loved and who in recent weeks is living a new life in the American Show, where he is a couple champion with his brother Cody Rhodes.
Gameplay details
In writing a review of a Wrestling game, sooner or later it is almost a must to mention Here Comes The Pain, from 2003, a milestone in virtual wrestling and a game that every successor has had to deal with in the last ten years. Trying to replicate the immediacy and completeness of that title, while improving the realism of the action, many other chapters in the series have ended up hugely complicating the gameplay, filling it with unnecessary quirks, which have undermined the gameplay rather than improve it. 2K games, known for the quality of its sporting works, could not overturn the formula behind the brand with little time available, but it certainly had the opportunity to influence certain aspects of the gameplay that, we can anticipate, make WWE 2K14 the best. game of the series, or at least comparable in the relationship of pros and cons, to the same HCTP.
Among the main features of the playability of this 2013 edition we have a revised system of counter moves, which provides a reduced time window for pressing the appropriate button. While any technique, from physical attacks to basic, special or finisher holds, can be counterattacked by pressing a single button, the timing required is now greater, and the moment in which the reversal is activated varies more believably than in the past, depending on the animation in act. We also noticed an improvement in the tactics to be implemented during the battles in the ring. Damaging specific limbs of the opponent is an option again available to the player, but improved by the possibility of hitting the legs, arms or head of an opponent on the ground, through a precise system of targeting of the limbs. By pressing the appropriate button and moving in the direction of the part of the body to be hit, even characters who do not have particular ground attacks among their skills, will be able to count on predefined hits useful to damage specific points, perhaps to weaken them in view of a move final particularly impact on specific areas of the body.
In this regard, the repertoire of special and final moves has undergone an evident improvement, which has particularly pleased us, since it makes the gameplay much more similar than in the past, to what happens in the TV show. Simply by fighting or making Taunts, the player fills a special bar (invisible by default) which activates the "Special Move". Once the special move has been made, a Finisher is automatically unlocked, which can be carried out immediately afterwards. The wise choice of 2K and Yuke's was to consider special moves all those that precede the final move in the show, which allows to replicate the series of techniques typical of each athlete. A further addition in order to better emulate these series is the presence of the Taunts special, or the typical "teasing" made to the opponent, but which in the case of the special ones affect the animation of the opponent, for example forcing him to get up, ready to undergo the next move. To take a practical example, Triple H's Spinebuster is a special move that knocks down the opponent and earns a Finisher to be activated while the opponent is standing. Here, then, that after the Spinebuster we can activate a special taunt, which sees Triple H exalt himself as the opponent staggers up and turns to Hunter Hearst Helmsley, allowing him to activate his iconic Pedigree. The system works well, allowing the attacker to replicate what he has seen in the shows successfully, but also the defender to block this series in several points in what results in a fair fight.
2K's work in better characterizing the champions of the ring has not been limited to what has been described, but also includes the inclusion of a special function called Comeback, which takes advantage of quick time events without exaggerating, to make the most of some of the events. that fans expect when observing a match. Suffering a certain amount of consecutive damage, the player is given the opportunity to activate this particular status, which in turn allows to start a scripted event that requires the pressing of three keys and at the end of which, if you do it correctly, you get another super move with which to attempt to close the match.
The pin, which is the opponent's pin, and the submission system, are two other determining factors in a wrestling game, and we have already seen games in the Yuke's series lack one or both systems. The revision of these elements was successful in this WWE 2K14: the pin now provides a safety area, more or less large depending on the state of health, within which to stop a bar in loading, whose speed is also it is determined by the damages suffered, as well as by the technical / physical characteristics of the pinned Wrestler. If the first pinning attempts will be easily avoidable thanks to the simplicity of this minigame, those with a late match will require great precision to save the situation. Succeeding in the challenge is never impossible, but it certainly becomes very difficult, in what seemed to us an optimal balance. Less technical is the submission system, which simply involves "tweaking" all the frets to cause damage or escape from the grasp, unless you are close enough to the strings to drag and touch them, thus making a rope break by regulation. The two possibilities are equivalent due to difficulty in evasion, as if the submissions need to preventively cause more damage to the opponent so that they lead to victory than a pin, on the other hand they leave less room for the skill of the player who suffers them, who cannot appeal to skill or luck, having to limit himself to furiously pressing the keys faster and faster.
We could really talk for other pages about the details of the WWE 2K14 gameplay, not so much for its complexity - in fact it is more immediate than its predecessors - but for the many possibilities introduced, but we limit ourselves to close the paragraph by mentioning the special abilities of each character , also attributable in the creation phase of new fighters, which allow to further characterize each individual fighter, and the possibility of creating specific finishers even against opponents in racing or in flight. Imagine hitting with an RKO or Sweet Chin Music an opponent who is rushing at you from the stake. We happened to suffer the second of the two Finisher, losing the match. Defeated in this way, all that remains is to applaud humbly.
Rectify the shortcomings… with the editor
A fundamental element in the saga of titles on American sports entertainment is the Wrestlers editor, also present this year, although it does not boast particular implementations. The elements available to the player are generally those already seen in the last five or six years, with the addition of a few new features. Among these, the possibility of using the basic models of some existing wrestlers, such as Undertaker or Randy Orton, to create variations of the same, infuse a sort of demo mode to demonstrate the possibilities of the editor that we would have liked to see extended to all wrestlers present. , and not just a minimal selection. The CAW-Makers, as the creators of new characters on the Web like to call themselves, will not lack tools for excellent achievements, even if the tool available is obviously a legacy of past editions, a tool that for years has been in need of a strong update. to eliminate the huge amount of low-resolution two-dimensional elements, in favor of new three-dimensional components. Let's hope next year.
However, the editing possibilities do not stop at the characters, but expand to arenas, completely achievable from scratch even in details such as lighting or materials and fabrics, up to the list of moves of each wrestler and the recoloring of the clothes of the already existing stars. . The latter is a function already appreciated in the past and that we are happy to review in the present, since usually Wrestlers change details of their clothing, and this possibility allows you to keep the aesthetics updated without being able to change the aspects. This year, moreover, the function allows to remedy an incomprehensible absence, namely the yellow / red look of Hollywood Hulk Hogan, which sanctioned the return of the legendary fighter to Wrestlemania 21 against Shawn Michaels. A paradox, the absence, considering that it is an attire coming from an important Wrestlemania mach forgotten in the appropriate way, and above all because it would have been a totally different clothing from the others available, in front of the insertion of another 5 costumes identical to each other, except for the color of the bandana at the entrance to the arena. Starting from the black nWo look, we will be able to recolor the components, obtaining a credible version of the recent Hulkster, while having to accept compromises. The same speech regarding incomprehensible choices sees the victim Mick Foley, present with two identical looks if not for the color of the shirt, and missing his alternative personalities, Cactus Jack and Mankind, moreover the latter present as a special referee in Wrestlemania mode, but not playable. Also in this case the Wrestler editor remedies the situation, giving way to recreate a Mankind very similar to the original, even if its official mask is missing, a factor that forces the makers to unlikely "do it yourself" alternatives by using of the logo designer.
In conclusion, considering the possibility of also editing belts, couples and stables, shows of belonging and positive or negative attitude towards the public, all the editing components prove to be extremely complete, at least like in past years, even if it feels really need a little more on the Create a Wrestler side.
Technically valid, but a radical change is needed
WWE 2K14 is definitely a revolution in Videogame Wrestling. The novelties of the gameplay have brought Yuke's work closer to the glories of Here Comes The Pain, thanks to a system of 4-way grapples followed by as many 4 moves, without too many unnecessary complications, and embellished by the mechanics introduced exclusively by this chapter. Artificial intelligence alternates excellent performance with obvious blunders. Sometimes he seems relentless despite his best efforts, others he remains motionless behind a chair that he cannot get over and beyond which he could perform an easy pin. Overall at the highest difficulties the challenge is good, but still some improvements are still missing to be able to consider it simulative and tactical, and not only capable of performing contextual actions.
The audio is excellent as always, and even more we appreciate the care in recovering the old videos and music of the various champions in Wrestlemania mode, correctly inserted in the entrances in the ring, respecting the year in which a particular match took place. . Even the commentaries and announcements, in the historical mode, reflect the events of the time, allowing even the youngest to know the background of those challenges through the stories of Jim Ross & Jerry Lawler, but also to involve the older players with memories of the past. The visual filter present in Wrestlemania mode when facing the most distant matches in time is a great addition, which conveys a good retro effect, and which is correctly dissolving as you continue in the mode and then advance in time. The many Theme Songs of the wrestlers are present to form an exceptional soundtrack. If we consider an exclusive song and many lines of commentary for each of the 80 characters, the number of music and dialogues present in the title is impressive, and it is perhaps for this reason that the songs themselves had to be partially cut. Not very serious in the entrances to the ring, but an annoying element when you listen to them and hum in the menus. The glance on wrestlers has improved further than in the past, showing more slender athletes with less shiny and plasticky skins, therefore more credible. On the other hand, some jerky and disconnected animations as well as recycled for the umpteenth time from past editions, make the player understand that he is in front of the same graphic engine, now dated, which although polished, needs a total renewal. Aware that 2K this year could not have done better, after the troubled handover, we hope that next year will be the right time after a long time. THQ has been trusted for so long, why not do it with 2K, which for now has given us the best wrestling title since 2003.
Final comment
WWE2k14 is definitely the best wrestling title of the last decade, and probably has what it takes to at least alleviate the memory of Here Comes The Pain, considered by many to be the top of the genre. The gameplay has improved, on the one hand simplified in its mechanics, on the other made deeper by the introductions, adequate and not chaotic. The rebalancing of the difficulty of the pins and submissions is great, and the large roster looks like an exclamation point on a quality work. The Wrestlemania mode is the beating heart of a production that does not lack many other modes, even if it does not mark the return of the career. On the technical side, there are significant steps forward, but we are facing the usual heated soup. If you are considering waiting for next year for WWE 2K15, a title that will see 2K operate on next gen, we would still like to recommend the purchase of this 2014 edition, for its completeness, for the strong turning point in the roster field, which although with important shortcomings it denotes an effort never made before, and for the same modality 30 years of Wrestlemania, of whose presence we know nothing for the coming year, and which we liked very much, almost to the point of moving us, because the memories it brought us, be they real or made sweeter by melancholy, are still good memories.
