The titular Battlegrounds brand takes a new group of superstars and charges them with defending their home turf location.
#Wwe 2k battlegrounds reviews pro
The premise is that Paul Heyman has devised a brand-new form of pro wrestling inside of the traditional WWE structure. When you first boot it up, you'll probably gravitate to the campaign mode. The same lack of depth can be found in the modes the game features. That's the level of depth you can expect from the title. Ultimately, it may not make a difference what wrestler you pick but rather which class. High-Flyers can execute maneuvers such as springboard dropkicks and suicide dives, while Brawlers can pull foreign objects seemingly out of their own pockets. At least the classes themselves feel different enough from one another. In this regard, it feels extremely low effort. They have their unique signature moves, but otherwise it's the same move set. Ember Moon and Charlotte Flair both reside in the All-Rounder class, but no one would ever say they have similar styles. The fact that the same limited move sets are almost 100% identical for each wrestler in the same class is lame. It's tough to say whether the trade-off of depth for approachability was the right decision. However, it also means that the superstars don't play that much different from one another if they are in the same class. For a title so focused on multiplayer action, this is important. On the one hand, it does let the more casual gamer easily get adjusted to the action. For better or worse, this significantly levels the learning curve of the title. For example, Rey Mysterio and Ricochet are High-Flyers, while Brock Lesnar and Yokozuna are Powerhouses. These include the size of the wrestler or the style they are known for. Rather than give every superstar their own unique move set, the wrestlers of Battlegrounds are broken down into specific categories. I think the system in place is fine enough, but it just needed to be made a little less easy to complete.
The window you have for pulling them off is simply too large, which tends to lead to back and forth battles of reversal chains. The other is that the reversal system is too easy to abuse. The ring doesn't seem large enough to accommodate the action, and it often feels like everyone is constantly up in each other's business. The first is that having any more than two grapplers in the ring at the same time can be a little too chaotic. I do have two gripes with the in-ring action, however. Punch and kick combinations are super simple to pull off, and signature slam directions are found right on the pause screen. The striking and grappling are easy enough to get adjusted to. The combat engine of WWE 2K Battlegrounds is a mixed bag. It is a simplistic engine, and the in-game tutorial will get you prepared for the ring accordingly. Finally, instead of convoluted mini-games, pins and submissions are handled through button mashing. Defense is handled through a block button and reversal prompts which linger on-screen for way too long. Grappling is boiled down into either an actual wrestling move (suplex, backdrop, etc.) or hoisting them up for a throw. Punching and kicking form the cornerstone of your arsenal, with combos being possible through either strike. In place of the traditional batch of moves to utilize, the title sports a streamlined wrestling engine.
#Wwe 2k battlegrounds reviews series
That's something the traditional WWE 2K series has struggled to do in recent years. The WWE is already a cartoon, so why not embrace it if the opportunity arises? It helps that this more arcade-styled action opens the door up for a larger audience.
Honestly, I'm more than okay with the fact that the craziness has been raised several notches.
The world-class physiques have been upgraded with extra muscles, the arenas are packed with dangerous hazards and the maneuvers are taken into another stratosphere. WWE 2K Battlegrounds takes the already cartoon-like wrestling promotion and ups the insanity by 100%.