When it comes to wrestling games, WWE’s games have dominated the genre. Over the years, many competitors looked to take on the WWE Games/carve out a piece of WWE’s audience for themselves. Last year, AEW, a WWE competitor, released their own wrestling game called AEW Fight Forever. When comparing WWE 2K23 to AEW Fight Forever, AEW Fight Forever vs WWE felt like a small untrained child fighting against a seasoned adult. Yes, AEW looked to change the genre, but its lack of polish failed to shine past WWE 2K’s series. Now, WWE and 2K look to improve the franchise and show all those without a doubt that it is the best wrestling franchise around.

Game: WWE 2K24
Developer: Visual Concepts
Publisher: 2K
Platforms: PC (Steam), PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S (Reviewed)
Release Date: March 8th, 2024
Players: 1 to 8
Price: Base: $59.99 USD

In this year’s adaptation of WWE games, 2K looks to improve things that fans loved about WWE 2K23 and improve on them with WWE 2K24. In order to achieve this, 2K has implemented a ton of changes to improve the game’s overall experience.

Up first is the Wrestling Roster; WWE 2K24 has added almost 100 more wrestlers. now, these aren’t all unique wrestlers but rather variations based on superstars throughout their Wrestling careers and appearances at Wrestlemania.

The attributes assigned to each of the game’s wrestlers are based on Kayfabe (scripted) results and impact the overall wrestler’s performance. Luckily, each character’s stats can be modified and can be raised or lowered to where the player believes that they should be.

In addition to the increased roster size and ability to modify wrestlers stats, the game features matches that have not been in the WWE 2K series for a while; these matches were added partially due to their significance to historic wrestling moments, but to also add variety to gameplay and to the other game modes.

In my GM Mode, the player must upgrade their arena, advertising, special effects, and crew in order to unlock different matches. Those who want to play them freely can just select the play menu and create a match. In WWE Universe Classic mode, the player can set the match type from all available match types.

Like WWE 2K23, WWE 2K24 has the same game modes, but the modes have been adopted to keep the player engaged and coming back. With my GM mode, 2K has added a trade feature in between PPVs in order to shake up each brand’s roster.

Players can offer either superstars or money to an opponent in order to get an advantage. In My GM mode, the CPU will typically offer you a low ball offer. Sadly, you can still not play MY GM mode online against friends or opponents. The new features within the mode itself has made it more competitive and interesting.

My faction has improved its Rouge lite mechanics to make each run feel a bit different. Players can still grind out rewards to improve their teams but players who decide to spend real money on the game will easily have an advantage.

The game is still pay to win against human players but has balanced out the gameplay against the AI. WWE 2K fans who purchased the deluxe or collectors edition get an advantage with the reward being additional free packs. If you are looking for a game mode to keep you engaged, my faction is just the mode.

WWE Showcase mode is back and rather than focusing on a select WWE star’s career, it focuses on the different historic and memorable moments in WrestleMania’s History. The WWE Showcase is the only game mode that you can play Brock Lesnar in currently.

The mode features twenty-two matches and is narrated by Corey Graves. Before each match, there is an introductory video highlighting some of the key moments within the match and informs you on who you will be playing as and who needs to win the match.

During each match, the game will blend the historic moment in with the gameplay. Winning the match and unlocking its rewards is no easy challenge, sometimes it will be an uphill battle.

Like last year, WWE 2K24 include two story-driven campaigns in My Rise. My Rise consists of two-story modes titled Unleashed and Undisputed. Unleashed has players start out in TBD; the Unleashed mode is the female-driven story.

The Undisputed campaign revolves around carving out your legacy and becoming the Head of the Table after Roman Reigns has mysteriously vacated his title ending his legendary reign. Enter as a mysterious competitor and take on Kevin Ownes and other WWE Superstars to become the new Universal Champion.

The Women’s story mode has improved slightly compared to last years but still feels like it isn’t good enough; however, if it continues to improve year by year it may outshine the men’s story. With Rhea and Bianca being the alternate cover to WWE 2K24, you’d expect for the women’s story to have more significance.

Although 2K has done a good job at improving the graphics and fine-tuning the controls for WWE 2K24, there are still two issues that remain from WWE 2K23. Firstly, the hair in WWE 2K24 still looks awful and has horrible physics; there are still occasional bugs but the main bugs have been with the hair physics.

Next, there is the reversal system; the system is inconsistent and at times seems like it is throwing it at you whenever it can catch up. During multiple matches, we’d see the same move but the counter window would be at different times.

Sadly, 2K still has not managed to properly create a system where moves and attacks register properly all the time. You can be executing a move, but another character can interact with your opponent and it will cause the move to miss or do something unpredictable.

WWE 2K24’s Camera system still has issues where the ref or managers will block the camera view and sometimes make it impossible to react to your opponent. When trying to use the free camera option, it is difficult to control and it does not have the ability to reset back to its base position.

Finally, comes the major grievances. In GM mode, players do not have the ability to look back at their prior week’s schedule; this makes it so you have to remember who you booked for what match; this can become difficult when playing against three other players or CPUs.

Up next is the super finisher; the idea of having to charge up three finishers for a super finish that can then be countered is a massive headache. This was the most annoying in the WWE Showcase mode, when you had to execute it but weren’t allowed to finish the match.

Then Last but not least is directly targeted at 2K. The locking of Brock Lesnar when he is in the game is an absolute disgrace. The player can play as him in showcase mode but he’s locked everywhere else.

Unless someone is found guilty, removing someone that you put in the game is equivalent to pay walling; it sets a bad standard for game companies to remove characters for whatever reason.

When it comes to wrestling games, WWE 2K24 improves on a lot of the things that made WWE 2K23 great while failing to improve on the flaws of WWE 2K23. The game modes have had slight improvements to make them more fun, but not much has drastically changed.

The inclusion of the different match types does make WWE 2K24 more versatile and makes it so the game does not become stale fast. If you are looking for a well-rounded wrestling game, then WWE 2K24 is worth picking up or at least worth considering.

Outside of 2K locking Brock Lesnar out of the game due to the Vince McMahon controversy, Visual Concepts has done a good job with the game and improves each year.

WWE 2K24 was reviewed on an Xbox Series X using a copy provided by Visual Concepts. You can find additional information about Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. WWE 2K24 is now available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.