Last year’s WWE 2K24 was my favourite 2K wrestling game of all time, and I’m pleased to say that WWE 2K25 has already surpassed it after just a few days, implementing lots of quality-of-life improvements across the board that result in a meaningful upgrade overall, while also trying something new with ‘The Island’ that sadly falls a bit flat.
I’ve only played a few hours so far, and I’ve spread that time over the massive number of modes in WWE 2K25, so there’s a lot more for me to discover. My favourite way to play the game right now remains MyGM, which is the manager mode that’s received a few cool upgrades this year including online play, and this is definitely the best version of it yet.
It seems like the MyRise career mode might be better than ever as well. It’s still very early days for me, but I imported a custom Kenny Omega into the mode, established my character as a star from another promotion, and now I’ve got the likes of Jade Cargill and CM Punk talking to me about what it was like working at the other company! They’ve ditched the multiple stories this time around and streamlined everything into one narrative, with the ability to go down “branching paths” that change the course of the career as you progress, and it appears to have been a great decision.
Paul Heyman very energetically introduces the Bloodline-focused Showcase mode in WWE 2K25, and by this point you know what you’re getting with Showcase… aside from the fact that this year, they’ve taken away the real footage by popular request and replaced it with in-game cutscenes. It’s a fun mode that only gets tiresome when you’re stuck on a task you’re struggling to complete (to make things harder, they added countdown timers for some of them this year), and as usual there are loads of unlockables that can be acquired by going through it.
Gameplay-wise, it’s a very similar experience to WWE 2K24 but with a greater level of polish. The way animations transition into each other feels smoother than ever, and there are a couple of cool new features including the ability to engage in Chain Wrestling. They added some new match types in the form of Bloodline Rules (where you can call for run-ins from your teammates) and Underground (where there are no ropes), and the option to set up intergender matches also makes a return. These are all neat additions that expand the gameplay possibilities across the majority of modes in WWE 2K25, helping to make this the most exhaustive wrestling game to date.
It’s such a feature-filled experience at this point that I still haven’t got around to certain things – Universe mode is the big one that I’ll definitely put a lot of hours into over the next 12 months. I obviously had to try ‘The Island’ though, as that’s the main highlight mode that’s exclusive to current-gen consoles, and basically it’s a take on ‘The City’ from the NBA 2K series where you can acquire cosmetics, work on offline quests and compete in online matches.
At first glance it’s pretty impressive, and it’s not like there’s nothing to do, but I’m struggling to find a reason to do any of those things. The quests seem to just revolve around setting up matches against the CPU, and they’re introduced by walking over to characters and then reading lines of text. Meanwhile, The Island itself is full of slow-loading cosmetic shops where you can spend VC, and although it looks awesome and the developers have clearly put a lot of love into the design of the map, it’s difficult to want to stick around for the grind that’s ahead.
But don’t let that put you off! The Island might not be my personal cup of tea so far, but there’s so much more to enjoy in WWE 2K25 – the MyRise career, the incredible MyGM, Showcase, Universe, the MyFaction card-collecting mode, creating and downloading all sorts of custom content… the list goes on! I still think there’s room for improvement in some areas, with my biggest gripe being that the crowd can look and sound very poor at times, but based on my early impressions here, I think it’s shaping up to be the best WWE 2K game to date. Just like it was last year!
WWE 2K25 launches this Friday on Xbox, while early access began last week for the higher-priced versions.
