The issue with this is that this progression system is riddled with microtransactions. This one doesn’t have any story and you can use a created character. As is the issue with the rest of the game, there just isn’t a whole lot of substance here and you’ll find yourself bored and trying to get through this as quickly as possible.īattleground Challenge isn’t much better than the main campaign.
You have the main series of matches you have to complete to get to the next areas but you can also play extra matches to earn extra unlockables like new power-ups, characters, and battlegrounds. It’s a weird little story and you aren’t given much of a reason to care about these new characters you’re introduced to because they don’t receive much more than a page or two of a comic strip to get you familiar with them. This sees Paul traveling around the world recruiting wrestlers and having them fight on their own home turf. Part of the comic style storyboard in the campaign.īattlegrounds has a campaign that looks promising when you start out with a comic book storyboard where Paul Hayman convinces Vince McMahon to let him start his own brand of wrestling. I liked this system but because of the lack of depth, it didn’t feel like it mattered as much as it would in a normal game of this nature. There are plenty of buffs to unlock and you’re mostly getting things like increasing your damage, increasing your health regeneration, or making it so the other player can’t block your attacks. An example of this would be one that makes your opponent have to work harder to escape out of the pin. These are basically temporary buffs that give your character a competitive advantage when you activate them. There’s a power-up system that works quite well with this type of game. I just can’t see any adults really wanting to spend too much time with it with the lack of depth and general ease of the game. The moves are easy to execute and anyone can pick this thing up and play it no problem. It’s far too easy to reverse and you can literally just strike the CPU over and over again without them ever really getting a chance to hit you. The weakest part of WWE 2K Battlegrounds is the gameplay. I like this system but I felt like there could have been a few more thrown in there to make things a bit more varied. Then there’s also an All-Around which is a mix of everything. Powerhouses are slow but can power through an opponent’s strikes. High-flyers can get to the top rope fast, use running throws, and jump off the ropes. Technicians can cause limb damage (leading your opponent to stagger around) and have powerful throws. Brawlers can create weapons and have extra power in their strikes. The class system does save things a little bit because these classes matter a lot and play very differently. Sure, each Superstar still has its own specific Signature and Finishing move and some have moves tailored only to them but that’s hardly enough to stop you from getting extremely bored while playing through this game. That means most of your heroes will play the exact same with very little variety. WWE 2K Battlegrounds gives you the same tiny moveset for anyone within the same class of either Powerhouse, Brawler, All-Rounder, Technician, or High-Flyer. This is what sets each Superstar apart and what gives them their own unique personality on top of their appearance and mannerisms.
One of the main things that makes a decent wrestling game is that each Superstar has its own specific moveset. The videos and screenshots all looked promising but I’m here to tell you that beyond the flashy animations, there is just no substance. It sounds like a good idea, right? Make a game that is all about fun and less about all the tiny nuances of wrestling. Of course, 2K had to go a different direction this year while they right the ship with the main WWE 2K series that ended up being quite a mess when WWE 2K20 released late last year. The last couple of games that I can remember were WWE Wrestlefest and WWE All-Stars in 20. It’s been a long time since we have had a WWE game that wasn’t simulation-based.
**A copy of this game was provided to FYIG by 2K for review purposes**