WWE 2K25 has it all and then some

The WWE 2K series is like the Joe Gibbs Racing team of this season’s NASCAR circuit. Their cars are the top performers functioning at peak levels. Now, it is just a matter of making adjustments here and there to push the overall performance even further than before, setting that already high bar even higher.

There is no point going over the core graphics, sound or gameplay of WWE 2K. It is the top wrestling game on the market today. After years of development they have all of the basics locked down. All that we need to examine are the new additions to this year’s release because the engine is already running smoothly.

This year’s campaign is the Bloodline’s Dynasty. With ‘The Wiseman’ Paul Heyman as your host, you play as members of the legendary Anoa’i wrestling family including such superstars as The Rock, Yokozuna, Solo Sikoa,”High Chief” Peter Maivia…and even Nia Jax, although there is no botch button available for her although there should be. The campaign spotlights such historic moments as Yokozuna taking on Hulk Hogan at King of the Ring 1993, Rocky Maivia beating Hunter Hearst Helmsley for the Intercontinental Championship. There are 17 matches in total and they are spread out across the ‘Bloodline’ so the campaign isn’t dominated by Rock or Reigns matches. I, personally, liked playing and seeing ‘High Chief’ Peter Maivia in the game and 3 Minute Warning always reminded me so much of the late, great Public Enemy in their ECW days.

Here is the list of the campaign matches:

Relive History:

Yokozuna w/Mr. Fuji vs. Hulk Hogan – King of the Ring ‘93
Rocky Maivia vs Hunter Hearst Helmsley – Thursday RAW Thursday 2/13/97
The Usos vs The New Day w/Big E – Hell in a Cell ‘17
Solo Sikoa vs Carmelo Hayes w/Trick Williams – NXT 2.0 9/13/22
Nia Jax vs Lyra Valkyria – King and Queen of the Ring ‘24

Change History:

The Headshrinkers vs Steiner Bros – WrestleMania IX
Rikishi vs ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin – No Mercy 2000
Umaga w/Armando Estrada vs John Cena – New Year’s Revolution 2007
Tamina vs Natalya vs Carmella vs Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch – Money in the Bank ‘17
Naomi vs Bayley – Super ShowDown ‘20
Roman Reigns vs Seth Rollins – Royal Rumble ‘22

Create History:

‘High Chief’ Peter Maivia vs George ‘The Animal’ Steele
3 Minute Warning vs AOP w/Paul Ellering
The Wild Samoans vs The Dudley Boyz
The OG Bloodline vs Solo’s Bloodline WarGames
The Islanders vs The Street Profits

In order to unlock rewards such as new characters and wrestling rings, you have to complete designated objectives during the matches. They could be as simple as landing a few choice haymakers or giving your foe a certain number of moves within a time limit. You had better get used to those timed trails because there are plenty of them throughout the whole campaign. If you don’t complete the objectives you can still move on in the campaign but you won’t unlock the rewards. Hindering those tasks could be your own partners in tag team matches because it seems the developers forgot to instruct those partners from going for pins or submissions. So, you can be in the middle of working through the objectives when your AI partner wins the match ending your progress. That means you have play the entire match over again. Not cool and not fun.

It also can be very frustrating working under the pressure of a timed objective when you are facing more than one opponent. In that chaotic environment, it is very easy for someone to interfere and cost you time you cannot afford to lose. Because the AI tend to swarm you constantly in those kinds of matches they really shouldn’t be part of an objective run. In future editions it might be nice if there were checkpoints for each objective so you don’t have to start from the very beginning of a match if you happen to miss or fail one.

In positive news 2K has ditched those pop-up cut-scenes which interrupted the flow of campaign matches in previous iterations. The negative is you cannot skip those cutscenes and some of them drone on and on. On the whole though, this year’s campaign is not only a good wrestling history lesson but an enjoyable playthrough.

My Rise, the create-your-own character mode, is a little different than last year. There is no separate female or male storylines. Instead, both are incorporated into what would, might happen if NXT superstars were tired of staying in their own lane. The campaign begins as a mystery of sorts with you as the number one draft pick being attacked by an unknown assailant. Soon, you and your new buddy CM Punk realize the attack was part of a much bigger scheme targeting the main roster and its superstars. It is like The Nexus all over again, well, sort of. This time around the happenings play out like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure, although that series never had a wrestling themed book, which sucked for me as a kid. Decisions you are required to make throughout the story takes your journey in different directions so theoretically you can play MyRise over and over again.

The biggest change to WWE 2K25 is the total revamping of the online mode. It now has a hub called The Island (of Relevancy?). Roman Reigns invites you to his Fantasy Island where there is no Mr. Roarke or Tattoo but you can explore the various districts, shops, special locations, buy enhancements to customize your character and, oh yeah, wrestle matches to move up in the ranks to perhaps one day score a WWE contract. You gain XP and VC by winning matches and completing quests which allows you to level-up and purchase customizations. The Island is only on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S editions of the game though.

While the enhanced online mode opens a whole new dimension to the game it is littered with brand-sponsored stores and ads everywhere you look. You also have the option of spending in-game currency to enhance your created wrestler’s stats, buy clothing for them, etc. The problem is you earn very little virtual currency winning matches and completing objectives. So, the goal here seems to be to encourage players to spend real-life money on their characters. The virtual currency bundles are as low as $6.99 CAD for 15,000 VC to $66.99 CAD for 187,500 VC, which is slightly less than the actual basic edition of WWE 2K25. Yeah, The Island in part is a transparent cash grab but VC isn’t necessary to do well there. You do have the choice of saving your coin and grinding it out, which isn’t that tough, really. So, while it may suck for some to see WWE 2K ‘follow the leader’ when it comes to the trend of in-game purchases in video games, the ones in this edition are totally optional and have no affect on your ability to succeed without having to stockpile sacks of VC like The Million Dollar Man.

It wouldn’t be a new edition of WWE 2K without some new match types and grappling options. Truth be told, THQ is running out of matches to include. They have more hardcore options than ECW back in the day. This year we have:

Underground Matches: As NXT fans know, it is a bout with no ring ropes and MMA style rules. There are AI peeps, fans outside the ring who quickly scatter when you or your foe hit the floor or are thrown out of the ring to the floor. This match wears out its welcome quickly though.

Bloodline Rules Matches: Borrowing from Cody’s match against Reigns at WrestleMania XL, the idea is that both competitors can summon allies to join the match but this power can only be put into play three times during a bout. Bloodline Rules can get out of hand really quickly but that and the chaos they bring are all part of the fun.

Backstage Brawls: Have been enhanced with many environments to pick from including the new WWE Archives where you can throw down surrounded by pieces of WWE history, some of which you can interact with like the barber shop window of Brutus Beefcake’s Barber Shop talk show set. And, yes, you can sorta of relive that infamous moment between Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty.

You can now stage inter-gender matches and there is a chain grappling mini-game as part of the matches. I found it too staged, too distracting, ruining the experience so I switched it off almost immediately. You can do that in the gameplay settings. Also, remember to turn on the blood as it is switched off automatically when you first start up the game. When you are in the middle of finding your flow in a match you don’t want to be interrupted with mini-game after mini-game or cut-scene after cut-scene which the WWE 2K series is on the threshold of having far too many. They are really pushing the boundaries so it was nice to see them limited in the Showcase this year.

The roster itself has grown so much over the years that it has reached the size of the Australian Football League and that doesn’t include the variations of The Rock, The Undertaker and so on. There are so many characters to choose from that it is easier to count who isn’t in the game than who is in it now. There is just so much content available like the card game MyFaction mode, the Universe mode which is really a sandbox career mode and the My Game option where you can run and book your own federation and compete with other promoters.

We haven’t even mentioned the DLC character packs which will be available in the following months. They are free to those who bought the enhanced edition of the game.

Fans can look forward to:

New Wave Pack – May 2025

Alex Shelly;
Chris Sabin;
Giulia;
Stephanie Vaquer;
Special celebrity guest to be announced;

Dunk & Destruction Pack – June 2025

Abyss;
Great Khali;
Three NBA stars to be announced;

Fearless Pack – July 2025

New Jack;
Jordynne Grace;
Penta;
Bull Nakano;
Special celebrity guest to be announced;

Attitude Era Superstars Pack – September 2025

D’Lo Brown;
Billy Gunn;
Road Dogg;
Victoria;
Mark Henry;

Saturday Night’s Main Event Pack – November 2025
Jesse Ventura;
Mr. Wonderful;
Tito Santana;
Junk Yard Dog;
Sid Justice.

There is just so much content packed into WWE 2K 25 that there literally is something for every type of wresting fan and every type of gamer as just when you think 2K and the WWE have done all they can, they raise the bar yet again. Like most sports games though, the add-ons and enhancements will be the keys to the franchise’s longevity. So far, the WWE 2K model has a lot of miles left on it and plenty of asphalt to burn.