WWE 2K16 - gamescom Preview

Subtlety isn’t something that you would necessarily associate with the world of WWE and wrestling, yet the opening video during the WWE 2K16 presentation at gamescom was certainly along those lines. A barren, scorched desert lay untouched. A single figure, walking away from the camera, shovel in hand, suddenly stops and begins to dig. Was this some deep metaphor or poetic justice? Certainly not, it was legendary wrestler ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, who stars on the cover of this year’s edition, digging up the Smoking Skull Belt he won back in 1998. Picking it up, he turns around and walks towards camera: “it's time to raise some hell,” he mutters. Wrestling normality is restored once again, and it’s back to the carnage and theatre inside and out of the ring...

That Roster Though...

...And it’s the atmosphere and theatre of a wrestling event that 2K are focusing heavily on this year. After all, as Bryce Yang, brand director, told the group, “in a way, what happens outside the ring is more important than what happens in it.” While he’s certainly not doing any disservice to the fighting that goes on within the ring, he’s referring to the carnival atmosphere, the personalities and crowd interactions, all of which make wrestling and wrestlers unique. This has been such an important part of this year’s game in fact, that after conducting research, they discovered fans wanted more playable characters, giving them a greater number of iconic names. The result is almost double of last year’s 67 name roster, with 120 ‘unique characters’ available from the beginning. 

I asked 2K to clarify what they meant by ‘unique characters’ and they referred me back to their earlier statement. Watching Irishman Finn Bálor’s entrance, complete with rock music, timed lights, and pure drama, his personality shone through, I’m not really brushed up on my WWE knowledge, but instantly I could see his demeanor, his attitude and style. “The lighting, the LEDs, the ramp, the video, the timing, the colour. There’s so much that goes into every one of those characters, and we’ve [got]120 of them.”That’s what they mean by unique!

It’s not just unique in the sense of appearance and fighting style, but everything you associate with wrestling. Regardless of whoever you adore or loathe, enjoy watching or desperately avoid, they all have unique entrances and you’ll be able to instantly recognise them.

It won’t just be the fighters themselves that you’ll recognise, too. When push comes to shove within the ring, the fully mo-capped move sets will allow those trademark throws, pins and specials to add to the unique character experience. On top of this, WWE 2K16 adds in over 2,000 brand new animations, including moves, reversals and emotions, all which aim to fully immerse the player amongst the more diverse and realistic crowd.

Customise and Create

Of course, WWE 2K16 doesn’t just stop there, and being the second year developing with a new engine, the team are constantly building and improving on the previous year’s iteration, “it’s just like the last 15 years” Bryce told me, “there’s always things they’d like to add and sometimes you just can’t.” In this instance though, it seems those going into WWE 2K16 are going to be spoilt for choice based on the options given.

If it’s part of the WWE world, chances are there’s something customisable for you. We were told that this was a fan favourite part of the game; being able to stamp your own, personal look on it. With that in mind, WWE 2K16 offers customisable: shows, belts, rings and, for the first time, you can create your own Diva in a mode that will likely go head-to-head with the Superstar Creator which returns once again. Of course, like last year, you can scan your own face into the character creator in order to get your Superstar as close to real thing as possible.

...Now With Playable Former Governor of California

Speaking of face scanning, all of the 120 playable characters have had their likeness scanned in and used within the game, so whether you fancy playing as Seth Rollins, Kane, Triple-H, Colonel Mustafa or any of the other wrestlers, every emotion, glance and snarl will be caught directly from the person themselves. This even stretches out of the wrestling universe and into the crossover, by which I mean Arnold Schwarzenegger’s induction into the roster as two versions of the iconic T-800.

Arnold, according to Bryce, had “been great as part of the project.” Not only was he willing to get his face scanned like the rest of the roster, but he has been a huge part of the marketing campaign, starring in an advert and being very active on social media promoting the game itself. Of course, The Terminator is currently only available as part of a pre-order bonus, but the comments from Bryce suggest that he will later be available as part of standalone DLC. Without definitively saying yes or no, I was told with regards to The Terminator being available to those that didn’t preorder that “if you look around and see similar offers around the industry you can probably find the answer pretty easily.”

Other packs of DLC, similar to the those that went into last years iteration will also likely be featured. Again, feedback from fans found that packs with characters and storylines were preferred by the masses; after all, wrestling fans love a good storyline. Although there were no solid dates for DLC, it’s a safe bet it will be drip fed for a long time, adding to the WWE 2K16 experience.

If you love wrestling you’re going to be completely enamoured by what 2K are offering in this years edition of the game. It’s bigger, better and more beautiful than last year’s, and every tidbit of information released pulls you in just that bit more. WWE 2K16 has the perfect combination of old school classic fighters and the new, up and coming generation, so which ever side your bread is buttered, the 120 playable characters will more than quench your thirst to wrestle. With 2,000 new animations, brand new customisable game modes and the classic Hall of Fame career mode, when October comes around it’ll be “time to raise some hell”.

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WWE 2K16 will be released on 27th October in North America and 29th October in Europe on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One.