Hot on the heels of week two of 2K’s roster reveal programme for WWE 2K17, the publisher/developer has gone and spilled some of the first details regarding the features we can expect the game to boast when it releases in October.
First things first, 2K Showcase mode has been ‘future endeavoured’. Yep, that’s right; the historical based single-player campaign that has been a staple of the series since 2K took over the reigns with WWE 2K14, has been given the boot in favour of an apparently greatly improved WWE Universe mode.
What are these improvements I hear you holler? Well, we’re looking at boatloads more cutscenes, narratives built around the current brand split story that is playing out on television right now, and finally, a new feature called the ‘Promo Engine’ that supposedly offers a much closer rendition of superstar mic work than ever before.
Seemingly the main reason for this shift away from the 2K Showcase is that 2K was considering using cover star, Brock Lesnar, as the basis for this year’s single-player campaign but the lack of availability of some his key past opponents (Kurt Angle, for example), provided one too many legal roadblocks to get the thing off the ground. Ah well, c’est la vie.
Away from the WWE Universe mode though, MyCareer makes a return and now incorporates many of the previously mentioned improvements from the latter, including more cutscenes and full use of the new Promo Engine in addition to extended backstage interviews and vignettes.
Elsewhere, the gameplay has been given a good seeing to, with many more moves and new animations, not to mention updated Ladder mechanics, taunts and a brand new secondary submission system that the developer is currently being a little coy about. Oh and as well as all that, 2K and Yukes has been hard at work allowing players to brawl in the crowd, as well as being able to take the fight to a wide selection of backstage areas, too. Top stuff.
Finally, the Creation Suite has been given a boot in the behind too. An expanded Create-A-Superstar feature now boasts many more parts (such as body hair) for the player to tinker with, while a new Highlight Replay system lets players store footage from their matches and then use them to forge their own Titantron video entrances in WWE 2K17’s new Create a Video feature. Furthermore, Create-A-Show has also been deepened in complexity (though we’re not sure quite what this entails yet), while details on the brand new Create-A-Victory feature are also thin on the ground, but the smart money’s on it allowing players to create their own victory celebrations.
Sounding good eh?
WWE 2K17 is set to release on PS4 and PS3 on October 11.