WWE 2K Battlegrounds– review and opinion about the game [PS4, XOne, PC, SWITCH, STADIA]

The current situation in the world has certainly not made the task easier, which is probably to put it all over again, because the formula has run out and people may not want to invest in another pig in a poke. Developers (I shoot) quickly came up with the concept of the game from a completely different fairy tale, using the license and popularity of the WWE product in the world. The result is a game WWE 2K Battlegrounds, a colorful arcade game, where you can sit back and take a few minutes while rejuvenating yourself.

It was not supposed to be a particularly ambitious project and you can see it from the beginning. First of all, for a wrestling game, wrestling itself is definitely not enough. After a while of testing, comparisons with button-mash mobile fights come to mind – and after a long time of use, there is a reflection that this is a production that would definitely be better found in mobile versions, where the lack of depth can be covered up by the fact that the game is played just for a while in the waiting room or on the train. Here, what further into the forest, the fewer trees – in this particular metaphor, unfortunately the joy of the game is trees.

The same … and the wall between us

Pro wrestling is in my humble opinion the most beautiful and universal entertainment in the world, everyone who knows me knows about it. Colorful characters, unpredictable plot twists, a large dose of comedy, absurdity, abstraction, and a fantastic murder in which both viewers aged 5 and 105 can find themselves, and emotions that cannot be counterfeited, because you are not a spectator, but part of the show , you have an influence on the development of events. WWE 2K Battlegrounds from the above-mentioned elements, it focuses only on the aspect of colorful characters and killing, trying to play something with the plot, but with a rather poor effect. The story is quite unrealistic and predictable, but it is worth noting that it is. Roster is ok – fewer characters than we get in WWE 2K simulations, but still a nice line-up, big stars of today and a good team of legends.

One of the biggest problems with the peer reviewed WWE 2K Battlegrounds is that each character fights practically the same. The Moveset is very limited, it has a few punches, kicks, repetitive throws, only company stocks and finishers stand out and it’s fun to see them the first few times. We have several different styles at our disposal, there are technicians, powerful powerhouses, acrobatic aviators, standard wrestling. Each group has its own specific skills, some are faster, others are slower, some are beating harder, others have MORE throws, but in the end everything is thrown into one sack and the differences between specific players from a given category are cosmetic, which significantly shortens the life games.

Graphically WWE 2K Battlegrounds it looks really cool – caricatured, overdone character models are impressive, the available arenas match the atmosphere of this type of game. Unfortunately, or fortunately, games are not watched, but played and when it comes to grabbing the spell, the spell is broken. The threshold to enter the game is very low and you don’t have to learn too much, just react intuitively and stick to what works, and you can catch it in the moment. This can be an advantage or a disadvantage – if you want to play a quick match it’s cool, if you want to spend a few hours at the console, boredom will come very quickly. An interesting solution are power-ups, which give players additional opportunities, but due to the incomplete balance, they can sometimes be irritating, giving them too much advantage.

When it hurts, it grows

The gameplay itself without fireworks and repetitive, and what do we have in the game modes? Standard. Career mode, or more like a campaign, is a place where you will face dozens of players, getting to know the game mechanics better, and you will also get a fairly simple plot and not subtle, stereotypical characters to lead. At the same time, probably no one expected fireworks and an Oscar-winning production – in WWE 2K Battlegrounds it’s just about pushing the action forward.

Other modes worth mentioning are Battleground Challenge, King of the Battlegrounds, which is an alternative to the campaign with a player created by you, and the online elimination mode. Good thresh, what to hide here, but it is not something that will keep the player at the console for a long time, or will make him return to this product after some time in the flood of other, more attractive titles. Online mode is a lot of fun, but it has its problems – but you should count that the bugs will be patched, perhaps already at the time of reading this review, the problems with collision detection are no longer there.

As for the types of fights available in WWE 2K Battlegrounds, apart from the classic single bumble, we have at our disposal most of the well-known and liked formats, you can fight in a tag team, measure yourself in a steel cage or eliminate your rivals by throwing them out of the ring in Royal Rumble. I must emphasize it again in the review – standard, nothing beyond the norm, but also nothing that will keep the player at the console for longer.

Pay and cry in WWE 2K Battlegrounds

It is, unfortunately, a disgraceful tradition that in reviews a separate paragraph is devoted to the topic (and at this stage rather to the problem) of micropayments. Of course, instead of spending hours in front of the console spent on grinding and developing your character (or unlocking other “goods” available in the game for in-game currency), you can jerk off financially and have it at your disposal almost immediately. However, to quote Zbigniew Stonoga’s internet classic – “no waaaartoooo!” By the way, this practice is getting more brazen year by year, and there is no end in sight. Soon, we will probably pay separately for each game mode to be able to start it at all. A little funny, a little scary.

WWE 2K Battlegrounds is not a bad game. It is also not a good game. It is a game that would work best on a different platform and above all for a different price, preferably as a free phone call. It’s hard not to treat this product as a jump to the cash register, when the packaging is nice and colorful, but the content is quite poor, you can see that it is created quickly, on one hoof. As a party game, it’s cool, especially if you are a wrestling freak and live in this world like me. Otherwise, as a separate, full-fledged pin … It would be hard for me to recommend it and I say it with a heavy heart, because I think that there is totally room for wrestling games focusing on this crazy, wild, fiery side of the show. However, it has to be done with more skill and … respect for the player and his wallet?

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