WWE 2K24: Five Months Later

A little under five months ago, WWE 2K24 launched for gamers. It was released on March 8, 2024 with an early release for those who ordered the Deluxe Edition on March 5. I wrote a thorough review of it here. I promised followup reviews and now, I’m finally here with one. One month was too soon to judge it, especially since I was also playing other games. We’re about to hit our third of five DLC packs, so we are right in the middle of the post-release cycle.

A note on the screenshots: if they are showing in less than perfect quality, I’m sorry. They look fantastic when uploaded to the site, but they’re less than high quality when I preview the article on a browser. Yet they’re fine when I look at the article on my phone. It’s not me! Damn you, Scott! It’s probably AEW’s fault. Tony Khan strikes again.

First, let’s refresh the roster. Depending on the version of the game you purchase, you start with a robust roster full of legends, Raw, SmackDown and NXT stars. Five months in, the main roster has some names not with the company now – Ricochet, Cameron Grimes, Xia Li, Dijak, Drew Gulak, Jinder Mahal, Scrypts – but is still the most still-employed roster the company has had for a game almost half a year after release. Hell, we’ve had games in the last few years where it felt like half the roster was gone.

You’ll need to purchase and play through the WrestleMania mode to unlock variations of wrestlers such as John Cena, Bray Wyatt, Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan and numerous others. It’s a decent mode, but with thirty matches it can be extensive especially just for variations of talent you already have. The arenas are nice though.

The 40 Years of WrestleMania pack also includes five additional exclusive variations – 2017 Charlotte, Macho King, 2006 Rey Mysterio, 2020 Rhea Ripley and 2014 Triple H. This is cool for the HHH entrance.

Purchasing the Deluxe Edition gets you the Mae Young Classic editions for Bianca Belair and Ripley.

Now, let’s discuss the DLC packs. First, there’s the Nightmare Family pack which was a preorder bonus but will be available later in the year for regular purchase. You get Undashing Cody Rhodes, Stardust, Dusty Rhodes and Billy Graham as well as an Elite Action Figure-Style Cody. It’s a cool pack, and they’re all good additions to the game.

DLC Pack #1, released May 15, was the ECW Punk Pack. The big draw, of course, was CM Punk. He looks and wrestles great and his entrance is phenomenally done. It also adds the Dudleys, Terry Funk and Sandman. No, Sandman doesn’t come through the crowd. It’s another good pack.

The second pack, June 26, was the Post Malone & Friends Pack. The headliner is Post Malone, who isn’t my thing but was fun to play with the one time I used him. His moveset will be good for character creators. The draw for this pack for me is Sensational Sherri in early 80s gear. You also get Honky Tonk Man, both Headbangers, and Jimmy Hart as a manager. Again, not a bad pack.

The third pack, releasing next week, is the controversial pack. It’s the Pat McAfee Show pack, featuring Pat McAfee and four guys from his show. This means nothing to 99% of us, but I get it. It’ll get the game a ton of free advertisements on his show. I’d love to see another five NXT talents instead, but I get it. I’ll never use it outside of the one time MyFaction makes me use them.

Two more packs are coming and both are loaded. The Global Superstars pack in September adds some notable current roster members – Jade Cargill, Dragon Lee, Kairi Sane, Carlito, Nia Jax, Michelle McCool, and Lyra Valkyria. A lot of those should have been on the roster to begin with, but I’m glad we’re getting them. The WCW Pack in Novembers adds DDP, Lex Luger, Great Muta, Mr. Perfect and Iron Sheik.

Minus the McAfee stuff, this is probably the best DLC set the 2K games have gifted us. It fleshes out a lot of the current roster and gives a good run of expected and unexpected names. It’s cool to me we’ll have Great Muta, the Headbangers, and Sherri in an official game by the time the cycle ends.

The arenas are much as they were when the game was released, though we’ve added day and night versions of the WrestleMania XL arena for those that purchased the WrestleMania edition. It looks great and they did a great job on it. I’d like to see more non-Mania arenas in future editions. I’d love to see quirky stuff like Souled Out ‘97, but you can find almost anything created well by the various creators in the game.

The game plays as well as it did at launch, with a few quality of life updates being released since launch. Weapons have been added with the updates such as kendo sticks and, for McAfee reasons, a football. Sure.

There were a few modes I hadn’t done much with during my initial review and I’d like to circle back to those.

I’ve completed the MyRise modes for both men and women, though there are a few twists in the stories I haven’t done to unlock a few MyPersona cards and arenas. The men’s side was fun and the women’s side was a little weird and seemed like it was never going to end. Both are worth playing through, but the desire to play through them again to unlock the few things I missed hasn’t hit.

Universe Mode lets you control the reigns of everything, creating rivalries, cards and angles. I gave it a try for a bit and it didn’t hook me. It seemed like too much work to get rivalries going. It’s not for me.

MyGM is much the same. You choose a show and run it, hiring a roster, creating a card, and paying for things like promotions and lighting. Your goal is to outperform the other GMs. It’s fine, but again didn’t hook me.

I’ve also played more of the new and returning match modes this year. The Casket Match and Ambulance Match are largely the same, with having to hit button combos to throw the opponent into the casket/ambulance and again to close the lid or door. They’re good additions but not ones I use often. There are also gauntlet matches and they’re good for what they are.

It’s time to focus on the part of the game I’ve played the most: MyFaction. This is also the mode the company regularly focuses on advertising and updating, so it seems to be the key draw for the game to them. That said, it’s largely a failure.

This is the card-based mode where you are able to use talents you have cards of. You get a base few to start as well as up-levelled cards for any DLC characters you have. You play “live event” matches as well as matches in Weekly Towers, Proving Ground and Faction Wars to unlock in-game currency and other cards. Depending on how you look at it, it is very pay-to-play. If you purchase in-game currency, you can download better packs that will give you better cards. Otherwise, you’re largely going to be getting the silver and green basic cards.

There are also Persona cards that you can unlock by playing that give you alternate versions of wrestlers such as Trick Williams in boxing gear, Roman Reigns with the man bun or Final Boss Rock. A few of them are easy – Sheamus with the too many limes theme – but most require you to have some of the rarest cards to even get a shot at. If you’re going to have the 100% complete roster, you’re going to have to pay for the cards or the chance at getting them. In at least one case – the Elite Hulk Hogan – you have to have a promo code from buying a Mattel Legends figure at Target.

I’m a collector – I love a LEGO game where I have to collect every damn everything – so this mode draws me in. I’ve enjoyed doing the Weekly Towers, which unlock certain cards or just currency. I’ve also been playing through some of the Live Events, though as the year has gone on they’ve become more inaccessible. Each Live Event requires you to have a certain card, often from a special pack of cards. You might need a purple Sami Zayn, which gives you a shot at unlocking currency or a special card. The Live Events have also gotten much more difficult over the last few months. For example, the Kevin Nash birthday challenge might require you to play as a green card with a 60-level strength to face a Nash with a 90-level strength. Two hits and that Nash can pin you for three in the match. It sucks.

This of course brings us to online play. Do you want to wrestle someone online for the advertised ranked mode – which again gives you exclusive cards – or just wrestle online with your friends? GOOD LUCK!

The servers for WWE 2K24 are bad. Really bad. I only try about once every two weeks at this point, but I actually make it into one of every five tries. Sometimes I’ll get loaded into a match, only for it to immediately end and I get a lovely message from another Xbox user cursing at me for quitting a match despite it being the game. I know it’s not me, I have the internet running directly into the back of my Xbox. People complain to 2K constantly online about the servers, but we don’t get any response. But hey, at least they added a football to the game.

So, do I recommend this game in July 2024? If you haven’t already gotten it, yes. For one, it’s often on sale in digital form. I’ve seen it almost half off, including all DLC. $60-70 for everything is a deal. It IS a great game. It’s the best roster a wrestling game has had with great looking play, arenas and a sea of modes. There’s something to do for everyone including a gigantic creation suite that’ll let you create the wrestler, arena, or title belt of your dreams. The online mode is rough and it’s hard to believe they haven’t figured out how to make it work correctly at this point in the game’s timeline. It’s still worth it, but don’t plan on a big evening of playing online with your friends as a guaranteed time.

I plan on checking in one more time, around the end of November, with a review of everything after the update and DLC cycle ends.