Two years, four months, seventeen days. That’s the time between releases of the much-maligned WWE 2K20, and its successor, WWE 2K22. Visual Concepts, now main developer after the departure of Yuke’s to the AEW franchise, have skipped 2K21 entirely to spend extra time to develop a pro-wrestling game that’s worth owning this time around. The results are a much, much better title with a few nuances that were probably unavoidable due to the longer development time.

Immediately upon booting the game, it’s obvious that 2K22 is already more polished than its predecessor. Menus are simpler and more streamlined, making it easy to find what you’re looking for. Animations are smoother, and the wrestler models take advantage of the additional power afforded by the Series X. This game is a step above all previous WWE2K games and is well-worth your time.

With a new engine comes a comprehensive tutorial on everything on offer. Luckily, they have enlisted current WWE Superstar Drew Gulak. With his gimmick involving PowerPoint presentations on WWE television, I couldn’t think of a better wrestler suited to bringing players the down-low on what’s new with the game.

There are a couple of ways to approach the in-ring action, light and heavy attacks are in, as well as grappling. Grappling can then lead to light or heavy grapple-attacks such as suplexes and takedown moves, as well as Irish whipping and hammer-throwing opponents for more options.

What the game encourages, however, is a combo system. Hitting the buttons in a sequence, similar to a fighting game, deliver signature combos that differ between wrestlers. Hitting light attacks followed by a heavy attack can pull off The Rock’s patented punches and slap combo he used in every match in the late 1990’s. A combo followed by hitting the grapple button has the wrestler punch and kick his way directly into a suplex. It felt a bit weird at first, but once I got the hang of different combos, they became second nature and made matches feel slick and continuous instead of start/stop affairs.

The reversal system has been overhauled as well, moving the reverse button to the top face button instead of a shoulder button already feels more natural. Holding the button down also blocks any incoming strikes. If a wrestler puts you into a grapple, reversals fall into predicting what your opponent will do. For example, if someone is about to Irish whip you after grabbing you, hitting the Irish whip button before them will result in a reversal, hitting light attack reverses light grapples and so on. It isn’t completely necessary to enjoy the game but adds a lot of depth to those who’ve been playing these games for years and is a welcome addition, without being overly complex.

The main attraction outside of having regular matches is the 2K Showcase, this year concentrating on long-standing veteran Rey Mysterio. Included is a variety of matches from Rey Mysterio’s career, spanning all the way back to 1997, in his must-see Mask vs Hair match against Eddie Guerrero, up until current day where Rey is teaming up with his son Dominik. Most of the matches are truly memorable Rey Mysterio matches, though there are some notable omissions I can only imagine are because of licensing issues.

Each match gives you several criteria to follow to try and keep the match authentic to its historical counterpart. A new feature is splicing footage from the pay-per-views directly into the in-game engine. When you hit a specific move, a cutscene occurs within the game, which then seamlessly transitions to the footage of the match, likely in a move to include parts of the match that is too difficult to recreate. In the first bout, there’s a point where Eddie tries to rip Rey’s mask off in a cutscene, and the tear in Rey’s mask is visible on his model when the game goes back to the gameplay portion, and this attention to detail is what makes this game so special.

Rey Mysterio himself narrates each match, by talking over footage and through talking heads. He goes through what makes each match special to him and adds a new layer for fans who’ve seen these matches dozens of times before. 2K Showcases rarely disappoint, and this one is probably the best one since Stone Cold Steve Austin’s back in 2K16.

MyRise is 2K22’s version of MyCareer. This time the game allows you to create either a male or female character to carve a career in the WWE. For those who’ve played these in previous games, there’s not a lot different to it. You begin your career fighting against nobodies in NXT, before fighting better-known names in NXT and then finally hitting either RAW or SmackDown, going for title belts and building your character’s stats and personality as you go.

Bringing this story mode into the 21st century is starting feuds through social media posts. Like many wrestlers trying to make a name for themselves by calling out other wrestlers on Twitter and hoping it will transition to television *cough* Matt Riddle *cough*, 2K22 allows you to engage with other wrestler’s posts and begin something that will hopefully lead to bigger and better feuds and hopefully main eventing WrestleMania.

WWE Universe mode is almost identical to previous iterations. You can take control of the WWE Universe yourself, by keeping rosters updated, editing wrestlers and their stats. Take part in matches you’re interested in or simulate anything you aren’t invested in. You can create new shows, change champions, and reinstate old title belts, and control the WWE however you see fit.

You can also take on the WWE Universe as an already established wrestler. Choosing either a current superstar or a returning WWE Legend, the game has you hit the ground running, giving you the opportunity to carve out a legacy as your favourite wrestler (or if you wish, a downloaded or created wrestler). It’s fun to take someone like Cesaro and take him to places the WWE seemingly were too afraid to push him. Some aspects of this don’t work the way you might think, you can’t immediately cash in your Money in the Bank briefcase as an example, instead the game forces you to wait a certain amount of time before you tell the GM you “plan” to cash it in, and then the game takes you in that direction. It works, but you can’t go around doing what you like.

With all these modes available, it becomes more and more apparent that the roster itself is quite all over the place. Every mode comes with a series of wrestlers that haven’t been with the WWE up to six months ago. The WWE itself has made several roster cuts over the past year despite posting record profits. Nine wrestlers in the roster are now actively competing in rival company All Elite Wrestling in some of their top storylines. Jake “The Snake” Roberts is included as a WWE Legend and has been involved with AEW for over a year now.

My guess is that the longer development time has resulted in including wrestlers that most people thought would still be around, and there was a cut-off date that the developers couldn’t pull these wrestlers out and include wrestlers who have made their WWE debut and were title holders when the game released. I was able to make a Royal Rumble match where I could include 27 released wrestlers, and I can’t remember the last WWE game where the roster felt so outdated.

The next mode worth mentioning is MyFaction. Based on the name, you could be excused for thinking you are to create a faction of wrestlers that could take on the likes of D-Generation X, the nWo and The Corporation. Instead, it’s a playable card game where you build a deck of superstars, four male, four female and a manager. You can build more cards by logging in each day, taking part in random matches and completing challenges. I’m sure this thing has an audience, but compared to the rest of the game, there’s not enough to it to hold my attention.

If we could take a quote from The Rock, “finally… MyGM, HAS COME BACK, to WWE 2K”. With that out of the way, one of the most requested modes has made its return to WWE videogames. MyGM allows you to pick from a list of GMs such as William Regal, Adam Pearce, and Stephanie McMahon. You can then take control of Smackdown, RAW or NXT and build yourself a roster that will take your show to the top of the ratings war.

You can draft at least eight superstars and crown your world champions for both men and women. Unfortunately, the tag titles and secondary belts are completely omitted from MyGM, with only two belts to keep on each show. Outside of the title belts, you can try and fabricate rivalries by having superstars call each other out and use these rivalries to build a fanbase for your show and leave the other shows in the dust.

You also have objectives delivered by Triple H each week that will offer bonuses for you, which can be used to your benefit, or your opponent’s detriment. Superstars will text you each week and make requests that you can either deliver on or deny. Trying to do this all has to all fall under a given budget as well, so you can’t have Hell in a Cell matches every week, utilise large arenas also costs money as well as using pyrotechnics and lighting. There are a lot of decisions to make each week that keep you involved.

Despite all this, you can only book three matches a week and two promo segments. This doesn’t feel like much, especially if you can build a large roster of superstars who never end up getting used. And for the most part, this isn’t an endless mode as the goal is to be number 1 by the end of an amount of time set at the beginning of MyGM mode. If this was attached to the WWE Universe mode, it would be perfect.

Is WWE 2K22 enough of a great game to dethrone WWF No Mercy and WWE Here Comes the Pain? It’s not quite there yet. Visual Concepts have however laid some really great groundwork to build upon, and with some adjustments in each of their modes may have the potential to make something truly special. As it stands, 2K22 is one of the better wrestling games in a while and I absolutely recommend it for wrestling fans, with a view that future iterations should utilise this as the formation for future games.