WWE 2K17 puts Brock Lesnar on the cover and calls itself the flagship of the WWE video game franchise. The roster backs that up. The engine does not. The eighteenth game in the WWE series and the fourth under the WWE 2K banner shipped in 2016 with thousands of new moves and animations, backstage and in-arena brawling, and the biggest lineup of WWE and NXT Superstars and Legends to date. All of that is real. So is the catch.
Trailer, via IGDBcom.
Brock Lesnar and the Suplex City Pitch
2K’s own summary welcomes players to Suplex City and calls WWE 2K17 the “reigning and defending flagship WWE video game franchise champion.” That is marketing copy, and it is the most confident sentence attached to this game.
Visual Concepts and Yuke’s developed it. 2K Games published it. It runs on PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PC, Xbox 360 and Xbox One. That is a wide spread for a sports game, and it is where the trouble starts.
The pitch is authenticity: thousands of new moves, backstage fights, in-arena brawling, single player, multiplayer and co-operative modes, third-person perspective. Wrestling games live or die on how it feels to lock up, reverse and sell. Adding animations to an old foundation does not change that.
Two Games Under One Name
This is the fourth and final WWE 2K installment released for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. On those platforms, WWE 2K17 still follows the gameplay blueprint of WWE 2K14. The newer hardware gets the newer game. The older hardware gets a build from three years earlier.
Nothing on the box says so loudly enough. One title, one price, two different games. That is the central fact about this release, and it undercuts the authenticity claim before a single match starts.
WWE 2K16 came out in 2015. WWE 2K18 followed in 2017. WWE 2K17 sits in the middle of an annual cycle, which is exactly where a wrestling game is most likely to coast.
Thousands of Moves, One Old Blueprint
The feature list is real. The move count is real. The NXT and Legends roster is a genuine upgrade, and it is the strongest argument for buying the game at all.
None of it fixes the core. A bigger library of animations on a blueprint from WWE 2K14 does not make the wrestling feel new. It makes the library bigger. The modes are there. The moves are there. What is missing is a reason this needed to exist in 2016 rather than 2014 with a roster update.
Everything under the roster is inherited. That is the whole story of WWE 2K17.
The Score: 6.1 Out of 10
WWE 2K17 scores 6.1 out of 10. That is the published critical aggregate across 12 outlets, and it lands where this game deserves to land.
The number is not a disaster. WWE 2K17 is not broken. It is a competent wrestling game with a strong roster and a split personality across platforms, and 6.1 is the sound of reviewers declining to pretend otherwise.
The roster is the case for buying it. If you want the biggest WWE and NXT lineup to date, with Legends included, this delivers. Lesnar on the cover is a fair mascot for a game built on brute size rather than finesse. If you want wrestling that feels different from what you played two years ago, the older hardware will not give it to you.
What the Old Consoles Got
The newer versions are the ones to judge, and they are still only good enough for a 6.1. That is the verdict on the game 2K shipped to its main audience.
The last-generation versions are worse, and they are the versions a lot of people owned in 2016. Plenty of households had not moved to newer hardware, and 2K sold them a game from 2014 with a 2016 roster. That is the part worth remembering. Not the move count. Not the cover star. The quiet decision to ship two different games under one name.
WWE 2K18 arrived the next year and left the older consoles behind for good. WWE 2K17 is where that split happened, which makes it read as an ending rather than a high point. The series closed out the old hardware by reusing it, then walked away.
KEY FACTS
- Score: 6.1/10 (IGDB critic aggregate, 12 outlets)
- Released: 2016
- Developers: Visual Concepts, Yuke’s
- Publisher: 2K Games, 2K
- Platforms: PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, PC (Microsoft Windows), Xbox 360, Xbox One
- Series position: 18th WWE game, 4th under the WWE 2K banner
- Preceded by: WWE 2K16 (2015)
- Followed by: WWE 2K18 (2017)
- Final WWE 2K release on: PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360
- Modes: Single player, Multiplayer, Co-operative
- Genres: Fighting, Simulator, Sport
Buy it for the roster. Buy it on the newer hardware. Skip the older consoles, where WWE 2K17 is a 2014 game wearing a 2016 cover. 6.1 of 10.
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