Review: WWE 2K23 explained to parents

WWE 2K23 Ecran Partage Featured

What parents need to know

WWE is back on our consoles with its annual wrestling game bearing the WWE name and icons.

As usual, the title offers us to recreate the fights seen on TV, putting at our disposal hundreds of wrestlers, dozens of types of matches, arenas and belts, not to mention the creation suite that allows us to recreate virtually any wrestler or public figure, real or fictional.

This year, WWE 2K23 focuses on John Cena’s career. The Showcase mode makes us relive the striking defeats of the leader of the Cenation, all narrated by John Cena himself.

The MyRise mode, which allows us to follow the career of a fighter of our creation, has also been improved. This year we are offered two different modes. The first tells the story of a wrestler who enters the company in the shadow of her aunt, a legend of the company, while the second puts us in the shoes of a wrestler who decides to join a faction.

Otherwise, the MyGM modes (which offers us to put ourselves in the shoes of a manager who must ensure ratings), Universe and MyFaction are back, not to mention the online modes that allow us to compete against other players around the world, in addition to exchanging our creations.

The replayability is huge. Not only is the core content very generous, including scenarios in MyRise that invite us to replay several times, but WWE 2K23 offers many tools for creative players.

You can create the wrestlers of your choice, invent your own wrestling company if you like, create your stories in the Universe mode, in short, the possibilities are enormous.

The game was provided by the publisher for review. It does not influence our opinion.

Details

Release date: 14 March 2023
Developer: Visual Concepts
Publisher: 2K games
Available on: Steam PC, Compatible Steam Deck, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series
Available format: Physical and digital
Version tested: Playstation 5

Game genre: Sport, combat
Themes covered: Professional wrestling/wrestling
Duration of a game: 30 minutes
Duration of the main game/story: Several tens of hours, even hundreds.
Total time to complete everything: Quasi infini, dépendamment de votre imagination

Text languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian,
Voice languages: English,

Number of local players: 4
Number of online players: 8

Level of experience required

Age 3+ 7+ 12+ 16+ 18+
Beginners
Intermediate
Experienced

Evaluation

Necessarily, WWE 2K23 is violent, since it is a professional wrestling simulation. By default, blood is disabled, but you can re-enable it if you want more graphic clashes.

Younger people may be afraid of scarier wrestlers such as The Undertaker or The Boogeyman, but generally, WWE 2K23 is not a scary game.

Younger people may be afraid of scarier wrestlers such as The Undertaker or The Boogeyman, but generally, WWE 2K23 is not a scary game.

Some female wrestlers have more revealing accoutrements, but generally, WWE 2K23 does not feature sexuality.

Playback will be useful in the Showcase mode, which requires you to follow instructions to reproduce matches, or to read catch lists, as well as in some more complex modes like MyGM.

A lot of fun can still be had, even with the most rudimentary reading skills.

Some wrestlers may use slightly tougher expressions to insult each other, but generally, terms that are a little too vulgar are censored.

However, online interactions are not as controlled. It’s best to exercise some supervision if your child is playing online.

Some wrestlers may use slightly tougher expressions to insult each other, but generally, terms that are a little too vulgar are censored. However, online interactions are not as controlled. It's best to exercise some supervision if your child is playing online.

This is professional wrestling. All conflicts are settled with chairs in the back of the head. You have to take it with a grain of salt, it’s still entertainment, but we wouldn’t look to Randy Orton as a role model for our children, no.

Several difficulty modes make the experience accessible to everyone. Obviously, online the level is higher, and a mediocre player may see his shoulders glued to the mat on a regular basis.

But in offline mode, there’s plenty to have fun for players of all skill levels.

WWE 2K23 is a fighting game requiring a relatively complex level of controller execution; We have to execute somewhat complicated combinations, and we are often asked to press certain buttons with a specific timing , especially to counter the attacks of the opponents.

WWE 2K23 is a fighting game requiring a relatively complex level of controller execution; We have to execute somewhat complicated combinations, and we are often asked to press certain buttons with a specific timing , especially to counter the attacks of the opponents.

On doit acheter le jeu de base. De nombreux contenus additionnels payants mais facultatifs sont disponibles.

WWE 2K23 is probably one of the most egregious examples of intensive use of microtransactions.

Not only is the base game expensive ($90 for the basic version), we are suggested to put our hands in our pockets at every turn, and repeatedly.

For this review, the publisher gave us the Icon version, which contains ALL downloadable content for $ 160, and we were still offered to put our hand in the pocket in the MyFaction mode.

If your child is a WWE fan, be prepared for a discussion about the value of money before lending them your credit card.

Local game modes

Local matches: we can choose from dozens of stipulations to face the computer or our friends.

Showcase: we recreate memorable defeats of John Cena, by embodying his opponents. Certain instructions are given to us in order to recreate the original match as faithfully as possible, and players will be awarded many rewards (new characters, belts, arenas, etc.).

MyRise: You create a wrestler and follow his career through the matches, but especially the decisions made behind the scenes. Some decisions change the course of our character’s story, which offers good replayability. Two separate scenarios are available, one featuring a female wrestler and the other a wrestler.

Universe: We’re simulating our own version of WWE. We can choose to embody a single wrestler, real or created, and thus see his career evolve over the rivalries, or choose to simulate the federation as a whole, creating our own rivalries. It is possible to change the wrestlers who are part of our company as we wish. You can recreate your virtual federation, the WCW of 1996 or stage all the characters of your favorite franchise, if you like.

MyGM: You have to manage a budget and create the most interesting segments possible in order to get great ratings and become the best GM you can be.

Creation: A whole suite of creation is offered to you, allowing you to create wrestlers, arenas, belts, entrances, in short, the possibilities are almost limitless!

Online Game Modes

Once again the modes are numerous.

You can compete against your friends or strangers online in matches, share your creations and see what others have created, create a faction in MyFaction mode and compete against other players… The possibilities are enormous.

Expansions/Add-ons (DLC)

Extensions are numerous, and expensive.

You should know that there are 4 editions of the game:

  • The Standard Edition ($79.99 on PS4, Xbox One and PC, $89.99 on PS5 and Xbox Series) which offers the base game without additional additions.
  • The Cross-Gen Edition ($89.99), available only in digital format, which allows you to play the game on Playstation 4 and 5 or Xbox One and Series, depending on your console family. In short, this is the edition to choose if you plan to upgrade to the next generation in the coming months.
  • The Deluxe Edition ($119.99), which includes singer Bad Bunny as a playable character, the season pass, as well as cards for the MyFaction world.
  • The Icon Edition ($159.99), which includes all the previously mentioned bonuses, in addition to the Ruthless Aggression Pack, which makes available the original versions of Randy Orton, Batista, John Cena and Brock Lesnar, as well as some additional content such as the Wrestlemania 22 arena and a belt to the glory of John Cena.

It is also possible to purchase downloadable content separately. The season pass, as mentioned above, retails at a price of $ 49.99 and gives access to the 5 content packs that will be launched in the coming year.

It is also possible to buy separately the Supercharger (which unlocks all content instantly) for $ 6.99, or the MyRise Mega-Boost, which will give you an additional 200 points to award to your character in MyRise mode, for $ 6.99.

The Ruthless Aggression Pack can also be purchased separately for $26.99 (which seems very exaggerated, to be honest).

Finally, you can purchase additional card packs in MyFaction mode. The price depends on the amount of currency you buy. In this sense, WWE 2K23 copies the model of mobile games, and can become very expensive.

Short of breath? This is normal. WWE 2K23 offers a LOT of paid content, maybe even too much, dare we say.

Our opinion

WWE 2K23 is extremely generous in content, while being a bit stingy.

One can’t complain about the amount of content offered in the title. The author of these lines is a fan of the sport of the first hour, but the quantity of wrestlers available is such that some were still unknown to us. The Showcase mode featuring Cena is a success and allows us to revisit the career of a living legend in an original way.

The MyRise modes could still be tweaked, but we are still witnessing an impressive progression compared to last year.

But WWE 2K23 is also a staggering example of an overuse of microtransactions. Everything is monetized. If you want to unlock the wrestlers offered, you can play for long hours to earn the points to unlock the pugilists… or you can pay $50 CAD (€35.99) for the season pass, which includes the “Supercharger” that allows you to unlock everything instantly.

There are also, of course, a host of wrestlers who are only available as paid DLC, or by purchasing a more expensive version of the base game. For example, the Icon version will give you access to the very first versions of Randy Orton, Batista, Brock Lesnar and John Cena (aka The Prototype)… at a cost of $160 CAD (€120).

And we’re barely scratching the surface… The MyFaction mode, for example, invites us to build a faction from playing cards that we unlock randomly in blind packs. You can buy it with currency earned by playing… But it is obviously easier to take out the credit card to get rarer cards.

This greed at every turn undermines the experience, and it’s a shame, because at its core, WWE 2K23 is an excellent professional wrestling/wrestling simulation that has something to delight the most fervent fans like Sunday fans.

Our rating : 16 / 20

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