WWE 2K25 video game review and follow-along thread

The Game Room
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As someone who played at least 100, possibly 200 hours of WWE 2K24, color me impressed with WWE 2K25. It’s superior in every way where they made changes. I’ve put in 17 hours since getting it three days ago.

I’m playing on PS4. As far as I know, the only thing the PS4 doesn’t have that PS5 does is The Island mode.

In 2K24, in Superstar Mode of Universe, feuding with someone meant you’d ONLY wrestle against that person until the feud ended. And the unique interactions were very limited.

In 2K25, you can and do wrestle against other people while feuding with someone, and your feud opponent usually but not always involves themselves somehow. The unique interactions are much more abundant, and you can even “cut promos” to challenge people or not challenge people. You don’t have any control over when the promos take place, though.

In the Classic Mode, a UI update makes it much easier to move people around the brand split. If you’re wrestling as someone in Superstar Mode (where you play as just one guy) and you want new competition, there’s an option to switch to Classic Mode, shuffle around the rosters to your heart’s content, and return to Superstar Mode.

Now for the follow-along. I have played a full calendar year in Superstar Mode as Drew McIntyre, overall doing very well for myself on RAW.

My first attempt to win a belt, the Intercontinental Championship, ended with a loss to Bron Breakker. But I found myself in the King of the Ring tournament. (PLEs can now take place on multiple days and you can even have multiple shows on the same day).

I defeated Akira Tozawa, Ilja Dragunov, and Randy Orton all in one night to win the King of the Ring tournament. To my disappointment, the announcer never mentioned that these were tournament matches and there were no crown, robe, or scepter presentation. But I did get an achievement for winning the tournament, so I knew that’s what it was supposed to be.

After a couple months, in which I wrestled or talked on every RAW and PLE, I got my guaranteed World Heavyweight Title match against Gunther at SummerSlam - just like the real-life stipulation. And Drew became a two-time World Heavyweight Champion.

Over the next several months, I defended the belt in feuds against Kofi Kingston, Braun Strowman, and Finn Balor to name a few. I retained at Survivor Series, Saturday Night’s Main Event, RAW Day 1, and the Royal Rumble, and I was getting excited because it was WrestleMania season and I was very close to main-eventing it.

But Razor Ramon, whom I’d beaten at the Royal Rumble, pulled off the upset at the Elimination Chamber PLE when I got greedy and tried to store three finishers to do my Super Finisher, a top-rope brainbuster. He hit me with his signature Chokeslam and I needed to use my endurance move to kick out of it - but you only get one of those per match. I was left wide open for the Razor’s Edge, and blew the timing on the counter. Three-count. Razor Ramon won his very first WWE world championship, a feat he never pulled off while he was alive.

With Razor set to battle Royal Rumble winner Gunther, and the WWE Title shot going to the chamber winner, the Mania main event was closed to me. So I got myself a partner, Ken Shamrock - named ourselves The Syndicate, and after a win over The War Raiders, we started a feud with World Tag Team Champions The New Day.

I hoped that we would get a tag-title shot at WrestleMania, but the computer wanted a slower burn. Drew had a one-on-one non-title ladder match against Xavier Woods instead, and again my sense of immersion was briefly lost, because they had nothing for me to grab up there but the Money in the Bank briefcase, which has belonged to Bronson Reed for months. But it’s whatever. I won, and set up a match I made myself for a title shot the night after WrestleMania on RAW. (I got an achievement for winning my WrestleMania match).

We lost that match. I made the mistake of entering the ring at a bad time while Shamrock was getting his butt kicked, and I triggered the debuff that forbade me from entering again until I cleared it by tagging in. Unfortunately I didn’t get the opportunity.

We won a non-title rematch and I got a couple singles victories along the way leading up to our title rematch at Backlash.

And it was there that we finally won the tag team titles.

Currently Drew is a two-time former World Heavyweight Champion, with a 160-day (or so) reign in there; a former one-time Intercontinental Champion from early in his career, and a three-time reigning World Tag Team Champion, currently with Ken Shamrock as The Syndicate. And you best believe we come out to Shamrock’s music.

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By the way, this game is free right now to PS Plus premium subscribers.

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Submissions are much easier. In 24, it was almost impossible to tap out the computer. I never achieved a submission in all those hours of play.

In 25, it’s much, much easier.

Pulling things down from the ladder is much easier too. It’s a simple timed game of Simon Says, instead of requiring precision button presses.

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Drew McIntyre and Ken Shamrock lost the World Tag Team Title in our second defense (first on PLE), the following month at Clash at the Castle to Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens in an Extreme Rules match.

By the way, at Backlash, Julius Creed of all people beat Gunther for the World Heavyweight Title. We got a Julius Creed world title reign before Chad Gable. And before GTA6.

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After losing the World Tag Team Title in front of my own hometown fans at Clash at the Castle Year 2, I decided that the time was right to try and regain my World Heavyweight Title.

And the champion seemed ripe for the picking - Julius Creed. He’s like 15 points below Drew.

The feud was on, and something wild and unexpected happened. After Drew beat his longtime rival CM Punk, Julius came down and attacked - Punk. Drew made the save, and now he’s allies with him.

I had Punk join The Syndicate with Drew and Ken Shamrock, and hired Teddy Long as their manager. The new tag-team name for McIntyre and Shamrock is The Maniacs.

I faced Julius for the World Heavyweight Title at Money in the Bank, and though he put up a little bit of fight towards the end of the match, he was pretty much taken to Suplex City. Drew is now a three-time World Heavyweight Champion and has won five world titles overall in WWE.

Seth Rollins won the Money in the Bank briefcase.

My next feud will be against someone who gave me trouble in the past - Bron Breakker. Last year, I was unsuccessful in taking the Intercontinental Championship from him.

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Five days before my SummerSlam Year 2 World Heavyweight Title defense against Bron Breakker, I put the title up for grabs in an open challenge, and my dear old friend Gunther answered the challenge.

I beat him, but he did manage to hit me with the powerbomb.

On to SummerSlam and the main event.

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I retained easily against Bron Breakker in a two-star match, beating him with a standard move, a top-rope elbow drop. Bron went away bitter, and the feud will continue.

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I defeated Bron Breakker at Bash in Berlin to retain the World Title in a No Holds Barred match to end the feud.

It was much hairier than our previous encounters. I splashed him through the announce table. He broke a hockey stick across my back. Literally. He speared me and I had to use Resilience to kick out. I put him in the Crossface and he used his own Resilience.

Ultimately, I hit him with the Claymore to retain the title.

Jey Uso will be my next rival.

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I beat Jey Uso in a No Holds Barred title defense at Saturday Night’s Main Event to put a quick end to the feud.

I made him tap to the Crossface literally at 7 pm on the dot on the night of WrestlePalooza, so I turned the PS4 off without choosing my next feud.

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I haven’t played a wrestling game since the NES days, but I dunno, this thread makes we want to try this one. Maybe if it goes on Game Pass.

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Well, then, I’ll try to go into more detail about what exactly is happening between feud matches. The storytelling is very good for a sports game.

Thanks; I’m glad someone is reading.

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I decided to feud with Bret Hart going into Bad Blood, with Survivor Series after that.

I answered his open challenge and he tapped me out to s very basic move in less than a minute. Non-title match, thankfully.

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In my match against Intercontinental Champion Sheamus, Bret Hart’s music played in the middle of the contest which enabled Sheamus to roll me up for two, but I later overcame White Noise and pinned Sheamus after a top-rope leg drop.

At Bad Blood, I beat Bret in a No Holds Barred match to retain the title and end the feud. A shovel briefly came into play but there were otherwise no weapons used. I beat him after a side powerbomb.

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The computer decided my next feud opponent for me - Karrion Kross. I cut a promo saying I was going to win next week, and then I did after Kross talked trash on the way to the ring and I went out there to fight him on the floor. I beat him fairly easily, with the Future Shock.

On the following RAW, Drew opened the show against the 2002 version of Hulk Hogan with the tie-dye red and yellow pants and the black beard. Karrion Kross sat at commentary and jumped in mid-match to attack me, so I won by DQ. Afterwards, I laid a beating on him.

The next week, I issued an open challenge which was answered by Rey Mysterio. I beat him after a Future Shock and Claymore.

The next week, Kross issued an open challenge and I came out and beat him after the Future Shock.

The next week, I guaranteed I was going to win my next match - which turned out to be the main event of the following RAW, against DDP, whom I’ve faced once before. Karrion Kross attacked me mid-match, and DDP hit two Diamond Cutters and his fake pile driver to win.

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I defeated Karrion Kross to retain the title at Survivor Series. In the middle of the match, the music of Kross’s Final Testament stablemates, Authors of Pain, played, and I thought Akam and Rezar were going to come out, but they didn’t. It caused a minor distraction but I handled Kross quite easily to end the feud.

In the men’s main event of Survivor Series, Shawn Michaels defeated Kevin Owens to win the WWE Championship.

For December, I decided to start a feud with Seth Rollins, who still hasn’t cashed in his Money in the Bank contract. Maybe this feud will compel him to do so. Last year, I think Bronson Reed actually ran out of time.

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I issued a challenge to Seth Rollins for the following week’s RAW, which turned out to be an unusual televised title defense. I won fairly easily. Teddy Long accompanied me to the ring. I have him set as Drew’s manager but he rarely comes out.

For Saturday Night’s Main Event, I set up a six-man tag-team match between The Syndicate (McIntyre, Punk, and Shamrock) and The Deadly Alliance (Rollins, Breakker, and Bronson Reed). Seth didn’t come out with the briefcase, which makes me think that his title match on RAW was a cash-in even if he didn’t do it in an opportunistic fashion.

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I don’t have anything to add, having resoundingly given up consoles since [checks again] March of '21. (Where does the time go?) I’d just like to marvel at how complicated wrestling games have become. I still remember the SNES Royal Rumble, where I could just turn rapid fire on and spam…well, everything…and rack up one cheap one-sided victory after another. I absolutely loved it. I played that one for years. After completely giving up every other SNES game, I kept playing it. I only gave it up after getting monomania concerns. I remember paying for a PS4 WWE game (not full price, thank goodness). It found the circular file after two minutes. If I had to deal with the kind of gameplay you’re describing, I’d set the over/under at about one minute. That you’re having what by any reasonable standard would be considered phenomenal success (and with what looked like a couple of pretty bad breaks!) is almost inspirational.

Fun journey so far! Eagerly anticipating what’s next! :slightly_smiling_face:

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Thank you! So far, I believe my record up until the Saturday Night’s Main Event in December of Year 2 is something like 82-13-1. The 1 was a no-contest. In an angle, we attacked each other outside the ring, and I kept fighting with him outside until the referee threw the match out. It took 3 minutes or so.

Yes, the games are much more complicated than simple SNES-era button mashing these days. But I like that you can do just about anything. I still haven’t figured out how to do standing switches, moving from a front waist lock to a rear waist lock. I also don’t know how to drag a downed opponent. And my success rate with suicide dives leaves a lot to be desired.

On my next payday I plan to plop about $40 down to get the expansion that adds all the DLC. Mark Henry and The New Age Outlaws are among them, and so are basketball players Tyrese Haliburton, Jalen Brunson, and Shaquille O’Neal.

The non-title match in October that I lost to Bret Hart happened very, very fast. He put me in a simple submission, I mashed the wrong buttons, and tapped within about five seconds or less.

But the upside of the submission side of this game is that it’s now possible to tap out CPU characters. It was virtually impossible in 2K24. Also impossible in that game: Ambulance matches, which was unfortunate because they were a new feature. It took me a legitimate 40 minutes to beat Rey Mysterio as Dominik. He just kept escaping my attempts. I haven’t tried the Ambulance match or Casket match or even a cage or Hell in a Cell match yet; I’ll have to let you know how I get on.

One time I did play a triple threat match, though, and the guy I was feuding with lost to the guy I wasn’t feuding with.

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We lost the trios match at Saturday Night’s Main Event when Rollins hit the Curb Stomp and Pedigree on Ken Shamrock. I saved him after the Stomp but both Punk and I were debuffed and unable to save him from the Pedigree.

By the way, my record is actually 71-16-1.

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On the next episode of RAW, I challenged The Vision to a gauntlet turmoil match. One man has to eliminate each of the others to win. I tapped out Bronson and Bron with the Crossface and pinned Seth after the Claymore and Future Shock.

The following week, I was scheduled to face Seth one-on-one, but he claimed an arm injury and Jey Uso took his place. I got superkicked a couple of times but still won after the Glasgow Kiss.