15 Things You Need To Know Before You Buy WWE 2K19

The next instalment in 2K Sports’ annual WWE series is almost here, and as is the case ever year, developers Yuke’s and Visual Concepts are looking to improve upon the franchise’s foundations. Some incremental upgrades here, a few major additions there, and hopefully, what we’re left with is a game that’s much better than its last few predecessors, which, honestly, have been middling at best. Here in this feature, we’re going to take a look at fifteen pieces of info that you need to know if you’re thinking of dipping into WWE 2K19.

TOWERS MODE

Among the marque editions being made to WWE 2K19 is a couple new modes, and one of these modes is Towers. In this mode, players will have to fight through a series of challenges, which will each come with varying and unique conditions for winning and different WWE and NXT Superstars. Some towers might ask powers to reach a certain score, while others could present a series of other challenges, such as starting a match at a time when the players’ health is already in the red. They will also vary across a number of different types of matches.

MORE DETAILS ON TOWERS

Towers will also vary in other ways, and will come in two forms, called Steps and Gauntlets. Steps will allow players to progress through a sequence of challenges one at a time, while Gauntlet will see players competing in all the challenges in a single session. Some Towers will also have specific themes and put the limelight on specific kinds of matches and fighters. For example, in “The Woman’s Revolution”, players will be going up against as number of female fighters.

SHOWCASE MODE

Showcase Mode is another major new addition to WWE 2K19. It isn’t technically a brand new mode, since it was part of WWE 2K17’s Hall of Fame Showcase DLC, but it comes as a much more expanded and full featured mode this time around. WWE 2K19’s Showcase Mode focuses on Daniel Bryan, and follows his career over the course of twelve matches. Of these, eleven matches will be historic matches throughout his career, including the likes of WrestleMania XXX, as well as Daniel Bryan’s Velocity match against John Cena, all the way to his return to the fighting ring. There will also be a twelfth “surprise” match.

SHOWCASE MODE STORY DETAILS

What’s interesting about Showcase Mode is that it seems to be going for a surprisingly narrative driven experience in its attempts to chronicle Bryan’s career chart. It will be narrated by Daniel Bryan himself, and will have over 20 story-focused cutscenes, as well as fifteen of his interview packages. Bryan’s stint as Smackdown manager will not be shown as part of gameplay, however Bryan will talk about it in his narration.

AJ STYLES MILLION DOLLAR TOWER

WWE 2K19 will also have a special, more challenging kind of Tower for any players who might be interesting. In the AJ Styles Million Dollar Tower, players will be tasked with fighting against the toughest Superstars in the game’s roster. These matches will be set to a higher difficulty by default, and players will have to complete the entire string of matches in one go, kind of similar to Gauntlet Towers in that regard, without their health being regenerated in between any of the matches.

ROSTER

WWE 2K games have been known for having absolutely massive rosters, with each game in the series going on to have the largest roster in the history of the franchise. WWE 2K18, in fact, had over 200 fighters in its roster. While 2K Sports haven’t yet made any such claims for WWE 2K19, we can expect it to be similarly ambitious, if not more so. Close to a hundred fighters have already been confirmed, of which 18 are new additions to the series, seven are WWE Legends, and 18 are from the women’s division.

MYCAREER

MyCareer is one of the areas where 2K Sports have been making slow but steady improvements year on year, and though WWE 2K18’s MyCareer proved to be a disappointment in several areas, this year, it’s looking like it might be a significant improvement. Things all around look a lot more interesting, with more personality imbued into the mode, with its characters and scenarios looking much less static. The fact that all characters in MyCareer will all also be voiced in WWE 2K19 is certainly cause for excitement.

LICENSED OST

As is the case with all WWE 2K titles (and really, all sports games in general), 2K19 will have a licensed soundtrack. What’s interesting about this year’s game, though, is that many of the tracks included in the game are personal selections of wrestlers themselves. For instance, Fall Out Boy’s Champion was chosen by Alexa Bliss, Awolnation’s Passion is the personal selection of Daniel Bryan, and Triple H went with Metallica’s Spit out the Bone– to name just a few.

COVER STAR

A cover star in any sports game is a pretty important thing, as the marque headlining player of that particular instalment. While last year, we saw Seth Rollins gracing the cover art of WWE 2K18, this year, the cover star is going to be the current WWE champions AJ Styles- which explains all the Towers and Challenges named after him that you keep hearing about.

SEASON PASS

WWE 2K19 will also have a Season Pass, which will give those who purchase it access to all its future DLC drops. This will include new Superstars, new movesets, and other “enhancements”, in the words of 2K Sports, that they haven’t yet detailed too much. We do know that WWE 2K19 Accelerator, which will allow players to decide every fighters’ overall rankings and attributes (and also unlock alternate attires), and MyPlayer Kick Start, which will presumably give your career mode some sort of a boost, will also be included in the Season Pass.

PRE-ORDER BONUS

If you’re thinking of pre-ordering WWE 2K19, then there might be a few bonuses in it for you. 2K Sports announced some time back that a couple of pretty big name fighters, would be pre-order bonuses in the game’s roster. So if you pre-order the game, you’ll get access to both, Rey Mysterio, as well as newcomer Ronda Rousey.

DELUXE EDITION

You can get access to them in another way as well, though. Purchasing the Deluxe Edition, which is based on Ric Flair and called the Wooooo! Edition (no, seriously), will give you access to the game itself, the pre-order bonuses, the season pass, as well as early access to the game, letting you play four days before release. Additionally, a plaque featuring a piece of fabric from Ric Flair’s robe will also be included in the package.

XBOX ONE X AND PS4 PRO ENHANCED

Like most other major AAA releases in today’s day and age (and even plenty of smaller budget titles), WWE 2K19 will receive some visual enhancements on both the Xbox One X and the PS4 Pro. While what this means exactly in terms of frame-rate, resolution, or whether or not there will be HDR support hasn’t yet been revealed, but 2K Sports have confirmed that both enhanced versions of the two consoles will feature some upgrades for the game.

NO SWITCH VERSION

WWE 2K18 did something a lot of people did not expect and launched on the Nintendo Switch as well, but as it turned out, that wasn’t a very smart decision. The Switch version of the game was pretty much a mess, with poor optimization and a bevy of technical issues, which resulted in a lot of criticism and less than satisfactory sales for that particular version. As such, 2K Sports have decided that WWE 2K19 will not be releasing for the Nintendo Switch.