WWE fans have been waiting longer than usual for the next video game from the most popular professional wrestling promotion in the world. Following loudly-shared frustrations with WWE 2K20, developer Visual Concepts decided to take an extra year to make the next WWE 2K game was up to player expectations. Players will soon be able to judge that for themselves, with a March 11 release date just over a month away. In the meantime, a new WWE 2K22 video with a full match offers a hint at what's to come.
The match in question is between WWE's superstars Rey Mysterio and Damian Priest. It's a standard match intended to showcase WWE 2K22's completely redesigned gameplay and physics. One core design element is that WWE 2K22 is designed for pick-up and play, with one senior designer saying players should be able to get through a whole match "just by button mashing." Light Attacks, Heavy Attacks, and Grappling are WWE 2K22's key attacks, as well as a Block/Reversal button. Inputs can then be combo'd into wrestlers' unique moves.
While the gameplay of the match is obviously a major focus, since this is the first in-depth showcase of WWE 2K22, the visuals of the wrestling game are also being showcased in the new video, too. WWE 2K20 players are able to see improvements to the game's general visual quality, with a particular focus on lighting. Lighting will help bring out the details in WWE's superstars, as well as their different cosmetics.
The full video goes into a lot more detail regarding gameplay, animations, and visuals for WWE 2K22. The development at Visual Concepts is clearly very excited about what they've put together for WWE 2K22 with the extra development time the project has received.
It's important to remember that a two-year development cycle for a new game is still a very short amount of time compared to traditional multi-year development. That Visual Concepts was able to accomplish so much in such a short time is worth commending. But that also means that some aspects of WWE 2K22 are likely to be similar to past games, though those parts of the game are unlikely to be spotlighted in early marketing material.
The WWE has a long history of video games that are both beloved or hated among its fanbase. WWE 2K20 was a down point in that history, but Visual Concepts is hoping that WWE 2K22 will be everything that fans want. Expect to hear more over the next month.
WWE 2K22 releases March 11 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
