PLATFORM: PC, PS5, SWITCH 2, XBOX SERIES (REVIEWED) | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
The WWE 2K series has been on a pretty good run over the last few years. Since a bit of a mis-step in 2020 (and a year off in 2021), developer Visual Concepts returned with a vastly improved instalment in 2022 and has continued to build on those foundations with each passing year. WWE 2K26 follows tradition by adding a handful of “new” match types, updating the roster of playable wrestlers and tweaking a few bits and pieces to tidy things up, but also – for the first time in quite a while – takes a couple of fairly notable steps backwards.
Four new match types have been introduced, alongside the insane amount of existing list of possible bouts. Inferno matches take place in a ring surrounded by flames, with the first person to send their opponent through the ropes and onto the floor emerging victorious, while Three Stages of Hell allows you to play a best-of-three match across any three match types of your choosing. The other two additions are very similar to existing matches – I Quit matches task you with making your opponent say “I quit” into a microphone, in a variation on the standard Submission match, and Dumpster matches work exactly the same way as Casket and Ambulance matches (throw your opponent in and close the door / lid), but they’re sort of funnier because you get to throw someone into a massive bin. Elsewhere, Backstage Brawls have been expanded with new areas to fight in, allowing either 1v1 or multiman bouts to take place across either an indoor backstage area, an outside parking lot, a scrapyard or the WWE Archives warehouse (a particular highlight for longtime fans, with easter eggs aplenty tucked away in the background). There are a lot more climbable sections this time around, giving you the opportunity to throw opponents off high ledges and into breakable furniture below, as well as countless weapons littering each area. Rules can be tweaked too, so you’re not restricted to the knockout rule of old, allowing you to continue battering your foes until you’re ready to bring things to a close.
After 2K25 capitalised on the success of the WWE’s “Bloodline” storyline by featuring it as its main cast members in the game’s Showcase mode, 2K26 opts for following a single wrestler – CM Punk – through some of his most memorable matches, asking players to meet a variety of objectives along the way. It doesn’t quite live up to its predecessor, but there are some fun touches towards the end as Punk takes the place of legends to take part in historical dream matches. Another returning mode, MyRise, is once again split across a male and female character, with neither story really featuring any real surprises or high points, although worth playing through to acquire the various cosmetics and unlockable roster members that are hidden throughout the storyline. MyGM mode is as fun as always, allowing you to manage your roster and book shows against human or computer-controlled opponents to see who can gain the most fans. While 2K25‘s mode was fairly limited in terms of which matches you were able to book, 2K26 expands the amount of available match types, making it the best version of the mode that Visual Concepts has created so far. MyUniverse has also been expanded, but unfortunately, at the time of writing, contains a lot of bugs that could do with being squashed before it lives up to its potential.
Over on the online side of things, though, 2K26 starts to stumble a bit. This year’s return to The Island – the WWE-themed park where your created character takes part in all manner of unusual storylines – and the card-building MyFaction mode both suffer from unusually difficult matches, with unfeasibly tricky objectives and opponents that seem to counter every other move. Alongside this, a new secondary stamina bar comes into play, which might be the worst thing to happen to the series in its entire history. Taking effect when your regular stamina bar has been depleted, your movement speed slows down and you’re completely unable to run or reverse opponent’s attacks for a limited time. This severely impacts your momentum, offering your opponent a bit too much in the way of an advantage – computer-controlled opponents rarely seem to suffer from it, so it feels like it’s solely there to punish the player. It’s possible to switch this off during most matches, but user settings don’t apply in MyFaction or The Island, so fans of those modes will still have to contend with it. This combination of higher difficulty and seemingly unfair stamina penalties might see some players tapping out of these modes earlier than usual.
Lastly, a mention of 2K26‘s DLC model, which managed to cause a bit of unrest when it was initially announced. A lot of the game’s unlockables are accessed through a “Ringside Pass”, two tiers of which are available – one free, and one “premium”. As you play the game, you automatically earn “RXP” which ranks up your Ringside Pass level (to a maximum of 40), with each new level rewarding you with customisation items, belts, arenas, new characters, and in-game currency to spend in the game’s microtransaction-filled MyFaction and The Island. While it initially seemed that players would have to grind out all 40 levels of the Ringside Pass with every single DLC release, it has been confirmed that downloadable wrestlers will be accessible from the very first level of the Pass. Whether all 40 levels of forthcoming Premium tiers will unlock immediately if your “free” Pass is already maxed out, or if players will need to grind the entire way through with each DLC release, is currently unknown, but hopefully answers will be forthcoming when the first downloadable content pack is released later this month.
WWE 2K26 has absolutely got some of the best gameplay of the series to date (especially if you turn that purple bar off…), but it’s unfortunate that it also takes some big steps backwards with a couple of the game modes that in previous years have proved to be some of its most engaging. Consequently, 2K26 as an overall package doesn’t quite reach the heights of its predecessor, but the new additions and improvements to its gameplay still make it an enticing prospect for those who want to switch off and throw people around for fun.
