A step-up from last year.
John Cena's Showcase mode is a fun twist.
My Faction is essentially the card collecting mode with online this year. I played more of it this year but it's still not my thing. My Rise is pretty good with two different stories to play through.
My GM seems alright, but I haven't played much of it.
Universe Mode is where I spent most of my time but there's still a lot of work needed to make it stable and great.
It's hard for me to tell if the gameplay is better or not. I'm just used to it at this point.
I'm still having a lot of fun with it but there's still room for improvement.

Storylines are garbage. The amount of time you spend Europe, Mexico, Japan, etc and are still called "The Lock" is horrendous and a time waster. The Woman's story line was surprisingly done way better considering WWE really doesn't care much about their women's division. The game play has changed into almost an arcade fighter type set up. It felt like I had to memorize button combos to pull off moves. Some may like it, some may dislike it. Personally I am in the middle when it comes to such controls. Its alright, but the career mode needs an overhaul.

As per usual in yearly release sports games, WWE 2K23 takes what was presented in WWE 2K22, and adds on to it. After a major revamp to how the game plays in 2K22, 2K23 brings a lot to start making the game feel complete again. MyRise has stepped up the quality of their storylines, now with two unique stories, one for each gender, that are decently written and include all sorts of wrestlers from the WWE Universe. Showcase Mode, showing off the career of legend John Cena, remains the series' weakest game mode, giving you a choppy, tedious series of matches that I only care to go through simply to unlock the wrestlers and arenas locked behind it. MyGM got some improvements, including the addition of up to 4 players within the multiplayer portion of the mode, and it remains a whole lot of fun to play with your friends. MyUniverse continues to suffer, even with the addition of the Rivalry system. A few features were actually removed from the 2K22 version of the mode, and it's still completely riddled with bugs, which is unfortunate because MyUniverse has the ability to be the greatest mode in the game. Online versus matches are still hit or miss, and can be filled with people exploiting glitches or abusing certain moves, so wrestler beware.

If you're a fan of the WWE, or wrestling in general, this game boasts one of the greatest customization systems in gaming for creating wrestlers, so you will never run out of new blood for your feuds. It's a lot of fun, and it looks great, however if you're an old school fan of WWE 2K19, you may find that it still does not live up to the more sim-like nature of that game.

And that's the bottom line, because Stone Cold said so.

"Are you ready?"

+ Controls allow for matches to be fresh
+ Insanely large arsenal of moves to choose from
+ Customization is an insane amount of fun in itself
+ MyFaction is better expanded upon with Live Events

- Graphics can be inconsistent between models, especially MyRise
- The balance between budget and Stamina consumption in MyGM can be frustrating
- Quick Match in MyFaction is rarely populated

Recently I've revisited a handful of old wrestling games, so I don't say this lightly: I think WWE my favorite wrestling game I've ever played.

That's not to say it's perfect. There are several flaws, particularly with game modes. There's a good variety in modes, but apart from MyRise (which is excellent), all the modes have plenty of room for improvement and could use some rethinking.

Where the game really shines is the gameplay. It's quicker than the 2K games of the past (2K15 through 19), but can still feel realistic at times. It's a nice balance between arcade and sim, and most importantly, it's fun to play and control.

The creation suite is also a standout. While it takes some time to sort through, I was able to download accurate created wrestlers of all the main players from WCW and the Attitude Era. While I wish 2K would go the extra mile in securing licensing for more legends, it's still really cool to see all the passion the community puts into this game.

2K has built a really strong foundation with its last two years of WWE games. If they work on improving the game modes and further expand the roster, the sky is the limit.

MyRise Legacy: Surprisingly engaging and soulful. Had a lot to say about women in the WWE past and present and the conditions they exist in and the conversation around their legacy. Very happy with how it was written and paced.

General Gameplay: I tried with this series. I always felt like 2016/17 were a step in the right direction. 2019 was a step down but still decent. But I cant do it. The Creation suite is broken and stunted in a lot of ways but still lets you create pretty much anything you want. I got started making my shows and roster and decided to take a break and actually play. Then it happened. I was playing War Games and literally fell asleep in my chair. Everything about this series is mind meltingly boring. Animations are still subpar, the visuals have no sauce, and the controls are sluggish. Under no circumstances should I be bored into a coma while playing War Games. It brought up decades old feelings on the WWE series. Starting at SVR 2008 these games have never been fun to play. And if there is some fun to be had, some system that really grabs you, it's gone the next game. We have not been able to completely form our CAWS body shape since WWE 2K14. For 10 years. Slobber Knocker hasn't been in since SVR 2006. The whole point of Showcase is seeing historical moments recreated in game. 2K22/23 don't do that. 2K22 let you use the soundtrack as entrance themes. 2k23 does not. Kingdom, Codey Rhodes' theme, is exclusive to him and is lost when you change anything about him, meaning unless you want complete silence when he comes out all the custom stuff for him is locked. Some of the gear in CAW have locked colors. New hair styles look fantastic with good textures. Old hair still looks plastic. There is a lot of good wrestling games out there, old and new. Play those. Stop giving 2K money.

No matter what I say, never let me buy another one of these things. Nearly the same exact thing as 2K22 with all of the same problems (and even some new ones). Overall it's marginally better at best. Let's start with the improvements:

- Commentary is the best it's ever been. There's still flaws, but this is probably the first time in series history where I'd say it's reached a level of being acceptable
- The timed kickout minigame is the perfect balance of challenging but fair, versus last year's shitty default button mashing
- MyGM has some more depth to it (but still doesn't appeal to me whatsoever)

Yeah that's about it. And the bad? The worst point has always been an issue, especially last year, but I think the refs are the worst they've ever been. Absolutely abysmal AI, they'll run around the ring in a circle before starting a pin count. If it's a tag match forget it, the pin is getting broken up before the ref even realizes what's happening.

They finally came up with a good idea for Showcase mode, fighting against the same person repeatedly instead of playing as the same person repeatedly, and they absolutely ruin it by including multiple MULTI-MINUTE-long real match cutscenes into most of the matches. I want to fucking play the game not actually watch wrestling.

MyFaction continues to just be a shitty desperate-for-microtransaction who-could-give-a-fuck grind mode. Anyone who cares enough about this thing to spend real life money on it should be shot, I don't care if you're a billionaire.

MyRise goes back to its shitty roots with a linear main story instead of last year's fun but aimless approach. There's still side missions but it all feels pointless in the end. The male story is the same story they've been telling every year for half a decade. The female story is much, much worse, absolutely brutal to get through and the unskippable cutscenes are just rubbing it in.

These games exist to make goofy characters to fight your friends with, and it's great for that. If you have a friend to play with, great, go for it. If not, don't even think about it.