WWE 2K19 Reviews
WWE 2K19 is a rebound in the right direction, but it is held back by many long-standing issues.
A spectacular throwback to the era when wrestling games were must-own. Add live – or even quarterly – updates to 2K20 and it'll be a first-ballot Hall of Famer.
While not much has changed between the ropes, WWE 2K19 gives you more reasons to play by featuring a plethora of new modes and content.
If you didn't like previous WWE 2K games, then WWE 2K19 isn't going to change your mind. However, if you're like me and have always had a soft spot for this series, then you won't be disappointed.
The quality of any given WWE 2K game is a gamble year to year, but 2K19 manages to claw its way up from being buried alive by the travesty of last year's entry. Daniel Bryan's Showcase is a clear highlight as are the mostly welcome mechanical changes. Here's hoping they don't regress again in 2019.
WWE 2K19 is the best wrestling game in the series since it came to 2K Games. His new story mode is very funny and 2K Showcase is back. At last, WWE 2K19 is the game that wrestling fans deserved.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
WWE 2K19 maxes out all of the incumbent concepts from recent games in the franchise, and this is a solid and more polished release than we've seen from some recent versions. You'll likely have fun with the game and all of its layers. However, there is potential for true greatness with this series, but the WWE and the development team have to be willing to take some chances.
WWE 2K19 improves in almost any way the last year's edition. It's a rich and engrossing game... with some visual flaws.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Taking advantage of the great leap of quality with 2K18, WWE 2K19 presents the largest offer of game modes to have us stuck to the virtual ring another year.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
It is a massive improvement for the series, with plenty of great modes to choose from, along with so many great wrestlers past and present to wrestle with. It finally feels like things are looking up for WWE 2K.
WWE 2K19 rises above its ridiculous grinding requirements and bugs to deliver an otherwise high quality professional wrestling experience with plenty of content.
WWE 2K19 is still rough around the edges and some game modes are still in desperate need of an update, but it's the best game from 2K yet and features a lot of upgrades and fun game modes to keep you playing all the way through until WWE 2K20.
For now, this year's game fits solidly in the upper mid-card and I have an appreciation for where they come from compared to where they are now, and hope that next year they'll put the pieces together to really make something special. Which, honestly, feels about like watching the actual product around this time every year.
WWE 2K19 hasn't changed much at its core, but the smaller alterations to the overall package make it a vastly more enjoyable experience to previous instalments. Introducing a proper story to MyCareer gives players an actual reason to play it this year and it's a genuinely engaging experience. The increased depth of the player creation suite means each superstar feels different from the next, while quality of life improvements in Universe will be music to the ears of diehard fans. All of this adds up to make WWE 2K19 the best entry of this long-running series.
It's not all doom and gloom for WWE 2K19, not by a long shot, but the flaws seem to be ones that really don't need to be there.
Despite being rough around the edges, WWE 2K19 provides an enjoyable experience owing to new features and multiple improvements across the board.
All in all, WWE 2K19 feels like a game in which annual players will find enough to enjoy, but anyone looking to make their way back into the ring is best to wait it out in the locker room for another year.
Is WWE 2K19 championship material? Not quite, but developers Yuke's and Visual Concepts have made some important strides in the right direction. WWE 2K19 hulks up with some smart new mechanics, a well-produced Daniel Bryan Showcase, and a much-improved MyCareer mode. Does the game still suffer from some in-ring issues and a general lack of polish? Yes, but WWE 2K19 feels like it might just be the first chapter of an inspiring comeback story.
All things considered, WWE 2K19 is a decent entry into the long-running series. Boasting more game modes and customisation options than you can shake a Kendo stick at. What holds it back, however, is the core mechanics. A breath of fresh air in last year's game, they lack any additional refinement, leaving them feeling overly complex and finicky. Which ultimately serves as a reminder that, as enjoyable as WWE 2K19 can be, if the series is ever to recapture the ineffable brilliance of No Mercy and other such classics, it desperately needs a rather large dose of innovation.
Can we stop with the loot box nonsense?