WWE 2K15: How Career Invasion Will Revolutionize Single-Player Experience
Every so often, a video game introduces a feature that becomes a future staple in its genre. That's what WWE 2K15 may have on its hands with the inclusion of Career Invasion (CI).
What is CI? In a nutshell, CI allows gamers to import their friends' created wrestlers into their own single-player experience. For those who aren't familiar with wrestling and sports games from 2K Sports, there might be some confusion there.
To properly explain, I need to give a brief background of the mode CI is included in and a few other details.
How We Got Here
Years ago, 2K Sports introduced the MyPlayer/MyCareer concept to the NBA 2K series. It's a single-player experience that allows gamers to control one player throughout a career. The concept was debuted back in 2005 in a Sony PlayStation 2 exclusive called NBA 06.
In that game, the mode was called "The Life," but it paled in comparison to what the NBA 2K series has grown the concept to be.
Gamers create and control one player throughout his career. There's role-playing aspects and in-game concepts. The mode has become wildly popular among gamers. Once 2K Sports acquired the WWE license, it was inevitable that MyCareer would make its way to a WWE game.
It was absent from WWE 2K14, but with the brand making its PlayStation 4 and Xbox One debuts in November, MyCareer is locked and loaded for virtual grapplers.
MyCareer in WWE 2K15
At the outset, you'll create a Superstar and have a chance to impress Bill DeMott, the head trainer at the WWE Performance Center. You'll battle fictional wrestlers, and if you're impressive, you'll be promoted to NXT.
If things go well there, you'll graduate to the main WWE roster. There you'll have a chance to upgrade your Superstar, pick a manager, win titles, headline pay-per-view events and perhaps become a Hall of Famer.
Along the way, you'll battle current WWE Superstars in feuds and join alliances with others. Where does CI come in?
Career Invasion Will Change the Game
The created Superstars that you have imported from friends—or anyone whose PSN ID or gamertag you have—will be inserted into your MyCareer experience at random points on your journey to WWE greatness.
You might have just won a huge match in your career, and all of a sudden, your buddy's created Superstar charges the ring and lays you out with a chair.
How would that make you feel? Perhaps you're getting beaten to a pulp and suddenly your neighbor's created Superstar comes to your aid. Here's another awesome detail: You can import up to five of your friend's created Superstars.
The best part is that you won't know when it's going to happen, or what side of the fence the invader will come from. It adds a bit of spontaneity and suspense to the experience. You know they're coming, but you just don't know how or when.
Imagine if this were part of the NBA 2K MyCareer experience or if other sports video games adopted a similar concept for the modes under their umbrella that compare to MyCareer.
This is the type of innovation that pushes the envelope and makes games better.
For as many qualities as WWE 2K15 might have, Career Invasion will likely be its most lasting contribution to the genre of sports video games.
Follow Brian Mazique, aka FranchisePlay, the Sports Video Game Journalist
