WWE 2K20: Review of DLC Season Pass and Expanded Creation Suite

It is the most wonderful time of year for costumed horror aficionados. And, with WWE 2K20 releasing Tuesday, it is the most wonderful time of year for costumed brawl aficionados. In a fitting twist, this year's wrestling simulator is actually perfect for Halloween and WWE fans alike.

Produced for the first time in a long time without Yukes, 2K and Visual Concepts' WWE 2K20 seems to have foregone graphical and gameplay improvements and instead leaned wholeheartedly into wrestling's most vital quality: unrelenting, otherworldly theatricality.

The creation suite has always offered an existential mouthpiece to players' deepest, liveliest creative needs. Perfecting your created Superstars has been a process replete with seemingly limitless decisions over how best to recreate the flighty passions of your ring-bound characters' aesthetic expression. That hasn't changed one bit in WWE 2K20.

Sure, nothing was added to the base game's creation suite. But, unless you've been blessed with the stamina of a river's current and managed to exhaust all of WWE 2K19's options, not much really needed to be.

The most exciting additions to WWE 2K20's creation suite will likely come through its DLC packages. Each of the game's four currently planned packs, dubbed the "WWE 2K20 Originals," features new Superstars, arenas, creation-suite additions and storyline modes. While the traditional season pass has been removed in 2K20, it has been replaced by the "Backstage Pass."

The Backstage Pass offers access to Originals DLC packs 2-4, but without the Accelerator and MyPlayer Kickstart perks that were included with 2K19's pass. While it may be annoying that Visual Concepts is now forcing our wallets to choose between DLC content and the ability to control Superstar attributes or juice up our MyPlayer, I'm too distracted by 2K20's zombie referees and fans to even get mad.

The first DLC pack, "Bump in the Night," features demonic Superstars fighting in an otherworldly swamp hell surrounded by adoring, undead fans and moderated by a lifeless, zombie referee. It is so obnoxiously Halloween that it is kitsch in the most encouraging way possible.

I like my storylines and characters like I like my 20th-century expressionist paintings: colorful and dramatic. "Bump in the Night" fits that mold and takes kayfabe to an unprecedented, topical level in a virtual platform that lends itself entirely to such entertainment audacity.

As for the subsequent packs, there isn't much information available. In late 2019, WWE 2K20 will receive the "Wasteland Wanderers" pack, followed by "Southpaw Regional Wrestling" and "Empire of Tomorrow." From the names and screenshots (courtesy of SmackDown Hotel), Mad Max, Miami Vice and Ready: Player One seem like reasonable respective expectations for each coming pack's vibes.