WWE 2K Battlegrounds Review: Gameplay Videos, Roster, Modes and Impressions

WWE 2K Battlegrounds is an unexpected spinoff for 2K Sports' long-running wrestling series with big implications for the future.  

Last year's WWE 2K20, as we noted in our review, had serious issues en route to a 43 score on Metacritic. The response from 2K Sports is to go all-in on a more compact, arcade-like experience. WWE Superstars have funny proportions, and the game is very much the opposite of the usual annual releases. 

More button-masher than simulation and with some wickedly-creative ideas for a story mode and more, WWE 2K Battlegrounds is the type of offshoot that could catch players by surprise while ending up quite influential on future wrestling games. 

Graphics and Gameplay

WWE 2K Battlegrounds, for the most part, is a visual treat. 

The game oozes style. It's not trying to emulate real life; all characters have bobbleheads and huge proportions. It's a funny, almost comic book-stylized rendition of the Superstars that grace the ring—past and present. 

A lack of realism means the designers could go all-in on the fun. Matches take place in a variety of interesting locales. These aren't just boring stadiums filled with fans, and the background detail can almost become distracting—in a good way. 

That same thought process benefits expectations, too. It's cool that some of the sparse crowds that watch fighters don't always react well to the in-ring action or just have goofy smiles on their faces. It's not trying to be the perfect simulation, so those sort of details have a certain charm. 

The same charm applies to what happens in the ring. Moves are wildly exaggerated as Superstars toss 300-pound opponents around like they're pillows. Sound design plays a role too, with sound effects of punches and kicks getting met with satisfying comic book-like smacks and grunts. The style extends to Superstar behavior too. If Roman Reigns loses on a count-out, for example, he lays down and kicks and screams like an infant with the accompanying whining. 

However, while some characters look spot on in the facial department, many of the women Superstars don't, and Baron Corbin just looks like some random bald fry cook. 

The announcers also seem a little delayed on most of the action, but in a funny sort of way. They always just seem flabbergasted at what's occurring in the ring, which given those occurrences is a pretty fair and fitting reaction. 

Gameplay meshes well with the presentation of it all. There are different classes of wrestlers, which is nice. Going into the game's release, it was easy to wonder how Superstars might differentiate from one another based on weight and fighting style. 

That said, a lot of the wrestlers end up feeling the same because they share move sets within classes. But this is a smaller arcade release, so it's not the end of the world that all the brawlers fight similarly. 

As one can probably imagine, Battlegrounds has a ton of pick-up-and-play potential based on the premise alone. Picking it up and simply learning the most basic controls will leave players capable of competing in the ring. Especially against the A.I. opponents, things can and often will devolve into a button-mashing affair. 

There's a little more depth than one might expect given the presence of counters (by hitting the proper face buttons) and a variety of special moves, which players might find out pretty quickly if they hop into an online match against real opponents. But it's a far cry from the needlessly bogged down controls and modifiers from the normal annual series, which at this point is a good thing. 

Opponent and friendly A.I. is something surely that will see more tuning post-release. The former doesn't seem aggressive enough at times, which can make things too easy, and the latter can sometimes miss things like pin breakups. 

If it all sounds like a good time, it is, even if it's just in small doses here and there. There's always more room for niche, arcade-styled wrestling games like Fire Pro Wrestling as opposed to super-sims. The fact 2K Sports could shift gears and push this out as the annual release is pretty impressive given how smooth it all can feel in the ring. 

Campaign, Roster and More

Quietly, Battlegrounds packs in a fun little story mode that takes a handful of hours to beat. 

Obviously, players shouldn't go in expecting a massive experience by any means. But it's fun to see the departure here. Past 2K campaigns stumbled over themselves with slogging backstage areas that sometimes had voiceovers and sometimes didn't, and they likewise stumbled through character, entrance and arena creators that struggled to meet expectations. 

Here things are dialed down for the better—work with some fictional characters, watch the story unfold through smooth comic book-inspired setpieces and reach the end of the tale. It's a good time to see how the comic book panels push the story and where the next locale and opponent might be while a flowchart of sorts serves as the main hub of progress. 

And while that's the main talking point as far as modes go, Battlegrounds is full to the brim with fun modes.

Unlike its simulation counterpart, it never feels overwhelming. The steel cage match simply asks players to build up a meter in order to escape. The Royal Rumble is a fun Royal Rumble. There are a variety of one-on-one and tag options and a handful of others, none of which are unexpected for a wrestling game at this point. 

Online, King of the Battleground is a smart blend of online multiplayer functionality and arguably the most popular WWE match out there, the Royal Rumble. Players drop into a match and attempt to avoid elimination. Doing so for longer, plus accomplishing other goals, rewards unlocks as other online players next enter the ring.

There was a fear this game could be a grind based on other 2K Sports games, never mind the immense roster size, attire and possibility of unlockables. 

But really, "grinding" isn't even the right word when it comes to unlocking characters. Earning them through simple progression happens often enough and makes it feel like the player has something worth working for as they play. 

The game's blue currency is "Battle Bucks" and the gold is "Golden Bucks," with the latter capable of purchase via real-world money. But this doesn't feel like grinding for hours on end for measly stat points on a player's overall rating—it's goofing around in the arcade before unlocking the next Superstar of choice. 

Speaking of the roster, the list of characters available at launch is staggering. And the same release info also published the list of Superstars coming via DLC at a later date. It has the look of a robust offering, to say the least. Hardcore fans might spot an absence or two, but it seems to check all the major boxes. 

The act of unlocking Superstars is really fun. Credit the design, which lets players sort through the possible unlocks like they're action figures on a wall at a store. Flick to the next one and that Superstar's entrance music plays while they pound on the plastic housing them. It's the little things, folks. 

Keep in mind players can create their own Superstars via a creation suite. There aren't a ton of options (there are three bodies and a handful of heads to choose from), but it gets the job done and helps players push out a creative, cartoon-style Superstar ready to compete in the ring and even online. Leveling him or her up through 100-plus objectives in Battleground Challenges is a fun pick-up-and-play feature, too. 

That said, some players might take issue with the fact there are only 20 Create-a-Wrestler slots and just three for created arenas (also simple, but with some really fun possibilities for the creative types online), with some of the former locked behind the earnable currencies. But given the purposeful simplifications elsewhere, players can still create enough Superstars to fill an entire Royal Rumble. 

Keeping up with the themes throughout, Battlegrounds doesn't have the most robust multiplayer ecosystem, online or locally. Both are possible but with limitations in terms of match types and/or modes. Online tournaments are a fun idea, with some even requiring an entry fee via bucks, but it seems like it's usually just solo matches against random opponents. That said, it's great to see crossplay as a feature for the health of the player base. 

But as if the point hasn't been pounded enough already, less is more sometimes, and that appears to be the case here. It's nice to just load in and play some funky WWE action without worrying about extensive controls or spending hours in a creation suite to fine-tune things. 

Conclusion

It'll be very interesting to see where WWE video games go from here. 

While 2K Sports' mainline series always had promise, it was apparent it had reached the end of its current road and needed some time away—and it is far from the only sports game to do that recently. 

Battlegrounds is an interesting achievement. It's more than capable of standing alone as its own release, and the makers of it expanding on it in future years with more moves, creative items and setpieces would be really fun to see. 

Battlegrounds also serves as an interesting lesson—pushing things too far into the simulation realm might not make a ton of sense for a property based on WWE, where Superstars lose eyes one week and have them back the next because of storylines. 

Either way, Battlegrounds is a fun offshoot that is a blast to pick up and play, especially with friends and has some staying power after a surprise entrance.