My Limited First Impression

[jaredsmith83]

I literally had time for one match and to turn on the themes in my jukebox before having to get things ready for work. I played as Kevin Owens, gave him Bobby Heenan as his manager (why not, right?) and randomly went up against R Truth. It was set in the Wrestlemania 14 arena, so it had a bit of the 90's grainy texture. I didn't adjust any of the settings beyond just getting a 1-on-1 match going.

The first thing I noticed was how the guys moved around the ring. It didn't seem to be floaty as it has been in years past. The new, added animations in the mini-game made it feel fresh. I only had to go through it two times, I believe. Things were very responsive and I am LOVING the limited reversal option. I think our match had 5 total reversals for the whole match. I was kinda peeved when I hit the Pop-Up powerbomb on Truth, and it got him halfway down to his last energy bar, and he kicked out. The kickout animations, however, were REALLY good. KO sat there in disbelief before getting up. There's also a very fluid pin animation following moves that prompt pinning with them. I like that. The match went a good 5-8 minutes, which was as expected since I had it on a lower setting. I can see longer matches being very possible. I did not try the new submission mechanic, however. Its coming soon.

I was a tad disappointed to see that there's no generic CAW entrance stuff back in there as there was on 2K14. But, with it being new gen, I'm sure that stuff wasn't able to easily be ported over. They did have Justin Gabriel's entrance, also Great Khali and maybe another few from 2K15. However, with the size of this year's roster, making good entrances shouldn't be a big issue. Not to me, at least.

There's things that I haven't touched yet that I didn't have time to so I'll try to hit them later. This game isn't THE game that everyone wants, but its surely a step in the right direction from last year's debacle. I'm definitely more excited after my first impression this year than last. After the first day last year, I was already on the fence of wanting to be done with it. I think this will have a much longer replay value with me. I know there's issues in Universe that, I hope, can be patched. It won't deter me, though, since we have arena creation and belt creation back. I can bring back my SEMO Wrestling Alliance fed to run. So that's good. So far so good this morning.

[CM Hooe]

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