WWE 2K23 impressions: MyRise Career brings meaty gameplay changes

The time-to-play is one of the more overlooked aspects as sports video games become increasingly complex. How long will it take for your athlete to actually be performing after you have mastered the mode?

Some games’ career suites just don’t lend themselves to a quick time-to-play; WWE 2K23 Perhaps that’s the most important example. In Visual Concepts’ defense, you don’t buy a series like this to create generic superstars — you buy it to recreate every detail of a carefully scripted form of sports make-believe. The truth is that WWE 2K23’These two career stories are worth the effort. Still, if the single-player career mode is the reason you buy and play a sports video game, you’re going to want to set aside a good chunk of time to nail everything about your character before taking them into the ring.

And I don’t just mean the multiple looks in the game’s creation suite, which are as eye-gogglingly deep as ever, or obsessing over the pyrotechnics in your character’s introductions. If you are a casual player (or a single-player-mode-only type fan) and need to brush up on your combat, you won’t be getting your tutorial match in MyRise, like last year’s game. The tutorial covers all the basics and ends with a game against John Cena, who is a cover star. You’re booted into it when you start the game, but it’s always available in the Extras menu.)

Combatting WWE 2K23 simple as the input schemes are, depends on subtle visual clues and, honestly, just putting the time in to develop a feel for the flow of a match, if not also your opponent’s tendencies. Do that in the game’s actual tutorial, and then work in real matches to understand just how fast you have to be throwing moves once a grapple initiates. Because MyRise, which has a fixed difficulty, isn’t going to give you much room to get your combos down in that first bout.

Grid View

MyRise has two stories. One is for Superstars of the female gender, and one for Superstars of the male. At first, the women get “The Legacy,” which has a novel flashback preamble involving a fictional Superstar (named Justine) taking down pioneering WWE Diva Molly Holly during her first championship reign (in 2002). Turns out Justine is “the aunt” of the new Superstar and the two share a cutscene, even, on her first day of work. That’s a little awkward to unwind if you’re going in with a generic star the game gave you.

People will likely want to import their Superstar into the game before they start. About an hour was spent playing, having role-playing discussions, and engaging in other activities before I could get into the match wearing her gear. This is not a button-through mode; players need to be all-in on their created star’s career, from seeking advice to watching the ring intros, to get to the immersion it has to offer. But that kind of patience can only go so far; MyRise’s dialogue pacing is sluggish enough without feeling as if you need to see every conversation option. And the loading screen times (I played on the PS5) are… whew.

Somewhat by contrast, the male character’s story does start you out the way the old MyRise did, giving you a character creation screen before the action begins. Because this Superstar is going to be introduced as “The Lock,” a mystery man heavily promoted before his Monday Night Raw debut, you’re going to want to get into the action immediately. And honestly, you’re probably going to want to create someone who looks like a Lock before you see him in action. Lock was a story that seemed to have been created for the beefy and almost generic strikers WWE Creative has always favored rather than high-flying technicians whose move sets are what I love more.

This might seem like a petty, or picky view of things. WWE 2K23’s aesthetics, but what is professional wrestling if not aesthetics? And Visual Concepts has an unrelenting demand from its fandom for costumes, customization options, arenas — there are 10 categories for which you can download community creations, and the Superstars category is 1,300 pages long. (Speaking of time-consuming, this isn’t really a browsable library; you should know exactly what you’re looking for with a keyword or a creator’s name, because you probably won’t just stumble upon it.)

Image: Visual Concepts/2K sports

The big systems that support all play modes are the ones to watch. WWE 2K23’s combat still relies on counters and reversals to regain that all-important momentum and control of a bout. It now includes a stamina monitor that makes recovering energy difficult. Stop getting hit. It can be difficult to remember to keep the controller from your opponent while pressing the correct bumper.

The combo-breaker system and the blocking system are even more annoying. For starters, I’m playing on a 55-inch TV and the block warning (Triangle/Y over your fighter’s head) is microscopic. You must use Circle/B to stop a grapple. You can interrupt combos by correctly guessing whether your opponent is throwing a light or strong attack, but you don’t get prompts for this. It can feel like a guessing game most of the time, and this isn’t the way I’d choose to discourage button spam, especially if there’s a stamina system involved. It should only be one block/counter input. This is especially important considering the fact that it feels way too late by the time you get to see one on normal difficulty.

It is the greatest visual game in series history. Not just because of its photorealistic representations of stars, but also the way they dress. Animations seem cleaner, more fluid, and less dependent on what move they are performing. Furthermore, all the objects Superstars have around them are beautifully rendered. There is no need to worry about poor texture loading and clipping, which could cause a disaster in an outfit that you worked so hard on.

The game’s other major modes might offer game experiences comparatively more bite-size than MyRise. There are a variety of enhancements, from minor (MyFaction is a suite that features Ultimate Team-style play) to major (MyGM, based on management, offers more character options and allows you to create your own events). MyUniverse didn’t get much of an upgrade, but that sandbox is the granddaddy of modes where players spend dozens of hours tinkering with the existing toolkit before they see what might be different.

My preferred mode of play is still MyRise; Visual Concepts does the best job of any sports developer at understanding what its fans find entertaining about their heroes’ stories, and what they find cliche or rote. WWE 2K23 It is the same, whatever expository dialog. Some people simply want to compete with other established stars. WWE 2K23 They will continue to be served. The most intense experience in MyRise however is for players who are prepared to endure a FOMO-induced rabbithole lasting several days.

WWE 2K23 On March 17, the game was available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and Windows PC. It also launched on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Xbox One, Xbox One, Xbox One and PlayStation 5. 2K Games provided a prerelease code for the game. The PS5 version of the game can be accessed here. Vox Media is an affiliate partner. Although these partnerships do not impact editorial content, Vox Media could earn commissions for products sold via affiliate links. Here are some links to help you find. additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.