WWE 2K Battlegrounds Reviews
There’s a bit of a budget feel to WWE 2K Battlegrounds, thanks to its shared movesets and story presentation. Despite that though, it’s actually quite endearing to play, and it’s easy to have fun with it. Get a friend or two to play it in local multiplayer with you, and it really is a blast.
Strictly speaking, WWE 2K Battlegrounds is a solid game. The arcade focus produces replayability as players return to unlock ongoing content. If you enjoyed WWE All-Stars, I do not see you would not enjoy WWE 2K Battlegrounds.
It isn’t the game it could be, or the game I see in my head when I think of its concept. But it’s an earnest, goofy, breezy, little multiplayer brawler I can enjoy with my wrestling fan friends without trying to make sure everyone understands the controls over on the simulation side.
WWE Battlegrounds is not a bad game at its core. The combat is over-the-top, campy, and fun, and it achieves its ability to be satisfying by at least capturing the feel for the roster within overall.
WWE 2K Battlegrounds is really fun at the beginning, but it flattens out quite fast. The grind is potentially fierce and the bugs are getting on my nerves. What disturbed me most in the gameplay are the much too heavy counters and the exploiting of the taunts. The second big point of criticism is the constant pushing of buying opportunities using real money. This might be justifiable for an F2P title, but I find it almost impertinent to be so aggressive.
Review in German | Read full review
Average, in some parts even very below-average wrestling game. In addition, it contains microtransactions, which is incomprehensible due to its high cost. Bugs and crashes of FPS in multiplayer are a matter of course.
Review in Czech | Read full review
After completing the story, the rest of the single player modes will hardly keep your interest in the game alive for more than three hours.
Review in Greek | Read full review
The only redeeming quality WWE 2K Battlegrounds has at present is the simplicity of its gameplay. Even that can become frustrating after a while. There are no combos or sequences to remember or even master here. Throw a controller at a friend, mash a few buttons, and move on to another title altogether when the system inevitably grows stale.
Hitting finishing moves, climbing up the top of a cage, and hitting your opponent with a motorcycle is fun and WWE 2K Battlegrounds lets you do that, but the overabundance of microtransactions from cosmetics to unlocking wrestlers is made worst by its lack of depth in combat. If I was the great wrestling analyst Dave Meltzer, I’d give this match only 2.5 stars out of 5.
WWE 2K Battlegrounds is stylish, fast-paced, and fun. However, it's pretty light on roster and options for create-a-wrestler. I wish there were more options to unlock things instead of hiding it all behind a paywall. Despite that, Battlegrounds accomplishes what it intends to do, which is entertain wrestling fans as we wait for the next-gen entry into the WWE 2K series.
WWE 2K Battlegrounds is, ultimately, one of the worst games this side of the current console generation. While it has some cool-looking comic book cutscenes and a decent story, the campaign quickly devolves into a repetitive grind with no real end. The grind is so boring that players actively feel encouraged to spend real-world money just to get anywhere in the game. This is astonishing, to say the least, and extremely unacceptable. Multiplayer would make sense if played with friends, but after a little while, there is no feasible reason to continue playing. Wrestlers feel generic and unoriginal, except for the five overarching classes. Frankly, the game is not worth recommending, not even for the most hardcore of wrestling fans.
WWE 2K Battlegrounds came to correct the disastrous route that the wrestling series had been following. In a way, it does this, but when it returns to the right path, it ends up encountering a lot of problems and ends up being knocked out.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
WWE 2K Battlegrounds deserves credit for being the most fun a WWE game has been in a couple of years, but for better and for worse, it is clearly a budget title that cuts corners on depth as it attempts to provide a more arcade-like experience. It generally works, as Battlegrounds is fun in bursts of quick play – especially with friends, but for those with a career mode / progression itch, there’s a good chance that this title will leave you wanting for more. If you have expectations set appropriately, WWE 2K Battlegrounds is entertaining, though it may not have a lot of staying power beyond the first few weeks you get it.
We got another production from the 2K stable, in which a good job of the developer was crippled by accountants hungry for every penny.
Review in Polish | Read full review
Unlike its predecessors, WWE 2K Battlegrounds does what it claims, providing an arcade-style take on wrestling that can have anyone pulling off gravity-defying moves in minutes. Sadly it lacks the depth to be more than a fleeting piece of brawling fun.
WWE 2K Battlegrounds is probably not something I’ll be revisiting years down the line, but for now, it does what it’s set out to do and that’s keep the franchise fresh in people’s minds long enough for its big re-emergence next year.
While WWE 2K21 was canceled for this year, I found WWE 2K BATTLEGROUNDS to be a solid replacement. While they are not facsimiles to one another, it fills the gap nicely. I think there’s valid concerns with the microtransactions, but for the most part isn’t egregious or tacky. The game’s biggest modes are chock full of content for hours of entertainment, and even the remainder of the modes are fun to play with its stylized visuals. The longevity will lie in its multiplayer modes, and crossplay deepens the player pool. WWE 2K BATTLEGROUNDS is an ultracompetent brawler that doesn’t try to be more than it is, which is a really entertaining take on wrestling.
A fun and captivating arcade variation to the more serious WWE 2K annual series, with entertaining gameplay and a solid fighters roster. It might lack a bit in variety, but it'll surely please wrestling lovers.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Overall I really enjoyed WWE 2K Battlegrounds and it is a game I will continue to dip in and out of, especially when the DLC characters are added. The limited move lists were a bit of a disappointment but both the graphics and the campaign over-delivered. Microtransactions may still be an issue for some, but they can be avoided. I have no problem having to grind to unlock characters. It’s the way things used to be.
Much like professional wrestling on TV, if you take it too seriously, you’ll end up disappointed.