- We received an advance preview of WWE 2K25 at 2K’s London Headquarters
- This year’s game revolves around Roman Reigns and The Bloodline
- New backstage brawl arenas and intergender matches introduced for this year’s game
Ahead of the release of WWE 2K25, we were invited along to get a hands on preview of the new game at 2K Games’ London office to sample the Bloodline heavy offerings of this year’s edition of the franchise.
With Roman Reigns serving as this year’s cover star, it should come as no surprise that WWE 2K25 heavily revolves around the former WWE and Universal Champion and his era defining Bloodline legacy.
During the three hours we spent getting to grips with the new game, a large portion of our time was dedicated to navigating several points of the Bloodline Showcase, along with discovering new features and rediscovering a few comebacks along the way.
The Bloodline Showcase
So let’s dive straight into the main event, shall we? The Bloodline Showcase is set to dominate gametime in 2K’s latest WWE release, chronicling Roman Reigns and his family’s extraordinary run from 2020-2024, in which Roman served as WWE and Universal Champion for almost four years, headlining four consecutive WrestleManias.
During our preview, we were able to revisit two major moments of the Anoaʻi family’s history making four-year stretch as well as indulging in an all-timer of a fantasy match up.
Reigns’ Universal Title defence against Seth Rollins, Nia Jax’s Queen of the Ring triumph and a fantasy match up seeing The Wild Samoans taking on The Dudley Boyz in a tables match were all available to recreate, complete with cutscene promos from none other than ‘The Wiseman’ Paul Heyman.
Heyman’s involvement in this showcase is, as you would likely predict, miraculously good. His ability to make you invest in absolutely anything that comes out of his mouth is a triumph of hype and the former El Presidente of ECW is producing some top tier work, here. His pre-match promos really set the scene for each chapter perfectly. It is an ideal utilisation of the man’s talents and emphasises each talent involved as well as generating a suitable amount of excitement for the challenge ahead.
Once you get into the meat and potatoes of the showcase matches, the enormity of the moments you’re recreating is translated extremely well to the smaller screen. While there are certainly issues with instances like the lack of reaction from Roman upon Rollins’ Shield entrance from the 2022 Royal Rumble, the challenges themselves are addictive as you attempt to knock off each one while also sometimes redirecting the trajectory of history (Reigns lost to Rollins by disqualification in the real life ’22 Rumble, but obviously here you are expected to secure him the victory).
It is also nice to see Nia Jax not being discounted from the Bloodline, either. Her Queen of the Ring victory in Saudi Arabia last year makes the cut, while bringing The Wild Samoans to the virtual world to duke it out with The Dudleys is a whole heap of table splintering fun.
A slight snag we found with the tag team tables outing, however, was the regularity with which the computer controlled member of the Samoans would often finish the match rather rapidly, without your own character even being involved in the fall. Having the tag tables match serving as an elimination bout ala The Hardyz vs The Dudleyz from the 2000 Royal Rumble, then a lot more fun could be had with this bout.
Overall, with a lot more ground to tread upon the grand release of WWE 2K25, we’re officially acknowledging The Bloodline Showcase as championship material.
New Match Types in WWE 2K25
Intergender wrestling is officially on the menu in 2025. And while it is not a match type that is currently flourishing within WWE, with physical interactions between male and female performers extremely limited, here it is alive and well in WWE 2K25. Of course, people may be uncomfortable with the pitting of men against women, but there is A LOT of mileage to get out of playing as Rhea Ripley and powering Dominik Mysterio across the squared circle and ringside in a variety of ways. Similarly, wiping out Ethan Page as Jade Cargill brought a smile to the face. Oh, and Nia Jax outmuscling The Final Boss? Here for that as well.
Backstage Brawls have now been updated to include the NXT Parking Lot, where any NXT fan will warn you, nothing good ever happens to anyone. Except if you’re controlling them. The interactivity of the backstage venues, which also, rather brilliantly, includes the WWE Archives, brings with it a lot of repeated plays, so expect to brawl away many an hour in these surroundings as you get to grips with the new game.
One of the most interesting new matches to evolve out of NXT also makes its debut in WWE 2K25, with the Underground Match now available to play. For those unfamiliar with the Underground series of bouts, they involve the ring ropes being removed and matches being decided by knockout or submission. The virtual version of the match transitions very naturally from the real world, with 2K25’s smooth gameplay and reintroduction of chain wrestling meaning these matches are an assuringly faithful recreation of those seen in NXT.
New Features
As previously mentioned, chain wrestling is making its long awaited return to the 2K franchise. This feature returning lends itself perfectly to the competitive, back-and-forth nature of the gameplay, transporting you into the WWE Universe. For a long time, WWE games were far too prone to carelessly ignoring height and weight differentials in opponents, while also proving to be too stodgy with the flow of the matches.
Obviously, the size disparities have long since been addressed, meaning it’s been a long time since you could hit a delayed vertical suplex on Braun Strowman with Rey Mysterio. But the sharpening up of the gameplay has been such a welcome evolution over the last few years, with a tightness apparent in 2K25 that, on first impressions, should impress a lot of fans when release date comes.
Overall First Impressions of WWE 2K25
The WWE 2K franchise came on leaps and bounds last year with 2K24 and 2K25 looks to be another leap in the right direction, with more major innovations still to be unveiled. First impressions wise, this feels like a game that has become much more effortless in its attempts to channel the energy of actual WWE action, even if the commentary doesn’t feel particularly natural at times.
The gameplay feels refined, with subtle tweaks actually doing a fair amount of heavy lifting when it comes to overall enjoyment of the game. In the little more than three hours we spent with WWE 2K25, the session never once felt repetitive, with only a fraction of the eventual roster, match types and modes available to us. This is going to be an immersive experience that will hopefully elevate the series to a new level.
Both a Bloodline Edition and a standard edition of WWE 2K25 will be available (as well as an Undertaker themed Deadman Edition, but more on that a bit later), with the Bloodline version scheduled for worldwide release on Friday March 7, 2005, a week before the standard edition drops on Friday March 14.
For more information on WWE 2K25, visit the game’s official website.
