The legendary Shawn Michaels retired from professional wrestling in 1998 after suffering a back health issue at the Royal Rumble that ended his career. No one expected him to lace up his boots and get back in the Ring, but the Heartbreak Child returned triumphantly, finally consolidating his legacy with unforgettable matches against Triple H, The Undertaker and Ric Flair. The quality of the second half of Michael’s career has ensured that his surprise comeback will be remembered as one of the most spectacular comebacks in WWE history, and it is the one that is somehow taken over by WWE 2k23. After the disaster of 2k20 – a game so bad that its successor was completely canceled-the Visual Concepts developer returned to the squared circle last year with a solid foundation that improves 2K23 in many ways, finally bringing the long-standing series back into shape with a surprise comeback including M. WrestleMania himself would be proud.

From a playful point of view, little has changed since last year’s entry. You always switch in the middle light and heavy moves to perform different Combos. action your opponent to hit him with suplex, DDT and rotating neck breakers; and build meters to access signature moves and flashy match endings. Some may complain that it still doesn’t play like No Mercy – an N64 game that many still consider the best wrestling game of all time-but the series never tried. 2K23 is a solid wrestling simulation, with most of the matches swinging back and forth as the momentum shifts through desperate reversals and final kicks.

The improvements that Visual Concepts has implemented are subtle, but turn out to be welcome adjustments that have managed to banish some minor inconveniences from 2k22. For example, the time window for reversals has been tightened. It was a little too easy to turn the tide of a competition, thanks to the generous time you have to cancel an action. With a shorter time window, inversions will feel more impactful this year and will encourage you to study your opponent’s set of moves, improving your reaction times. This ensures that the games are more attractive and adds extra excitement to each game.

The new pin-breaking mechanism, where you move the right stick upwards to imitate a kick, also improves the action in the Ring. It’s not a great and revolutionary addition, but determining the Timing of this simple mini-game becomes more difficult after in the matches as your energy decreases, and it has something to do with imitating the bodily of a wrestler coming out of a pin that allocates to the drama. You can always stick to pressing a catch if you prefer, but pressing the right joystick just makes more sense at a basic level.

The other changes made to the 2k23 action are not so obvious, but it doesn’t take long to notice how each one has a positive impact. This year’s match has a greater emphasis on endurance, with wrestlers slowing down the longer a match lasts. You can also perform springboard actions in the Ring, and Tag teams work together in the Royal Rumble instead of immediately trying to eliminate each other. The AI has also been optimized so that each Superstar behaves closer to their real-world counterparts – which means you won’t see a giant flying off the top turnbuckle like Omos. You can even access sliders to manage these trends yourself-Fire-Pro-Wrestling style – so those who like to run ai vs. ai matches should be able to create matches that are not too far from what we see an episode of Smackdown every week.

The AI has generally improved a lot compared to last year, because this time the Superstars are using their entire repertoire and even using possum actions and lever pins to make the jump on them. The team AI is also not as busy as in 2K22. teammates don’t cancel submission and needle drop attempts as frequently as they used to, and you can smack your opponent’s teammate when he’s on the apron to trigger a daze state, so Tag matches are still happening The AI still tends to get you out of the Ring a little too often, and there are jerky collision issues that make you miss actions that you really shouldn’t, but these are minor drawbacks in the grand scheme of things.

The new type of Match in 2k23 is WarGames, where teams of three or four Superstars compete in a two-ring cage. Teammates enter the crate at alternating intervals, which gives a team a numerical advantage until everyone is inside. The match technically doesn’t start until each competitor has entered the cage, so a lot of the drama comes from these changing performance dynamics. There is also an element of peril and reward that forces you to think about whether you want to make your big moves early or save them until after, when pinning attempts actually count. debate games are inherently messy in real life, and that’s probably even more so in 2k23, which is part of its unruly charm. It is surprising how well this all works. Although they are locked in a cage, the room they are working with is quite large, so they have room to execute their offense, and pinning attempts are not interrupted as constantly as a group of Superstars are crammed into a single ring. At any moment, there could be a one-on-one action in a Ring, with two competitors using the space in the middle the rings to commit a single offense, while everyone is caught up in an all-out brawl with tables and chairs, with a Superstar standing on top of the crate ready to pounce on an enemy

The show matter mode returns again, this time putting John Cena’s 20-year career in the WWE in the spotlight. The 16-time world champion gives candid interviews to guide you through some of his greatest games and rivalries, which you then recreate by achieving different goals throughout each match, while the archive footage blends seamlessly with the Action of the game. In a nice twist, you don’t really play as Cena, but take on the role of some of the Superstars who have defeated him over the years. When someone wins as often as Cena – to the point of being virtually unsmackable intermittently – it makes his losses all the more remarkable, so this is a smart direction for the show matter mode of 2k23. in addition, playing as a different character in each Match helps to refresh the formula.