Overall – 70%
70%
WWE 2K26 still represents the best wrestling game on the market today, but it does very little to distinguish itself from last year’s release. Combined with egregious monetization and the needlessly mundane grind across nearly every single game mode, and this year simply feels like a step back.
WWE 2K26 returns for its regular annual foray into the gaming space, but this time surrounded by controversy from new microtransactions and season pass mechanics.
Each year, I’m excited to dive into Visual Concepts and 2K’s latest entry into the WWE game library. Despite its issues over the years, it still brings the strongest wrestling game on the market.
That said, this year, something feels a bit off…
What Happened to Slingshot Tech?
This year’s Showcase sees CM Punk relive some of his highs and lows, with some dream matches thrown in.
It’s okay, but I can’t help but ask myself:
“What’s the point?”
I can throw together these matches in many different game modes, without the irritating objective-based unlocks. I’ve enjoyed some of the previous Showcase events, but like many of MyGM rivalries, this is getting stale.
WWE 2K24 showcased 2K’s Slingshot Tech with near frame-perfect transitions between in-game action and clips from the WWE archives.
Now?
Even with CM Punk mentioning the Slingshot Tech 20 times during his on-screen appearances, it’s been reduced to nothing but the concept of playing matches from the past.
I’m not CM Punk’s biggest fan, so others will likely enjoy the Showcase more than I did. Playing back through some of his most iconic matches, getting the opportunity to change a loss to a win, to see where his career went.
For me, Showcase was at its best in WWE 2K24 – and has been on the decline since.
Tables, Ladders, and Thumbtacks, Hell Yeah
The in-ring action continues to improve in WWE 2K26, with genuine moments of awesome that feel ripped straight from an actual WWE show.
More moments than ever just had me stepping back to admire just how great a sequence of moves and reversals turned out – even if its AI can be a little irritating when it ruins the perfect moment.
Ripping out the thumbtacks and stacking tables with some of WWE’s hardcore legends was the closest I’d felt to the carnage of the Smackdown vs. RAW days in a long time.
The only things really holding back the in-ring action is WWE 2K26’s dodgy stamina system that doesn’t seem to apply to AI characters, and a problem that has persisted for years: the lock-on is still a complete mess.
It’s clunky, unresponsive, and just does what it wants only half the time.
I’ll never understand why a game released in 2026 cannot compete with a lock-on system from the PlayStation 2 era.
It makes any matches outside 1v1, arguably, the most exciting to play in a WWE game; a complete gamble on the outcome.
MyFaction, or Not
I didn’t typically dip into MyFaction too much before WWE 2K24, but I really enjoyed it the last couple of years. It’s all very much the same in WWE 2K26, grinding for better cards and unlocks – as 2K hopes you spend some cash in the process.
I jumped in, excited to get my pack rewards and start my own faction, only to be immediately met with a series of starting challenges that forced me to remove half the characters in favor of weaker ones – because card rating was restricted.
What followed was a series of intergender matches that still add absolutely nothing to the single-player experience, being forced to play as wrestlers I actively dislike, in matches you see on WWE once in a decade. Then comes a group of mirror matches where it’s nearly impossible to tell who is who in a ring of clones.
The “tutorial” sequence doesn’t last long; it’s about 15 matches, but about 14 of those feel entirely unnecessary.
It took me two days to dive back in, and then I was met with frozen loading screens and crashes. Between that and getting headbutted by Blake Monroe every other match, it’s a very slow start.
The Island Gets Even Crazier
The Island makes a return in WWE 2K26 – with all its ridiculous glory.
Following on from the events of WWE 2K25, players join The Island as a member of one of three new factions, each with their own storyline, characters, rewards, and unlocks.
The most welcome change in WWE 2K26 comes with its vastly improved navigation, with on-screen quest markers showing where the next stage of progress can be found – a huge improvement on last year’s ask of having players run around like a headless chicken.
Outside that, it’s all very much by the numbers.
While WWE 2K26 features new content and new stories, it is also very much still in the same package.
It’s probably a feature I would have loved 20 years ago, but it’s over-the-top, wacky stories and meta-busting showpieces are just a touch too much.
That, and the awful camera angle put me off exploring more than a few hours of what it had to offer.
Roguelite elements of The Tower on The Island, the CCG card collecting and levelling of TCG games, the strategy aspects of GM Mode, and the micromanagement of MyUniverse…
WWE 2K’s constantly increasing list of features and game modes almost overwhelms.
Every year, I push myself to dive into all the different modes, knowing I won’t particularly enjoy half of them, and that’s where I think the series is struggling.
The Island, with more polish and more grounded stories, could be incredible. A deeper, more meaningful GM Mode would keep me entertained all year round, but everything feels a bit shallow this year.
WWE 2K26 still represents the best wrestling game on the market today, but it does very little to distinguish itself from last year’s release. Combined with egregious monetization and the needlessly mundane grind across nearly every single game mode, and this year simply feels like a step back.
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