WWE 2K19 is here, bringing the most comprehensive and complete wrestling gameplay yet. However, all those gameplay mechanics and additions are worthless if there isn't anything fun to do with them. Thankfully, 2K19 serves up a hilarious game mode with this year's My Career campaign.
The basic plot is simple: players create a custom wrestler and start off living out of a van working for a no-name indie promotion. After a few great matches, and a minor invasion of an episode of NXT, your character is given the fast-pass to WWE Superstardom. However, once you get to the main roster, the story really goes off the rails in the best way possible.
Your character, nicknamed "Buzz" over the course of the story, fights zombies, travels through time and alternate dimensions, makes friends, is stabbed in the back multiple times, creates a new title, reunites factions fans haven't thought of in years and so much more. All while maintaining the level of "Rookie."
The story mode is a perfect encapsulation of why I love WWE and wrestling in general. It doesn't take itself seriously, allows for both heartfelt moments and laugh-out-loud goofiness and tells a fun story of a meteoric rise to the top of the wrestling industry. Yeah, some of the acting is wooden and the guy serving as a stand-in for John Cena sounds nothing like the man, but that's also part of the fun of wrestling.
That's not to say the mode is free of flaws, but these mostly stem from issues with WWE 2K19 instead of the My Career mode itself. While most matches in My Career are straightforward one-on-one competitions, sometimes you'll be thrown into a match with seemingly insurmountable odds. Winning a match with multiple opponents is always a challenge, and you'll end up in a battle royale, elimination chamber, two-on-one, three-on-one, gauntlet matches and more. These can feel unfair at times, but finally coming out on top is a pretty rewarding feeling.
My biggest complaints are with leveling and submissions. Players unlock XP by winning matches and completing side missions, but you seem to cap out at level 50, despite a continuous stream of incoming XP and more skills and abilities to unlock. My wrestler only made it to a 59 overall ranking by the end of the campaign, and it was a little silly seeing someone with such a low score standing tall over the entire company. Thankfully, your rating doesn't matter enough to where it becomes impossible to progress forward.
My issues with submissions aren't explicitly from the My Career mode, but the mode is impacted by the terrible submission system in WWE 2K19. Players have two minigame options in this situation: one where you move lines around a circle and another where you mash buttons. The circle game is horrible and the button-mashing game feels incredibly unfair. I had my opponent with dark, dark red head health, and he still was easily powering out of my head-based submission moves. How does that happen? I'm a pretty excellent button masher too, so it's not like I wasn't playing correctly.
Small issues aside, the WWE 2K19 My Career mode is worth it for any fan of current WWE. The stories are entertaining, silly and make you feel like you're a member of the main roster. It's the best story mode included in a WWE 2K game in years.
So what do you think? Did you have as much fun as I did with the My Career mode in WWE 2K19? Would you like to see something similar in next year's game? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
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