I’ve been having a lot of fun withWWE 2K24, across all game modes. Those who don’t play sports or simulation games often don’t understand their appeal, but there’s a neat type of storytelling embedded in these sandboxes that goes underappreciated.
WWE 2K24 leans into the aspect heavily because professional wrestling is, when you boil it down, a form of storytelling. I love crafting a narrative in Universe mode, and seeing the erratic development of storylines and rivalries.
In a similar vein, I’ve been working on a piece where I simulate all of Wrestlemania 40’s announced matches, partially for the chaos of it but also because I think it would be neat to compare my results vs the actual outcomes after the weekend.
Undisputed Champions
The Six-Pack Tag-Team Ladder Match for the Undisputed WWE Tag Championships was a complicated affair. First, WWE 2K24 doesn’t support 12 wrestlers in the ring at once, so I had to slim the match down from 6 teams to 4 teams.
As the all-seeing omniscient general manager and executive, I decided to simulate two additional qualification matches. In the spirit of inter-brand rivalry, I pitted two SmackDown teams against two Raw teams. The New Day’s Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston bested New Catch Republic (Pete Dunne & Tyler Bate) via count-out, while The Awesome Truth (R-Truth & The Miz) secured an underdog victory over A-Town-Down Under (Austin Theory & Grayson Waller).
With that out of the way, I could spectate the 8-Man Tag-Team Ladder Match. The current champions Judgement Day (Finn Balor & Damian Priest) defended against the aforementioned The New Day, The Awesome Truth as well as #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tomasso Ciampa).
The opening minutes were chaos as 8 men pursued one another with frightening bloodlust. The Miz was bloodied by the first punch thrown by Damien Priest, and for some reason Xavier Woods and R-Truth teamed up to double-suplex Finn Balor.
I should have seen it as an early warning sign when none of the eight men showed any interest in fulfilling the match objective. Despite a flurry of ladder-related activity at the beginning of the match, nobody attempted to climb the ladder and reach for the belts in the opening ten minutes. That was until Damien Priest half-heartedly ascended the ladder before being swiftly dumped to the mat by Kofi Kingston. Kingston then saw his moment but was quickly thwarted by The Miz.
Something Very Disturbing
This is when the problems began. Amid all the chaos, the ladder that was in the ring ended up on the outside - and that was the last time any of the AI-controlled wrestlers touched a ladder. Almost as if a dark enchantment fell over the arena, everyone was whipped into a frenzy, with the sole objective being the destruction of their opponents.
Damien Priest must’ve forgotten he had a title to defend as he swapped from wrestler to wrestler, doling out tombstone piledrivers to anyone unfortunate enough to get in his way. At around the 25-minute mark, I started to get suspicious and went to Google for some answers.
WWE 2K24 Is An Incredible Historical Resource
Wrestlemania 101
I wasn’t the only one who noticed irregularities with WWE 2K24’s AI in ladder matches. SeveralReddit postsdetail similar situations where AI wrestlers refuse to interact with ladders, no matter the situation. Before I took action, I had to be sure. This was an honourable pursuit, I couldn’t just influence the outcome of events without being completely sure that this match would go on forever. So, I took a shower.
After a respectable twenty minutes of shampoo, conditioner and shower gel, I returned to my PC - and even now, I am hesitant to recount what I saw. The mat and outside padding were drenched in blood, everyone had critical (red) damage on their heads and bodies, and Damien Priest was still relentlessly piledriving skulls into the ground. It was sickening.
I kid you not, I did not see Xavier Woods for several minutes after I returned to watch the carnage, leading me to wonder if WWE 2K24 had a mechanic where wrestlers who take too much damage are stretchered out. I recall about a decade ago Bam Bam Bigelow was indefinitely injured in my WWE ‘12 Universe mode, essentially dying as he never returned to action. In the end, Woods was just unconscious on the far side of the ring, where the camera couldn’t see.
The ladders were mostly unmoved, except one of them was now propped at an awkward angle, probably due to some physics jankiness after several wholly uninterested wrestlers ran over them. At the 45-minute mark, I knew I had to step in. I opted to take over Finn Balor, one of the many aspects of the professional wrestling concept of ‘champion’s advantage’ is that if required, an all-powerful being will opt to take full control over your body rather than your opponents, to preserve a title reign.
All’s Well That Ends Well
I employed a classic technique, a hearty Irish whip to everyone who dared enter the ring. With how battered and broken everyone was, a crash to the outside was enough to keep them out of action for a while. I climbed the ladder, ready to retain the undisputed titles. As I wavered on the mini-game, my previously apathetic opponents suddenly didn’t want me getting those titles, probably so they could continue their wanton violence. We were at the 52-minute mark.
As I stood there, prepared for the worst, my saviour arrived. Damien Priest immediately began dishing out clotheslines and every other weapon in his arsenal to stop people from pushing over my ladder. I retrieved the belts, The Judgement Day retained, and Wrestlemania 40 was saved. Visual Concepts, please fix ladder match AI.
WWE 2K24 Review - Upgrades Across The Board
Every mode of WWE 2K24 has seen improvements over last year’s game, which is an impressive feat.
