MyRISE in WWE 2K Needs To Be Better

For the most part, I’m a yearly player of the WWE 2K series. I have been since it was simply called SmackDown. And I’ll be honest, I don’t have as many problems with the series as it stands today, at least not from a gameplay perspective. While I respect that people still crave that old-school arcade style the SmackDown and SmackDown vs. Raw series brought, I’ve always been a stickler for immersion in my video games. Therefore, I’d rather the game I’m playing closely resemble what I see on TV rather than be some kind of over-the-top power fantasy.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got no problem with those games and I’m more than happy to indulge in the nonsense they provide. That said, I like realism. And that’s something the MyRISE mode in the WWE 2K games has struggled with since pretty much the beginning.

This year in WWE 2K25, the MyRISE mode will be centered around some other kind of preposterous premise. Here’s how it’s described on the the official WWE 2K website:

Take control of your custom Superstar from the women’s or men’s divisions in a singular multi-gender MyRISE storyline where Bayley, Kevin Owens, and other Superstars infiltrate NXT in an attempt to take control of the entire WWE universe. Featuring new brawl environments, unlockable arenas, characters, and more—plus new ally storylines involving Jey Uso, Bianca Belair, Seth “Freakin” Rollins, and other WWE Superstars.

I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t excite me at all. For one, why would Bayley and Kevin Owens use NXT as a means of taking over WWE? Why do they even want to take over WWE? And why is my duty as a WWE Superstar to play “WWE Avenger” and prevent a hostile takeover of the company’s developmental brand when I’m way more concerned with climbing the ranks and chasing championships?

This is a problem I’ve had with the MyRISE mode for a while. Credit where it’s due, I actually didn’t dislike MyRISE in WWE 2K24. At least, not totally. I actually somewhat enjoyed the Undisputed story where I got to hold the WWE Championship for a prolonged period of time (even if the premise was quite silly) rather than chase it for the entire story, only to have that story end once I got it. But it still wasn’t enough. I honestly didn’t understand the whole Miz issue in Undisputed. Like, you’ve got the Undisputed WWE Champion on your brand, even if you don’t like the way I won the title to begin with. And if my reign has gone on this long, my wrestler is obviously a draw.

But no. Instead of being able to hold a championship and organically run through various different storylines in MyRISE, I’m instead limited to either being Miz’s lackey or his adversary for an in-game equivalent of several years. And even if you decide to do his bidding, Miz’s gripe at the end doesn’t even make sense. Not only did I successfully defend my championship against Seth Rollins — giving myself even more credibility — but Gigi Dolin has become one of your most precious commodities by dethroning Becky Lynch at WrestleMania. And your answer to that is to strip her of the title and send her to Raw, effectively diluting the value of the championship for whomever holds it next? I don’t get it.

I miss the season modes back in the old SmackDown games where I had a ton of different storylines to branch into, depending on whether or not I was holding a belt or was mixing it up in the midcard. I miss having the freedom of controlling my own destiny, rather than the prime of my WWE career being put on rails with a defined beginning, middle, and end.

I understand that as time has gone on, gamers have demanded more from video games in terms of realism and graphics. And because of these demands, it’s hard to replicate the story modes of old due to developers no longer having the benefit of just being able to slap some subtitles onto the stories and sprinkle in a handful of animations without voiceovers. But is this truly the best we can do?

All I want is an immersive story mode in a WWE 2K game that offers me just a bit of freedom. It’s one of the many reasons like most of my time spent in WWE 2K these days is almost exclusively within Universe Mode. But even that mode is in need of a massive overhaul and doesn’t offer me nearly as much freedom or options as I’d like. I want to be able to move through different feuds, switch brands, go for midcard championships, be a tag-team wrestler, etc.

Maybe I’m asking too much. And maybe my demands are at odds with what’s possible in the development of a yearly sports title. But I’m gonna continue to hold out hope until a major wrestling game makes a fun story mode again.