WWE 2K17 Early Reviews: 10 Things We Learned

Regardless of the developers and publishers, commentary has always stunk in WWE games. For whatever reason, nobody has ever been able to pair fluid in ring action with with suitable, natural-sounding announcing. The games have always suffered from announcers that sound like they’re reading a series of misplaced soundbites from a script, with their monotone, lifeless voices doing nothing to amplify the action.

This is no different in 2K17. Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, and JBL are as atrocious as ever, and provide tiresome, repetitive commentary that largely revolves around them delivering the same handful of clichés over and over again. 2K17’s commentary is now stuffed with advertisements for the game itself, but most egregious of all is the use of the term “Divas” to describe WWE’s female wrestlers: a word that hasn’t been used in six months.

You can argue that 2K17’s terrible commentary is an accurate reflection of that found on Raw and SmackDown, and therefore amplifies the game’s realism, but there’s no excuse for this. What’s most surprising is that Yuke’s old UFC Undisputed games had tremendous commentary, and the NBA 2K games feature some of the most dynamic, informative commentary you’ll ever hear in a game. Sadly, the developers show little interest in improving this aspect of their WWE games, and it’s to their detriment.