WWE 2K Battlegrounds Review: 4 Ups & 4 Downs

1. Slave To The Grind

WWE 2K Battlegrounds is riddled with microtransactions.

The game's natural progression is calibrated to be so slow it nudges you towards opening your wallet and shortcutting to the next unlockable, with in-game bucks relatively thin on the ground. This undermines the supposed fun factor of it all. Battlegrounds is marketed as a light, easygoing title, but there's nothing easy going about having to slog through four or five uber-repetitive button-bashing matches just so you can unlock one of Lince Dorado's three attires.

Battlegrounds is less Pay to Win and more Pay to do Absolutely Anything, as new characters, creation parts, slots, and attires are all hidden behind its virtual currency. Play for long enough and you will unlock them eventually, but the gameplay isn't rewarding enough to justify this as a defence.

In the end, Battlegrounds, unfortunately, goes down as another title that has sacrificed meaningful progression in the name of farming as much money from its player base as possible. It is a transparent and predatory approach that sadly isn't going anywhere soon, and the other option (burning hours in campaign mode) is too sluggish for the microtransactions to be handwaved as a concern.