WWE 2K17 Early Reviews: 10 Things We Learned
8. The Sound Needs Work
Sound effects and music are a big part of the WWE 2K experience, but it looks like the developers have flubbed their lines this year. It starts with the soundtrack, and while there’s nothing objectively bad about P. Diddy’s chosen songs, it lacks the energy of previous games, and therefore detracts from the experience. Reviews state that Diddy’s beat-orientated hip-hop is too calm and relaxed to get the pulse racing, particularly compared to the series’ old fast-paced, hard-hitting rock songs.
More worrying than the soundtrack, however, is the poor audio mixing. The issue rears its head all throughout the game, but it’s particularly prominent during wrestler entrances. Any character that talks or yells in their ring entrance finds their delivery either amplified to ear-piercing levels, or muted to a barely audible level. It’s a relatively minor presentation glitch, but a noticeable one.
The mixing issue is something they’ll likely patch at a later date, and the music is entirely subjective, but it sounds like 2K has taken a step backwards in this regard. For a publisher with such a great reputation for outstanding presentation, this is disappointing.