WWE 2K25 Review: 11 Ups & 3 Downs

The Island may disappoint, but WWE 2K25 is another excellent effort.

by Andrew Pollard
WWE 2K25 Roman Reigns
2K Games

With WWE on its annual Road to WrestleMania, that often means one thing for gamers: a new WWE 2K video game release.

On the back of a couple of great games, WWE 2K25 has a lot to live up to, not least with how particularly strong WWE 2K24 was. For some, 2K24 was an all-time classic, and so there's plenty of pressure already stacked on this latest offering from 2K and Visual Concepts. Even more so, the marketing for WWE 2K25 went hard in promoting a brand-new game mode known as The Island, with this Roman Reigns-fronted mode promising to change the landscape of wrestling games.

Speaking of Roman, it's the Tribal Chief and his wider family who take centre-stage in this year's Showcase, as players get to run through some of the matches that shaped the career of Reigns, The Rock, Yokozuna, Umaga, and various other members of the Samoan Dynasty and its offshoots.

Elsewhere, the previously much-maligned MyGM mode is back, MyRise puts you in the middle of a hostile takeover, the opinion-splitting MyFaction is here for those who want the grind, and Universe lets you shape the wrestling business or just focus on the career of one particular grappler. There are new match modes, fresh characters making their series debut, and there's of course the extensive Creation Suite that is so often a major draw for these games.

So with all of that in mind, then, let's take a look under the hood of WWE 2K25 and see what's what.

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Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.