Well, we are truly on the Road to WWE 2K22, with there being only 6 weeks until the game is released for everyone to play on March 11th (March 8th if they have pre-ordered the Deluxe or NWO 4-Life Game Editions).
So far we have only seen screenshots, graphical overhauls, and brand new features such as MyGM and MyFaction in the recent trailers and interviews with the 2K development team.
But the thing that the fans most want to see is uninterrupted gameplay since the team has spent so much time hyping up their new gameplay engine built from the ground up and so far we have only seen small pieces of gameplay here and there in the trailers.
The fans also want to see who has made the in-game roster for the last 2 years, so many superstars that were on the WWE 2K20 Roster have been released from the company so seeing who and who hasn't made the cut for the roster may settle the fans' nerves on if their favorite superstar is still there on the WWE 2K22 Roster.
Over this week we have seen some more superstar overalls reveals for some of the current in-game roster from the @WWEGames Twitter Account along with the possibility of another 2K Showcase Match being included based on an unlockable superstar who is currently on the active roster.
We have also heard some new gameplay and visual details for WWE 2K22 from a new interview with the members of VYBE talking to WWE Games' Creative Director Lynell Jinks and the Art Director Christina Diam Pham.
So in this article, we will be going over the new overalls of the revealed superstars along with comparing them to their 2K20 Counterparts and the new gameplay and visual details from the VYBE interview.
WWE 2K22 New Roster Overall Reveals and Comparisons
To begin, over this week we have been seeing the overalls of superstars on the current roster be revealed and so far we have 3 new superstar overalls shown to us.
The first of these revealed overalls would be for the former WWE Champion "The Allmighty" Bobby Lashley who will have an overall of 91 in WWE 2K22.
This would be a good improvement against his appearance in 2K20 where he would have an 85 overall but this comes as less of a surprise due to the year he has had on TV.
The second superstar to be shown off this week was Drew Mcintyre who like Bobby was also rated a 91 overall.
Drew's overall would once again be an improvement from 2K20 as he was rated an 87 overall.
The final superstar would be the first female star so far to have their overall which was "The EST of WWE" Bianca Belair who would be given an 86 overall.
Bianca would be rated higher than 2K20 since in that game she was rated only a 77 overall.
While we will be hearing about more superstars' in-game overalls, it is a little disappointing that so far the stars who had their overall revealed have been people anyone could tell were already going to be in WWE 2K22 and that it has only been one per day when we are 6 weeks away from the game's release.
However, with the Royal Rumble being this weekend, WWE could drop the entire roster of the game or maybe some actual gameplay.
Finally, regarding the roster, one superstar who is making their in-game debut in WWE 2K22 is the son of Rey Mysterio, Dominik Mysterio!
What is interesting is despite being a member of the active roster along with his father, Dominix has been confirmed as an unlockable character.
From this information and the fact that the 2K Showcase is going to be based around Rey Mysterio, it may be wise to speculate that not only is the Rey Mysterio vs Eddie Guerrero Ladder Match at SummerSlam 2005 is going to in the 2K Showcase Mode and upon completion, but Dominik will also be unlocked for the player to use in free play.
WWE 2K22 Virtual Thunderdome Crowd and More Gameplay Details
Something that is quite reassuring to most fans is the number of fellow content creators getting involved in the promotion of WWE 2K22 as shown off in the Cover Reveal Trailer.
Many people believe the opinion of these famous content creators like when we heard nothing about WWE 2K20, these people still came out and said that it wasn't going to be a good game and that they are just like us fans who just want to enjoy wrestling and their video games for what they are.
To continue this trend, last week the boys over on the VYBE Youtube Channel got the chance to exclusively interview the WWE 2K Creative Director Lynell Jinks and the WWE 2K Art Director Christina Diem Pham about WWE 2K22 and we were able to find out some brand new details about the different game modes.
The first thing to bring up is about the Thunderdome Arena being playable in 2K22 as people were curious if players would be able to use the virtual crowd boards that were used in The Thunderdome Era and Lynell and Christina would confirm that this is an option that players may be able to use in the Create-An-Arena Mode.
During the interview, Lynell and Christina would also say that all of the active in-game roster have been rescanned whereas the stars who are sadly no longer with us still received an improvement. Along with this, Lynell also talked about the game's new camera angles where he would say he wanted the fans to see how big the arena really is.
He would then go to talk about the gameplay engine which according to Jinks has been completely rebuilt from the ground up which is something the team had always been cautious about doing as even the smallest chance has a chance to cause problems when added with the array of unique match types and the 8 player limit at one time.
However, the team were able to do it and also implement a new fighting system which Lynell would say is noticeable when you first pick up the controller and for anyone struggling, there is a tutorial that will take the player over all of the new controls and is replayable from the menu for anyone who wants a refresher.
One chance in the latter WWE 2K games was the restrictions of where ladder and tables can be placed with many people understandably not liking this new approach. Well to the delight of the fans Lynell and Christina would reveal that these restrictions have now been removed which should make TLC matches more unpredictable and fun to play.
Finally, Lynell and Christina in the interview would say that when weapons are used in matches, they will not only break at a few hits but they would also show visual damage like the Cover Reveal Trailer when Bobby Lashley hit Big E with the steel chair.
Here is the full interview from the VYBE Youtube Channel for anyone interested. Thanks to VYBE for the interview video and congratulations on reaching 100K Subscribers.
What do you guys think of the recent Roster Overall Reveals and the VYBE Interview?
Leave your comments down below and thanks for checking into The Smackdown Hotel!
