WWE 2K24went to theHitmanschool of throwing blunt objects at the heads of your foes. As a new mechanic in the upcoming annual series, wrestlers can now throw any held weapon - from sledgehammers to metal bats - directly at opponents for maximum damage. The weight of said objects isn’t a factor in the slightest, which only makes it funnier.
Even when you’re not throwing them like oversized boomerangs, swinging a weapon at your opponent feels and looks brutal. Kendo sticks snap with the appropriate weight as you strike against someone’s back, while the business end of a sledgehammer smashing into someone’s face constantly had me wanting to look away. It’s comical, and the fact that WWE is still against making its characters bleed lends the action all the more hilarity. I didn’t get a chance to put anyone through a table or use the ring steps as an impromptu murder tool, but 2K24 seems to be taking hardcore physicality in its stride without being gratuitous.
Among other new features, WWE 2K24 also introduces Ambulance, Casket, and special guest referee match types.
I could stare at my firstborn child with a smile on my face, and it still wouldn’t capture the magic of Agent 47 yeeting a fire axe through the air straight into an unsuspecting victim’s forehead. It is funny every single time because it looks and feels incredible, embracing the ridiculousness in the process. It feels like Hitman is defying the laws of physics because it doesn’t want to be realistic, it just wants to be badass. And it is, and I captured that very same energy in WWE 2K24 as my shovel took on a mind of its own.
The annual wrestling sim isn’t always the most polished, so new mechanics and ideas can be occasionally rough. That’s true for throwing weapons too, but instead of causing frustration, the wonkiness works. Hitting an opponent with a weapon will often cause the move to be reversed as they steal it from you, turning the tables - often literally - as you are forced to run away to defend yourself.
Throwing weapons shortens the equation, and you’ll find yourself constantly hurling random objects towards your opponents because it looks so funny and also deals a decent amount of damage. They also, at least in my experience, do not miss. So as long as your rival wrestler is within your line of sight, a press of the face button will see the weapon track towards their position with momentum intact.
Maybe this was just bugs in the preview build, but if so, please keep it in. Yeeting a steel chair from one side of the arena to the next as it seemed to control itself through the air had me rolling, only to wait as my enemy tried to helplessly outrun it. They couldn’t, and I quickly won the match.
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