What’s the story?
SummerSlam is just around the corner, and you know what that means: it’s time everybody climbs aboard the WWE 2K hype train! This is the time of year when 2K Games and WWE start to promote their annual wrestling title and encouraging pre-orders.
As you may have heard, this year’s pre-order bonus is a playable version of Raw General Manager and your Olympic hero, Kurt Angle. Now, 2K Games has released a new game trailer featuring the WWE Hall of Famer, and it’s pretty intense.
In case you didn’t know...
Since WWE ‘12 (back when the series was published by THQ), the games have traditionally been promoted with a pre-order bonus of a playable WWE legend or celebrity – the first being Mike Tyson in D-Generation X gear.
Over the years, we’ve seen Ultimate Warrior, Sting, Goldberg, and even Arnold Schwartzenegger as bonuses. These bonuses typically are made available for sale later on, usually as the first batch of DLC content is released.
The heart of the matter
While Angle’s ad isn’t the Easter Egg filled extravaganza that the first ad with Seth Rollins was, it’s still pretty impactful. Taking up where the last ad left off, Angle enters the burned out remains of the “WWE Archives”, presumably to survey the damage.
In the wreckage, he finds one of his old wrestling boots. He then looks up to the sky, his face filled with rage and determination.
What’s next?
WWE 2K18 releases around the world on October 17th, or October 14th if you’ve ordered the Deluxe Edition for the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
Author’s take
Much like Sting and Goldberg in previous years, Angle’s inclusion as the pre-order bonus seems to prophesize an in-ring return – at WrestleMania, maybe? Whether he wrestles again or not, it’s nice to have him in a WWE video game again, since he hasn’t been properly included in one since Smackdown vs Raw 2007.
I’m not usually one for pre-orders – I usually buy digital and therefore don’t see the point, especially if the content is going to be available to buy later on – but being able to have Angle as part of my WWE Universe mode right off the bat might just be worth forking down the money early.
