WWE 2K18 Slams Fans’ Eyeballs With Ultra-Realistic First Gameplay Footage

The makers of WWE 2K18 are promising big visual improvements this year, as they’ve moved the series a new, updated graphics engine. Last week, they revealed the game’s first screenshots, and now they’ve released a glimpse at WWE 2K18 in action, and it does indeed look impressive. Check out the footage, above.

While WWE 2K18‘s level of detail is roughly similar to past entries in the series, the game’s lighting and other effects are subtler, giving the game a more realistic, less-plasticky look. It also appears as if more attention has also been paid to the little details, with championship belts and the dreaded steel stairs looking just as they should. WWE 2K18 creative director Lynell Jinks detailed all the work that’s gone into the game’s new look:

“When we started working on WWE 2K18, our goal was to not only create the best wrestling game ever, but the best-looking wrestling game ever. With that goal in mind, our team of artists and engineers worked tirelessly to improve the quality of pretty much all our art assets, from our props, to our environments, to our superstars.

Due to our new lighting model and shaders, we’ve really improved the rendering quality of our superstars. We’ve also gone back and re-scanned some older superstar models we’ve had in our game since WWE 2K15, giving them a fresh new look.”

Of course, the real question is – how will the game look when you’re actually having a match? They’ve tended to look a bit robotic in the past, so hopefully there’s some refinements. Oh, and will female wrestlers actually look decent this time around? Until now the models have not been terribly flattering. Until we get answers to these questions, I can’t unreservedly praise WWE 2K18‘s visuals.

WWE 2K18 unleashes its mayhem on Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch on October 17.