Every year, like clockwork, 2K Sports releases a new WWE 2K game. Like many annual sports franchises, the games start to blend together, and sometimes new entries feel like little more than mere roster updates. This year's entry, WWE 2K19, isn't just a roster update, though; it's a genuinely good professional wrestling game and has plenty of content to keep fans busy for a some time to come.

WWE 2K19 retains the core gameplay the franchise has featured for years now, with some slight changes here and there. In-ring action is faster-paced and somewhat simplified, making it easier to master the actual wrestling aspect of the game. Submission mini-games are simpler, whereas ladder match mini-games have been made more interactive, giving players a visual representation of when they will pull down the championship or briefcase hanging above the ring. This adds tension to the proceedings and makes ladder matches less random and more skill-based.

The core combat is sound, and while it largely sticks to familiar territory, what's there works and doesn't really need to be changed. In fact, the new stuff the developers try with the combat is a bit lackluster, with the Payback system being too cumbersome to pull off properly in most matches. Payback, for the uninitiated, refers to perks that players can activate in matches, though they all require special conditions on top of having players hold in a button and press another. The latter wouldn't be a big deal except sometimes the required buttons change depending on the Payback maneuver being used. The end result is that players may actually cost themselves matches trying to use the Payback moves, which is the exact opposite of their purpose.

Payback abilities can be ignored though, and that's honestly the best way to go about playing the game. As previously stated, the core combat works, and players can enjoy all the many game modes without worrying about the Payback moves.

WWE 2K19 has a number of different game modes for fans of the franchise to jump into, and they're all capable of providing hours of quality entertainment. The standard match types are all there, from regular bouts to battles inside Hell in a Cell. The Hell in a Cell match has been made a little too complicated in terms of how players can exit the cage and the decision to remove weapons is disappointing, but it's still good for some laughs, especially when playing against friends in local multiplayer.

Besides fighting in random matches, players can also check out the Showcase Mode, which focuses on the career of Daniel Bryan. By focusing on a single wrestler, Showcase is more streamlined, and the detail it goes into with Bryan's career is impressive, as it starts with his days training with Shawn Michaels fresh out of high school and goes to more or less the present day. Between matches, players are treated to live-action segments of Bryan talking candidly about his career, including the times he was released from the company in real life.

Fans of Daniel Bryan's work will find plenty to enjoy with the Showcase Mode, though the commentary during the matches in Showcase is the worst aspect. The commentators sometimes speak as though the match is happening in the present time, but other times they reference future events in Bryan's career. It also seems like the commentators spouting their scripted soundbites about Bryan's career clogs up their lines about what's happening in the ring, resulting in a series of bizarre reactions to moves that happened moments earlier. Despite this, Showcase is still fun and definitely worth checking out.

MyCareer is back for WWE 2K19, with players using the typically expansive character creation tools to make their own wrestler and play through a story mode reminiscent of older wrestling games like SmackDown: Shut Your Mouth and Here Comes the Pain. Players can continue playing the career mode after going through all the story chapters, and will have the opportunity to upgrade their character, make dialogue choices, and more along the way. WWE 2K19 teases the possibility of branching story paths, though the plot remains fairly linear and the idea that player choice matters that much is smoke and mirrors, but otherwise MyCareer is a definite highlight of the experience.

Those uninterested in story content can focus on the online multiplayer (which works surprisingly well this time around, from our testing), the always crazy WWE Universe mode (complete with cel-shaded and 8-bit filter options), and the Towers, which have players fight a sequence of pre-selected fighters like ladders in regular fighting games. Needless to say, there is a ton to do in WWE 2K19, and fans of the franchise will most certainly get their money's worth.

That being said, there are two glaring issues that need to be addressed. The biggest is the in-game currency that players have to earn to unlock much of the content. The grind required to earn any significant amount of currency is ridiculous, and the price of a lot of the unlockable content is just too high. Of course, players can shell out real world cash for an "accelerator" at launch that unlocks basically everything right off the bat, so it seems likely the in-game currency grind was put in place to push players to buy that add-on.

Unless they purchase the accelerator, WWE 2K19 players will have to grind for some content that seems like it should have been unlocked right off the bat. The House of Horrors match, for example, has been advertised as one of this year's big additions, but players have to either buy the accelerator to play the match type, or play through a significant portion of MyCareer mode first.

The second major issue with WWE 2K19 is that, like many of the WWE games that came before it, it is full of bugs. Most of these bugs are not game-breaking and a few can even add some hilarity to the proceedings, but others can be annoying and detract from the experience. Even with the excessive bugs, though, WWE 2K19 is still the most polished WWE 2K game to date by far.

A lesser problem, but something still worth mentioning, is that there are aspects of WWE 2K19 that are already outdated. For example, in real world WWE, the Hell in a Cell is painted red as opposed to the silver steel look it has in-game, and there are some pretty puzzling roster omissions as well. The lack of Tommaso Ciampa is especially disappointing, considering how he has been a huge part of NXT for the past year and has been featured in the main event of multiple NXT Takeovers.

Something else that may rub fans the wrong way is making Ronda Rousey a pre-order bonus as opposed to a part of the base game. Since Ronda Rousey is such a huge part of WWE's women's division, and has been for nearly a year now, it's just odd for her to be restricted to a pre-order bonus. It would be like leaving Tom Brady out of the latest Madden or Lionel Messi out of FIFA 19.

Eventually, one has to imagine that Ronda Rousey will be made available to all players in some form, and it's also possible that the developers will adjust the in-game currency grind and fix some bugs. It will almost certainly improve with age, but at launch, WWE 2K19 is still a generally high quality professional wrestling experience that will give fans of the franchise plenty of bang for their buck.

WWE 2K19 is out now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Game Rant reviewed the game on Xbox One.