The main WWE series may be taking a break for the year (and for good reason), but WWE 2K Battlegrounds looks like a fun alternative. Like its stablemate NBA 2K Playgrounds, it takes a lighthearted approach to the otherwise very serious wrestling spectacle.
As the trailer above shows, Battlegrounds is not a sim: fighters leap out of choppers onto the ring, magic fire is wielded against guitar playing foes, and there’s a goat for some reason. All this and more will be available when WWE 2k Battlegrounds releases on Steam this September 18.
There will be three main modes. There are Exhibition matches, and a Campaign centered around the “adventures of seven new WWE hopefuls”. These are joined by an elimination mode called King of the Battleground. 2K describes it as a “last-man-standing mode where four players start in the ring while four more wait outside to enter, challenging you to run the gauntlet and defeat them all.”
Bizarre melee weapons will be strewn across the eight maps, and one of them will probably be the aforementioned goat. The game is available to pre-order on Steam right now.