The thrill of stepping into the virtual shoes of your favorite athletes is a cornerstone of modern sports gaming. For years, the NBA 2K franchise has captivated fans with its immersive MyCareer mode, allowing players to live out their basketball dreams. A key element of this immersion, particularly in NBA 2K17, was the innovative face scan feature. This technology allowed players to transpose their own likeness onto their created player, blurring the lines between reality and the game. Naturally, this feature sparked anticipation: would WWE 2K, the wrestling equivalent, follow suit and offer a similar level of personalization, especially for its own career-focused mode? This leads to the question: Is Nba 2k17 Face Scan Only For Career Mode, and more importantly, does WWE 2K15 offer anything comparable for wrestling enthusiasts eager to see themselves in the squared circle?
The Gold Standard: NBA 2K’s Face Scan and Career Immersion
NBA 2K17, and indeed many iterations of the NBA 2K series, raised the bar for player personalization with its face scan technology. This feature, deeply integrated into the MyCareer mode, allowed players to use their console’s camera or a mobile app to scan their face and import it onto their custom basketball player. This seemingly simple addition had a profound impact. It wasn’t just about playing a basketball game; it was about you embarking on an NBA journey. The face scan feature heightened the sense of ownership and investment in the MyCareer experience. Suddenly, every on-court triumph and off-court drama felt more personal because it was happening to a digital avatar that bore your own features. The question of whether NBA 2K17 face scan was only for career mode becomes almost secondary to its impact within career mode. It was a feature that significantly enhanced the core experience of becoming a virtual NBA star.
WWE 2K15 MyCareer: Promising Mode, Personalization Gap
Entering the ring with WWE 2K15’s MyCareer mode, the anticipation for a similar level of personalization was palpable. Wrestling, much like basketball, thrives on personality and connection with the audience. The idea of creating a custom wrestler and guiding them from NXT hopeful to WWE legend was incredibly appealing. However, a stark contrast to the NBA 2K experience quickly became apparent: the absence of a face scan feature. Unlike NBA 2K, WWE 2K15 did not offer a direct, in-game method to scan your face and apply it to your created wrestler. While the game did provide options for uploading a photo and attempting to overlay it onto a pre-rendered character model, this workaround was cumbersome and often yielded less-than-satisfactory results. The seamless and immersive face scan of NBA 2K was simply missing.
This omission was a significant blow to the potential immersion of MyCareer mode in WWE 2K15. The ability to see yourself in the game, trading blows with wrestling icons like Brock Lesnar or John Cena, would have amplified the personal investment and excitement. Instead, players were left to navigate their wrestling journey as a generic, albeit customizable, character, creating a disconnect that hindered the full realization of the career mode’s potential.
Immersion and Personalization: Why Face Scan Resonates
The desire for face scan in sports games, particularly in career modes, stems from a fundamental human desire for personalization and self-expression. In games like NBA 2K and WWE 2K, career modes are designed to be aspirational. They allow players to live out a fantasy, to imagine themselves achieving greatness in their chosen sport. The face scan feature is a powerful tool that amplifies this fantasy. By seeing a digital representation of themselves on screen, players forge a stronger emotional connection with their in-game avatar and the unfolding narrative of their career.
This sense of immersion is particularly crucial in wrestling games, where character and persona are paramount. Wrestlers are not just athletes; they are performers, storytellers, and larger-than-life personalities. Being able to inject your own identity into a created wrestler through face scan would have been a game-changer for WWE 2K15’s MyCareer, allowing players to truly embody their virtual wrestling persona and connect with the mode on a deeper level.
Beyond Face Scan: Addressing MyCareer’s Broader Issues
While the lack of face scan was a prominent point of disappointment in WWE 2K15’s MyCareer mode, it was not the only area where the mode fell short of expectations. As the original review highlighted, the mode suffered from a range of issues that impacted the overall experience. The silent protagonist, devoid of voice acting and meaningful dialogue choices, made it difficult to connect with the character and the unfolding storylines. The narrative progression felt slow and repetitive, lacking the engaging storylines and rivalries that define professional wrestling. The social media interactions, intended to build storylines, felt artificial and impersonal, failing to capture the drama and excitement of in-ring promos.
Furthermore, the limited customization options within MyCareer, even extending to basic settings like controller vibration, felt restrictive and player-unfriendly. These shortcomings, combined with the absence of face scan, contributed to a MyCareer mode that, while promising in concept, ultimately failed to deliver the immersive and engaging experience that players had hoped for, especially when compared to the standards set by NBA 2K’s career mode.
Looking Ahead: The Evolution of Personalization in WWE 2K
Despite the initial disappointment with WWE 2K15’s MyCareer, the desire for deeper personalization, including face scan technology, has remained a constant among WWE 2K fans. As technology advances and player expectations evolve, the inclusion of features like face scan in future WWE 2K games seems increasingly likely. The success of NBA 2K’s face scan and its positive impact on player immersion serve as a clear example of the value and appeal of such features in sports gaming.
While WWE 2K15 missed the mark in terms of player personalization in its MyCareer mode, the franchise has continued to evolve. Future iterations have hopefully taken note of the demand for features like face scan and strived to bridge the gap in immersion and personalization that was evident in earlier titles. The question of “is NBA 2K17 face scan only for career mode” ultimately highlights the feature’s importance to career mode experiences and serves as a benchmark for what players expect in modern sports games, including the WWE 2K series.
