Having had enough time to sit down and play this thoroughly, I can give a better review of this game. I still say it's the best WWE game to come out since 2k14, and it's in my top 5 of wrestling games. The outdated roster and some caw limitations hurt the score, but I would say it's an 8.5 imo. The good really does outweigh the bad, and the bad would be the limited MyGM/MyRise/missing caw features.
I might be in the minority here, but I think the career mode in 2k20 was more fun since it had a story. MyRise started to feel tedious after a while especially with the redundant side quests, and they don't tell you which quests will unlock certain arenas. I almost missed out on the Japan Hall because I didn't read the text about HOEgan. MyRise is going to make you hate the game and put it down, but once you unlock everything you don't ever have to play it again.
I noticed that the crowd's enthusiasm is dictated by whoever is in the ring. If you have Brock vs Roman they won't shut up, but put 2 lower tier people in the ring and it sounds WWF Attitude crowd on the PS1 with the random shout outs
. The creators have really been doing a great job with a lot of these caws, and being able to have different pictures for the alternate attires is a nice touch. Overall 2k & VC redeemed themselves for the horrible abomination that was 2k20, but they need to follow this formula and just expand on it in with future releases. HCTP can still rest comfortably as the undisputed GOAT.