There was a time when Mark Henry would unleash his inner fury on anyone who got in his way, leading to their inevitable induction into the infamous Hall of Pain. Coincidentally “Hall of Pain” is also what the latest WWE 2K15 downloadable Showcase content pack is called. Will re-inducting some of his greatest and even largest enemies bring you some delight or instead, simply send you into a world of pain?
This second instalment of the three planned Showcase packs focuses on the World’s Strongest Man, Mark Henry, during one of his most dominant spells of not only recent times but in fact his entire wrestling career. Starting in 2011 with the first inductee Big Show at the Money in the Bank, it stretches all the way through till 2013 to a battle against a rather hungry Ryback at WrestleMania 29. Just like the Christian/Orton Showcase, this covers a grand total of nine matches.
Let’s get this out of the way now, if you do not like using Mark Henry or have no interest in him whatsoever then just turn away now. You’ll be playing as him in every single section. I say section because most of these are so short I wouldn’t feel right in calling them ‘matches’; instead they’re pure squashes. That’s one of the main issues I have, there are too many short offerings here and even then 2K haven’t chosen the best options to add a bit of freshness.
For example, why pick a squash segment with Kane to add yet another version of him that no one really wants? When I think back to what they could’ve replaced it with, it would have been good to see him taking out Vladimir Kozlov instead, thus bringing a fresh character to proceedings. On the other hand they did at least find a way to sneak The Great Khali in as an unlockable character, possibly the last time we’ll see him in a WWE game now his contract is up (finally). He is the only additional playable wrestler you’ll get from this pack, the rest are mere variants of already present superstars.
As for the rest there’s at least two which go on for quite a while, one of which is taking on Show at Vengeance but this time it was worth it to see one of the most memorable moments from a big man match. The lack of match variety hurts this Showcase for me personally with a rather short Hell in a Cell being the only one with a stipulation of any real excitement. It was good to see the video packages again though, it might’ve been because of the generally short match lengths but it seemed as though there wasn’t too long between each one.
There are plenty of alternate attires for Henry and as usual a couple of new arenas have been added including Vengeance and Mania 29. Neither of those would warrant the content purchase though as I don’t particularly rate the WrestleMania recreation.
That just about covers the entire Showcase and what it brings with it. I never expected much from the Hall of Pain even though I did enjoy the run he had during that time and this pack brought nothing useful that I’d use outside of the Showcase itself. I can’t knock the historical accuracies of the characters; it’s just that we’ve already had an extra Sheamus, Orton etc. from the previous downloadable content. It was a poor choice of time period to cover if I’m being brutally honest and I got barely any enjoyment moving at 1mph every fight.
The Hall of Pain will live on with a brand new inductee… me.
