As far as WWE games go, they don't get much better than this
One of the best features in Smackdown! Here Comes The Pain is the grappling system. Basically there are four different battle that can be performed, speed grapple, signature grapple, power grapple and submission grapple. Once you have grappled someone with one of these different types you can do one of four different moves, and obviously the four different moves are different in each grapple (if your in a power grapple you can perform one of four powerful moves and if your in a speed grapple you can perform one of four speedy moves and ect.). This new grappling system may sound complicated, but its not, its actually very simple. In addition to grapples you can also perform strikes, such as clotheslines, high elbows and drop kicks and plenty of others.
The story mode in Smackdown! Here Comes The Pain isone of the best ever found in a wrestling game. The story is great and its nice and lengthy. If you have chosen a WWE Superstar you will start of the story mode in there respective brand, but if you have chosen a created wrestler you can choose which one you want to go to, but you can basically go to any of the brands because you can switch them with other superstars which means you can switch there brands, if that makes sense.
The story in the game is pretty good,m but some of the story lines have actually happended in one of the episodes of either Raw or Smackdown!. After every match you win you are given superstar points. If you get over a certain amount you are elidgable yo challenge a champion for a belt, example. If you get over 80 superstar points you can then challenge the U.S Champion (or the Intercontinental champion if your on Raw). And there are 3 different types of championships that you can win and you can get all three, if you play your cards right.
The graphics in WWE Smackdown! Here Comes The Pain are alright. The actually championships and the crowds are 2D and they don't look that good, but everything else is 3D and its interactive as well (to a certain extent anyway). The character models are pretty detailed but some of the lower class superstars look ma bit sloppy. The Smackdown series has never really had that great sound and as far as sound goes, Smackdown Here Comes The Pain is alright. The soundtrack fits the action quite well but there isn't really a great variety in there. But overall the sound and the graphics are pretty good and above average.
As far as WWE games go, they don't get much better than this. The grappling system is flawless, and theres a good variety of moves in each characters move set, the create a wrestler mode is solid and so are the sound and graphics so this game is solid in pretty much every aspect. If your a fan of the previous entry's of the series than you won't go wrong with Smackdown! Here Comes The Pain.