A step in the right direction
The game takes its first turn for the better by making the players feel as if he's really part of the game by creating a wrestler from scratch as he try and make a name for himself in the WWE. So as what you may have already guessed, the first thing that you will have to do here before you'll be able to start the story mode is creating your own character. The CAW here is in a lot of ways very much similar the last year's release. One of the few changes is how the attributes affect the moves that you will be able to apply with your wrestler. For example, if you distributed most of your points for your character's speed, you will (at first) not be able to use hard-hitting body slams and will only be able to select quick moves such as the things you'd expect Rey Mysterio would be executing on his opponents. This helps the character act more like his attributes and prevents you from seeing a small and quick wrestler performing pile-drivers and gorilla presses. Another change that is worth mentioning is the players capability to select his own finisher from the usual list of moves and not limit himself from what the rest of the locker room is already doing. Same can be said with the entrance theme but unfortunately, there's only one original score to choose from if you want to have a unique entrance music. You can now also create a maximum of 3 characters compared to last year's two.
Once you're done creating your character, you can now start the story mode which is a good addition since it helps keep you playing the game. You'll experience being a part of special (modified to one-on-one) events such as Summerslam, King of the Ring, Royal Rumble, all the way to Wrestlemania. You'll have the usual alliance, deceit, revenge, and even some love story in the mix with a couple of twists that will cause you to get transferred to different brands. And for those of us who got irritated with fighting the same character over-and-over again with last year's release, this game has fixed that by limiting the amount of times that you will face the same character and adjusting the spacing between the fights. The story is driven by cut-scenes that uses the game's in-game graphics complete with facial animation. There are however no voice-over here because everything is text based. The nice thing about this new feature is that the game is now somewhat unpredictable because your choice of action will be in some cases going to affect how the story will progress. Also, be informed that you will not be using only a single character during the entire campaign. Since you'll be forming an alliance with other wrestlers, expect to use a few other superstars as well.
The title has also improved gameplay wise thanks to its now d-pad and buttons only control scheme. It might take some time to get used to but this type of control works best with games such as this one. Point specific damages like what we have last year is now no longer available and it has been replaced by the wrestler's name changing from white-to-red. Getting back up after a slam is now a matter of tapping a button repeatedly, same goes with trying to stop a 3-count. Executing a back-grapple which is quite hard to execute with last year's release has been addressed here as well. The AI takes a slightly longer time to face his opponent after getting back up from the mat. And if last year, you're only limited to duking it out in the ring, here you can fight almost anywhere you want to: locker room, construction yard, backstage, parking lot, your house, etc complete with items getting shaken from the action (eg: cars shaking from slams or boxes getting smashed).
I have mixed emotions with the developers decision to use "cards" in the game which enables you to do different things in a match. Yes it's only limited to a maximum of 3 cards per bout and it does make the game at times a little bit more realistic (by using cards that distracts the wrestler with a sexy girl outside of the ring, or another wrestler interfering) but they should have added the option to disable it. The said cards can be acquired by simply playing through the game or being able to answer properly on some character interaction scenes wherein the card will be given to you as a reward. You can also purchase it on a shop which also offer cards that will unlock other signature moves such as the ankle lock or the tombstone piledriver. Other cards include the specific wrestler card that will enable you to view a wrestlers stat and listen to his entrance theme music, and some other extras such as costumes and things that you can use in CAW.
The game is still graphically impressive and its obvious that the character models has received a considerable amount of enhancement. Animation is also top-notch and the facial animation and expressions are quite convincing. The arena looks polished and the crowd is no longer as jagged as before, still flat though.
The sound on the other hand is in my opinion a mixed bag. Although yes some of the sound-effects and the ring-announcer quality is really nice, we're still missing the grunts from the wrestlers. Given that the game doesn't have any commentator, a few "ughs" and "owws" from the wrestlers would have been a nice addition since after all, it has been done even in the SNES and Megadrive days. The entrance themes still suffer from compression and are at times already muffled. A lot of the menu music were also borrowed from last year's release. But it's nice to see that Mr. Kennedy's entrance is no longer shortened and it now includes his entire line on the microphone while in the ring.
Now you might be asking why I only gave the game a rating of 8 when this version has fixed most of its last year's flaws? Well that is because it has also introduced other issues like the game's difficulty that is in my opinion too easy. Given that the game has cards that enables you to legally cheat, I don't see the reason why I was able to breeze (haven't lost a single match) through some of my matches without getting hit at least once by my opponent. On top of that you can also spam the same move(s) repeatedly until your opponent goes into the red. It shouldn't be an issue if they retained the point-specific damage of last year's release but for some reason, they thought that it was better to have it removed. You will also at times find yourself spending around 10 days waiting for your next fight. And eventhough you can go to the gym to help strengthen your character, the mini-game based exercises there is also quite frustrating because some of them take a long time to finish. And given how easy the game is and that you have the ability to just purchase a "health" card, players would think twice about wasting their time in the gym. As for the what seems to be a "random" brawl, you'll find it interesting to know that you will need a 3-count to end an unscheduled fight and you'll also hear the bell ring even when you're fighting outside like on a consturction yard. And for those of you who want to have some diva or tag-team action, it's still sadly not an option with this game.
The game is obviously heading in the right direction but it's quite sad to see that the game has introduced new issues that prevented it from being great. I would still recommend a purchase on this title especially if you're a WWE fan. Its got a lot of what you're looking for: 9 match types, 30 wrestlers, and 15 arenas that should keep you busy while waiting what Yukes have in store for us with next year's release.
.:My reviews are only as good as everyone else's. Take every single one of them with a grain of salt:.