Not so impressive. The game gets butchered by trying too hard to be as real as possible.
I have to say straight away that I am a huge fan of WWE, though as the programming is changing and getting more childish – I've stopped with Smackdown and I'm almost done watching Raw now. When I got this game, I will admit – I was expecting a watered-down version of 2010 or something, but no. This game has got to be one of the best in the series. The blood is still there....also the blood is turned off at first, you have to enable it. I don't see why? Maybe parents are coming down on Smackdown games now......UGHH
Gameplay:
I just want to start off saying....if you complained about 2010 being too easy (I did).....they did shoot up the difficulty this time around!
What's changed most about this game this year has been the physics. They are completely different. I am always going to remember my first moment with this game – running into Randy Orton and attacking him, and he fell out of the ring through the ropes. That set me a good impression from the start. The main focus of the game this year appears to be the new system – and it works very well but it still has its flaws. The referees are also as clumsy as ever and I'm aware that WWE is staged and the referees are suppose to play their "blind eye" tricks; but most of the time it is just flat out annoying and not worth having. What else annoys me is when you're in a grounded state – you can't mash "A" to get up faster, you've just got to wait and all the superstars just spend forever on the floor, so it gets flat out annoying. Also TLC is the "spotlight" apparently of this year – and it is defiantly fun to play; but its one hard son of a ------. The objects break better and how you would expect them to (sorta).
I give the new engine an 8/10. It is good fun, but unreliable at times.
Along with the new engine they have also changed the controls and grappling system. This new grappling system basically means you have to start of with something like an arm bar and then just end on a weak suplex or something. As you progress on with the game – you can do stronger and more powerful grapples. I think it goes on for how much damage your opponent has taken or if they're in a groggy stance but honestly – There are some things in games that are good to have and some things are not needed. It's a game and this whole "weaker grappling" system is one more step away from us actually having to cut our own promos before we start a match. It's going too far.
Grappling system and controls – 7/0
Create A Wrestler looks recycled from last year which I think is okay because 2010's CAW was good, and 2011 has thrown in some new things. Also finally we get to be able to create custom fan signs for our own Wrestlers. One thing I'm not too keen on is the fact that custom wrestlers can now start with all their skill points at 90 (which shows on the stats as 100). This means that you are going to get an awful lot of people on XBL with this and I suppose it makes a fairer match – but I prefer working hard to be able to beat everyone. The entrance customizing is practically the same as last year. One thing that's bugged me about the entrance thing is that if you select custom music off your xbox – the music comes blasting right out of the TV so loud….but with everyone else, it's just fine. I'm using the same song as I did last year and I had no problems like this whatsoever. Maybe it's just me, but I don't know. Create A move set is also very big and exactly what you'd want, other than simplicity but I'm not bothered about that. It shows us as proper wrestling fans that we know our stuff ahahah. Last but not least….create a finisher is back and holy……You can now have front (they don't need to be groggy anymore which makes sense), the top rope; turnbuckle and now corner. They also seem to flow better than 2010's animations and you can now precisely adjust the speed of them rather than last year when it was by 25%
Customization: 8/10
WWE universe also is spectacular. I'm glad they have a feature like this back again – although I do miss the style of it in 2007's game. You make shows on Superstars, Raw and Smackdown. You can either simulate them or play them as yourself. What I also like is match customizing. You can combine many different types of rings and matches – such as cages in any type of match. Again, this is a feature I was dying to see for a few years and thank god it's finally here! The PPV's are also in this mode and they can be fun the play. Championships do change and #1 contender slots are scattered about here and there.
Road to Wrestlemania is still here and let's just say that it's much better than it's been in previous years. You can walk about back stage now which is a nice option but it's pretty pointless. Also the camera is too sodding close to the Superstar and the camera reacts to his slightest movement, so that's something you better get use to. The stories are pretty good but THQ are taking some risks and heading off to the more childish scene now.
Story/Universe: 7/10
OVERALL FOR GAMEPLAY: 30/40
Graphics/Texture/Framerate:
I'm not the one to nitpick at graphics so don't expect much from me. What I can say is that the game does look a lot nicer than previous games. They've made it look brighter, it feels more illuminated and it's more appealing to look at. I've encountered some graphic flaws which are a bit of a bummer but hey, like I said – I hardly nitpick about graphics unless they're revolting and unappealing to look at….and it's not in this game.
The framerate kills it at times though. It seems to lag a fair bit, mainly online but we'll get to that later. On offline play it works smoothly in simple matches, though the bigger they are – then the more expected you should be to see lag. Sometimes I've had the game lag out before it even began a 6 man match which I think is disappointing.
GTF: 5/10
Sound:
The sound effects are not a big part of this game to me. But the commentary also gets on my nerves a bit….It's obviously recycled from other games seeming though Jerry Lawler calls Michael Cole "JR" (being from previous games) and the commentary doesn't flow well unless you're playing in RtWM. You will hear the same one-liners over and over and over again. When it comes to sound effects, they're positive and respond at the time you'd hope and expect them to. So I'll give sound 7/10
Online: (40)
Online was made to sound amazing this year and it looks it from the menus. I was expecting something great from online and it looks great at first. Though the lag on it is just….atrocious. Having a 12 player (in a 30 man) royal rumble is just painful to watch. It feels like a chipped DVD. Asides from the painful lag, this looks like a great online game. If you can catch a day when it's not going to lag then have some fun and make the most of the time before it all starts to lag again. Not to mention – I have a wired connection and we own a full package, high end internet supply. So it's not our connection letting it down.
I've encountered a lot of glitchers on SvR2011 also and they are so obvious and stupid – if you go into a ranked royal rumble you WILL see one every 5 games. I bet you.
Still though, if lag doesn't bother you as much as it bugs me – you shouldn't have too much trouble.
Online play: 25/40
So overall…
Gamplay: 30
Graphics ect: 5
Sound: 7
Online play: 25
Overall: 67/100
(Round it off to 7/10)
Final comments are….
I think the series is starting to show it's age now to be honest. What can they do next year? Well we're expecting to see Nexus and that's just going to be flat out annoying. THQ need something big to save the series.
If you read this entire review then thankyou very much! Take care and have fun!
- Martin