Everyone has to make cuts in these troubling times, what with our crumbling economy, so THQ has done its bit by chopping down the name of its long-lasting WWE Smackdown Vs Raw series to simply WWE. Every little helps, and all that.
Name change aside, WWE '12 is the usual annual update from THQ's grappler. Rather than providing a complete overhaul of the game engine, as was the case a few years back, this year's instalment offers slight changes to its mechanics - none of which really make a notable difference to the way the game's played.
The rubbish analogue-based submission system of the previous game has been replaced with the new Breaking Point system, which sounds glamorous, but is just a fancy name for both players bashing buttons in an attempt to apply pressure or escape from a submission hold. Sometimes a simplistic approach works best though, and at least Breaking Point makes it clearer how close a player is to submission compared to the guesswork of last year.
Road Warriors
Grappling aside, the main Road To Wrestlemania mode has been given a bit of a revamp, with one lengthy story now replacing the five individual ones. Initially starting down the 'villain' path, you eventually get to play from different points of view as you progress. The storyline is written by real WWE writers, making for a great plot that could easily be a real TV job, and it's presented in an authentic manner, with video sections disguising loading times for the in-game cutscenes. We won't spoil the story, but long-time fans of the squared circle will be happy with one particular plotline about the invasion of an old wrestling franchise.
As any WWE fan will attest, playing the game is only half the fun. The array of creation and customisation options remains breathtaking, with each year's edition adding a new aspect to the ever-growing list of things that can be picked apart, created and designed. This year, as well as the usual wrestler, entrance, video, special move, storyline and logo creation, you can dream up your own arena too.
Our only niggle is that the customisation is limited to the ring area and doesn't extend to the entranceway, which as any WWE nut will know is the part of the arena that tends to change the most. Anyone hoping to recreate the TitanTron from old episodes of Raw Is War or the large WWF video wall circa 1992 will be disappointed.
Of course, as before, everything you make can be uploaded and shared in the online Creation Centre. Last year this contained a ludicrous amount of wrestlers, moves and storylines, and the addition of arenas is only going to make it an even more enticing prospect for fans. WWE '12 isn't so much a huge step forward for the series as a tiptoe, but it's the best wrestling game on Xbox 360 by default. Small modifications and the revamped Road To Wrestlemania aside, the game feels the same, with the only major addition being the Arena Creator mode. Grappling fans will want it for the updated rosters and the fun unlockable wrestlers (Legion Of Doom anyone?) but if you're only casually interested and have last year's instalment you might want to give it more thought, because it's very similar.
To paraphrase Bret Hart, it's the best there is, the best there was, but next year's will probably be a little bit better again.
12 comments so far...
SidTheSloth on 24 Nov '11 said:
Hmm, disappointing that it seems like a typical yearly iteration, especially as it's meant to have the all new 'predator' engine thingy in it. A lot of reviews elsewhere have been pretty positive about it on the whole saying the matches have more depth to them but this is making me think twice.
My problem with the wwe/smackdown games has never been the out of the ring stuff, it's the in-ring stuff that just feels shallow and repetitive. We had a thread not so long ago about this and i mentioned how the old N64 'no mercy' was the exception to this rule as each match felt unique (to a point). Some of the other reviews got my hopes up that finally we were moving more towards this but as is the case every year, that would seem not to be the case...
Maybe 13 will be lucky?
EdDeRs1 on 24 Nov '11 said:
dont care what OXM says, 7 is still a good score (ok an alright score) but other sites have praied it, GR gave it an 8 (same as Halo Reach got) and thats all i know off but im still getting it tmro
Bring It, Your Next, Here Comes the Pain, WOO WOO WOO! YOU KNOW IT!, Rest In Peace! (insert any ive missed)
SidTheSloth on 24 Nov '11 said:
Yeah 7's a good score, but it's what they say about the in-ring stuff being not that different that bothers me... The american OXM gave it 8.5, IGN gave it a 9, great scores, but if it 'feels' the same as last year i'm not sure, the matches have felt the same for years now!
Vegetunks9000 on 25 Nov '11 said:
was expecting more, but that's still above average so not too bad. Still gonna be a new year purchase though.
Grummy on 25 Nov '11 said:
As a life long wrestling fan I can honestly say that this sounds shit.
THQ's WWE games have been piss poor for the last couple of years, and nothing in this is any different. It STILL needs a complete new physics engine to incorporate complete collision detection with envrionments, not just 'hot spots', add to that greater control and execution over the moves and then the fundamentals will be near perfect. It'll change the game entirely, and all for the better.
comabob on 25 Nov '11 said:
he PS2 smackdown games were the last really good wwe games imo
obviously the 64 had the nwo games that were good but smackdown on ps2 was always worth a go
SidTheSloth on 25 Nov '11 said:
Maybe a very good indicator of the sales uptake/quality, but amazon actually have this as one of their black friday sales right now (and it's still available) for £27! You've got an hour, or the 46% remaining if you're interested!
RetroDad on 25 Nov '11 said:
Yeah, the series peaked with Here Comes The Pain for me. Awesome roster and felt good to play. It's just sheer laziness from THQ that they don't bother updating the finisher animations! I remember thinking about buying Smackdown Vs Raw 2011 until I saw some game play clips. It's just conning the genuine fans. THQ could do with some healthy competition, although where from....?
SidTheSloth on 26 Nov '11 said:
An accusation some could also level at the WWE itself nowadays...?
RetroDad on 26 Nov '11 said:
Very true. When your closest competitor is TNA, I guess Vince can just carry on wiping his ass with $100 bills.
Hordriss on 26 Nov '11 said:
I have the game, and I'll give my 10p worth here.
Reading the review makes me wonder how much the reviewer has actually played this game. As a yearly game, it is never going to be a million miles different from the previous instalment, however there have been a number of changes to the game which have resulted in the in-ring action having a different feel to it. The pacing is a lot different to previous games. The improved physics engine gives the game a different feel as well (the ring shaking is a nice little touch to improve the realism).
The biggest change, however, is in the AI. It is MUCH improved and even on the easy setting (with the sliders untouched), the CPU players actually put up a decent fight. The AI is far more aggressive, meaning you have to actually make an effort to win. Previously, the difficulty would be notched up simply by making the CPU players do cheap reversal after cheap reversal, but this time the AI actually goes all out and tries to attack you, This alone makes the game feel a lot different to previous WWE games. On SvR2011, you could put it on easy, and more than likely the CPU wouldn't get any offense in at all. This really isn't the case this time, and I've only played it on easy and I've had a good series of back-and-forth matches.
Universe mode is improved as well, with more flexibility with regards to title matches etc.
It's not perfect though - online is still dreadful. Lag is still a huge issue with online play, and the community creation servers are still down more than 90% of the time.
The other thing which bugs me is that the user interface is less user-friendly this time around. There are hundreds of things you can do and change, but some things aren't that easy to find.
I haven't touched RTWM mode yet so can't comment on that.
However, all in all I'm happy with my purchase.
EdDeRs1 on 28 Nov '11 said:
well its stil early days so u cant expect the online to be perfect, but one thing i really want to know is can other people onling hear user playlist used for caracters themes, as i was really pised in 2011 that nobody could hear Hallowed be thy name as my carcter came out with the Undertakers entrance, it was so epic, this year its gona be seek and destroy