ic-games Review - WWE Day Of Reckoning - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

ic-games Review - WWE Day Of Reckoning - Reviews, Previews and Interviews for PC, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii ic-games Review - Home - Review, Preview and Interview for PC, Xbox,Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii

WWE Day Of Reckoning

Information
Reviewer: Andrew Carmichael
Developer: THQ
Publisher: Yuke's
Reviewed: GameCube
Genre: Sports Simulation
UK Release: 17th Sep 2004
Article Date: 29th Oct 2004
Difficulty: Medium
Retail Price: £39.99
Price Comparison:
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Score Breakdown

Experience:
Game Play:
Graphics:
Sound:
Overall Score: 83%

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Pros

Huge range of moves and appearances

Cons

Story mode is weak

Screenshots

15 of 36

With two different weekly shows, a round up programme, classics from yesteryear and a monthly pay per view on offer you may start to think that the wrestling market is swamped at the moment. Clearly those at Vince McMahon Inc. in Connecticut and all at THQ disagree as they turn the same marketing strategy towards the games industry. Different games for different formats, rather than straight conversions, and a plethora of titles to choose from over the last few years. It’s a good job I like opening up a can of whoop-ass otherwise this could get a bit repetitive.

There are only two modes to play with this game – exhibition and story. That’s not the initial handicap it seems as within exhibition you can indulge in all the usual type of matches – single, tag, triple threat, royal rumble, et al combined with all the familiar special features – hardcore, cage, ironman and so on. Let’s face it the bottom line is always going to be you and an opponent trading blows in the centre of the ring. Where other THQ titles have scored in the past has been the story/career mode, each release building on the involvement and options for the single player. The idea remains standard – fight your way to the ultimate crown via some timely victories and backstage shenanigans; however this element for Day of Reckoning is considerably the lightweight of the roster. For starters you can create a wrestler but not begin as one of your screen heroes, so unless you name your grappler after a star then it will always be ‘John Doe’ versus whoever. That’s a shame as often the enjoyment is in altering the fortunes of someone you see weekly, or pitting a former champ on the comeback trail. Similarly the storyline doesn’t alter each time you load a new character and you don’t have the decision-making flexibility of other WE games. Admittedly, those are not exactly polished scripts and ultimately you only chose whether to be a face or a heel, or form a tag team but it did give you a feeling of self-determination – here the only factor in progression is whether you overcome the next challenge match on the first attempt or if you need to keep replaying.

One aspect that cannot be faulted is the actual creation menu. I have never seen so many variables in any wrestling game – not only visually (where you can even employ a paint package for colouring), but in the set moves. Picking some old favourites at random I found it pretty quick and straightforward to represent them on screen and name them accordingly – this does offset that lack of current superstar story mode somewhat. The wrestling holds, takedowns, special moves and taunts you can subsequently assign to your hero is awesome – some of which I’d never heard of but looked pretty fantastic when demonstrated by the crash test dummies re-enacting them (I’ve always liked that feature that only made random appearances in previous games – it saves a lot of time when building a profile.) Utilising the ‘shop’ basis for unlockables ie. the better you get - the more cash you earn - the more things to acquire, and so on, is always a good way of encouraging repeat plays, although you’d have to have a very specific effort in mind to actually need them – Mankind for example. There’s no building of stables or arranging of alliances simply because the story doesn’t allow room for that, and it’s a shame that what is possibly the best title for customisation across any platform is always hampered by this. Still with Barry Wyndham newly created I was ready to step into the squared circle.

Well the action is not electric I’ll admit that, certainly it doesn’t display the pace of say Smackdown HCTP on the PS2, but nor is quite as ponderous as the Legends series. I actually think it’s quite a decent balance, given the relative size of the protagonists and a good utilisation of the Cube’s powers. As you’d expect from a development house who’ve had lots of practice at this the characters respond well to your signals and everything flows in the right manner. The moves are executed well and something feels a bit more substantial about the blows and kicks being served up. At the outset you’ll be given a story link to achieve – for example trying to get Matt Hardy to submit via a leg move (to ‘test his strength’) and obviously you need to pan out your match as such – this is probably why it’s wise to opt for a balanced fighter but it’s relatively easy with resorting to the simplest of the four difficulty levels, and a good stats chart at the end will inform you of what you did and how much it took out of you. One thing that is a nice feature and more than in keeping with the ‘entertainment’ angle of the sport is the ‘momentum shift’. If you’re on the end of a fearful pounding (indicated by one of those figure/coloured area representations) you can try and unleash a dramatic reversal of fortune, one of those Lazarus style comebacks so familiar of Hogan or Ultimate Warrior. Fail and the likely outcome is a special finisher which works nicely here without quite the polish or razzamatazz of some of the Smackdown titles.

Overall it’s a good graphical package, it’s not slick and doesn’t have the near T.V visuals of other platform options, but it’s a vast improvement on previous Cube wrestling efforts and certainly doesn’t disappoint even if the female characters wouldn’t get into our top ten of pixellated babes. Sound is as you’d expect – liberal use of MTV generation tunes, as so often heard against a film of Triple H’s rehabilitation, or Austin homecomings (what? - you thought it’d be Perry Como and Lulu?) This is certainly the best you’ve ever had if you only own a Cube, and whilst not an excuse for others to rush out and buy one I think it does stack up quite well against better-known efforts in the genre. If every self-respecting gamer needs a wrestling title in their collection then Cubists, this is yours.

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