Professional wrestling, or specifically World Wrestling Entertainment, have undergone heavy changes in recent years. What was once a product aimed directly at young adults and over has almost dumbed itself down to widen its audience with a ‘PG’ rating to go with it. Long gone are the days of hardcore brawls and blood spewing all over the squared circle. Now WWE offer a more ‘family-friendly’ show, with most profanities shown the door. Some would argue that Vince McMahon, owner of the company, has betrayed fans of old to sell more tickets, whilst others feel change is good. This brings us to THQ’s latest wrestling game, WWE ’12, which the developers have promised to be a big change from its predecessor. Is this the wrestling game the world has been waiting for? Or does THQ fall short of its own self-hype?
First things first, the name of the game itself brings about significant change. THQ have dropped the stale Smackdown Vs Raw branding, which passed its sell by date three or four games ago. This in itself is already a good sign. Then you have the different options of buying the game. The standard WWE ’12 game features Randy Orton on the cover and with his face across the menu screen. However, if you didn’t want Randy, there was the option of pre-ordering a special ‘People’s Edition’ of the game, featuring The Rock instead. With ‘The Great One’s’ return to the ring this year and the buzz surrounding it, this has proven to be a smart move by WWE and THQ combined.
The biggest change in this latest WWE title is the gameplay. THQ have an introduced ‘Predator Technology’, which they believe will make for a more fluent and rhythmic wrestling match. Thankfully this is indeed a great and much needed change to the series, which has made playing a match very high-paced and far more enjoyable. Wrestlers no longer warp to another part of the ring when one applies their signature move anymore. They’ve also made the environment more responsive, with wrestlers dangling off the ropes if they’re laid out nearby them. THQ have also adjusted the control system to take much of the emphasis away from the right-analogue stick, which was beginning to become quite the drag in previous games. The player must now building momentum in the match to be able to deliver their better moves. A new feature is the ‘comeback’ attack, which gives the player the opportunity to fight their way back into a match when they’re nearly finished, using a string of button attacks. Also included is a new submission system, titled ‘Breaking Point’, which is essentially button bashing to break the hold. The player also gets the opportunity to do damage to specific limbs when grappling. Overall the new gameplay is a massive improvement on Smackdown Vs Raw 2011, and provides the player with a far more exciting and enjoyable experience.
The presentation of this game excels any other wrestling game before it. The graphics are extremely precise, from every little L.E.D on the entrance stage to the tattoos on C.M Punk’s chest, THQ have done themselves proud with these extraordinary in-game visuals. They’ve clearly sat down and watched an episode of Monday Night RAW, and from there created a look and feel to the game which is as close as anyone has come to recreating the real thing. They’ve stripped the player of an in-game HUD and only included the relevant television logos (WWEHD, ‘Live’ etc), more small details which make playing the game all the more fun.
Unfortunately, WWE ’12 does have its faults. The ‘Road to Wrestlemania’ game mode returns once again, and it’s quite simply the worst game mode ever incorporated into a wrestling game. THQ have taken a seemingly interesting idea of having an 18-month storyline, and somehow sucked all the fun out of it. Playing a match in RTW is controller-out-of-window frustrating, with scripted endings to each match meaning that 9/10 bouts will end in interference, disqualification or an ending which you do not control. If your character is scripted to lose the match, the pin option just disappears from the game, so the player has to stand back and watch their character get beaten up and pinned to continue the storyline. Solid ideas such as a United Kingdom stable and a WCW reformation are wasted in this dreadful game mode. Sadly, the negatives do not stop there. The online feature is very temperamental, with not enough servers to meet the demand of users. Some days the servers are as they should be and the player can challenge their friends to a match. Other times the player won’t even make it to the Xbox Live menu for the game. This is a crying shame as last year’s stellar online options have made a return this year, with customised content by other users available for download, as-well as the new addition of allowing users to download other users’ own arenas, something made happen by the new ‘Create-An-Arena’ mode, which is unfortunately not all it’s cracked up to be. There are several options for the player to edit at ringside, but nothing whatsoever up the ramp or the entrance stage itself. Hopefully next year’s game will add more depth to this mode as it’s something that wrestling fans have been waiting for. Thankfully the ‘WWE Universe’ mode makes a triumphant return, with minor tweaks added. Not a great deal is different in this edition, but nevertheless it’s still a pleasure to play through, with the opportunity of taking your own created superstar, or even another wrestler, and sky-rocketing them up the ranks to compete at a Pay-Per-View for a championship belt.
Without a shadow of a doubt, the best feature on WWE ’12 is the ‘Create a Superstar’ mode. THQ have always had a great edit function, but this year’s game takes it to new levels. The player now has the option of creating their own wrestler with four different attires, their own cheesy entrance video, as well as the entrance itself, a vast amount of moves to apply to their character as well as a tag-team or stable to join if they so choose to do so. Most game time will probably be spent in these areas, as there is so much to choose from that editing your wrestler never seems grow tiresome. Every last detail of the player’s character can be changed, including both their entrance and backstage attires to go with it. The sheer amount of options given to the player is simply remarkable.
WWE ’12 is simply the best wrestling game ever made. THQ promised big changes and they have delivered. It’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, with Road to Wrestlemania, online issues and the odd glitch to name a few faults, but they have done enough to justify both themselves and the WWE itself. Simply put, it’s an extremely fun game. A game in which the hours will tick by and you’ll still be changing your elbow pads because of the wondrous amount of options the player has when changing their character. All the usual game-types are there to be had, which are still just as enjoyable as ever. Creases still need to be ironed out, but this is a bold new direction THQ are taking, and the beginning of very special series of games. And that's the bottom line 'cause Gamestyle said so!
