WWE Day Of Reckoning - Gamecube

by THQ

The latest WWE game has finally hit the Gamecube after a barrage of TV publicity. The Wrestlemania moniker has been dropped and a new name has been adopted along with taking a fresh approach to the game itself having a brand new game engine influenced by the PS2's Smackdown series, game modes including an all-new story mode and much more...

I have to be honest and say that originally I wasn't planning on comparing this with other wrestling games, but with the restructuring of the website and in particular the way we are looking at wrestling games, I thought it would help to put this game into perspective, especially with the fact that most die-hard wrestling fans will own more than one gaming format anyway. That aside, I'll get on with the review itself...

There are about 40 wrestlers on offer in Day Of Reckoning which is quite limited and you will find that many of your favourites will be missing from the line-up from the Raw and Smackdown rosters with some rather strange choices being included in preference to the more popular stars. There are about 35 Superstars in the game to start off with and although the game boasts that it features WWE Legends, the game starts off with just one available - Rowdy Roddy Piper. More can be unlocked during the story mode including Andre The Giant and Greg Valentine, but in terms of the current roster, the choice is limited to less than 35.

There are other goodies available for unlocking and this is done through the Shop Zone. As you progress through the story mode (which I'll come onto later), you are awarded cash for each match and you can use this to buy items in the shop. This ranges from costume parts and arenas, weapons for use in the game and movesets for use when creating your own characters which include a few well-known Superstars missing from the game including Brock Lesnar, Mick Foley and a certain Mr Hogan...

The game's combat system has been updated and enhanced, taking some of the best elements from Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain and adding a few improvements of its own. The main improvement to this is that you can now inflict damage on your opponent to specific body parts and this is indicated on screen on a small figure. As each area of the body takes more damage, these parts become less resistant to submission moves so it adds a more strategic element to the gameplay. For example, if you are playing as Kurt Angle, it now makes sense to concentrate your attacks on your opponents legs for a while before finishing with the Ankle Lock - your opponent will have no chance!!

With submissions, this is another area where the developers have learned from the Smackdown series on the PS2. While I may seem to be singing the praises of the PS2 games a lot, if one of the games is doing something right, then I don't see why they shouldn't adopt the same ideas in the other formats! One you have locked in a submission move, it's basically a tug-of-war between you and your opponent. A meter is displayed on screen with one end representing submission the other escape and an indicator somewhere in between. You have to hit the A button as fast as you can and try to get the indicator towards the submission end (if you have locked the sumbmission move on) or towards the escape end if you are on the receiving end of the attack.

It's a simple enough system but it works incredibly well. Some wrestlers are more resistant to submission moves than others or are stronger at performing submission moves and this will affect the initial position of the indicator on the meter. Also, as you take damage during the match to the different parts of your body as I mentioned earlier, this will make certain submission holds harder to escape from. All good stuff!

One new element that I hope is incorporated into the next Smackdown game is the Momentum Shift. As you weaken during the game, eventually, you will reach a dangerous state where you're pretty close to being pinned or losing the match completely. Just as in WWE, you have one last chance to turn the tables on your opponent by performing a Momentum Shift. By pressing the A+B buttons at precisely the right moment, not only can you perform a special attack on your opponent, but gain a massive boost to your vitality in the process, effectively gaining your second wind and bringing you right back into the match. You have to be careful as you can only use this once in a match, but it can be a life-saver but it's a great new feature!

The weighting system from SD:HCTP has also been adopted so there is little or no chance of Rey Mysterio lifting or body-slamming the Big Show, although this has been modified and improved from the PS2s system. Rather than simply being unable to lift someone far heavier, there is a meter on screen and depending on your strength rating and how fast you bash the A button an indicator rises on the meter and if it reachs the top then you will be able to lift your opponent but you'll have to physically put the effort in to do it!

There are all the usual single and multiplayer game modes on offer ranging from basic one-on-one matches, hardcore, ladder, hell-in-a-cell, royal rumble, table matches and many more besides. New to the line-up this year is the Bra & Panties match which will please all the male gamers which I don't think needs any explanation! However, if you've been living on another planet for the last few years or not been watching WWE, the match pits two of the WWE Divas against each other and you win by stripping your opponent down to their... you guessed it... Bra and Panties! Just beat them as much as possible until they are weak enough so they can't put up much resistance then it's a case of sheer button bashing!

The new game modes aren't without their faults though. When playing a tag-team ladder match with a computer controlled partner, the match is usually over very quickly as your tag partner often ends up climbing the ladder and grabbing the belt within a couple of minutes of starting the match and it seems all too easy for your team to win the match. Still with ladders and the TLC matches can only be won by climbing the ladders to grab a title belt both in exhibition matches and in the story mode - not the most realistic representation of the matches in WWE. Finally in terms of match accuracy, the Cage Matches have been changed for the game so these can only be won by escaping the cage over the top rather than by climbing out, using the door or by a pin fall or submission. They are only minor gripes, but it does detract from the feel of the matches when you can't play them the way you might want to.

Probably the most enjoyable matches in this - any any other wrestling game - when you have a few mates over is the over-the-top Royal Rumble mode. Here on the Gamecube up to four can play at once and you've got the choice of three different sizes of events - 10-man, 20-man, or a full-scale 30-man match. If you've never played this before (shame on you!), it's an elimination match and the only way you can be eliminated is to be thrown out of the ring over the top rope and the last person standing in the ring wins. These are always tough matches to get to grips with, especially as a one player game as you can always guarantee that the CPU characters will team up on you! The only gripes I have here is that only four wrestlers can be in the ring at once, and once you have been elminated the game ends. There is no option for you to re-join the game as another player - even in Exhibition Mode - and you can't even just sit and watch the computer controlled players.

My only other concerns with the general game elements concerned tag matches. I couldn't find any mention of Tornado Tag matches (regular tag matches but with both wrestlers on each side being in the ring at once with no need to tag in) and the inability to call your partner in for assistance during a regular tag match. Whether they come into help you or not seems to be a bit hit and miss, whereas your opponent's tag partner seems to run in to assist at every opportunity making tag matches a little one-sided.

One of the biggest parts of the game - and an essential element if you want to unlock all the hidden Superstars and buy all the arenas, weapons, moves and costume parts - is the story mode, and once again this has been completely changed from the one seen in Wrestlemania XIX.

The first thing you need to do with the Story Mode is to create a new wrestler - unusually, you can't use an existing Superstar, although as you'll understand in a moment, this makes perfect sense... Once you've got your new wrestler, you start out as a rookie joining the company being given a break with the WWE. You start out in matches in house shows proving yourself to the WWE talent scouts, making your way up before earning your right to appear on shows like Heat eventually earning the right to get a crack at Smackdown or Raw.

From there, you become involved in a major storyline interacting with the entire WWE roster forming alliances, rivalries, competing for titles etc. Unlike story modes in the Smackdown series, Day Of Reckoning differs in the fact that each match has a set objective that you have to achieve before you can move on. In the early stages where you have to earn your right to gain a spot on Raw or Smackdown you need to show that you can use all your skills as a wrestler. Whether this is through winning matches by submission, using your finishing move, within set time limits, or by meeting other criteria. These can be quite strict and failing to achieve these means having to restart the match.

The story itself is completely original and has been written specifically for the game and doesn't appear to be based on any recent WWE events which makes for a refreshing change. However, probably the biggest failing of the story mode is that it is too linear and restrictive. There is no provision for choices or failure in the game and if you don't achieve the set objective in each match or situation then you can't progress to the next stage. Throughout the stages I played (which was almost the entire story mode), the only real choice I was presented with was which brand to play - Raw or Smackdown - every other choice was made for me. Even when the story mode hinted that I had the opportunity to make a choice, that was taken away.

Nothing that affected the story itself was in my control and at no point was I even allowed to lose a match unless the story dictated it. If I did, I had no choice but to try again or return to the main menu. Don't get me wrong, it's still a great part of the game, but at times I felt that I was just going along for the ride and playing matches that I didn't really have much of a choice in.

Okay, so to use the Story Mode you have to create your own Superstar so once again there is the obligatory Create A Wrestler mode included in the game. It's functional and while it gives you the chance to alter the appearance, costume, moves and general look and feel of your wrestlers, it felt restrictive in comparison to the Smackdown series. I guess I just feel spoiled with what has been offered there before, but the choice of costume parts and flexibility just wasn't available to me here although there is more score than there has been in previous Gamecube outings.

There is the option now to add ageing effects to your wrestlers faces, and there is more control over the facial features on body shape (although nowhere near as comprehensive as the Smackdown body/facial morphing) and you can add a "photo" of your wrestler on the wrestler selection screen but it really doesn't give you the flexibility to create realistic Superstars or much variety in terms of costumes.

Visually, this is the best yet for the Gamecube in the WWE range, with much better animation on the wrestlers and the Superstars are generally much more lifelike (although some are a little hard to recognise - don't ask me why but this seems to happen every year with THQ!) and some seem to have overdone it with the baby oil backstage and seem to be too shiny, but generally the characters look fantastic. The arenas look pretty impressive, right down to the small touches and background details, but the crowd seems to be rather flat though and is rather poorly animated and does detract from the rest of the visuals somewhat.

The lighting and visual effects are also superb with great camera flashes, lens flares, impressive flames (Booker T's entrance, for example) and some reasonably good pyrotechnics, although the Gamecube still struggles with smoke and cloud effects and this is most noticeable with the Undertaker's entrance when the smoke seems to move as if it is in solid blocks across the entrance ramp. The only other weakness, and again this seems to be with the Gamecube's handling of particle physics, is the rather "starched" look of clothing such as The Hurricane's cape, although this certainly isn't as bad as it has been for the last couple of games!

Sound is generally quite disappointing. The sound effects are quite basic throughout and apart from the usual thuds and crunches, all you get during the game is music, and a constant crowd noise which doesn't really react to anything going on in the ring and the only speech in the game is the referee's count. The entrance music is there for all of the wrestlers with the exception of Stacey Keibler (for copyright reasons), but there are NO themes for any of the PPVs, Raw, Heat, Smackdown or any of the other shows for use in the Story Mode and none of the Legends featured in the game have their own entrance themes. When it comes to the Create A Wrestler mode, again the choice of music for the entrance themes is fairly limited to the existing music for the wrestlers in the game, or a choice of a further 15 licenced tracks that are also used during the game for other situations and as in-ring music so these tend to get over-used.

Despite the problems I have mentioned, this is arguably the best wrestling game on the Gamecube in every respect but it still falls someway short of the Smackdown series on the PS2 despite taking many of the best elements from the last outing on it's rival system and adding a few new tricks of its own. I know it's not fair to compare the two but with most wrestling fans owning more than one system and probably planning on buying both this and Smackdown vs Raw, this is certainly offering nothing new with the game mechanics that we didn't see in the Smackdown franchise a year ago, but it DOES manage to hold its own and is a good wrestling game in its own right.

Highly recommended!

Overall - 89% - Reviewer: Simon Plumbe