WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2007 (PS2)

...unlocking various things and earning WWE cash as you go.

PRICE

The RRP is £34.99, but it's currently available from amazon for £24.99, or from £20.99 from amazon traders. A quick look on ebay suggests that you may be able to get it cheaper there, but probably not by more than £2 or 3 less than amazon traders.

OVERALL

This is a good addition to the Smackdown series of games and as such is ...
...of wrestling in general. It's nice to see that we've not merely been offered an updated roster for our money, but that there's also a fair bit of work been done on the gameplay. The game looks and sounds good and will no doubt give many hours of entertainment, potentially indefinite entertainment if you've a few like minded friends to 'get it on' with.

However, the loading times in this game are like nothing I've experienced since ... more

My name is John and I like wrestling. There, it's out in the open. I've watched a fair bit of wrestling in my time and yes, I know it's fixed, but I don't view it as a sport, I view it as a soap opera with more hitting and, as far as I'm aware, all soap operas are fixed! Anyway, as a few of my friends are also fans of wrestling, we've also become fans of the Smackdown vs. RAW (formerly just Smackdown) series of games on PSOne/2. So it was that I came to have Smackdown vs. RAW 2007 under the Christmas tree this year.

GAME INFO.

Genre = Beat 'em up
Developer = Yukes
Publisher = THQ
Players = 1-4 Players
Online = No
Age = 16+ reccommended
Released = 2006

GRAPHICS

The in-ring graphics look little different those of the more recent titles in the series, which is to say pretty good. All the wrestlers are good likenesses of the real things, which is a good start and the various fight locations look good, or at least good enough not to detract from the action. In the main then, they've not tampered too much with an already winning formula, graphically speaking. It's clear though, that great effort has gone into making the characters walk and move just like the real things, most noticeably in the ring entrances, which are easily the most impressive to date.

SOUND

As with the graphics, there's not much to separate the sound effects from previous outings, but the soundtrack is all new and features a selection of largely rocky/ hip-hoppy numbers that are likely to appeal to most of the teenage, male target-audience. They do become a little repetitive though, so perhaps a slightly larger selection would have been better. All the voices included are good and clearly all the wrestlers supplied the voices for their digital selves. The commentaries are, as in-game commentaries tend to be, repetitive, but they're about as good as you can expect in-game commentaries to be. Mind you, there seems to be some problems with special moves because a number of times I've performed a finisher manoeuvre only to have the commentator call out completely the wrong move (i.e. I do the RKO and J.R. says that I'm doing the Sweet Chin Music!).

GAMEPLAY

Moves:
You'd be forgiven for thinking that the gameplay would be pretty similar to previous outings too, but here you'd be wrong. The gameplay in S vs. R 2007 is dramatically changed from the previous titles in the series, most obviously in the way the controls are set out. Previously, grapple manoeuvres and various standing attacks were performed by pressing one of the buttons (X, circle, triangle or square) and the left analogue stick or D-pad, but now all grapples are performed using the right analogue stick. A quick flick of the stick up, down, left or right performs a 'quick' grapple, whereas by holding R1 whilst flicking the right analogue stick initiates a 'strong grapple', with the direction you choose corresponding to a sub-set of moves, from which a second flick of the right directional stick allows you to choose any of the four moves in that sub section. Clear? I do hope so!

Another new addition is 'environmental hot-spots'. There are points in the ring and surrounding area e.g. at the turnbuckle, against the ropes, by the announcers table or at the ring steps, etc. where special moves can be performed by initiating a strong grapple with your opponent. When activated, on-screen prompts will appear to tell you how to perform the move associated with that location, be it smashing your opponent through a table, battering their head on the ring steps or ring post or positioning them with the ropes between their legs and... erm... let's say, reducing their chances of fatherhood! I've not totalled it up, but I'm pretty confident that each wrestler has a greater choice of moves to perform in S vs. R 2007 than in any of the previous versions, which is nice.

The changes don't stop there though; there is now a stamina gauge which means that even if you're battering your opponent senseless, you'll still have to pause to catch your breath, which can sometimes lead to the momentum in the match swinging, much as in the 'real' thing.

Matches:
There are also a number of changes to the various match types, with all new mechanisms for putting your opponent through tables in table matches, escaping the cage in cage matches, unhooking the belt in ladder matches and throwing folk over the top rope in the Royal Rumble match. It would be pointless to go into the changes in any detail, but suffice to say that, in the vast majority of cases, I approve of them.

Game modes:
As usual, I'll be spending the bulk of my game time in multiplayer games with my buddies, but there is also season mode to go at, PPV mode (which I never bother with) and the all new GM (General Manager) mode, where you arrange matches to maximise viewing figures and thus profits.

The season mode is pretty good, with your chosen wrestler involved in various storylines which, like the 'real' thing, tend to last for 1 month and culminate at the big PPV (pay per view) events, though some last longer. The storylines are just like anything you could see on TV and as such add to the realism, but having started season mode a second time, it seems that the exact same storylines are played out in exactly the same order, which is a definite minus point. However, each storyline gives you some choice, e.g. to put up with your big-headed tag-team partner and go for the tag-titles, or to turn against him and end up fighting him at the PPV, so even with the same storylines, you can still have a significantly different career.

It seemed to me like there was much more that could have been done with the season mode, as there were no storylines pertaining to any of the lesser title, i.e. Cruiserweight title, Intercontinental title or American title, which could have added greatly to the number of possible storylines. Also, in previous outings, there has been the possibility to form tag-teams or factions during the career mode, whereas I was not offered this option in my career, possibly because of the choices I made...
Finally, in the previous version of the game, when you created wrestlers (see below) and entered them in the roster, they would crop up in season mode, but this time each storyline appears to be linked to a specific wrestler or wrestlers, so your created guys don't get a look in. In the same way, if you choose to do season mode with a wrestler who is part of an existing tag team, you used to occasionally have your tag partner turn up to help you in matches, but this no longer happens either.

In multiplayer mode, we gain the 'Buried Alive' match and the 'Money in the Bank' match, which are good additions, but we lose the bra & panties match; how can they even think of taking away our diva-stripping action? I almost shed a manly tear...

Roster:
Given that these games take a while to produce, the roster will always be slightly out-dated by the time the game hits the shelves, but even allowing for this, there seems to be a number of glaring omissions. One of my favourite female wrestlers, Maria, is absent, as are a number of cruiserweights, such as current tag champs Brian Kendrick and Paul London, who were certainly on the books when game production started, though I forget whether or not they were a tag team back then. Whatever the reason, the roster feels smaller this time.

Create-a-wrestler:
One of my favourite features from past versions is the create-a-wrestler feature. Long hours of fun have been spent with my friends and I battling it out as our wrestler alter-egos, so how does this version measure up? Well, it's pretty good. Many of the features are the same as the previous version, with massive scope for altering not only the height and weight of your wrestler, but also their physique and minute control over their facial characteristics, costume, facial hair, body hair, make-up and more!

The choice of clothing and costumes is perhaps roughly as good as the last version, but I was disappointed to note that the option to vary transparency of layers is not available for all elements. This means that, where previously I'd been able to get my side-burns and few-days stubble just right, now they're just a touch too thick looking. Still, the choice of moves for your wrestler is impressive, as is the extent to which you can go to give them their own ring-entrance.

My main gripe with the create-a-wrestler system is that your character starts with extremely low stats (for strength, technique, stamina, submissions, endurance and speed), which means they're almost no use in multiplayer games unless you play through season mode with them and boost their stats with the experience points thus gained. Whilst this method works fine if you're only intending to create one or two wrestlers, if you intend to create anywhere near the 20ish wrestlers you can store on your memory card, you would need extreme devotion to spend the kind of time necessary to make them worthwhile wrestlers! That said, I do like the option to spend experience points on tag teams, so that your wrestler of choice can perform better when teamed with his tag buddy, again adding to the realism.

UNLOCKABLES

There are plenty of things to unlock, although some are a bit of a waste of time! In season mode, you will have a locker room which you can personalise and decorate to an impressive extent. When you win matches you earn 'WWE cash' which can be used to buy new things (furniture, posters, etc.) with which to decorate your room as well as extra wrestlers or costumes to use in multiplayer mode. There are further things which can only be bought after fulfilling some pre-requisite, usually winning a match at one PPV event or another.

There is also Challenge Mode to go at, where you control a set wrestler in 30 or so set matches of varying difficulty, unlocking various things and earning WWE cash as you go.

PRICE

The RRP is £34.99, but it's currently available from amazon for £24.99, or from £20.99 from amazon traders. A quick look on ebay suggests that you may be able to get it cheaper there, but probably not by more than £2 or 3 less than amazon traders.

OVERALL

This is a good addition to the Smackdown series of games and as such is a worthwhile purchase for any fans of the series or of wrestling in general. It's nice to see that we've not merely been offered an updated roster for our money, but that there's also a fair bit of work been done on the gameplay. The game looks and sounds good and will no doubt give many hours of entertainment, potentially indefinite entertainment if you've a few like minded friends to 'get it on' with.

However, the loading times in this game are like nothing I've experienced since the days of playing my brother's Spectrum 128K! Seriously, to start a match you can easily wait 20-40 seconds to get to the ring entrances, which will take probably several minutes if you have more than 2 wrestlers in the match (and God forbid you have the almost slow-mo entrance of Undertaker to sit through!), followed by another 30 second or so wait to get to the match itself! Whilst it's possible to turn of the ring entrances (and I strongly recommend that you do) you will still find yourself facing considerable waits for everything from starting a match to moving between game modes, which is the reason for my title.

A further large minus point is that the AI is still poor. On easy or normal difficulty, the opponent almost seems not to want to attack you, although they're more than happy to reverse many of the attacks you launch at them. Somehow the balance is off, with most of the difficulty coming from actually hitting your opponent, rather than worrying about them attacking you. It's also pretty easy to win most matches by getting your opponent counted out, which takes away some of the challenge unless you can resist it. This can be overcome, to an extent, by playing on a harder difficulty setting and using the options menu to reduce to regularity with which your moves are countered, but you really shouldn't have to try so hard to strike a competitive balance.

So, after knocking off at least one star for the loading times, and taking into account the duff A.I. and other slip ups, I can't award this game more than 3 stars. Still, as I say, existing fans will love it.
 

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