WWE Day of Reckoning 2

"Best wrestling game my foot."

History:

Okay, so here's the deal. Back in the days of the N64, Akklaim had WWF rights. They made a few decent games, then lost the licence to THQ. AKI then took over the WWF game production for the Nintendo 64, and made some ass kicking grapplers like WWF: Wrestlemania 2000, WWF: No Mercy, and Virtual Pro Wrestling 2(Japan only) using slightly tweaked engine debuted in wCw vs the World and later wCw vs nWo REVENGE. These games brought a new level of quality to the wrestling game genre, as AKI competed with fellow THQ developer Yukes to bring the best to the console world. But, with the arrival of the Nintendo Gamecube, AKI left THQ, and Yukes took over the WWE brand games for both the GCN and PS2. Yukes first attempt at the GC was an utter failure, as most people know. Wrestlemania X8 was one of the worst wrestling games in history. It had poor graphics, poor gameplay, and was more or less a WWE Smackdown: Lite. It insulted gamers and fans alike, and Yukes went back to the drawing board.

Next came Wrestlemania XIX. This game boasted a gameplay engine similar to that of the infamous AKI games, but with the inclusion of quick grapples from the SD! Brand of games on PS2. It was met with much hailing, and was an instant hit among fans. Also improved was the CAW. It allowed for much freedom, had very little hangup, and allowed CAW creators almost infinite freedom with the innovative "Create and Entrance", "Create a Logo/Mask", and "Gear Points" features. But all was not right. The actual graphics, while an improvement over WMX8 were a decent improvement, they were absolutly unacceptable compaired to the competing PS2 SD! series, and the RAW series on the X-box. Wrestlers looked horrid, and in game, their movements were stiff and robotic. Season mode was non-existant, instead stood 'Revenge mode', in which you had to do certain goals in your quest to seek revenge on Vince for firing you. It was poorly recieved, and Yukes went back to the drawing board.

Yukes decided to drop the Wrestlemania name, and instead went with WWE: Day of Reckoning for their 3rd GCN title. In this game, Yukes kept the well recieved WMXIX engine, and added a flurry of bells and whistles. KOs were now possible, not just from specials, but from an array of moves. CAW makers were allowed even more freedom for the most part, with the exception of logos on tights, due to immature gamers placing crude images of genitals onto their CAWs in WMXIX, and a few peices of Gear were removed for no apparent reason. Graphics were muchly improved, although a little shiney, and animations were still a little robotic. Overall, the game was solid, but again, not all was right. The Story mode that replaced the previous Revenge mode was completly linear, and offered no replay value at all, and the Legends included were rather lackluster, with the exception of Andre the Giant, and the muchly awaited Bret 'the Hitman' Hart. Also, the licenced music that replace the in house music were small in number, and poorly chosen.

So finally, it's 2005. DOR2 is out, and it was kept well under wraps by THQ and Yukes. Little infor was known about it, and everyone was kept in the dark. Was the wait worth it? Is the last wrestling game for the Gamecube the end all, be all that everyone hoped it would be? I personally think not.

JUST A NOTE: I will offer 2 scores per section. One is compaired to American Wrestling games, the other to ALL wrestling games, including Imports, such as Kings of Colloseeum II and Fire Pro Wrestling.

Graphics:

American Market: 8/10
Import Market: 7/10

The models, while great looking, still retain the plastic look that all the previous games suffered from. Often times I feel like I'm looking at one of those cheap WWE toy figurines than what should be a real person. But other than that gripe, there's nothing really wrong with the graphics.

Animations:
American Market: 6/10
Import Market: 3/10
The new animations all look great, nice and smooth. BUT, there is still a lot left to be desired. Most of the animations still retain that robotic feel and look, and walking animations are still too stiff, especially for the 4th game in a series. Some of the re-animated moves suffer from really awkward impact animations(the DDTs look really jumbled and shakey on impact, and the Shoulder block looks absolutly nothing like how it's performed in real life), and just don't look smooth at all. There is also a fairly large amount of clipping on a lot of moves. New taunts are nice, but most of the old taunts have gotten no love from Yukes animation team. Also, while there was a decent amount of moves added, there is still not a large enough move pool to make each character seem individual. Most characters share most of the same moves(suplex, backdrop, etc), and most of the cruiserweights are basically the same, with slightly different stats, and a few signature moves here and there.

Sound:

American Market: 6/10
Import Market: 7/10

Nothing really worth complaining about, but nothing really special either. It no longer sounds like a gunshot when you get hit with a stunner anymore, but it still doesn't sound quite right. Gone are the horrid songs from last year, replaced by only 2 actual licenced songs, and about 9 in house original tracks. It's nice, but there is still not enough variety in the music, and it will get old rather quickly.

Gameplay:

American market: 6/10
Import Market: 3/10

Ah yes, the most important part of the game... too bad this is where it all falls apart. Yukes did very little to make this years game play better than last year. This year, Yukes has given us a stamina system, in an attempt to play to the simulation crowd of fans. But this is poorly implemented, and doesn't work like it should. When you run or perform a move, you lose stamina. You also lose stamina from climbing the turnbuckle, trying to find weapons, climbing the cage in a cage match, and just about everything makes you lose stamina(except climbing the cell in a Hell in a cell match oddly enough). To get it back, you either A) Do nothing, and it'll slowly return, or you can slap on a rest hold submission(more on the new submission types later). While this seems to make sense, what doesn't is how your stamina recovery and loss is determined. In real life, big guys like Kane and Bigshow can take a lot of punishment, but don't have the stamina to go for long periods of time, and perform a few moves, with devastating results. Cruiserweights like Rey or London run around the ring, doing all sorts of stunts, and always seem so full of energy. But in this game, stamina is tied to your endurance stat, so the more endurance you have, the more damage you can take, the faster your stamina recovers, and the less stamina you loss. This means that you can take a guy like Kane and proceed to kick up a storm, doing flurries of moves left and right without stopping for quite a while, and never have to worry about stamina. BUT, if you try the same thing with say, Paul London, you won't last more than a minute before you get tuckered out. That's right, the guys who spend most of their time on TV running, flying, and flipping are pretty much grounded in this game. The stamina you lose when running is immense, and that means that little guys cant do their hit and run tactics on larger guys, for fear of running out of stamina, and being stuck unable to move for several seconds. This makes it unbelievably aggravating to those who are fans of cruiser weight matches like myself. There is absolutly no balance when it comes to stamina and strength. the big gus can do what they want, when they want, and have little to fear about it.

As I mentioned earlier, the submission system has been 'revamped'. Now, when you hit a submission, you can choose to either perform a rest hold(recover stamina), submission hold(does more damage, but drains your stamina), taunt hold(makes your momentum go up conciderably), or perform a drain hold(little to no damage, but drains their stamina a lot). BUT while this seems cool, your opponent now has the chance to stop your submission cold. When you hit a submission, a little pop up show up opting for each player to pick a direction with the C-stick, where each direction represents a submission type. If they choose different types, then it goes into the button mashing system from last year, and the appropriate damage or recovery occures. BUT if both pick the same sub. type, the hold is instantly countered/broken. Not good for guys like Jericho, Benoit or Hart, as now their specials can be countered not once, but up to 3 times, pending on if you get them into a grappled state or not.

So while Yukes tried to do 2 potentially cool things, neither has been properly thought out, and balance is non-existant. It really saddens me, as DOR had some of the best gameplay since No Mercy. Also, there are a TONNE of glitches throughout. Clipping, warping, floating, getting stuck in objects, and many more glitches of all sorts are in abundant supply with this game. Some will make you laugh, some will make you want to punch someone in rage, and some will make you wonder how in the hell they slipped past the play-testers.

CAW:

American Market: 3/10
Import Market: 4/10

Last years CAW was the best on the market. You could make just about anyone, or anything(my spot on Alien CAW proves that point perfectly), and everyone thought it could only get better. Well they were wrong. Last year, there was no load times at all for CAW, outside of changing colors, and even then they were 1 to 2 seconds tops.

This year however, ANY change in the CAWs appearance, be it adding lipstick, changing color, or putting on a shirt, results in anywhere from 8 to 20 seconds of loading. As a CAW maker, this makes the whole process, from start to finish absolutly unbearable. It takes forever to do even the simplest of tasks in the CAW mode, and I had to force myself to finish my CAW, where as last year I couldn't stop toying and fiddling with it. Also, this year, you are more limited to what you can do to the face model. Last year, you could quite mangle the face of your CAW, doing things like pulling his nose down almost to the chin, or you could make the eyebrow warp to the point that the eyes were no longer even visible, or you could make the nose completly flat should you desire to. This year, you can't come anywhere close to this level of freedom. The closest you can come to the previously mentioned flat nose is a Micheal Jackson style anime nose, and that makes re-creating some of last years fantasy CAWs quite a chore. Sure, your CAWs can look more realistic, but when it limits what you can do to your CAW, I'll take last year mode over DOR2's any day. Also, more parts have been removed from just about every section of CAW mode, from gear to hair styles, something has been taken out. In some cases, it's minor, in others, it's unthinkable. Throw in several Paint Tool glitches(logos dissappear for no reason, sometimes will be erased for no reason, will have contrast change for no reason, etc), and the biggest selling point for the GCN grapplers is unbearable and unfriendly to use for even veterans of the CAW system. It's insulting.

Story:
American Market: 4/10
Import Market: 3/10

An improvement over last years for sure, but it's still too linear to warrent anything more than one playthrough. Also, match variety throughout is pretty bland. Just about every PPV there's a cage match, and the story is about on par with SD!s current story lines(seeing as how SD! writers did it)... In other words, the story blows. If you are tired of all the lame storylines on TV, this years storymode will only make you hate them more. Also, some of the matches seem brutally unfair, and have made many a people quite frustrated. You'll probably be wanting to throw your controller through a wall after a few of these matches.

Roster:

American Market: 8/10
Import Market: 1/10

It's small, but it's got just about all the big names in there, from JBL to Tajiri and back again. Too bad the newest SD! roster is almost a dozen superstars larger, and some with alternate attires, and KOCII/FPW features almost 2 to 3 times as many wresters, and almost all of them with alternate attires. For shame Yukes.

Legends:

American Market: 9/10
Import Market: 5/10

The legend choices are some of the best I've seen. Hogan, Rock, Austin, Mankind, and Bret. These are some of my favorites ever, but I wished that Andre had made a return this game, to further compliment the classic Hogan. But this still pales when compaired to the dozens of legends in Spike wrestling games. Oh well... At least this year we have their proper music(although I would have prefered Mankinds *wreck* theme over his classic theme)...
AI:

American Market: 5/10
Import Market: 1/10

The AI in this game is decent for the most part. It'll put up a fight, it'll try to win, and it'll play it's part well in singles matches. In Tag matches, it will even tag in and out effectivly, single out characters, and will put on some damn good matches. But as soon as you try going for anything else, like say, a triple threat, or fatal-four-way, you best play something else. The AI will not stop attacking player one. Hell, if you can get off any special other than a running special to ANYONE without it getting broken up, I commend you. Fact is, the AI will make it not seem so much like a free for all so much as a handicap match. As soon as you punch a computer, they will all target you, and you may as well put down the controller, because you're about to be raped but 3 very angry, cheap AI wrestlers. If you do manage to hit anything other than a snapmare or a quick jab, the other AI will punch you and break up the move on the spot. If you go to hit your special, the other 2 AI will stop what they're doing, and proceed to beat you down for no reason. This happens in all matches, including non-pinning matches like TLC, the Royal Rumble, and Last Man Standing Matches(which has elimination rules when there are more than 2 people involved). Honestly, in multi-man matches, the AI is the worst I've seen since WWF: Attitude. I pray someday that we'll see the CPU logic system from Fire Pro or KOCII make it into an american wrestling game...

Final Note:

So, while the graphics are quite an improvement over last years game, and the AI is no longer a reversal expert, the rest of the game seems to have gone strait to hell. CAW is no longer workable, the roster is too small, AI goes into "I HATE PLAYER ONE" mode in 3/4 way matches, the story mode is horrid, and slowdown is unacceptable in several 3/4 way match types. And on top of that, once all is said and done, there really is nothing to do unless you have friends over constantly, and even then this game is not all that much fun to play when there are better multiplayer games on the market. KOCII has this game beat by a mile and No Mercy still stands as the king of the American SIM console wrestling world.

Final Score:

American: 4/10
Import: 3/10

Rent or Buy?: Save your money on this one. Rent it if you must, but your money is better spent elsewhere.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 09/07/05