WWE Day of Reckoning 2

"One of the worst Wrestling Games ever."

When I first ordered DOR2 from Gamefly.com I was exicted. It looked like a good game, made by THQ, who also made WWF No Mercy, one the best wrestling games ever. Boy am I ever glad I only rented it.

Graphics 6/10.
By no means are these graphics cutting edge, but they do well to suit the arcade style and feel of the game. Attention to the detail of the wrestlers, and the Create a Wrestlers is very deep, and they look very lifelike. However, the rest of the game suffers from muddy graphics, and slow framerate. Especially when 4 people are fighting at the same time. More often then not, the framerate would drop suddenly when more then one person attacked on screen at one time, becoming very very frustrating. Not to mention the Gamecube can do ALOT better with Graphics.

Audio 4/10
The audio features all the songs for the Wrestlers, some of them a tad outdated, and new custom tracks that can be used as well. However the audio quaility itself is lacking, the Stero version sounded like Mono, and since I dont have Surrond, I cannot vouche for it. The sound effects are also muddy, and dont really seem realistic. The worst part of the Audio, has to be the lack of voice overs, which will cover more indepth in a moment. Also each time you make a selection on a menu, the most annoying 'FWAP' sound I've ever heard makes itself present.

Controls 2/10
The controls are sluggish at best. And VERY very very very very aggravting. The most annoying part, is when your facing more then one opponet, and you have to use the C-Stick to change targets, and end up targeting the Ref, leaving yourself wide open to an attack. Also, the Counter feature, while nice, is very unresponsive, and more often then not, your foe will counter more then you, and more effectivly. Cage matches are also hindered by this as the 'Run' button (Y by default) is the same button for climbing out. This makes the game itself, hard to play.

Story 1/10
If I could give a 0 I would. The story is utter crap. Apperently somebody stole the world title. OH NO! The worst part of the story is the lack of Voice Overs. It's all text. Hope your a good reader, cause you'll be doing alot of reading in this one. The entire story makes no sense, and doesnt feel like the real plots played out by the actual WWE. It feels more like a idea that was half thought, and then halfass put into production. Without Voice Overs, it really makes the story feel dumb and childish.

Gameplay 2/10
The heart of every game is it's Gameplay, and this game fails in that dept too. The controls, Graphics, and Audio all play roles in this, but the most aggraviting part is the load times. Every action you take in a menu requires a friggen load screen. The matches are not that varied, your basic, 1v1, Tag, Handicap, Cage, Ladder, and Battle Royal modes are present, but the horrible controls reall drags down any multiplayer aspects of the game. Their is also a Tutorial that teachs you the horrible controls, and money which can be earned either by taking said Tutorial, or playing the Story mode. This money can be used to buy new stuff, but none of it is really worth it. Also, the game mixes in a bit of RPG elements, with the ability to 'buff' up your CAW by increasing their stats. All in all though, these things really dont help. The load times, lack of voices and horrible controls basically kills any fun this game could hold.

Replay Value 1/10
Rent it once, beat it if you can stand the horrible controls and graphics. There really isnt much presented in this game that can offer any replay value.

Overall Score 2/10

Final Words.

Rent this game. Even die hard WWE fans should buy something better then this. It isnt worth 20 bucks, it feels like a budget title coming from a company who's made some great Wrestling games. As I've stated many times, the muddy graphics, horrible controls, and muddy audio without voices really drags this game down. If it had more to offer, and these problems didnt exist, I'd suggest buying it, but I just cant see someone paying 50 dollars for this game. So, go pick up a better Wrestling game, like WWE SmackDown vs Raw. This one just isnt worth it.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 09/12/05