WWE Day of Reckoning 2

"A Very Good Wrestling Game With a Few Major Issues."

Graphics-

What can I say, this game looks great. Most of the wrestlers look identical to the real thing such as Batista, where you can see all of his tattoos in detail. All the arenas look like the real thing and DoR2 probably has the best crowd in a wrestling game yet. The animations are very well done and do a great job at showing impact. I will say that the only thing that I am not impressed with is the create a superstars. They just don't look nowhere near as good as the real wrestlers and appear to be cartoony. All in all, this is probably the best looking wrestling game out now.

9/10

Sound-

Truth be told, I really don't expect much in terms of sound in wrestling games and DoR2 didn't change my opinion. There are no voice overs(which I consider somewhat of a good thing considering past efforts) and the sound effects sound more like they belong on the N64 than they do the Gamecube. The entrance music sounds just fine but I will say that I was surprised to actually like most of the background music for the game. The music is very fitting and suits the mood of a long grueling battle. Still, even though I like the background music, the sound as a whole is just nothing special.

7/10

Gameplay/Control-

Having skipped the first DoR, I must admit that I am pretty impressed with the gameplay. This is the closest to No Mercy that I have seen yet. I love the weak/strong grapple and counters taken straight out of NM. The only thing is it seems a little harder to get counters off than it did in games like Smackdown or even NM. The stamina system is somewhat annoying though, mainly because of the aggressive AI. If you lose all your stamina, the AI will be ruthless and will not let you build it back up most of the time. It also doesn't help the way you build specials. Towards the end of a match you'll find the computer doing special after special after special. This pretty much kills Iron Man matches since the computer will most likely have the upper hand almost all the time. I do however like the way the your blood loss(there are three stages of blood) effects your stanima. If you're on the third stage of being busted open, you're not going to recover, which is how it should be. The submission system is kind of a guessing game, where there are four different choices once you slap on the move. If you and your opponent choose the same direction, the move will be reversed. Now, the thing that I absolutely can not stand about this game is the collision detections. EVERY MOVE CAN BE BROKEN UP! That's not a good thing, that's a bad thing.*frowns* The way the AI is designed, it will break up every single strong move you do. Needless to say, that can lead to some controller throwing moments and a few bad words to wash it down. It makes 3 and 4 player matches unbearable at times seeing as the AI is always focused on you. Let me give you an example on why I hate this. It's late in the match and your stamina is very low. You just get back up after being knocked down for about thirty seconds. The computer does a arm drag to one of your opponents into you and you're knocked back down for another thirty seconds. I guess I'll be looking forward to DoR3 to see if they can iron out some of these major problems to an otherwise solid game.

7.5/10

Story Mode-

Um...well, the story mode is not very good. One thing that really stuck out to me is that your created wrestler(can't use a real superstar) seems like a punk. Why do I say that? Simply because I have this 7,2' monster named Omega who looks like he is ready to cause hell to anybody who sets foot in front of him, yet he is madly in love with Stacy Keibler and will do anything to be with her. I want be a heel, not some big in love jabroni. There are only a few choices you make throughout story mode. Das not cool! I spit an apple in the face of the story mode!

3/10

Create a Superstar-

For the most part, CaS is pretty solid. There's a nice amount of clothing to choose from and a really cool Create an Entrance. I do wish there were a few more moves, but the moves that are there are all pretty cool. The load times however, are plain out ridiculous. Sometimes I hesitate to change anything on my wrestler, just because it will take forever for it to load up. It's a very good CaS that is just a notch behind the Smackdown series.

8/10

Modes/Extras

There are a decent amount of modes, but thanks(or shall I say no thanks) to the gameplay mechanics, 3 and 4 player matches are very frustrating. I think the only 4 player match I was really able to tolerate was Last Man Standing. All of the one on one match modes are pretty fun, except Iron Man matches. The reason for that is simply because on harder difficulties, the AI will most likely win and win big. Still, it's nice to have features like pinning, submissions, first blood and KO to be turned on or off in the pre match screen. The extras are kind of slim. You can buy arenas(that will just be unlocked in story mode), attire, move sets, weapons etc. in the Shop Zone. There are also 5 legends to unlock.

7/10

To sum things up, Day of Reckoning 2 is an very good wrestling game that could have been great with just a few tweaks. If you loved No Mercy, this is probably the closest your going to get to it in a new WWE game. If you have a Gamecube and love wrestling games, do yourself a favor and give it a try. If you look past some of the flaws, you'll find a good looking and fun game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/24/05