WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008

""Nothing special about it" says it best."

Like all other major sports games, wrestling titles appear to gain new versions every year. Roster updates are a must, alongside with some minor additions, and that's exactly what you get by purchasing this game - new characters, a few modes and a bunch of problems.

Fortunately, the improvements made to the series are visible as soon as you start the game. Loading sequences, which used to be painfully long, now take a lot less time, and even though their initial appearances are as uninteresting as usual, most in-game sequences are interestingly adorned with information on the superstars and other important pieces of information. Eventually, all these get old, uninteresting and irrelevant, but at least they are much better than the constant black screens shown on older games.

When you first reach the main menu, you'll be confronted with very simple options. You're now allowed to set a singles match in less than a minute, in a way which deprives players from being required to pass across a lot of menus, but you're also able to create more complex contests, picking your match among any of the many kinds available in the game. All classical match types are back (with a strange absence of the guest referee one), and there's a single new type - the extreme rules match - where you can use lots of different weapons to damage your opponent.

As you may suppose, the creation modes were not taken away from this title and, as usual, you're allowed to create your own character, which you can later use in any of the modes that this game has to offer. Usually, you'll be fighting the famous WWE superstars, since it became slightly harder to face your friends' creations - after years of complaints, developers solved all online cheating problems, but they did it in an unusual way: there's no online mode in this game. This removal surely affects the replay value, since that used to be one of the biggest assets that the series had to offer. Now, you'll have to stick with the Tournament (which has several options, but they all play the same), General Manager and the 24/7 Modes, which may be enjoyable for a while but surely don't make up for the loss of the series' biggest feature.

Oddly, the General Manager Mode, now available via a sub-option of the 24/7 Mode, plays exactly like last year, without removing any problems or adding any major options. Tournament modes simply put a bunch of Superstars together and make them face each other, either trying to “beat the block” or be crowned “king of the ring”. You're free to create your own tournaments, but the general predictability of this mode makes it good for nothing else than a few quick looks. Then, there's the Hall of Fame Mode, which awards you bonus depending on how you reenact certain battles of the WWE history - it's surely interesting, but presenting less than 10 different challenges, it ends up being just too short, and worth playing just for the bonuses.

Finally, there's the 24/7 Mode, which is this year's story mode. Here, you get to pick your favourite Superstar (or your created wrestler) and have to move him across the ranks, from a fable wrestler up to the top of the chain, or so we're told. You've probably heard this storyline tons of times by now, but you should be told that it just doesn't work as it was supposed to. Basically, you're thrown into a random storyline and, sooner or later, you'll be facing someone for the big championships, without ever getting to capture the Tag Team titles or any of the minor ones, which seem pretty much non-existent in here.

Even though this mode has a few interesting details, such as the ability to improve your Superstar statistics, it ultimately lacks some bigger interest. At first, you may enjoy the many moments that you'll have to spend training your character, which is done by accessing a few mini-games, but eventually it gets to a point where you'll be skipping every day of the week until you reach the next show of your brand. Here, an important note should be given - while you're able to play as members of both the RAW and Smackdown brands, that doesn't happen with ECW, which only makes itself visible as part of the storylines that this mode has to offer. Sort of a cameo, that is, but it ends up being a disappointing one, as some players could be willing to play as, let's say, CM Punk.

Concerning in-game sequences, they tend to repeat themselves quite often, and barely make any sense - your character is often seen shaking hands with their deadly enemies, practising weightlifting exactly one month before a pay-per-view, walking in the Divas locker room and standing just next to an interview. If this wasn't bad enough, even storylines get repeated later in the game, no matter the conditions you're in, and only the superstars involved change. I've fought at least twice for a WWE Films contract, and Triple H appears to constantly cross my path with a Wrestlemania First Blood match.

Your actions in the ring almost never influence the path that storylines take, which ends up being a major turn-off. Unless we're talking about pay-per-views, there are times where your wrestler heavily defeats their opponent, only to see them stand tall in a post-match cutscene. There are also times where your character suffers a major attack just before the match, only to be magically healed a few seconds later. Unfortunately, the same doesn't occur to injuries, which is rather strange.

The calendar system here available, while pleasant, is a simple rip-off of the system seen in the GM Mode, with the matches you're not involved in being simply uninteresting. Overall, the mode feels like if you're playing the GM Mode with a single superstar, and as soon as you achieve the Legend status I'm sure you'll stop playing it. This is the perfect example of a good idea gone bad, simply because the final implementation is just too unusual and totally flawed.

If you're a wrestling fan, you probably know that the action takes place not only outside of the ring but, even more often, inside the squared circle, which is where this game has most changed. Overall, characters are controlled like in last year's game, which isn't in any way simple, and may be unappealing to younger players. However, this game bears the addition of interesting fighting styles, which basically work as RPG classes, granting characters special abilities and particular moves. Dirty superstars, for example, can uncover the turnbuckles to further damage their opponents, while hardcore ones are proficient in the usage of weapons. There are plenty of different styles to enjoy, each with their particular strengths and weaknesses, and dominating all those could be a huge step in the direction of victory against certain superstars, if the game didn't have a major problem - no matter what difficulty mode you pick, the game appears to be just too easy. Your opponents often appear to be completely clueless about what they should be doing, and even less skilled players are able to take advantage of such a fact.

Deprived of its important online mode, the replay value that this game has to offer is just too limited. You can play it for a couple weeks, enough to try all your favourite Superstars and unlock all the secret content, but then you'll put the game down for good, probably only picking it up when your friends are around, and only for a few tournaments.

Graphically, this game appears to retain the quality of the previous one. All characters look like their human counterparts, their moves and animations are mostly flawless, but there are still some problems. Some animations are jumpy, magically teleporting characters from one place to another, and there are plenty of times where objects appear to cross each other, something which looks truly bad. If you realise this glitch that has been around for ages, it is disappointing that it is yet to be fixed.

In general, the game's soundtrack is quite good, featuring several rock tunes that all fans of the show will probably enjoy. Entrances songs, voices, almost everything appears to have been taken from the WWE shows. Almost all commentary appears to have been taken from past games, and while ECW's Joey Styles is mostly great, JBL appears to be constipated, providing snotty remarks that most players will dislike. Some in-ring effects are, unexpectedly, slightly worse than before, sometimes sounding like large, and obviously awful, coughs.

Unless you're an hardcore WWE fan, whom may show appreciation for the roster update, I strongly suggest you give a look to the games released in the past two years, as they're more enjoyable than the experience available here.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 11/19/07

Game Release: WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 (EU, 11/09/07)