Silicon Fusion >> Reviews >> WWE Smackdown! Here Comes The Pain

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Review:

2nd December 2003:
WWE Smackdown! Here Comes The Pain
Wrestling games are not supposed to be good. No quash that, wrestling games are NOT ALLOWED to be good. So how do you explain this THQ?
Posted by Chris Barnett - PlayStation 2 - UK and Europe

Some games take a long time to review due to their sheer difficulty, some because they are so large; but WWE Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain (which we will dub Smackdown HCTP for the remainder of this review) is just endless in every respect, causing us to play it far too much!
If you had not already grasped, it is a good point that HCTP is so huge, since it is so good at what it does. The Smackdown series has always been impressive, succeeding where all other wrestling games fail (in being both authentic and enjoyable). But HCTP exceeds what you expect from a game; it is the gaming equivalent of a DVD box set of a film with 10 discs of extra features. Just to list the modes will make you get an idea of the sheer size of it, so here goes (deep breath, get comfortable): single match, tag match, six-man tag, hardcore, royal rumble, survival, main events, first blood, bra and panties, elimination chamber, ladder match, cage match, hell in the cell, hardcore street matches, ultimate submission bouts and slobber knockers. But the main single player mode is the career mode, which allows you to play out stories scripted and designed by actual WWE scriptwriters (so they are just as daisy chained and cheesy as you will expect).

Now we have given you an idea of how many modes the game has we must stress that they have not been compromised in any way due to the sheer abundance of modes; they are all as substantial as you would expect. In fact, you are given a range of 65 wrestlers to choose from in order to play them out, although some cannot be used on certain modes. A major gripe here is that women fighters cannot be used in any modes other than individual exhibition matches, which confines them to the one-off fighter mentality.

This is no major problem as the wrestlers you are given are both old and new, offering something for all moderate-wrestling fans (everyone will have at least one wrestler who they like or used to like. If you don't believe us, ask a family member who used to casually watch wrestling with you and they will surely tell you at least one name). And there is the edit mode too where you can make your own wrestler to your exact specifications. This mode has always been popular as it allows players to make the game their own, but there have been two important improvements this time: the inclusion of a 3D body 'moulder' and the presence of teeth. Whilst teeth are a fairly obvious addition, the moulder is a little more innovative. It is the tool to change any body part as if it were a piece of clay in your hand, allowing most body shapes to be achieved by trial and error (you can see your moulding in real time). To be quite honest, the edit mode is as complete as you could wish for, the number of combinations is limitless and you should be able to do your entire family within a few hours of measuring them up with your eyes.

But all of this would count for nothing if the game did not play well, it would simply be a coffee mat with lots of features. And that is always a danger with wrestling gamers; they can drift into the boring side of fighting games due to dull combat and unresponsive controls. HCTP suffers from no such problems; it is one of the most enjoyable games of the year due to the sheer amount of stuff that goes on during fights. The environments are virtually war zones that can be smashed in many different ways and with many different things. Pipes, chairs, chains and many other pieces of pop culture can be used to hit your opponent and surroundings to create maximum carnage. This may sound casual, but consider the fact that you can go into a car park and smash cars or into a TV studio and wreck mike stands and you will see the amount of fun there is to be had in smashing things. The new damage system also allows bodies to become bruised and cut, allowing the objects to serve more than just a 'ideal for a screenshot in a review' purpose. The blood feature actually adds to an entire mode in 'First Blood', where the loser is the first to bleed. This may sound like a gimmick, but in has a certain replay factor that makes you want to keep playing. It's like playing a traditional fighting game with both energy bars at 'one hit from death' level; each player wants to stay away from the other until they see a chance to grab them.

It is the grabbing that will account for much of the action when you are in matches, and it takes a new form that resembles paper, rock an scissors. What you must do is press a direction on time with the circle button and keep rotating to hold the grapple. At any time the opponent can counter by using a (funnily enough) reversal move. This may sound simple and it is, but it is this simplicity that gives the game a fluid feel. You can also counter opponent's grapples by using your own counters, controlled by the L2 and R2 buttons (which avoids any conflicts with other buttons). This system works so well as it is complemented by accurate animation that takes place almost immediately after the button presses. The only problem with the controls are with the collision detection - sometimes the characters can suddenly spring up onto a table or get 'stuck' in a barrier. But this does not happen too often and can be forgiven, as it never causes a reset of the bout, just an annoyance whilst you get pummelled, as you stay helpless.

The AI is improved over the previous version, as opponents seem to learn your repeated attacks. They will pick up on a repetition attack after about two uses of it, causing an entire rethink of your strategies. Whilst this does add a little to the difficulty, the game is still pretty easy and most tasks will be second nature by a couple of day's play. But with the wealth of modes and multiplayer this is irrelevant, especially when you consider the potentially limitless career mode. In this mode you play out a full 'season' in a particular wrestler's career, involving all their friendships and feuds. This is great for the first season and seems like it could be one of the greatest game modes of all time, but there is a major problem - it's a one-season wonder! After the first season you can choose to transfer your data to a second, but this results in the game forgetting certain key elements. Some people will make friends with you even though you hit them with a chair last time you saw them, or your enemy may ignore you when you see them. In addition to this there is the problem of repeating storylines. This is a really annoying and basic error that is so blatant that it is funny. But I guess real wrestling does have repeating stories, so this is kind of true.

The final feature that deserves a mention is the statistics that the fighters have. Each fighter has several skill areas (such as speed, strength and agility) that are rated from 1 to 10 to give you an idea of what they are capable of. This is very useful in planning a strategy and also results in accurate representations of your favourite fighters. As well as using the unique moves of each fighter (believe us when we say that every fighter uses moves that they are associated with. Any move ever used by a fighter will be possible for that fighter) they actually behave as you would expect, more so than footballers in football games (when was the last time that you actually believed that a player was the real person in a game?).

Of course we could rave about the graphics too, but to put it simply: look at the screenshots and imagine them moving smoothly and you get the idea.

So the game is a classic in terms of wrestling games and will provide something for everyone, even if it is just the perverts who play bra and panties mode (where you undress your female opponent to her underwear using grapples). With a few tweaks to the collision detection, an improved ref system (sometimes he does not count for no apparent reason) and a polish to the career mode, this would be wrestling perfection. But as it stands it is simply the best wrestling game ever (and on par with the best fighters on the PlayStation 2).

Chris Barnett

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Review Summary:

The best wrestling game ever and one of the most accomplished fighters ever. Possibly the most feature packed game of the year, making it a long term winner.

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for PlayStation 2

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