Last year’s WWE Day or Reckoning had been the most enjoyable pro wrestling video game I had played in years. The game managed to go further and further away from the gameplay style introduced in the SmackDown! series and had been the closest thing imaginable to Aki’s classic Nintendo 64 grapplers. In all honesty, the more Yukes tries to mimic Aki’s gameplay, the better their GameCube wrestlers become, and as you can imagine, the gameplay of the previous Day of Reckoning has been even more refined in this sequel, aptly titled WWE Day of Reckoning 2 (DoR2). DoR2 is by far the best WWE game I’ve ever played. The game may not have the same presentational values as SmackDown! vs. RAW, but it ultimately kills the "competition" in the gameplay department and this folks is what matters most.
The story continues
If you’re going to jump straight into the game’s story mode, it should be noted that the plot is actually a continuation of the original DoR’s story mode. So, the daunting task of having to work yourself up the WWE ranks by participating in dark matches and house shows isn’t there. You’re already at the height of your career with an upcoming World Heavyweight title match against Triple H at WrestleMania. There’s already a history and rivalry existing between the two you, because you’re character in the last year’s game had actually been part of Evolution, along with Batista and Randy Orton. However, when the hour of your WrestleMania match arrives, Eric Bischoff informs the both of you that the World Heavyweight title had been stolen from his office. Not only does this theft result in the cancellation of WrestleMania’s main event, but it sends the entire RAW organization into an uproar and everyone is pointing their fingers towards Triple H and you, saying that one of you had stolen the title for their own selfish reasons. This turns your whole world upside down.
I once used to watch the WWE and the WCW religiously when I was a youngster and, as you can imagine, I’ve witnessed the best and worst of pro wrestling storylines. Surprisingly, the story developed in DoR2 is actually pretty damn entertaining, if not more entertaining to most of the garbage we would see on an actual WWE program these days. There’s mystery, controversy, betrayal, and even a love interest in the form of Stacy Keibler. It’s got all the elements that make an enjoyable plot, with the good and the selfish being easily recognizable. DoR2’s story mode kills the one included in last year’s game and is one of the best featured in any pro wrestling vide game to date. Once again, I have to congratulate Yukes on a job well done.
Lot’s of depth -- but not enough?
Since there had been no way to carry over the create-a-player made in last year’s game, when starting off the game’s story mode, players are once again forced into creating a new custom tailored character for DoR2. If there was any way for me to skip this process, and be pleased with the character being used, I’d definitely do so because I’ve never liked going through this process. With Day of Reckoning 2’s create-a-player having even more depth than last year’s game, it’s more painful than ever to do so.
The amount of customization is just amazing. There are just so many options that it’d nearly be impossible to list them all. Simply working on a face of character could be a nightmare, since you can adjust every possible facial feature that you can imagine. Naturally, I went on to create a character to look like Razor Ramon, since he’s been my favorite pro wrestling persona since as long as I can remember. I looked for some pictures of him online and spent more than an hour, if not two hours, creating his face, adjusting the length, pitch, angle, etc.. of his nose, making his forehead slop downwards to the appropriate height, making his jawline look comparable to the images, etc... The amount of depth is simply insane. However, being the perfectionist that I am, I can’t help but ask for more types of hairstyles, in-ring attire, and accessories (like gold chains). Yes, I’m complaining that there weren’t as many varying kneepads as I would have liked.
The biggest improvement in the game’s create-a-player is an addition not included in last year’s game and has very little to do with the appearance of your created character... When selecting the fighting style of your character and when distributing the experience points, you’re limited to the amount moves, and types of moves you can assign to him or her. For instance, a more technical wrestler, or one without a high skill rate for high flying moves, will not be able to perform a move such as a Shooting Star Press off the top rope. This new addition to the game’s create-a-player mode helps balance out the skills of characters and is a welcomed addition since it prevents the immediate creation of a "super" character.
Grappling gameplay unparalleled
Yukes’ recreation of the classic Aki grappling formula hasn’t changed that much from the previous incarnation. In fact, the most significant enhancements to the gameplay have very little to do with the game’s control method. My favorite new addition is without question the focus put on a character’s stamina. No longer will players be able to ruthlessly attack opponents repeatedly for extremely long periods of time. Well, that’s not entirely true either, but let’s just say you have to be more strategic and timely this time around.
Any time you attack an opponent, whether it’s throwing a punch, performing a suplex, or swinging a sledgehammer, your character’s stamina is depleted, as shown on a meter on-screen. If you are to continously assault your opponent with these attacks, you’re very likely to drain all of your stamina, and what this does is leave your character tired and slow. So tired, that at times, they’ll just be completely open to attacks with no way to fight back (however, you will be able to counter them with proper execution). You definitely don’t want this to happen, so you’re going to want to be more strategic with the way you play the game. If you knock an opponent down to the canvas and if you somewhat low on stamina, forget attacking them - - just let them lay their and just wait for them to get back to their feet while you regroup and regain your stamina.
At first, I wasn’t quite fond of this stamina feature because it seems that in order to balance things out, whenever a player of AI controlled gets knocked down, they stay down for quite some time. In fact, it was annoying me initially, but once I realized that it began to add a new layer of strategy to gameplay, I just fell in love with the addition. Also, with opponents down on the mat longer, tag matches are also less frustrating than usual too. Being able to get up quickly after being knocked down is really based on the strength of a character’s spirit, which is also measured by a meter, and the pressing of the A button as fast as possible. Additionally, trying to break out of a pin functions in a similar fashion and I have to admit that this rapid pressing of the A button adds to the intensity of match-ups, and this greater tension is always a welcomed addition to the genre.
Speaking of tag team matches, they’ve improved considerably over last year’s game. This improvement mostly comes in the form of enemy AI, and they’ve been improved considerably in all matches that involve more than two players on-screen. In tag matches, your CPU controlled partner will actually be useful, as they’ll always come in to break a pin if you’re in trouble. Not only this, but they’ll even try to prevent an opponent from pulling of their trademark finishers on you. Of course, this applies to your opponents as well since they’ll work cohesively and intelligently.
The intelligence of the game’s AI further impressed me as I played more multiplayer matches. There were times, in a tag team match, where my opponent would try to whip me towards the turnbuckle near his partner... He’d do this and then attack me with a handful of strikes and grapples, while I was pinned against the turnbuckle. After doing that, he’d tag in his partner, and then his partner would do the same, keeping me in the corner as long as possible, and attempting to toss me back into the corner if I tried to escape. And then he’d tag his partner back in and they would work as a team, rinsing and repeating the same offensive strategy over and over again. Of course, if I hadn’t seen a similar strategy in an actual televised tag match, I’d think that this would be a flaw of the AI, but it’s definitely not.
The game’s AI has been improved a great deal over last year’s game, and because of this matches against multiple opponent no longer see to be as much as a hassle as they’ve been in the past. Sweet little additions like this are what make Yukes’ wrestling games so appreciated by wrestling fans and they keep adding more and more with every new game. Hell, I was even surprised the ref stopped me from brining a title belt into the ring to use as a weapon!
More new additions to this year’s game is an enhanced submissions system that emphasizes on various actions. You can put a hold on an opponent to drain them of energy, taunt them, or even go straight for a submission victory. Visually, the holds look the same no matter what selection you choose, which is unfortunate, but in order to do this, you’ll have to push the C-Stick in a specific direction. This may not sound to exciting, however, this addition makes things a little bit more enjoyable since you’re able to counter these submissions by guessing which choice your opponent has chosen, when getting you in a submission, in order to break the hold. This is another addition to gameplay that I loved; even though it may be based on the luck of the draw.
Of course, the reversal system and momentum shift features and gameplay elements return from last year’s game as well, and they’re in their best form yet in this game. Sure, some may complain that reversals may be difficult to pull off, but you have to take into consideration the thought that they are supposed to be difficult. Pulling off a reversal is based on timing and being able to predict what type of attack your opponent will be using. If it were any easier, the depth of gameplay would’ve been severely lessened. However, I’m not going to lie -- I did try to make things a little bit easier for myself by increasing the sensitivity of the triggers used for the reversals! As for the momentum shift, it’s still one of the coolest additions ever made to any wrestling game. It really helps recreate the excitement of a televised wrestling match. Just when you think superstar is about to lose after getting their ass stomped on for minutes, they nail their finishing maneuver out of desperation and turn the tides of battle. The momentum shift acts just like this and is a gameplay element that makes the single-player and multiplayer portions of the game more enjoyable when encountered.
Juiced-up presentation
The original Day of Reckoning was an impressive looking wrestling game when it was first released, however, as SmackDown! vs. RAW saw a release a few months later, I had realized that it had been outclassed by its PS2 counterpart. As a fan of the GameCube, I was a bit disappointed to realize that a technically inferior platform was putting my console of choice to shame visually with a game in the same genre and developed by the same developer, but, as luck would have it, Yukes has redeemed itself with DoR2. Simply put, the game is visually stunning.
When I first viewed Triple H’s entrance segment, which is, of course, generated in-game, I couldn’t help but be amazed by the detail put into his character. Every single muscle group seemed to be defined extremely well and the detail on his face alone makes close-ups of the in-game model look a like dead ringer for the real deal. Furthermore, the skin textures used on characters actually make them look believable, and this sure is a refreshing treat because every wrestling game before it has featured characters that have this toy-like sheen to them. However, the unfortunate truth is that the character models for some superstars have clearly had more work put in them than others. The female character models in particular actually seem as if they have been reused from last year’s game, and look very little like their actual selves.
Just like any sports game, DoR2 has seen a good amount of presentational updates in addition to the obvious gameplay and graphical enhancements. For one, DoR2 has gone back to using original musical compositions for matches and menus. Last year’s game feature some licensed songs, but in hindsight the soundtrack sucked terribly. DoR2’s original menu tracks and in-game music is much more fitting than anything included in previous games and that’s not a bad thing -- it’s a good thing. Additionally, the menus in general have been enhanced to mimic going through an arena at which a WWE event is being held. This is a nice touch that really just adds to the game’s atmosphere for the better.
Anyone who has ever attended a live WWE event or any type of live sporting event knows that the reaction of the crowd intensifies the overall enjoyment felt. For instance, when Hollywood Hulk Hogan and The Rock went toe to toe at WrestleMania X8, one of the reasons the match had been so memorable had been due to the crowd’s reaction. Day of Reckoning 2 has done an excellent job in trying make the crowd a bigger part of gameplay and atmosphere, nicely improving over last year’s game. Not only is the crowd louder, but the implementation of the "Holy S**t" chant is cool to hear. Although, I have to say that the nicest addition has to be the crowd’s support of baby face superstars and disapproval of heels. For instance, let’s say you’re playing as a heel like "The Masterpiece" Chris Masters, if you were to pummel your opponent endlessly, increasing your character’s spirit to its max, the crowd will not side with you because you’re are indeed a heel. Instead, they’ll begin to chant "Masters sucks" or even begin to cheer in favor of your opponent, giving him or her the crowd’s support. This definitely makes for interesting matches, especially when the momentum shift comes into play and completely changes the tides of war. I hope that in the future this is further improved, with the crowd going berserk when fan favorites pull off a finishing maneuver, or when Hogan "hulks up," takes a few blows from an opponent, shrugs them off like they did no damage and points his index finger at his opponent as the crowd yells out a resounding "YOU!!" in his support.
The updates don’t end here either. The game’s camera systems has also been updated a bit to give off a more dynamic feel, in which the intensity of the moves are visually heightened due to zooms and panning actions that also attempt to mimic what Aki did with its Nintendo 64 games. However, I think it’s been pulled off better than what Aki had originally done. Additionally, there’s never a point in which you can’t see what you’re doing, so there isn’t much about the camera system that I can complain about.
Unfortunately, while Day of Reckoning 2’s presentation may be superior to that of its predecessor, it’s actually one of the few things that holds the game back from being the undisputed heavyweight champion of video game pro wrestling titles. Firstly, there are no voice overs in the game. This addition could’ve greatly added to the feel and presentation of the game’s story mode, as would having characters express sounds of pain. Also, I just think it would be really entertaining to be able to play as Ric Flair and scream out "Wooo!" when taunting an opponent. Secondly, the lack of commentary can also be seen as a detrimental factor. Indeed, most commentary in sports games of any type is repetitive and boring, but this should not prevent developers from further exploring the territory in attempt to deliver the best product that they could possibly create. Also, Showdown: Legend of Wrestling has proven to me that commentary in a wrestling game can be fairly interesting, however, the problem is that in Showdown the commentary had only been interesting due to the fact that the commentators would go off on tangents and talk about the history of the competitors squaring off in the ring, instead of giving a play by play of the action occurring on-screen. Doing something like this with a current WWE game may be a bit difficult due to contractual and licensing issues. Then again, I would find it extremely painful to have to hear Jim Ross yell out "sloberknocker" every minute if their were commentary. I’d rather have no commentary at all than have to listen to Good ol’ J.R. bore and annoy me to death with his redneck lingo.
The best there is, was, and ever will be?
There’s not much about Day of Reckoning 2 that I can complain about. Sure, it’s lacking some things, including backstage areas and new types of match types included in the SmackDown! vs. Raw games, but the actual substance of its gameplay has been tweaked and enhanced over last year’s game to the point where it can be called the undisputed heavyweight champion of grappling gameplay in a WWE video game product. Day of Reckoning 2 is easily the very best GameCube grappler you’ll ever come across and as the last pro wrestling game for a Nintendo home platform this generation, I’m eagerly awaiting a next generation sequel on Nintendo’s Revolution game console, because things can only get better from here on.
Andrew’s Take
written by Andrew T. Finger
Time to play the game! WWE DoR2 for the first time, in a long time, has me excited about wrestling games. From the moment you turn on the game, the sheer level of detail is astounding, especially within the create-a-wrestler mode. Nintendo grapplers have always been notorious for their exhaustive entrance creation options and I shudder to think how much my pyrotechnics would cost the WWE in real life, but then again how else could "The Rick" be the most electrifying man in the digital squared circle today?
Once you are set with your created character, it’s time to dig into the story mode. The storyline is so engaging that it is worthy of WWE programming in the attitude era. I would definitely turn off WCW "wrasslin" to watch something this good. In a very interesting move you start out at WrestleMania, and the action hits the ground running. My only complaint is a lack of sound effects.
Well when you get into the matches itself, you can feel the level of realism that is a part of this great game. Added in is the new stamina meter which has been a long time coming. In the past I could never understand how my wrestler could wrestle an "Iron Man" match and still look ready to run a marathon. Now you need to work with momentum levels to win a match, and understandably so. Another grand addition to the game is the new submission system, one that lets you choose what type of submission you are attempting, whether your trying to give your wrestler a rest by keeping your opponent tied up or if your trying to make him tap in 26 seconds like Orlando Jones at Summerslam.
If you feel letdown by the latest in the SmackDown! series, or if you’ve had to suffer through the Xbox’s attempts at the squared circle, WWE Day of Reckoning 2 is the Icon, the Main Event, the Showstopper!
