Smackdown V’s RAW’s 10th Outing

The Fight continues.

by Lame360gamer:

©2008 Warren Marshall:

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After nine installments in the Smackdown series, THQ-YUKE’s has delivered the tenth in the series and wrestling fans can rest easy knowing they have finally achieved a solid wrestling title for their collection.

The game itself looks good. Very good. Some wrestlers look a lot better than others however overall once they are all throwing each other around the ring, take a step back and look at the actual detail they have put into the whole wrestling experience. From facial expressions, wrestler mannerisms to even the detailed crowds in the huge arenas they have done a fantastic job.

Gameplay mechanics have remained close to those of last year’s system and again a stronger focus on actual wrestling mechanics rather than button pounding punches and kicks however with most of the playable characters it is easy to find their core ëI winí moves meaning you can simply use the same series of moves over and over to weaken down your opponent and quickly build up your momentum for your finishing or signature move.

Career mode (known as Road to WrestleMania) has been shaken up again and this year only wrestler specific storylines are available to choose from (Triple H, Undertaker, CM Punk, Jericho, Cena and Batista/Mysterio team-up).

This has given 2009 a closer focus on bringing together a better placed story for each character you choose, something along the lines that you would expect to see on television, even down to the closing credits at the end of the program after each weekly show.

They maybe short (each could be completed in roughly an hour) but well written and laid out staying true to the character of choice. I only wonder how much lifespan this game will provide once you have completed the set Roads to WrestleMania.

Tag-Team has improved from last years with a larger focus on the actual gameplay dynamics of tag-team action. Rather than having your partner sit on the sidelines for most the action, they know now when to run in to make the save, blind tag themselves in or offer the hot tag. However with all the partner A.I features I still found I could pretty much handle most the match without having to rely too much on a partner.

Create-A-Wrestler is back however it was disappointing to see that most of this has remained untouched. The biggest downfall with this feature is now in order to build your stats up for your character you now have to play through career with each individual character.

Last year you could simply purchase stat packs and assign them to your created characters. This year however, if you were to make twenty or so characters now in order to have them all at a decent level you would have to run each single character through their career. You would need a lot of time on your hands or very dedicated to the game to follow through with this for every created character.

Create-A-Finisher is a new addition to the game and as sceptical as I was of this I must say that it works well. You can pick from various animations for the setups and the actual manoeuvre itself and when you add this with the Create-A-Moveset, you can practically come up with a truly original character.

While loading times have been cut in half over last years game maybe a blessing for most I have found that the game has had a few more freezing issues, disc skipping and sometimes the sound and commentary completely off. I am hoping with the new dash update and the ability to install the game on the console itself it may help with this issue.

Any hardcore wrestling fan who has followed the series will find that this instalment a worthy entry into the series but it also has you wondering just how much further can this series continue? There are a number of changes to the game some good and some bad but every year while it seems they perfect one portion of the game, other areas are still much hit and miss.

The detailed career modes are done well but also very short and unless you are going to take this game online or you have a group of friends into the game it wont be seeing much action once the wow-factor has worn off.

“7.5 / 10

©2008 Warren Marshall:

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