Review of WWE Smackdown Vs Raw 2011
Publisher: THQ
Platform Reviewed: PS3
My Score: 6.5 / 10.0
Headline / Summary:
An ambitious project for an 18-month development cycle resulting in an unfinished fighter, leaving you craving the next installment while this one sits on your shelf.
Full Review:
Smackdown Vs Raw 2011 has been said to be the most difficult to review game of the previous year due to how much has been added in this installment; I have to agree with that statement, since putting this review together was no walk in the park. However, I felt that most reviews out there were extremely misleading for this year’s title. So, I thought this to be the most important review to write up for games released during the recent holiday season.
The Smackdown Franchise spans three generations of consoles for the PlayStation brand. The franchise had a strong debut and followed with annual releases with their peak title (according to fans of the franchise) being “Smackdown! Here Comes the Pain” released on the PS2. So, of course, advertising and many reviews have attempted to dub this title as the “Here Comes the Pain Killer”.
Smackdown 2011 is an ambitious project for an annual installment in a franchise. Character models look better than ever, the roster is bigger with over 70 superstars to choose from, WWE Universe mode has been introduced — giving the player an ever evolving story line and cut scenes as they play simple exhibition matches alone or with friends — a physics engine was added for weapons to make every interaction different than the last, move and reversal animations have been re-worked to make the game look and feel more realistic than ever before, the Road To Wrestlemania mode now has backstage free roam, and Storyline mode now allows you to script branching storylines, giving the player choices throughout the story created. But any gamer will tell you: that’s just the surface of the game. The bottom line is, how does it play?
Unfortunately, my response would have to be, “Not that great.”
In the transition from PS2 to PS3, Smackdown 2008 suffered from a poor frame rate which made matches seem sluggish and ultimately boring. Though not as bad as in 2008, this year’s installment suffers the same issue. Even worse, in an attempt to make matches more realistic, the gameplay mechanics were re-worked to only allow for eight “power moves” to be executed as opposed to last year’s total of sixteen. Though this sounds good on paper, in practice it makes most matches repetitive and boring since you see the same moves being performed match after match. Also, because of this “re-work”, weak moves performed are far too damaging which causes matches to end abruptly. Ultimately, the exact opposite effect was produced. Instead of a more realistic experience in ring, we are now having matches end after a simple body slam.
At first glance, it appears as though the fun factor was sacrificed for realism, but when looking more closely at the superstars’ move sets, you realize that this is ultimately an unfinished product. Superstars often have duplicates in their move sets. In most cases you’ll find that superstars have the same move down the list for each situation leaving you with only an option to suplex your opponent repeatedly until you win or lose the match. Though you can find repairs for this using other users’ uploaded move set repairs, you’re still left wondering why such an important part of the game was overlooked in the first place.
The WWE Universe mode is another part that leaves you feeling this game is unfinished. The mode is advertised to have over one hundred cut scene animations and an evolving WWE with friendships and feuds forming as you play. Unfortunately the scenes, friendships, and feuds forming are completely random and this affects even the default teams and settings — and without any commentary or narration involved, it’s very difficult to make sense out of the cut scenes or feuds forming. This feature is especially frustrating when taking the time to create a tag team and assigning their entrance theme, only to find that WWE Universe mode has broken the team up — forcing you to create the team and their entrance theme all over again. Even more frustrating, the default teams that come with the game are no exception to this, either, and this issue leaves the player wanting to avoid the WWE Universe mode at all costs.
These are obviously the largest issues with Smackdown 2011. Smaller issues include an audio glitch where all audio is drowned out by static until you restart the game, weapons bouncing off each other as the Havok physics engine glitches, desynchronizing audio in Storyline mode editor, tiny models of some championship belts, Unified Tag Team Champions coming out separately during entrances, and a move list that was dropped from a library of over 500 moves to a mere 100 and change.
On the plus side, this year finally has all match types available online including the Royal Rumble match with up to 12 players. And yes, this includes 6-man matches as well. Though the online experience is not completely lag free, it is certainly far better than any previous installment on the PS3 and is actually playable this year. There are some disconnection issues during online Royal Rumble matches, but the development team is hard at work on a patch to resolve the issue.
The Hell in a Cell match has also been re-worked, and it’s a big improvement over previous Smackdown games, allowing more room between the fence and the ring for weapon use. The door was removed from the cage, leaving you with only one way to exit – A signature move that destroys the cage wall with your opponent’s body. It’s certainly more gratifying than simply opening a door to exit the cage.
The Storyline mode has also seen an improvement via branching capabilities leaving players with up to nine directions to choose in their storylines. They’ve also added multi-player capability to this mode, along with several new cut-scenes including mid-match cut-scenes that you can set to begin when a superstar reaches a certain amount of damage to his/her body.
The reversal system has been greatly improved, and the transition animations look great. New to the reversal system is also an option to take your opponent into several submission moves along with high impact grapples and strikes. Some of these animations can be lengthy and damaging, making reversals just as powerful as executing moves from the get go. This feature along with being able to guide your opponent’s body during certain power moves (i.e.: suplexes, body slams, etc) helps to make the player devise strategies according to opponent placement on the mat. It’s this type of in ring strategy that truly separates this game from any other fighting game on the market.
The one feature that has all Smackdown franchise followers (including myself) most excited, is the removal of restrictions in its local and online creation suite. You can now share your creations online with others, and provided the creator of the content has not placed his own restrictions, you can now feel free to edit any aspect of anything you download from other users. As a matter of fact, the removal of previous restrictions almost makes you feel this game should be categorized as a “Play Create Share” title with a slew of storylines, superstars, move sets, Highlight Reels, and more being shared between users. Best of all, the most popular request from Smackdown fans has finally been addressed: you no longer have to build your created or downloaded superstar’s stats. Simply adjust their attributes as you wish and play!
Overall, Smackdown Vs Raw 2011 has me both disappointed and excited. This installment is clearly an unfinished product that needs a lot of polish and tweaking in many areas. So much so, it heavily hinders your ability to truly have fun while playing. However, the exciting aspect is that Smackdown Vs Raw 2012 will build on this title in every way, and though 2011 didn’t do well to execute on the concepts introduced and re-worked this year, you can plainly see the direction the franchise is headed and the future looks very bright for WWE and fighting game fans alike.
My suggestion to those who are considering purchase of this game: don’t. Smackdown 2010 is a very polished and fun game in comparison, and you will be far happier with that installment. 2011 seems only to serve as the foundation on which 2012 will be built upon.
January 18th, 2011 by Amir29 | 12 comments
Amir -- in addition to being the founder of the Home groups "VLR" and "Uprising" -- was part of the first wave of Home Community Volunteers. He enjoys following gaming industry trends and tech news, and has a lengthy history of reviewing games all over the internet. He is 33 years old, and lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Every so often, some doorknob will say, “Oh, wrestling, that’s so fake.”
And this just amazes me, because throwing your body around and going through some of those moves is empirically *painful* no matter what. Somebody wanna tell Mick Foley, after that “Hell in a Cell” match with Undertaker, that it’s fake?
The sheer physical conditioning required to pull off this sort of stuff every week is astonishing. And while I haven’t personally followed the sport in quite a while, I remember being thoroughly entertained by the Rock, Goldberg, Austin and the rest.
Here’s a thought: would a game like this benefit from a PlayStation Move interface?
Though the real-life in-ring action is somewhat choreographed, the injuries are very real, I agree.
The Smackdown franchise has motion control for the Wii platform, so it wouldn’t take much to include the mechanics for our beloved PS3. I have no doubt we will see Move compatibility by the next installment.
I don’t know if this has been addressed yet, but the R2 button to block or reverse a move (although a welcome addition) is so so in single player to absolutely useless when countering multiple opponents.
Cheeky!!
The reversal indicator is a necessity in this game since animations have been changed making it nearly impossible to determine the contact point. With indicators on, you will be able to see the window of opportunity for your specific superstar to reverse the maneuver. If you are still having trouble with the timing, adjust the superstar’s “Technical” attribute to a higher number.
You should find it easier to reverse moves using technical superstars such as Shawn Michaels, Chris Jericho, etc… as opposed to brawlers like Batista and Big Show.
Have never been a fan of this franchise or genre. Can recall watching pro wrestling on TV regularly as a youngling, but mostly because it was just part of the family ritual. Watching sweaty males play fight took a definite second place to the pursuit of pretty females.
Grand review, even though the decision whether to play or not did not require influence either way
A friend of mine — who was a Golden Gloves boxer for a while — once opted to take ballet lessons. All of his macho friends ribbed him about it, until he pointed out: “Hey, there’s thirty girls and four guys in there, and the other three guys are gay. Target-rich environment, gents.”
He got more action than anyone I’ve ever met.
One thing I’ve always wanted to see — because my sense of humor is just slightly over there, somewhere — is a WWE RPG. Can you imagine a Final Fantasy-style RPG filled with WWE characters? Oh my god, the one-liners! The finishing moves!
Instead of, “Summon Ifrit,” it’d be “Summon People’s Elbow.”
I’ll definitely pass on the game, as Amir recommends, but I agree, Nos — it’s a great review.
Cheeky!!!!!
Good to see you active here at Home Station Magazine Amir!
A wise man once told me, “Find the courage to move on, and you’ll find you’ve moved up.” Of course, he could have just gotten that from the Jefferson’s theme song.
Good to see you as well Joanna. =)
Why doesnt the franchise revisit the original “Smackdown” game, it was a game that I couldn’t fault.
It was a game anybody could pick up and play (the Circle button did the moves, the Square was to block or reverse and the R1 Button did the specials) even non wrestling fans or people that have never played a wrestling game could play it. Even girlfriends that I had known or dated played this game, which was a shock to me.
Now, with the drive to make it more realistic and more of a wrestling ‘Simulation’ the fun factor
is slipping away from an otherwise enjoyable game.
At the time of the original title, “Smackdown!” more praise was given to games with the WCW license on the N64 which behaved more like a simulation.
Simulation versions of wrestling, are simulations of a fighting style that is already exaggerated in real life, so it still works well, and can be loads of fun.
The original titles with the control scheme you mentioned were great, I agree. But, the move sets were extremely limited leaving yuo with performing the same moves repeatedly, which is a dull eye sore in my opinion.
The new control scheme coupled with a non-intrusive tutorial works, in my opinion. The 2009 and 2010 installments were loads of fun for me. Unfortunately, this year’s installment slows the action down and limits the move sets yet again, and I believe this is what truly hinders this game from being fun for very long.
I never mentioned the learning curve in my review. Veterans should be immediately familiar with only slight adjustments to be learned. For new comers, I would say the learning curve shouldn’t be longer than 30 minutes.