WWE '12 Review: Best in the World

November 23, 2011

When it comes to the current generation, WWE '12 is to wrestling games as CM Punk is to the WWE, the Best in the World.

When WWE '12 was first announced a lot of fans expected the game to be nothing more than a name plastered on to what was to be Smackdown vs. RAW 2012, but once you get your hands on the game you'll come to realise exactly why the name change was necessary.

WWE '12 isn't what had become a yearly SVR release with the odd big new feature, it's a fresh new game that has taken all of the past updates, improved and added to them. The new name fits the game perfectly as it truly reflects the WWE product that we see each and every week on TV.

WWE '12 Launch Trailer</center>

First up there's the new Camera System, THQ and Yukes have gone to great lengths to recreate the same angles you'll see on WWE TV, meaning when you take to the squared circle and the referee calls for the bell, the camera is now lower and further back before cutting to new angles during moves which again mimic those you see on TV.

You might think that such a change is minor but the difference it makes to the presentation is huge, especially with the new additions of ring physics where the ring and ropes will react to moves being performed. Also adding to the new additions are all of the intros, matchup screens, title introductions and on-screen logos which completes the WWE look and truly gives you the greatest WWE simulation to date.

Along with the camera system the gameplay has also has a big overhaul, no longer do you have to stand and watch while two other guys grapple each other, now you can break up the move and get stuck in which greatly improves matches with multiple opponents.

One of the key changes to the gameplay this year though is the Limb Targeting and Breaking Point additions. Not only does the limb targeting feature make it easier to target certain areas but it allows you to strategise how you go about a match and plan for your opponent. For example, if you're playing as a large superstar like the Big Show and your opponent is quick and agile like Rey Mysterio, the limb targeting system will allow you to work on Mysterio's legs. After your opponent takes a fair bit of damage you'll start to see it affect him, he'll no longer be able to run around and hop to the top rope and he'll sell the pain by keep reaching out in pain for that body part which leads to the perfect opportunity to apply one of the new Breaking Point submission holds.

The Breaking Point submissions work extremely well and really affect when and where you apply the submission, as you'll want to try and apply it as close to the middle of the ring as possible to make it harder for your opponent to crawl to the ropes.

The AI's improvement is noticeable from the very start with matches being a lot harder this time and also smarter (You may want to drop the difficulty until you get used to it). In previous years if you had multiple opponents in the ring at the same time it would play out unrealistically with two people brawling while another stands and waits for the move to finish. This time around during matches the AI tries to clear the ring with additional opponents, throwing people to the apron or outside and moves now send people to the mat for longer which gives you time to fight off multiple opponents and feels a lot more realistic.

Create-an-Arena</center>

As if changing the gameplay and the whole presentation wasn't enough there's the ever expanding creation modes which this year sees the big new addition of Create-an-Arena. On the surface some people may not be too excited about this addition as we've already seen a similar variation of this back with WWF Attitude on the original PlayStation, allowing gamers to customise the colour of the ring ropes, apron, etc. However, the mode knits together with the other create modes to give fans the ability to create all kinds of arenas, past or present. If you were a fan of WCW before its demise you can easily recreate an arena like WCW Thunder, or maybe you're a lifelong fan and want to reminisce of the 80s and recreate the old blue ring with the red, white and blue ropes and steel barricades? Well you'll be pleased to know you can, almost everything you see at ringside is editable and with the ability to import logos from the Custom Paint Tool you can recreate even more arenas such as Ring of Honor or even Impact Wrestling.

Impact Wrestling Arena</center>

The only downside to this new mode is not being able to customise the staging area, but this is the first go at this mode and we're expecting THQ to add to this next year much like they did after they introduced Create-a-Finisher.

Once you've created an arena you don't have to stop there, as this year WWE Universe has been improved and now allows you to not only edit the match cards but to also edit the shows themselves, meaning you can take a show like RAW and rename it, switch the logo, on-screen graphics and change the arena to recreate another show such as WCW Monday Nitro.

This year's Universe Mode is really enjoyable to play and tempts you into playing matches with the entire roster by allowing you to go straight to the next match instead of returning to the event card and adding in storyline cutscenes that grab your attention and will you to play on to see what happens next. You'll also notice matches with mystery opponents popping up to tempt you into playing matches which lead to unlocking extra superstars like Demolition or even the formation of a new tag team. We witnessed The Miz introduce his mystery partner as R-Truth, forming “The Awesome Truth”, which shows how up to date the game is.

The mode itself plays out a full year of WWE programming with a ton of Superstars, attires and more to unlock that will make you want to keep playing. There's also a great variation of match types so you don't have to play regular matches repeatedly which keeps things fresh and then there's the speciality PPV's to look forward to which offer you the chance to win Money in the Bank and then cash it in or take part in the Royal Rumble to earn your spot in the main event of WrestleMania.

Altogether the mode is much better than last year and THQ have added back the exhibition match option so you no longer have to keep changing matches in Universe mode to play the match you want.

WWE Universe Mode matches jump straight to the next match which helps keep the action flowing.</center>

Online the game plays smooth without any noticeable lag from the matches we played, although this may change following release as more players go online. THQ have said they have replaced the servers this year to help better handle the load so hopefully this should stay the same.

Community Creations is also back this year and again works with the online levelling system that see's you gain XP by uploading your creations and having people download them, which rewards all of the creators for their hard work. One new addition here see's the addition of the highest rated content now being shown on the main menu with the option to jump straight to community creations and download them which is a great way of advertising the available creations and should see a lot more people downloading content. Unfortunately the big problem with Community Creations last year was it's stability as it tended to disconnect when uploading, downloading or even browsing creations and the same problem has again reared its head this year. Hopefully this should be sorted out with THQ turning on more servers when the game is released worldwide.

Road to WrestleMania provides gamers with a more story based slice of action than you'll get in Universe Mode and features 3 original stories, Villain, Outsider, and Hero. Some reviews have been more critical of this feature due to the amount of cutscenes that you'll see before, after and even during matches, but personally I really liked the way the cutscenes are woven in. Some people may argue that it renders matches as pointless if a cutscene halfway through the match has already determined the outcome but in my opinion I found this to be a lot more entertaining as anything can happen, which I found better than just ending every match with a finisher and then pinning your opponent. I guess when you play the game this will be one of those features that you either love or hate, but if you don't like it Universe Mode will offer you the matches you want with less interruptions.

Playing through RTWM you'll be given objectives during matches with what to do, whether it be simply wearing someone down, leading them to a certain area or defeating them. Most of the objectives are straight forward and upon completion you'll see a finisher button appear above your opponents head which when pressed will take you to the cutscene. For the most part I found this to work well, although I did find one or two times the button appeared but wasn't active which caused some confusion. Usually this was just a case of not being in the right position which could have been fixed with some on screen indicators but that seemed to have been neglected.

Macho Man Randy Savage Completes The Star-Studded Roster</center>

Finally there's the roster, which is easily the best roster ever assembled and will get even better as the announced DLC is released. THQ have pulled out all the stops to ensure players have not only all of the current stars but also a star-studded line-up of Legends that come together to form an incredible roster that is topped off with big names like The Rock, Brock Lesnar and the Macho Man Randy Savage who finally makes it into the game!

Not only is the roster packed full of current stars but it's also up to date, with changes such as CM Punk's titantron and theme music being included after it was only recently debuted. Never before have we seen such late changes make it into the game for release and it's something you have to praise the creators for.

Conclusion

To wrap this up, WWE '12 is simply the best wrestling game I've played in years. If you'd fallen out of love with the games in the Smackdown vs. RAW franchise then this is the game to get you back into the action, it has a fresh new feel and the amount of modes available will keep you playing for a VERY long time.

The Good - This is the best WWE game I've seen in years and it comes with a fresh new look and feel that is supported with so many modes, customisation options and the greatest roster to date (not to mention DLC!).

The Bad - There's the occasional glitch where people move across the ring for certain moves and grapple attempts that don't connect. The Community Creations servers also still have a tendency to disconnect.

Score: 9/10 - The most electrifying wrestling game of it's generation.

Source: Smacktalks.org

November 23, 2011

My issues:

Depth perception, lack of. Because the camera is lower and farther away, it can be difficult to judge the depth distance between you and your opponent, leading to missed punches and grapples.

Targeting is displayed with names, not arrows. I have no idea who 80% of these people are, telling me I'm targeting McIntyre is useless to me.

No in-match move list still. It's stupid because the game gives you a signature move first to use to get a super finisher, but I don't know 80% of the wrestlers, I don't know where their signature is performed from. Even finishers are still only displayed on the character selection screen, useless. Strange given the in match menu displays the wrestler abilities for each participant, which isn't available anywhere else... why not put the signature and finisher on the same screen?

November 23, 2011

Wow I thought you'd give a much more critical review. Guess I'll be picking it up soon.

November 24, 2011

I am pretty saddened by the fact that you can't edit the stage portion of the arena in CaA. Seems to me that that would be one of the more important and enjoyable additions in the mode. Also, I'm disappointed to see that the only way to set stables is in Universe. I'd really like the ability to put a Superstar in multiple stables for exhibition and story creator. A secondary stable section seems essential. Especially considering the amount of slots they give you now.

November 24, 2011

It's still as shit as ever, get off the rose-tinted glasses and realise it's a shit game, always has been and it's getting worse and worse as it get surrounded by better and better games.

November 24, 2011

I had the same issue with the depth perception at first but you get used to it after awhile. How would you rate it against the previous SVR games?

Quote
Wow I thought you'd give a much more critical review. Guess I'll be picking it up soon.

To be honest there wasnt much to criticize that I came across other than the few points I mentioned. I had been expecting a bunch of glitches during matches but from all the matches I played I had one match with Punk suplexing Lesnar where Lesnar was floating and a Divas match where the first 30 seconds had a few moves where the placement was all wrong but then sorted itself out. Apart from that it played fine.

November 24, 2011

Gameplay wise it is the best in the series, sadly roster wise it's the worst. It's not THQ's fault that modern day WWE is shithouse.

Still though some reviews are comparing the gameplay to No Mercy, when it still shares much more in common with previous games in the series than it does No Mercy. No matter how many times that change the buttons doesn't change that they all still do the same things. The only difference is that moves can be interrupted and limb targeting. Even the 'new' breaking point submissions are just the original bash the buttons submissions, just with a name. They got rid of them for more strategy... guess they didn't like that.

It plays well, the roster is mostly foreign to me, CaA isn't fleshed out making what are cool vintage rings look stupid against modern stages, Road to WrestleMania ranges from a distraction to a chore depending on the week. So no it's not a 9/10 game. There's a lot of fun to be had in Universe, but beyond that and online matches, the gameplay still isn't focused enough to make the game more than one you play on the side, like a side dish to a main course.

7/10

November 24, 2011

Salizzle, your comment made me face-palm so hard that I now have a migraine. Have you even TRIED the fucking thing? Did you give it more then 2 minutes if you did? I'm pretty sure most of the people that read this will agree:

SvR09: Shit.

SvR10: Getting better

SvR11: Step back

WWE '12: Amazing.

I'm gonna come right out and say it.

If you haven't tried it, shut the fuck up until you do.

If you have: Give it more than 5 seconds before you throw it aside. You know, you'd fit in SO WELL at IGN. You're just as IGNorant.

November 24, 2011

Out of curiosity, what about SvR11 was a step back from 10? I never played much of either game so I have no scope on it.

November 24, 2011

I'm glad to hear the gameplay is good this year, one problem I had with recent games in the series would be that I would enjoy creating content but when it came down to actually playing the game Iost interest completely.

November 25, 2011

Strum, it was surprisingly MORE buggy than SvR10. It MAY be because the PS2 version of '10 [Which I have] had less bugs than it's PS3 Counterpart because there's less you can do, but I doubt it. Don't get me wrong, SvR11 is fun. Story Designer was awesome. But there were so many bugs that just made you facepalm and put them sticks down.

AS, You may not have that problem this year. There're some collision glitches with the ropes, and the Ladders still bounce, but all-in-all, it's REALLY fun. And Legend Mode is actually CHALLENGING. Like, WWF No Mercy V. Hard Challenging, just a bit easier to grasp[ Because you can fine-tune the AI. The AI in NM always cheated to Hell.

November 25, 2011

I love the gameplay this year round, moves have a lot more impact about them such as the big boot that looks awesome the collision detection is good aside from a few ground attacks which nearly always miss like CM Punks knee drop. The AI is a huge improvement it has never been this good in a wrestling game, matches can last a long time and this is just on normal so I'm interested to see what it's like on legend.

The new camera angles really add to the experience there are times when you hit a series of moves it looks like you are watching a match on TV. My only gripe comes from Universe it's little messed up at the moment, I've had wrestlers showing up on Raw or Smackdown when I've removed them from the roster and put them on WCW but still they show up.

The wake up taunts are amazing they just fit so perfectly into the gameplay I would find it hard to play the game with out them.

Looking to next year I honestly don't want any major changes to the gameplay, what is here works and it works well if they just refine the gameplay smooth it out and fix a few of the collision detection issues I'll be fine with that.

Forgot to mention online matches for once they actually work now I had a 6 man tag match last night with no lag and even when someone dropped there was only a 3 second delay while the player was replaced with an AI.

WWE 12 is one of those games where you won't fully understand the changes until you actually play the game it might look similar to SVR 11 but the core gameplay is vastly different.

Edited November 25, 2011 by ALL STAR

November 26, 2011

If you see me on challenge me to a game, we'll see if the lag holds up going to Australia...

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