WWE '13 Preview: Attitude Era Mode

[Smacktalks]

Embedded above you can find a video preview of Attitude Era mode, or continue reading for the written transcript.

Attitude Era mode is split into 5 sections, The Rise of D-X, Austin 3:16, The Brothers Of Destruction, The Great One and Mankind.

Before you begin the mode there's a few options for you to decide on such as the difficulty, adrenaline speed and whether Blood is switched on or off in the mode, of which the blood option will affect certain matches such as First Blood matches in the mode by replacing those matchtypes if blood is switched off.

Upon starting out in Attitude Era mode you'll be greeted with the classic opening video of Monday Night RAW as you head into your first match of the Rise of DX story which features 12 matches and multiple bonus matches that you'll unlock along the way.

The first match see's you play as Shawn Michaels vs. Mankind on RAW, with Mankind coming out dressed in his old school brown attire which is complete with his old Titantron and theme music. The objectives are pretty straight forward and see you hit Sweet Chin Music and win the match by pinfall which then unlocks Mankinds brown attire for use in Exhibition mode, with more unlockables being unlocked after each match which seen me go on to unlock Hunter Hearst Helmsley and another face of Foley within my first 3 matches, which due to the constant unlocks is very good incentive to carry on playing and completing all of the match objectives.

Within the first 3 matches you'll also unlock various bonus matches, which again come with match objectives to unlock more unlockable items, of which the first bonus match is Shawn Michaels vs. The British Bulldogg at the One Night Only PPV, which upon completion unlocks that arena.

A nice addition to the bonus matches are that you don't actually have to play them right away, meaning you can continue through the story and come back to them later, which is also an option you'll have for all of the Attitude Era mode matches as you can select any match you've played to go back and replay it, meaning you can re-watch certain cutscenes or try again to complete all the match objectives and unlock the bonus content it is linked to.

Throughout the time I spent playing Attitude Era mode I only got around 5 matches into the mode as there was so much to play that I didn't want to just stick in one mode, but from those first 5 matches and the cutscenes and video packages that come with them it is soo rewarding to sit and take in those moments as they bring back memories of the actual event themselves. One of the best moments for me in the mode was the classic match between Triple H and Cactus Jack one RAW, which came complete with an in-game recreation of Mankind and Dude Love on the Titantron as they introduced Cactus Jack who then begins the match at the top of the ramp with a trash can just as he did back in the day. From there your objectives to recreate the match include hitting Triple H with the trash can and putting him through a table, which seen me lead Triple H up the ramp and setup a table so I could piledrive him through it, but unfortunately I had to settle for suplexing him through the table as there was no option to climb on top of regular tables to perform moves.

Overall however, from what I did play Attitude Era mode was awesome, especially reliving the cutscenes which brought back tons of nostalgia, which isn't going to be the same for everyone as not everyone that plays the game will have experienced those moments first hand, but that's where the option to relive the Attitude Era pays dividends as for a younger generation of fans there's so much for them to enjoy that they wont have seen previously in video packages and it'll be entirely new.

Finally, fans will be pleased to hear that I didn't come across one backstage brawl from the matches I did play, but I can tell you that you should enjoy them more this year as along with the same backstage brawl areas from last year there's also an Attitude Era backstage era to play in, which unfortunately isn't unlocked until later on in Attitude Era mode, so as of right now it's content remains a mystery!

Source: Smacktalks.org