REVIEW: WWE '13

UPDATE: I totally forgot to publish this article months ago. Forgive me, guys. Huge blunder on my part.

It's that time again, my fellow wrestling fans. THQ releases another annual dose of the WWE Smackdown vs. Raw franchise, which is currently dubbed WWE '13 now. Mind you, I didn't pay much of WWE '12 last year due to the fact of the sheer amount of glitches and bugs I experienced playing the retail version during a span of 20 minutes in my local Best Buy store. How does this year's game measure up? Let's find out shall we?

PRESENTATION:

WWE '13 brings all of the bells of whistles of the WWE experience to life. THQ has even managed to capture audio from live WWE events to use for actual crowd effects during matches. From the moment you load up the game at the title screen to the main menu, you're greeted by a VERY high-res render of CM Punk himself. Oddly enough, his Cobra and Pepsi tattoos have been altered due to licensing issues, but still that's a rather awesome image to be greeted to every time you start up the game.

In Attitude Era Mode, the WWE events truly come to live as WWE '13 recreates all of these classic moments in history (more on this later). Excellent archive footage clips and in-game cutscenes weave a powerful tale that any WWE fan can get behind and enjoy - either those that have been long-time fans or newcomers to the sport. Much like the tales of the tape crafted for WWE All-Stars, WWE '13 delivers the similar treatment for revisiting the Attitude Era. Pure uncensored audio and visuals from these events, as even the actual commentary and crowd reactions are captured and presented during gameplay in this mode.

Quick camera cuts and angles highlight the action going on in the ring at all times, but from my personal experience it leads to some disorienting moments as the camera switches angles and you're on a different side of the ring where you thought you were previously. Fortunately, this feature can be switched on or off in the match options.

Several Superstars have stellar entrance motions, such as Brodus Clay is accompanied by Naomi and Cameron (who are both oddly absent from actually being playable in-game) while The Godfather is accompanied by The Ho Train (sadly there's no Victoria as the lead Ho LOL).

Other entrances fall flat and look poorly executed in comparison, such as Alberto Del Rio's lacks Ricardo's Spanish introduction as he walks down to the ring. It's properly executed in 1-on-1 matches, but Ricardo just stands there looking stupid when you pair him as Alberto Del Rio's manager in a match.

THQ seems to lack the technology to render hair properly as it annoys me to no end to see it float around and hover in place like the Superstars and Divas are walking through the void of space. I would kill for THQ to get the folks who do the visuals for Saints' Row to offer some assistance in these games. Look at Beth Phoenix's hair, it looks like Play-Doh!

CONTROLS:

WWE '13 features the new "Predator Technology" that allows players to target specific body parts to wear down their prey systematically like technical machine or submission artists are properly allowed to do in this sport. No matter which Superstar or Diva you select in the game, this feature is universal in all of the characters' movesets. In turn, this aids in making the game more accessible for casual fans and doesn't force them to learn all of their favor Superstars/Divas' movesets. It's hit or miss in this title, as roughly the entire roster has the same few moves in this section to select from so it's going to get stale to watch in the long-run. It does benefit from seasoning your opponent properly for new Breaking Point submission mini-game that decides where Superstars/Divas are going to give up or submit from the pain inflicted. Much like the submissions in the last few WWE titles to date since SvR '07, these moves are once again - hit or miss. A lot of technical moves that one would think that would be listed as Breaking Point submissions are not labeled as such at all. As a result, creativity goes out the window where only the 'popular' submission holds are labeled as Breaking Point submissions.

My biggest gripe on this series since SvR '07 has been the targeting system. No other WWE title has executed it as well as the original WWE Smackdown! vs. Raw did it back on the PlayStation 2. Manual Targeting relieves the problem somewhat, but it's never quite on the person you intend to be focused on. Also, it was bad game design to make manual targeting the same damn button you have general movement with. Auto Targeting becomes a clusterfuck in matches with more than two competitors and it's even more of a mess in 4-6 Man matches among all of the pending chaos. I'd honestly be happy with them scrapping taunts for a decent lock-on/targeting system.

GAMEPLAY:

Gameplay will be broken up into several chunks as I cover everything that WWE '13 has to offer.

I. Attitude Era Mode

This is THQ's core selling point for this year's title, allowing players to relive the best moments of infamous "Attitude Era" that was ushered in as a result to counter the ongoing threat in the battle of ratings against WCW. Any seasoned WWE fan can tell you that a LOT of these events are NOT entirely accurate, such as The Rock vs. Triple H Ladder Match, where Chyna is nowhere to be found in the final result of that match. Of course, a lot of key players are absent in these events and the game altogether due to some bad blood with Vince McMahon and WWE altogether, so naturally they would be left out. Regardless, this is a great look back at some of the key points that made these Superstars of yore into the Legends that they are today, but it is by far NOT a means to base your knowledge as a WWE fan.

My main concern though is that there is NOTHING to give props to, nor establish any merit to the current generation of the WWE roster. Sure, CM Punk is lucky to have graced the cover of the game, but other than that, he contributes nothing else to the title. This goes back to my main concern about today's product in mainstream wrestling - dependence on the past to garner revenue instead of establishing new Superstars and Divas for the future.

That being said, this mode manages to capture the rise of Stone Cold Steve Austin, Mankind (Dude Love & Cactus Jack respectively as well), The Rock, D-Generation X (Triple H, HBK, Road Dogg, Billy Gunn, and X-Pac are all that represent the faction) and The Bros. of Destruction (Kane & The Undertaker), each with their own core pivotal moments in this place in history touched upon here. A few moments are absent here, such as the 'sacrifice' of Stephanie McMahon to The Undertaker, Paul Wight (The Big Show) turning on The Undertaker, and the rise of popularity of WWE's key tag teams (Team Xtreme, Dudley Boys, and Edge & Christian) but of course, licensing issues got in the way of that.

The difficulty can be adjusted but I personally found this mode to be quite enjoyable, but honestly, it's not as long as the early reviews made it out to be. I finished the entire thing in about 2 afternoons with a lot of breaks in-between matches. Early previews were acting like this was going to take about 30 hours of gameplay here. Don't believe that shit for an instant. Once you get a hang of things it's not that bad. The core amount of your time is going to be going for the bonus and hidden objectives in each match if you hope to unlock EVERYTHING if you didn't buy Fan Axxess - add an additional $19.99 to that $59.99 price tag if you picked this up at launch new.

Much like everything else with this game, there's a few occasional freezes and hiccups in this mode. I encountered a nasty glitch during the Mankind vs. The Rock title match during his chapter where the game kept freezing up after the last objective was revealed.

After clearing the main chapters, you unlock the "Unscripted" chapter that features a series of loose matches that aren't related but feature the other Attitude Era staples in some popular matches. Some of these matches are hit or miss, with some of them being extremely inaccurate (The Rock as special referee to Lita vs. Stephanie, whereas he counts EXTREMELY slow for Lita), to others leaving you wondering why the fuck they included some of these matches in the game at all.

Just a LOT of the roster selections for Attitude Era were very questionable to me. It still disgusts me to see two versions of Lita in but no Essa Rios at all if they couldn't get the Hardyz in this game. Then don't get me started on the waste of having T & A Trish Stratus in this game, yet no Albert (Lord Tensai DLC doesn't count) nor Test (RIP Andrew Martin) in this game.

II. Online Modes

I'm happy to say after my disgust with WWE Smackdown! vs. Raw 2011's online that was nearly unplayable, that WWE '13 is actually enjoyable. I've only dabbled in Player Matches among friends, but the connection is stable enough to be able to reverse/counter consistently and kick-out of pins/submissions properly. There are still a few hiccups here and there, such as my friends ending up with several different outcomes to concluding matches and occasional slowdowns, but it's an acceptable online environment. Trust me, vanilla MvC3 was a LOT worse than this.



Another welcome addition to online matches is the ability to include AI bots to fill up remaining spots for an online match, rather than waiting for the room to become full with participants. Ranked Matches feature a "Fair Fight" option that removes all customizations to the default Superstars and Divas and reverts them back to their default retail on-disk versions. So, if you're looking for a fair online competitive environment where you can filter out the spammers and hackers with Create-a-Finisher movesets with the infamous "Bearhug of Doom" or the "Infinite Toe Kick" then you have that option this time around. Custom Arenas can be used online as well to your liking. That also means that you don't have to go through the hassle of uploading all of your creations on Community Creations first before getting into the action online.

Community Creations is exactly what we have come to know as the standard for all things User Created Content, and that doesn't stop here in the least. This year's entry in the series allows the option to re-upload created content so users can collaborate on creations to add even more creativity to the creation suite.

So far, the servers have been VERY fast, but with a few slow days and occasional freezes. I think another patch in the future would remedy these minor issues. Also, kudos to THQ to actually giving the servers properly scheduled routine maintenance as well.

UPDATE (3/21/13): I can't speak for the PSN side of things, but it's either hit or miss with CC working on the Xbox 360 end of things. It just depends on the time of day - after midnight (EST) there's little to no issues with navigating CC for content, but it's a totally different story throughout the rest of the day.

III. Exhibition Modes

Since I kinda skipped '12, I don't know if this is a new feature or not, but Exhibition mode isn't tied down at the hip by Universe Mode. So what matches you cook up with your friends or against the AI do NOT contribute to your goals and storylines in Universe. Thank you, THQ for listening to the fans about how stupid that was in the previous games.

Custom Fight Options allow you to cook up your own set of rules and stipulations, ranging from "first to hit a finisher", Best 2 out of 3 Falls, TLC, Inferno, Elimination, and even crazy Cage match combinations. You can really go nuts with the options here. Interference is an option too, but much like previous entries in the series, it is very unlikely that anyone would interfere unless they are in an intense feud with your character(s) in My Universe or tied to you via stables/teams.

Contrary to popular belief, you CAN challenge for championships in this mode. Just go into the Speciality Matches tab and select whatever title you wish to challenge for and go nuts.

IV. Creation Tools

Create-a-Superstar is the same creature that we have come to know since SvR '11, and which is pretty sad. Most of the same parts are still unchanged from that game as well as the same mold from WWE '12 as well. Most formulas (if you've been savvy enough to write down your creations down over the years) carry over into this game with minor to no tweaks at all. There are a few new parts for Superstars, namely inspired from Jeff Hardy, John Morrison, and few masked independent luchadors, but Divas got the short end of the stick as usual, with little new additions outside of a few additional hairstyles (Why they don't have any black female or other hairstyles for minorities in this game? Sheesh, I swear THQ is racist...). Custom coloring for skin tones are back, along with transparency and patterns for SOME items, and the newest notable feature this year is option of layering custom kickpads over your creation's footwear. There's only 5 possible options, but it's better than nothing. I was hoping that it would have been possible with more footwear options than just the most generic looking of boots.

If you want a more detailed look on what's new look no further than the video below:

Create-a-Entrance is the same from previous outings as well, but at least they have limited that awkward cut/transition between moments on advanced entrances. There's a few glitches here as well, such as entrance props/extras are not appearing until you literally preview the entire entrance in a real match environment. The audio for tracks and crowd is either a hit or miss here - with some occasions where the crowd effects are louder than the entrance music itself. Hey, THQ, some of us actually LIKE to hear the music...

Otherwise, this mode is still the exactly same from what we have come to expect over the years.

Create-a-Arena gets mad props from me. From the sheer amount of negativity that I heard about this mode from WWE '12, it seems that THQ took that feedback and really turned it around. There's TONS of set pieces from the stellar PPVs and live events from WWF/WWE, WCW, AWA, and even ECW history that can recreated here. Indoor and outdoor arenas can be made too for those who want to try their hand at indy arenas or a Tribute to the Troops-style arena. Paint Tool logos can be applied here and you really can go nuts on creating your own Custom Arenas to be used for your custom shows in Universe and/or Exhibition Modes.

Create-a-Finisher is the same creature since it's previous iterations. I'm just still saddened by the fact that THQ has not bothered to add in all of the moves that were periodically extracted from this series over the years, especially since WWE Smackdown! vs. Raw 2006. Hey THQ, I want my Kung Fu Straight Punch back in dammit.

One notable difference this year in CAF is that these moves can be registered as ANY of your Superstars/Divas/CAWs, 2 Signature or 2 Finishing Moves. So you can have an original creation with all original Signatures and Finishers. That's definitely a step in the right direction on giving the players more freedom on making this world their own.

Create-a-Moveset is quiet the whopper now. Constructing movesets from scratch can take literally hours to complete for a single Superstar/CAW as moves are divided up in multiple categories and situations now. It is intriguing to have this many options at your disposal, but at the end of the day, a LOT of these categories are not diverse enough, nor offer enough variety that one would expect. The Predator Technology Limb Targeting moves are few and lack any variety and roughly everyone in the game uses most of the same moves in this section.

It's 2012 (going on 2013) and we still lack the option to completely turn off the ability to climb the top rope for super-heavyweights, turning off diving moves entirely for strictly mat-based grapplers, and an extensive arsenal of submission techniques found in this sport. Call me spoiled from the PS2 era's Fire Pro Wrestling Returns, but these should be some staple features now on the next-gen platforms. Hell, we can't even customize nor adjust the individual roster's AI Logic thoroughly like that game.

Of course, we have AI Sliders in the menus, but at the end of the day, the game still goes from Grapple Jesus  (meaning the AI reverses everything like a god) to not-so-Grapple Jesus. Sorry for getting off-topic, let's move on shall we?

Create-a-Championship is back, but long time fans will be disappointed in the long haul. You can ONLY customize and edit current championships and rename them to give the illusion of original belts. Like always, I can imagine this feature being fully explored and expanded in later entries of this franchise. As lackluster as this feature is in its current form, players can only be grateful that they brought this feature back at all.

V. My Universe Mode

My Universe is essentially what we have come to know in these games since it's debut. You can either go with the default roster, and play through (either as any Superstar or Original CAW on your console) an endless array of storylines and feuds for all of the coveted championships in the game.

I'm not saying this mode is great, as I didn't buy WWE '12 last year, but it's not much different than the one in WWE Smackdown vs. Raw 2011 either. By now, WWE fans should know exactly what to expect from this mode. Love it or hate it, it's there for your leisure.

This year's newest feature is to create your own trademark brand, with custom championships and unique roster. E-Federation fanatics would love this mode for setting up their own all-CAW shows and storylines to be uploaded via Community Creations.

Most of my tenure in this mode has been toying around with the custom brand feature, but it saddens me on how rare injures occur in this mode. I'm not asking for this thing to be as realistic as the seasons in Madden 13, where players can suffer career ending injuries and could be out for multiple years within that said season. Instead, I'm asking for possibly a meter that shows how close Superstars and Divas are to becoming injured from working hurt/fatigued. This dynamic could force players to book their shows more diverse and experiment with jobbers and mid-carders to possibly boost their status in popularity to transform them into main eventers over time. That feature alone would add tons of replayability to a fan-favorite feature.

VI. Downloadable Content

WWE '13's DLC started right off the bat with the Attitude Era Pack, which included Attitude Era Superstars Rikishi, Scotty 2 Hotty, Grand Master Sexay, Gangrel and Val Venis (available for $0.99/80 Microsoft Points each) and the Accelerator: enables players to unlock all in-game items, as well as customize individual WWE Superstar attributes (available for $1.99/160 Microsoft Points).

Not a bad start for the Attitude Era, but I'm still disappointed that other Attitude Era favorites, such as TAKA Michinoku, Funaki, the Holly Family (Hardcore, Crash, and Molly), Steve Blackman, Jacqueline, Terri Runnels, Sable, Sunny, or Ivory didn't get into the game via DLC.

The DLC for the month of December was the WWE Superstars Pack, which included WWE Superstars Tensai, Ryback, Drew McIntyre and Yoshi Tatsu and WWE Divas AJ Lee and Natalya (available for $0.99/80 Microsoft Points each), Undertaker "Ministry of Darkness" alternate attire (free), and the Championship Title Pack: 10 new championships from WWE, WCW, ECW and AWA (available for $1.99/160 Microsoft Points). 

This was the main draw for Diva fans, and I can see why as AJ Lee and Natalya's character models are top notch, but their entrance moves were really half-assed. I felt the same way about Ryback, McIntyre, and Yoshi's but you can't really complain if  you're getting these technically free with Fan Axxess. The Undertaker's Ministry of Darkness attire was a stellar addition for the Phenom, but I'm puzzled on why it takes up a separate character slot on the DLC menu on the character select screen. I thought he was going to be an alternate costume, not an entirely new character. 

Antonio Cesaro hits the Neutralizer on Santino. 

Last but not least, there's the You're Welcome in Five Languages Pack released in January, which includes WWE Superstars Damien Sandow, Antonio Cesaro, Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso and Attitude Era Legends Brian Pillman and Chainsaw Charlie (available for $0.99/80 Microsoft Points each), WWE Diva Layla (free), and the Moves Pack: 20 new moves, including the Lionsault made popular by Chris Jericho and the Kimura Lock made popular by Brock Lesnar (available for $1.99/160 Microsoft Points).

This last DLC pack acted as the last breath of fresh air for WWE '13. The new moveset pack helps make most of the Attitude Era and big name current era Superstars feel complete in a sense now that most of the proper signatures and finishers are in the game now. I was sad to see that Tamina was not included with the Usos, especially with her push in WWE last year, or no Aksana with Cesaro. At least we got Layla, who was Women's Champion when this game's roster was first announced. Fortunately, her character model is top notch like AJ Lee and Natalya's so I can't complain too much about that. Sandow and Cesaro aren't bad at all in comparison to the Superstars added in the last DLC pack, but the Usos' entrance audio is a bit off. These are minor headaches that perfectionists can easily fix in Create-a-Entrance though.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I've waited this entire review to say this, but I'll say it now. I FREAKIN' hate Otunga's theme with a passion after hearing it come up after every other track on the menus. THQ, or rather Take-Two, PLEASE take the time to get some legit tracks instead of looping entrance themes over and over for WWE '14. The menu tracks alone made me mute the TV roughly 95% of the time playing this game.

If you've been a long-time fan of this series for the last few years, then there's no doubt that you are going to enjoy this title. Now if you haven't played these games since the PS2/N64 era of wrestling titles then you're better off sticking with those. Attitude Era Mode is cool to relive some of the golden days of WWE programming, but you are better off with a rental if that's all you are interested in.

For creation mode purists, this title is literally WWE '12 with a bit more options for your creations that I discussed above. Personally, I enjoyed having all of these options, but at the end of the day, it's not worth it when both Created Superstars and the AI both fight matches in a generic, often times in a retarded manner, than anything like their real life counterparts. I would love to see this series implement an in-depth AI Logic editor like those found in the Fire Pro Wrestling series, allowing players to edit and program EVERYTHING from how their wrestlers behave (taunts, restrict/enable particular move usage frequency, etc.) at any stage (varied by the opponent or the wrestler's own stage of health/damage inflicted) of a given match.

We are in 2013 now. From my standpoint, this series is still so far behind than I can dream where it could and should be. As a fan of wrestling, I'm going to continue to try to support these video game endeavors, but at the same time as a gamer, it is my responsibility to strive for more satisfying experiences from the developers that I continue to give my hard-earned money to. I have to wonder how much better these games would be if THQ had annual competition from another rival developer on market. For the love of God, can someone give the Fire Pro Wrestling/Wrestle Kingdom a budget to do a next-gen wrestling title like those gems?

If the devoted fans to this series would neglect to buy the next title, I'm positive that THQ would take drastic measures to improve this series for the better. Don't get me wrong, this title isn't the glitch-filled mess that I played on the Best Buy kiosk last year. It's what WWE '12 should have been last year, if THQ did things right the first time. It's not the worst that THQ can offer, but it's definitely far from their best efforts. I'm giving this a 7.75 out of 10.