Awesome review Cyclone! I look forward to reading more of your thoughts on games in the future.
WWE 13: The Breakdown
Game Review | February 22, 2013 6:52 pm
By Zack
Credit WWE.com
Okay, so WWE 13 has been out since like, October, and I haven't seen any reviews or anything for it, so I figured now that we're into February, I'd post a review breaking down gameplay, game modes, and other aspects of the game. Trying to be all super professional and stuff when in reality I'm rather disappointed by the game, mostly due to online which I'll get to in a second.
First, I'll start with the biggest change to the game: Road to Wrestlemania has been replaced by "Attitude Era" Mode.
Attitude Era Mode focuses reliving one of the craziest eras in pro wrestling history, that spans from Summerslam 1997 to Wrestlemania XV in 1999. There are 7 different chapters to complete: Rise of D-X, Austin 3:16, Brothers of Destruction, The Great One, Mankind, Wrestlemania XV, and finally the Off-Script chapter that is unlocked with completion of Wrestlemania XV. And don't worry, Achievement Hunters, each mode you complete earns you a nice amount of gamerscore achievements. Each match has multiple historical objectives to complete, as well as select bonus objectives to unlock more content to play with in other modes. For example, right out the gate in the first match for the Rise of D-X chapter, if you win the match, by pinfall, and hit Mankind with a chair, you unlock Mankind's alternate brown attire from his early days in the WWE. Other matches unlock bonus characters, videos, photos, arenas, and even bonus matches, that you have to complete to truly complete the chapter and earn the achievements. Overall, playing Attitude Era mode was a lot of fun. It's one of the gems of this year's WWE installment. I'd give Attitude Era Mode an A-. It would have been better with The Hardy Boyz, Dudley Boyz, Kurt Angle, among others, but that's just my opinion.
Next, we're looking at Universe 3.0. Universe got a massive overhaul again this year with the addition of over 60 custom Attitude Era cutscenes, as well as other aspects that were helped designed by ECW mastermind Paul Heyman. This year, you can also remove the Monday and Friday broadcasts and truly make it your universe. You can add shows on other dates, such as the new Main Event program that airs on Wednesdays. I can't say I've played much of Universe regarding actual matches and cutscenes, but judging from what I have played, I feel it deserves a B+. Certain parts of it are still wonky in terms of generated shows and stable formations, but those can be fixed on your own time.
Now I'll go into something I found disappointing, the Championship Editor feature. A lot of people assumed it would be like Create-A-Championship Mode from previous Smackdown VS Raw games, but it's not at all. You can only edit titles that are already in the game, and by that I mean change their colors, and give them new names. Not that much of a new feature. I'd give this feature a C-, and that is being generous.
Next, we'll go into other Create Modes. All your favorite create modes return, including Create-An-Arena. A big step-up got added to this feature this year, as you can now take your arena masterpieces and use them online. This is one thing that is really cool about the really flawed online mode. I give this addition an A-, too.
Before we get to single player gameplay and online gameplay, I'd like to point out the new soundtrack added to the game, which is composed of the title theme "Revolution" by Pennywise and multiple entrance tracks of favorite stars like CM Punk. Chris Jericho, Daniel Bryan, and even the classic Evolution stable. This seems pretty awesome on paper...until you realize it's the same tracks over and over, and not even in full. It gets about halfway through the song before it transitions into another song, which is pretty lame to me. I'd give this a D. Such a disappointment.
Now, onto the gameplay, finally. This year several new aspects of gameplay were added, including new back and forth leverage pins, new moves and taunts, new characters (including the ever popular Ryback and breakout diva AJ as DLC), and catching and alternate finishers. Moves like Randy Orton's RKO and Chris Jericho's Liontamer have been touched up and given a new slick look, and the RKO, Jericho's Codebreaker, and John Cena's Attitude Adjustment, among others, have been given a new option to be able to "catch" unsuspecting opponents out of mid air and connect, causing devastating effects to their opponents. Another new feature is the OMG! Moments feature, which if you store 1-3 finishers, a plethora of things can happen, from slamming your opponent through the announce table, to even breaking the actual ring! All your usual suspects are included in the game, such as cover superstar CM Punk, John Cena, Randy Orton, Undertaker, Triple H, and the attitude era roster gives a nice amount of older characters to use, such as Stone Cold, The Rock, older versions of Triple H, Chris Jericho, and Edge, and my personal favorite superstar, "HBK" Shawn Michaels. The gameplay, while having it's share of flaws and bugs, is really crisp. The engine is the same as WWE 12's, and it's not that hard to master the controls. I'd give the single player gameplay an A.
Now onto online. I really don't like online. Ever since Christmas, it has been really bad and slow to connect most of the time. And for me, a guy who doesn't like to go running around and doing running strikes and grapples all the time, facing a community where 95% of players do that is beyond agitating for me. The community creations menus are really slow and often don't work at all. I'd give the online modes an F. I understand THQ has gone out of business, but I'm begging for 2K to step up already and take control of these servers as they've gone down the toilet, fast.
Overall, I'd give this game a 7/10. Single-Player Gameplay, Attitude Era, and Universe are the three main gems of this year's game, and I'm excited to see what 2K Sports does with their hands on the reigns this fall.
Rating: 7.0 of 10
Reviewed: WWE '13
Keywords: wwe 13, reviews, pros, cons
