Evolution not Revolution
I have been with it through it's highs and lows. I have watched it develop to the next gen high def game that it is today.
Why do I keep paying 60 dollars a year for what people say is about the same game?
There is usually enough in the most resent game to make me want to buy the new game. This year's major promise was special "styles" that both made the moves done by the wrestlers make more sense (why could Mark Henry steal Rey Mysterio's 619) and made the gameplay more fun.
I think in execution it was a success. Submission wrestlers sucked before. I mean who played Ric Flair? It was almost impossible to win by Figure Four Leg Lock before. Now between the Dirty finisher and the new Struggle Submission introduced he is a potentially dangerous threat.
But another reason that I buy Smackdown! games is the Season mode. I have to say that in this regard the game did horribly. I do not even play the game anymore. Even though I love the new fighting styles and all the new moves and animations (diving out of the ring hits people really satisfyingly) I am planning on returning the game.
The reason why the Season- renamed 24/7 mode- is so horrible is both because of the fatigue gimmick and because of the lack of wrestlers.
I am pretty sure that everyone with a review has touched on how unbearable the fatigue portion on 24/7 is so I will make it brief as possible. They make you do activities. If you don't want to they make you "simulate" them. Nothing fatigues you faster than simulating. So it's either be bored not wrestling 70 percent of the time or be fatigued (and most likely injured) all the time. And the rub is unless you are careful it is easy to get fatigued even if you do all the boring in between matches stuff.
Voice acting in the game is bad. JR and the King are entertaining at first (but extremely repetitive), but there is no reason for there to be voice acting in this game. It is not wrestler's job to do this. It is painfully obvious that they do not have the time or the resources to do it well so they really should give it up.
They have said that the reason that the roster is so small is because they had to throw out so much voice acting. That is unacceptable. This was a semi-cool experiment when they first came up with it but letting their crazy pie in the sky dream of all the wrestlers acting out all the lines is getting in the way of the game reaching it's potential.
Also I have a feeling that the season mode is so stagnant because of the voice acting. In other words they have to make season mode around what wrestlers recorded well rather than MAKING A GOOD STORY MODE. To sum up I wanted to like the game. They have good ideas- most of them pan out. 24/7 was a failure- it was ambitious but not what players want. The styles was wonderful and I hope they keep it. They could really have a gem next year if they ditch the whole integration of GM Mode and Story Mode (24/7 mode in other words) and increase the roster. Plus as I just stated I believe that abandoning the whole full voice effort would be best for the franchise, but it seems like something they want to keep so I just pray they find a way to not let it get in the way anymore.
I will probably buy the next Smackdown! to come out, but releases like this keep pushing me into thinking I should start spending my money on other games.