War Zone was a great game, but in the post-No Mercy and SmackDown age, it's only for the die-hard fan.
Bad: Gets boring after a few matches, Announcers are good but very repetitive
I first got this game when I was nine. It was one of the only wrestling games I had at the time, and it was a great one. But after playing countless of other kinds of wrestling games, it seems like I should have gotten a few more back then.
The WWF Challenge is the main mode in the game, as you fight your way past several superstars to the WWF championship, capturing the Intercontinental title in the process. On your way, you'll encounter grudge matches with wrestlers you've beaten, as they challenge you through cool FMVs of them talking trash about you. And the more successful you become, a groupie of sorts will talk to you in short cut-scenes.
The create-a-wrestler mode is very cool, but not exactly great. Your wrestler must use a pre-created moveset either by an actual wrestler, or a generic moveset with no real personality. One bad thing about the CAW is the fact that no matter how you make the wrestler, either male or female, or black or white, it always has some goofy-sounding redneck voice.
The gameplay is...innovative. While the gameplay is fun, the hassle of typing in the button combinations (such as left, down X for a move) will definitely become irritating as time goes by. This is especially true during the Challenge mode (which features eleven matches, not including grudge matches). Tag team matches are best played multiplayer, because the constant two-on-one attacks by the CPU will happen often, and it is really difficult to call in your partner to make the save. Weapons matches are cool, but hitting your opponent can be very slow, and they'll usually be able to hit you if they dodge the attack. There is a training mode, and it seems that newcomers best go there first.
The sound is very well-done, with each wrestler given an array of trash talk lines during the match. Real-life entrance music is played during the entrances, however, these entrances only occur during the Challenge mode, and needless to say, they are not mind-boggling by any means. If you want to listen to the music, you can go to the Biography section or the create-a-wrestler mode. The announcing by JR and Vince McMahon is right on top of the action, but they are a bit too repetitive. And while they are basically done by cut-and-paste, it's difficult to tell, and they're commentary is still worlds better than the horrid SmackDown: Just Bring It commentary by Tazz and Michael Cole.
All in all, War Zone was an innovative and excellent game for it's time, and is still plenty of fun today. However, the tedious gameplay will probably leave you wishing they had just used a standard grappling system instead of button-combos. This, along with Attitude, seems a bit crappier nowadays than back in the old days.