Simple, yet fun wrestling game with tons of customization.
First off I used to be a fan of the early WWE smackdown games, but every year they kept making them more complex and every year they would add something new and take away somthing else I liked. I personally lost interest in them based on the fact that I wanted a wrestling game that was fun but you didn't have to memorize so many dang buttons. With FPW you get that.
The best thing about this game is building your character. You can use your Avatar in matches which is cool, and the game will pit you against your friends Avatars as well. The game also has a ton of different costumes and looks for you to unlock in the campaign mode to build your wrestler. Also add to that there are a lot of moves to unlock as well.
You can build your character around three basic moves types: Power, Speed, and Technical. And you have to have each at certain levels(up to 50)to use the moves that are associated with each move type. So basically you can create several types of wrestlers all with different moves. You go up to level 100 with you wrestler and each level you can distribute points to use..simple enough. There is also Stamina, luck, and health to put points into but these don't give you moves just increases your overall performance in the ring.
During matches your moves and taunts build to release a powerful finishing moves that can end a match quickly as they are devistating. Your opponent will also build up finishing moves. It's released with a taunt towards your opponent but if you get hit once activated you lose it. I found it best to activate once the opponent is down on the matt and then wait for them to get up. The finishing moves are pretty well down and cool to watch. If you get bored of the one you have go to moves and select a new one.
The game does have multi-player which I played a bit. I got my butt beat as I was pretty low level going against high level guys, but it puts you up levels really quickly. I did experience lag while in multi-player but not all the time and I wasn't sure if it was server related of player related.
The downside of this game for me is that I wish the campaign was longer. I was disappointed by the final champion too. Also there is a problem with lock ups. When ever you lock up with an opponent, where you both go into a grapple at the same time, you have to press the "B" button as fast as you can to see who wins the grapple. Against lower level computer characters it's easy to win, but later on it becomes impossible to win. Doesn't matter how fast you hit that "B" button the computer wins everytime and gets the grapple. This annoyed me and I eventually just stopped mashing on the "B" and let the computer win because it was so futile whenever you got in a lock up. For me it's probably the biggest issue with the game and something I wish they'd patch. Lock ups do occur frequently and to have it so you always lose is darn right irritating. It can make the match a little more frustrating than it needs to be.
Anyway. This game is fun, but I can see the novelty eventually wearing off and at some point not getting anymore play. As an arcade game I really enjoyed it and am still playing it. I downloaded the Legends DLC and am currently playing that....it's basically extra campaign vs. higher level characters and more challenging. Play the demo and if you like the demo you'll like the game.