WWE ‘13 promised a “revolution” for WWE fans and gamers with this year’s iteration in the long-running THQ and Yukes WWE game series, but can it deliver on that? Yearly installment-based games have always been known for only making minor improvements while demanding full price from consumers year-after-year. So the question on a lot of minds appears to be; is WWE ‘13 truly a revolution or is it yet another installment in a long line of games that tend to not do much in the way of improvements. In the few days that I’ve been playing WWE ‘13 after not playing the last few titles, I am a bit torn.
Without a doubt WWE ‘13 is a dangerously fun game for wrestling fans. Undoubtedly the games have changed since the release of WWE ‘12, which revamped the games quite a bit, which is great, but at its core it is still the same game. WWE ‘13 is a new layer of paint and a few bells and whistles glued onto the hood of this car, but I’m not sure that it qualifies it as a hot rod by any means. After a few minutes of confusion, the game fit like a glove just like it did before; things are just in different places than they were a few years ago.
The new “Attitude Era Mode” is good, if not damned good. You play through certain historical storylines in WWE history from the glory days of the Attitude Era in the 90’s. This means playing the rise of DX, the rise of Steve Austin and more, and it means fun. Video packages and the use of real broadcast promos and commentary adds to the realism, as well as “historical objectives” in the matches to not only push you forward in the storyline, but to unlock characters, costumes, arenas, titles and more.
Most people are going to find a good deal of their time in the Creation Modes, and they are about on par with what they’ve always been, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. The same can be said for the online, which as of the time of this being written, is still rather dead due to the game not commercially released in most areas. Universe Mode is one of those additions to the series that should probably be completely re-thought as it provides very little in the way of compelling gameplay even if they did claim that Paul Heyman helped with creating the storylines. Everything in it feels random and confusing, it is a great idea with awful execution.
I’m not sure that it is a revolution, but it is a worthy addition to the series and is fun. The gameplay tweaks are the best addition to the game, choosing between “quick,” “normal” and “epic” match types is perhaps the greatest part of this game, but as always, you’ll have to play with the sliders to have somewhat true-to-television wrestling matches. If you are a fan, you’ll be picking this up. If you aren’t, well it is worth a try.
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