u/rimux88

WWE Svr '06 is often put on a high pedestal as being one of the best wrestling games ever made with the likes of no mercy and here comes the pain, the latter of which I replayed recently and really enjoyed. I cannot say the same for this one, the reasons why I'll try to quickly surmise here.

Before I dive into the gameplay side of things, let me quickly go over the presentation. Which, luckily, is pretty great. You got a newly licensed soundtrack with some absolute bangers, all the wrestlers and their entrances are represented pretty faithfully, voice acting is done in the season mode by the wrestlers themselves, and it's actually pretty good. There's ring announcers as well as play-by-play commentary making a return for the first time since shut your mouth. One thing that I will say that sucks is the mocaped cutscenes. Whoever did them did NOT want to take a bump. Speaking of season mode, it's painfully linear and not really my thing, seeing as it has little repeatability value once you complete both branded storylines.

As for the new features, you get a few new match types, buried alive matches and fulfill your fantasy, nothing special if you ask me. But on the other hand, you get more customization options as well, possibly the best game mode and the only reason why I would recommend this game over the other offerings—GM mode.

In it, you try to compete for the GM of the year award by booking your own shows, scouting for talent, building rivalries etc.,

It's really basic here, and I think '07 would refine it for the better, but you can't deny its addictive quality—especially on the go via the mostly uncompromised PSP port. Simply amazing

And last but not least—the locker room, which you'll get to customize however you like over the course of the game.

Now onto the gameplay.

  

First, the gameplay struck me as a sort of awkward middle ground between arcade and simulation. The controls remain mostly unchanged from here comes the pain and the animations still look and feel impactful, and now you can choose between 5 different grapple holds as opposed to 4. However, the Irish whip, and its new strong variant are now relegated to a triangle and circle button press. Where things go for the worse is the inclusion of a stamina meter, which isn't implemented in the best way, seeing as wrestlers will tire out very easily and be unable to perform any moves if their stamina bar is completely drained, which can and does affect the flow of each match. Luckily, it can be turned off, which makes it almost a non-issue. The same for which can't be said about the following.

The opponent AI in this game is incredibly dumb, they're really predictable as they mostly go for strikes or Irish whips. The balance between strikes and grapples just seemed more organic in the previous games. They'll also frequently try to get themselves disqualified by bringing weapons into the ring. In ladder matches, they'll exclusively try to climb the ladder and nothing else. I could go on and on basically. A shame too, as these issues really soured the overall experience for me.

Ultimately, I think it's a pretty competent wrestling video game. However, I'm in the camp of people who think '07 is the better game, and it doesn't even begin to compare to here comes the pain.

Does it's gameplay consist of nothing but pushing a few buttons at a time and scanning your surroundings looking for objects to interact with ? Uh huh

Is it heavy-handed in its approach to its themes and what it wants to say ? Yes, very much so.

Is it also lacking in nuance and subtlety? Also, yes

Does it include a cast of walking stereotypes as characters and is also full of predictable tropes ? Yep.

Does it also readily and quite commonly use real life events in a distasteful way as inspiration ? Guilty

Does it think it's much deeper than it actually is ? Of course

All these things that I can attribute to this being a "terrible" video game and call out David Cage as a terrible writer, but I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle. It's an okay game, darkly entertaining at times.

Perhaps it's the binary choices and the relationships you get to build that make each playthrough a little different each time.

Or perhaps it's the voice acting and cutscene direction this time around, being more than competent, has helped my immersion.

Whatever the answer may be, you certainly can't blame the final product for its lack of ambition, polish or lack of unique features. However, unfortunately, due to its themes and how it tackles them, it's certainly not going to be a game for everyone.

It could be viewed as either a very loose reinterpretation of the original, seeing as every game element had either been changed or expanded for the better, in my opinion, or the true vision of what re1 should be.

Regardless, I'm just going to quickly highlight a couple of differences and additions and core gameplay features of this gem.

The mansion is bigger, the puzzles, albeit just as simple, are more numerous and involve more key items. There's more scripted sequences and more background info regarding the mansion's creation and attempts at tying it to the series timeline for the attentive sort.

Of course, the game takes on a much darker tone as well, with a matching soundtrack to boot. Unfortunately, this also means no more cheesy FMVs and terrible voice acting. Though the game more than makes up for it with the newly added horror value. And while, visually, the game features some beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds, it does come at a cost of some visual readability.

Gameplay has seen some changes, primally with the introduction of crimson heads—a next-step evolution for regular zombies. They're faster and much harder to kill and the only way to stop regular zombies from mutating is to either burn their corpses or destroy their heads.

The combat and movement is a little more fluid with there being a quick turn, although visual feedback upon hitting the enemies was done better in the original, in my opinion.

There's also a way out when grabbed by an enemy in the form of limited defensive items, one unique to each character and one shared one.

Speaking of whom, there's a starker, more defined difference between the two playable characters. With Jill, accentuated by her ingenuity and cleverness, having more inventory space, a lock pick and her own unique weapon, which she can use from an early point in the game make her ideal while exploring the mansion for the first time. However, she's much more fragile than Chris, whose bulky frame and fast reflexes make him better equipped for combat rather than exploration. Regardless of which character you choose, the newly added difficulty options also help to smooth things over.

  These new changes and little flourishes help turn what already was an outstanding survival horror experience into something even better for both newcomers and experienced players alike. Couple that with different and new unlockable game modes and trinkets, and you've got a very replayable masterpiece which sets an almost unrealistic standard for other games to strive towards.