Mini Review - WWE '12

WWE 12

Genre: Fighting/Wrestling

A slight rebranding, but still similar gameplay to what has gone before. You still get various options WWE universe is pretty much GM mode where you can modify pretty much everything and create your own shows, brands, titles.....Road to Wrestlemania is the story mode which you follow a pre-defined path towards the gold on the grandest stage of them all. You also get multiple create options for superstars, arenas, entrances, logos, etc. Then you get the usual online stuff as well.

Graphics, nothing to write home about. Everyone seems to have a plasticy sheen to it and there have been occasional instances of wrestlers floating about 10 feet above the floor and other random glitches.

Sound....some big issues here. The sound is normally ok, but during Road to Wrestlemania you can hardly hear some of the voiceovers. Commentary also seems fairly limited and will begin to grate after a short time. Other than that you get all the normal theme music and the option of using your own music with your creations.

Gameplay....this is what these games live and die by. This unfortunately dies by this. The addition of a targeting system to focus on certain areas is a nice addition, but you are sometimes lucky to get access to it as sometimes the grapple automatically turns into a random move. Also you're going to be extremely frustrated by the reversal system. The window for activating a reversal is tiny and even on easy you'll find it hard to get a move in. This is exceptionally frustrating when you're facing multiple opponents which happens regularly in Road to Wrestlemania mode, which itself is also frustrating, due to how incredibly long and tedious it is.

Achievements....if you've got a lot of patience, then this game is a fairly straightforward 1000 (as of writing I was at around 800-900). There are a lot for completing specific tasks, but none that require any real skill. Online is kept to a minimum as well.

I feel I should also point out the online side of things....it is not good at all. If you are lucky to get connected, then finding a match can be difficult mainly due to the fact that if you don't have the appropriate DLC then you cannot join most of the matches. Also the community creations area can take an age to load, if and when it decides to work. Kudos to THQ though here because they are actively working on improving this side of things.

Verdict. A lot wrong with this game unfortunately. The tedious story mode and the frustrating controls top the list but the online runs it close.

5/10

Nice write up but can't see this being the game that gets me into wrestling games somehow :/

I don't think they'll ever be able to get it right. They should just cut their losses and stick to the outlandish titles like Allstars. That one was decent.

Good one mate!! Nice to have this up for members to refer to.