WWE '13 Review
WWE '13 ReviewGenre: Combatant Sports
Developer: Yukes
System I played on: Xbox 360
Year: 2012
First I would like to start with my background on WWE and their games. First off I am a wrestling fan, and although I haven’t been able to watch it lately I’ve been watching wrestling sometime after Wrestlemania 22. Since then I’ve played many of the WWE games, and usually get around to playing them each year. The only one I’ve skipped was last year’s WWE ‘12, but I played just about every Smackdown vs. Raw game before it. I didn’t actually look much forward to the games, and they were usually very stale for me as time progressed. But seeing the games evolve into this game is actually really good. First I want to start with the fighting. The fighting feels a lot smoother, and a lot much more like a wrestling match. Rather than simply running and knocking down my opponent I was using a lot more moves involving the ropes, submissions, and wearing down the opponent by picking certain body parts to weaken. The game was also a little harder, and this was definitely a good thing. These games need a challenge, but getting beat for some reason is much more annoying in WWE games. Also the new OMG moments in the game make it much easier for the player to do extreme moves with them actually being earned. Combat is a very big improvement since I last played, and it really shows. Second the graphics. I expected the graphics to be a lot better since I last played and they were about were I expected. Third the music. While in menu it usually plays Superstar music, and it for some reason it was way better than the last few games I played. I actually several times waited for the song to finish before clicking something on the menu. And with so many different themes with the many characters there is excellent sound. Another great thing was the customization. In every WWE game there is vast amount of things to customize, and in this it gets to a ridiculous amount. Sure many I found boring like the usual make a movie and story, but many people eat that crap up so I can’t complain. Some people out there probably made super entrance movies, but yet I have no urge to actually make one. Whenever I start doing them in the games I simply loose interest. But there are still many of the usual good ones, like creating superstars. The create a superstar is mostly like how it was in the last game I played, but it still has new things every time. It’s not a step down by any means, and I actually probably would have been against changing the format for creating a superstar. Also there are many new things to create, like the resurrection and improvement of the create a title. Creating a title was all right, but the main thing I liked was the creating an arena. I’ve only made one, but it blew my mind at how much effort was actually put into creating a stadium. I thought it would be a simple choose a color, slap on logo on the ring ropes and maybe some lighting. No, it goes way deeper than I thought and you can basically create any type of ring you want. You can do like I did, and make a stadium that matched your superstar. For example, I made a yin-yang superstar with black and white tattoos and a yin-yang symbol on this attire. I made a stadium with black and white all over and yin-yang symbols all over the place. But although the customization is another great thing, it is not the best. The best thing about WWE ‘13 is the attitude era. The attitude era is probably the best idea in the game series so far, and the most fun game mode since general manager mode. (Why did they get rid of it!!) Attitude era lets players relive the past, and since I was busy being born during that time period I was finally able to know more detail behind the stories I wasn’t too familiar with. And going through famous moments like when Bret Hart getting screwed to Mankind getting thrown off the steel cage can now be lived through in game world, and this easily beats the road to Wrestlemaina mode. It feels lengthy at times, but right when it’s finished you know it’s just about as long as it needs to be. Not to mention you unlock something after every match, so it definitely is worth playing through to the end, and unlocking the characters is actually way better than before. Attitude Era also allows the roster to fill up a lot, and let’s players play as old characters who probably would have never been able to play without this mode. Some things on the short side of the game are that universe mode isn’t very new, and feels boring by now, and if it wasn’t for achievements I’d doubt I’d have touched it. Also the game after completing Attitude Era doesn’t feel like there’s much to do, a problem I see in each wrestling game. There not huge problems but they do keep the game at bay. Also there aren’t a lot of memorable moments, and just not the feeling you get when you know your playing an amazing game. I mean I love the game, and it’s great, but I really can’t say it’s at all more than that.
WWE '13 gets a 4/5
Spoilers: I’m guessing all sports games won’t really have much of a spoiler section, as there isn’t really any spoilers you can give for these types of games.
WWE '13 gets THE "CREATIVITY" BADGE
