Bad Attitude?
Now many will know that I’m not exactly a fan of wrestling, but I did enjoy last year’s entry. Can WWE ’13 improve upon its predecessor? WWE ’12 was perhaps the best WWE game to date, it improved the series and although it wasn’t perfect, it’s the closest the franchise has come. WWE ’13 adds new elements like reliving great moments from the Attitude era of WWE, it also improves it’s creation suite for those who want to fight with their own creations, but I can’t help feeling that WWE ’13 isn’t that different from last year’s entry.
Basic elements like connecting punches have been improved, but doing reversals is ridiculous as a prompt will appear on screen for a nano-second before vanishing, getting the timing right is almost impossible and the fights themselves feel like extended Quicktime events, which is a pity considering last year’s game was a massive improvement and felt like the series was gathering pace, but ‘13 seems to play it safe, even though the Attitude fights are impressive.
Multiplayer still has its issues with lag, but ultimately its still a good experience. The Attitude fights are accompanied by reels of old footage from the era of wrestling, as well as commentary explaining the rivalry between WWF and WCW and the quest for ratings, you’ll get optional objectives to do which recreate specific events, but it won’t stop the match if you fail them like in past games, which is a huge relief.
Difficulty seems to have taken a step back in this year’s game, WWE ’13 is very easy even on the highest difficulty. In terms of presentation, ‘13 looks very familiar to last year’s game but the entrances are still impressive, while the commentary is still a bit lacklustre.
The Verdict
WWE ’13 is still a decent wrestling game, but it doesn’t quite match the level of improvement of last year’s entry. It almost feels like a case of 1 step forward, 2 back but hopefully WWE ’14 will take it up a notch.
