Season mode includes around 40 individual storylines, many of which are about on par with the writing on the TV shows.
The GM mode returns this year, as well. Making its debut last year, this mode introduced the concept of being able to book your own shows, setting up feuds, and trying to earn fans away from the rival brand. It's a purely menu-based mode, and it works similarly to some of the PC wrestling management sims floating around on the Internet, though without a ton of depth. This year's mode adds a few wrinkles to the formula, not the least of which is specific feud types and storyline writers. Along with having to hire an entire roster of superstars, you'll need to periodically hire writers. Each writer specializes in certain types of storylines. One writer might be adept at handling storylines revolving around factions, whereas another one might be good at pulling at the heartstrings of American fans via patriotic angles. Each storyline requires certain types of wrestlers, so you can't just shove anyone into an angle and have it work. The basic idea for setting up these rivalries is that matches between wrestlers in a rivalry get match-rating bonuses.
The addition of rivalry types and writers is a nice idea, but it doesn't fix the fundamental issue with the GM mode, in that you still feel totally disconnected from the experience. Though you can play through any of the matches you book for a card, doing so doesn't seem to have any more of an effect on the match rating at the end than simply simulating them. It's also impossible to book cards that are realistic in comparison to what the WWE actually books for its shows. For one, you can only have 20 wrestlers on a roster at any given time, which makes trying to create a variety of matches and feuds a touch difficult. Additionally, none of the promos you can book for a show play out visibly. They're just menu options on the card, and they give you varying types of bonuses, but that's it. The same can be said for rivalries, which seem to be there purely for bonus purposes and not much else. It might be asking a bit much at this point to be able to book full-on storylines and have them play out in some tangible capacity, but what the GM mode offers still feels a bit mundane. It's cool to be able to take control of one of the WWE brands, but what you end up doing with it ends up being repetitive and not very interesting.
All the create modes found in last year's game are back this year, and most of them work functionally the same. Create-a-wrestler, create-a-belt, and create-a-stable are mostly the same, though CAW has plenty of additional attires and customization options. Create-an-entrance has seen the biggest overhaul. You can now view previews of every single change you make to a wrestler's entrance on the fly, from basic camera angles to varying types of pyrotechnics. The load-up time for each preview is almost nonexistent, and in general, it's a much breezier process to create a good entrance this time around. The only real flaw is entrance music. For one, the entrance music you pick just plays on loop in the background, and it doesn't restart each time you load up a new preview, which might make timing pyrotechnics and entrance moves a bit off-kilter. Also, for some strange reason, the Xbox 360 version of the game doesn't support custom soundtracks as theme music. The game won't recognize any music you might have saved on your hard drive. While the SmackDown! games have never had this feature, all the previous wrestling games on the original Xbox had it, making its omission here very disappointing.
The new additions to the GM mode don't do much to make it a more entertaining endeavor.
Online features are pretty much par for the course for the series, with every available match type playable online--or, at least, any match type that doesn't require more than four players. Like the Xbox 360 version, the PS2 game only supports four players online, which is a bit odd considering the game supports six players offline. But that quibble aside, the online plays well. Most of the matches we tried were basically lag-free--save for a few random bouts with players who had less-than-stellar ping times--and with the ability to challenge for opponents' created title belts, as well as trade created superstars among other players, you'll find plenty to do online.
The only thing decidedly missing from the online mode that seems like it ought to be added to this series eventually is the ability to download new wrestlers into the game. Although this may not be a reasonable request from a PlayStation 2 game, the roster issues are still prevalent. WWE rosters are constantly shifting, and every single year the roster is out of date well before the game ever makes it to store shelves. No year has this been more evident than with SmackDown! vs. RAW 2007. Plenty of highly pushed superstars like the Spirit Squad, Brian Kendrick, Paul London, and basically any ECW superstar not named Big Show or Rob Van Dam, are nowhere to be found in the game. In fact, the ECW brand isn't really acknowledged anywhere, nor do several of the wrestlers have their current gimmicks. Booker T is sans the King Booker gimmick, and though there's an unlockable DX entrance available, the gimmick isn't prevalent anywhere in the season mode. Also, you've got guys like Psicosis and Kid Kash in the game who haven't been on TV in quite some time, not to mention Kurt Angle, who ditched the WWE quite a while back for the rival NWA-TNA promotion. Though you can certainly create most of the omitted wrestlers, it's a hassle to do so, and you'll undoubtedly be disappointed with the overall makeup of this year's roster.
The SmackDown! games have consistently delivered some of the best graphics on the PlayStation 2, but like the gameplay, some of the nagging issues conspire to drag the experience down this year. This is especially true on the Xbox 360, where the overall graphical presentation might look better, but issues like frequent clipping and clunky animations stick out even more offensively. In both versions of the game, you still have wrestlers clipping through the mat and objects, move and reaction animations that don't quite line up, and poorly animated long hair that looks hideous on what are otherwise fantastic-looking character models. And make no mistake, they look amazing. You won't get the newly improved skin textures or sweat effects that are found on the 360 version when playing the PS2 game, but the core graphics engine still looks great. A number of the facial animations and reactions as the wrestlers get hurt are especially great. For the most part, the frame rate also stays steady.
The character models look fantastic up close, though the animation is a bit stiff.
The audio presentation is more scattered, unfortunately. We've already covered the solid voice acting, but the in-match commentary is very much its own animal, and a far more wounded one at that. The commentary that pops up during the season mode that's specific to the storylines you're involved in is quite good, since it actually covers something relevant. When you're just wrestling a match, however, you get the same recycled tripe that both the teams of Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler, and Michael Cole and Tazz have been spouting for the last couple of years. Play one match, and either announcing crew will run through every single line they have, meaning you'll basically hear the same lines in every single match you play. In-ring effects are also feeling a bit stagnant. Crowd noise never seems to really come alive, and many of the slams and hits just don't seem as impactful as they could be. The soundtrack is another scattered collection of generic hard rock tunes and hip-hop tracks, though the inclusion of Ghostface Killah's "The Champ" is a welcome change of pace from the usual generic nonsense tossed into these games.
WWE SmackDown! vs. RAW 2007 has its share of lingering problems that probably ought to have been cleaned up long ago, and some of the improvements it makes don't come across as terribly necessary, but what the game does right it does very right. There's just so much to do and experience throughout the game, and as a multiplayer game, it's a riot to play, especially with a lot of the crazy gimmick matches. Not to mention that for fans of Microsoft's consoles, this is the first time that an Xbox system has gotten a wrestling game worth its salt, and that fact alone ought to excite just about any Xbox 360 owner out there. Longtime fans of the series will be disappointed by a few things, but they'll ultimately enjoy what the game has to offer. Fans will even enjoy these things on the PlayStation 2, where the fewest overall improvements have been implemented. And for those who've missed out on the SmackDown! series during its many years as a Sony system exclusive, it's a great chance for you to find out what you've been missing out on.
WWE SmackDown vs. RAW 2007 (PlayStation 2):
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