It's a very strange balance to keep, and one that really isn't much fun. Since you can't actually see your wrestler do much on the mic, or take part in any of these film roles, or interviews, or autograph signings that he's supposedly doing, it all feels more than a little meaningless. And while injuries might be realistic to how wrestling tends to go these days, they don't make the mode any more fun. Why anyone thought these silly additions would make a good replacement for actual, unique storylines is anyone's guess, but they aren't, and ultimately this year's story mode is a real downer.
Clipping and animation issues aside, the wrestler models still look fantastic.
The interesting thing is that all these various training bits can be done in the GM mode as well, though obviously you can apply them to any wrestler on your roster, not just one guy. Apart from that stuff as well as a greater frequency of injuries, GM mode is practically untouched from last year. You still draft rosters or pick existing ones, you still book matches, you still try to get more fans than the other two brands (ECW has been added to the mix this year), and it all still feels like a piece of a good idea rather than a fully fleshed-out good idea. Booking the matches just isn't that exciting unless you're playing all the matches yourself (and sometimes, not even then). Another big problem is the truncated roster this year. Despite the addition of a new brand, there are actually fewer wrestlers to pick from in this year's game than last, and that severely limits the kind of roster you can have in the GM mode. If you choose to draft, you only get something like 13 or 14 wrestlers before everyone's been taken, so unless you feel like creating a gaggle of guys in the create-a-wrestler mode, you're not going to have a lot to work with.
On top of that, the roster itself is rather severely out of date. Notably released wrestlers who are in the game's roster include Sandman, King Booker, Cryme Time, Marcus Cor Von, Chris Masters, and Sabu (who is admittedly in the game as a "legend" wrestler for some reason). Couple that with a few names who are currently out with extended injuries, and the roster is looking a little ragged. It might not feel so off if it weren't for the fact that there are less wrestlers overall than last year. It's not Yuke's fault that this is the case, considering the development cycle and how far ahead the rosters have to be locked for this thing before the game is finished, but maybe this speaks to a greater issue about the game's development cycle that this problem keeps popping up again and again, and with greater notability each year.
Elsewhere in the game, there are a few tournament modes you can play around with, as well as a hall of fame mode that puts you into some classic matches and tasks you with winning them (Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels in an iron man match; a TLC match against the Hardy Boyz; an extreme-rules fatal four-way match between yourself, Tommy Dreamer, Sabu, and the Sandman; and so on and so forth). Beyond that, you're looking at the same basic exhibition, online, and create-a-wrestler modes as last year. Online has seen almost no alteration whatsoever. You just get into either a ranked or unranked match against up to five other opponents (depending on the match type), and you can trade created wrestlers with other players. The online basically works fine, with little lag that we could see. However, the PS3 version lacks voice chat, and the PS2 version actually lacks any kind of online component whatsoever. It's also $10 cheaper than the 360 or PS3 versions, so take that for what it's worth.
The create modes are similarly unaltered. You can design belts, movesets, stables, entrances, and finally, a superstar. This is still a very deep mode with lots of options to play with, but it doesn't feel like it really adds much to the equation from last year's game, and elements of the interface still feel clumsy. The one really nice addition is the ability to use custom soundtracks for your created entrances on the 360 version. It's a pretty simple process. Just throw whatever songs you have on your hard drive into a playlist, and the game recognizes any playlist you have in the create an entrance mode. Unfortunately, the 360 version is the only one to have this feature.
Online and create modes are mostly identical to last year's game.
That one element is about the best thing you can say for the game's audio, which is exceptionally underwhelming. It's mostly the fault of the voice acting (though the recycled sound effects don't help, either). The 24/7 mode dialogue bits are badly delivered, and the commentary is the same recycled nonsense we've been getting from this series for the last few iterations. You've heard practically every one of these lines, and you've heard them be just as inaccurate as they are in this game. Something has seriously got to give in next year's game, because at this point it serves more to ruin the presentation of the matches than help it.
You can count the number of things SmackDown! vs. RAW 2008 does to improve the series on one hand, and the number of things that it does wrong on the digits remaining on the rest of your limbs. It's not that it's an awful game. The gameplay still has plenty of life in it and in multiplayer, the matches can be quite fun. But everything else about the game--the few middling changes to the gameplay, the major gameplay issues that remain unfixed, the lackluster 24/7 mode, and the thoroughly rehashed create and online modes--just makes you wonder if it isn't time for this series to finally start over from scratch. Every year these games include a greater breadth of content, but rarely a greater depth. SmackDown! vs. RAW 2008 is perhaps the greatest example of that. It's a solid wrestler, but not one that's worth spending $50 to $60 for if you already own last year's game.
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Where to buy
WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2008 (PlayStation 2):
$17.95 - $47.99
| store | price | in stock? | rating |
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eBay
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$17.95 | Yes |
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eCOST.com
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$47.99 |
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