Polish
Here Comes the Pain doesn't skimp on upgrades, improvements and new features. There are two new match types - Elimination Chamber and the Bra and Panties match. The roster has been updated for this year, so new faces such as Charlie Haas, Shelton Benjamin and John Cena have joined the already massive cast of WWE Superstars. All wrestlers have their latest themes and Titantron videos too. The career mode has been vastly improved, and now features a menu driven interface and storylines developed by the WWE writers. Here Comes the Pain also features a totally revamped grappling system and a stack of new moves.
Pat-a-Cake in Tights
The fighting engine featuring within games in the Smackdown! series has always been met with varying levels of criticism. These criticisms were mostly aimed at the speed of the game, the speed at which wrestlers could get up off the mat after taking a massive bump and the lack of a competent grapple system. Here Comes the Pain attacks these problems head on. While the game is still fairly fast paced, new elements have been introduced to slow the overall pacing of matches down. A new damage meter has been introduced to show which body parts your wrestler has taken the most damage to, with various colours representing the level of damage. This adds a whole new level of tactics to the game, as you can now work on a particular section of your opponent's body, and get him to submit easier or stay down on the mat longer. As a body part takes more and more damage, you will notice that they start to grasp at that part when they are on the floor and when they have just gotten up off the mat. Using a submission move on an injured body part will result in the new submission meter making an appearance, which results in players hammering the hell out of their pad to make sure they either don't submit, or force their opponent to submit.
WWF No Mercy on the Nintendo 64 was always held in high regard because of its fantastic grappling system. Yuke's have taken this into consideration while making Here Comes the Pain, and have completely reinvented their grappling system as a result. There are now four different grapple styles, power grapple, quick grapple, normal grapple and submission grapple, each accessible by holding a specific direction while going for a grapple. Once you've decided on a grapple type, you will have 4 different moves that will correspond to that type of grapple that you chose. You can also use a strike attack on your opponent while holding them to reduce their ability to counter your move. The counter system has also been overhauled, with two buttons allocated to counters rather than just one. L2 will now counter strike attacks while R2 while counter grapple attacks. This feels a lot better than having a single button dedicated to all countering maneuvers.
The new match types in Here Comes the Pain are actually better than we first anticipated. The elimination chamber is based on the match from last year's Survivor Series Pay Per View. The match takes place inside a cage, with two participants in the ring, and four in glass tubes around the ring. These men will be released randomly through the match, with the winner of the event being the last man standing at the end of it. Wrestlers can climb up the cage onto the glass tubes and do high risk moves off of them, not to mention they can throw their opponents through the glass tubes for extra damage. The bra and panties match has long been a popular spectacle on WWE programming, and has finally got its own videogame representation. A fight takes place between two WWE Divas, with the first to strip their opponent down to their bra and panties being the winner. Stripping clothes from your opponent happens in a similar fashion to a submission move, with a similar sort of meter appearing on the screen, requiring you to mash buttons to either rip the garment off or fend your opponent off.
Here Comes the Pain also retains almost all of the match and mode types found in Shut Your Mouth, with the exception of the I Quit match and the King of the Ring tournament. While the King of the Ring tournament had been phased out in WWE programming, no reason for the omission of the I Quit match has been provided. Even with these omissions, there is still a heck of a lot of variety in the types of matches available, including favourites such as the Hell in a Cell, table match, ladder match, Slobber Knocker, Royal Rumble, battle royal, 6 man tag and more. The game has support for up to 6 players in multiplayer, which is where a majority of players will be able to realize the full enjoyment of the experience provided by the Smackdown! series.
Here Comes the Pain features one of the most robust rosters in the history of WWE videogames. Many wrestlers have been cut - either through injury such as Diamond Dallas Page, or just at the last second like Hulk Hogan (he was in early builds of the game, as well as in other WWE games this year). There have been a lot of new additions to replace the wrestlers who got the axe - popular established stars like Goldberg, popular new stars like John Cena, and other talent like Shannon Moore, Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin. A selection of legendary WWE wrestlers have also been added, including Roddy Piper, the Million Dollar Man, the classic Undertaker, the Iron Shiek and more. The only downside to the legends is that none of them have their original Titantron videos or entrance music. Wrestler weights have finally been corrected, so only the strongest of superstars will be able to perform moves on heavier opponents such as the Big Show. There's a very interesting new addition (I don't know why I hadn't thought of this before) in the fact that superstars now have specific attributes and ratings, meaning that you're going to have a tough time beating Brock Lesnar with a wimp like Tajiri. This attribute system really comes into effect more in the career mode than anywhere else, especially when you are playing with a wrestler of your own creation. Unfortunately, there have only been fairly minimal changes made to the create a wrestler mode - they've even retained the same original music themes, and not added any new ones. We'd like to see a few features taken from WWE Raw 2's create a wrestler mode, such as the ability to create your own Titantron videos from your wrestler's moves.
The season mode has seen a lot of improvements, adjustments and additions since last year's iteration of Smackdown!. Players now choose the brand for their wrestler at the start of the game, rather than having to go through the drafting process like last year's game. The first-person navigation system has been scrapped (hoorah!) and replaced by a much more intuitive and far superior menu based system. The menu allows you to choose between a few options - moving to selected points in the arena (only available if someone else is present in that location), roster adjustments, attribute adjustments, the WWE ShopZone, stable/faction alterations and finally, move onto the matches themselves. Talking to other wrestlers backstage helps you build alliances, get into fights or progress your angles. You can also talk to the general manager of your brand (Eric Bischoff or Stephanie McMahon) and request a title shot, or check out your superstar points. Roster adjustments allow you to activate and deactivate superstars, or change the brand they appear on. The attribute adjustment screen allows you to spend experience points earned in matches on your wrestler's attributes, making them stronger, faster or more resilient to damage. These attributes help hold your wrestler back at the start of the game, effectively stopping you from going and winning the WWE Championship or World title in your first month, so you have to earn your progress. ShopZone contains a whole stack of unlockables that you can purchase using the Smackdown! dollars you earn from wrestling matches. These include everything from Divas loading screens to new arenas to fight in. Once you begin the season, you will find yourself fighting matches against lowly stars until you achieve a decent amount of star points. As you get more star points, you become involved in more major angles, and can get shots at bigger and better titles.
Smackdown! titles have always been amongst the best in terms of lastability and value for money, and Here Comes the Pain is no different. The game provides players with a lot to do in its season mode, and the wide variety of match types should keep players interested in both single and multiplayer modes. Best of all, you can continue onto the next season with your wrestler's abilities, titles and relationships intact. Expect to be playing this one for quite some time.
Eye Gouge
As time has gone by, the WWE videogames have gradually become better and better looking. This year's graphical improvements have been a little more subtle than the improvements between Just Bring It and Shut Your Mouth, but the game still looks very impressive. The wrestlers are more detailed than ever, though you will find that while some look like amazingly realistic recreations of themselves (Vince McMahon especially), others will merely look passable. Animation is spectacular, if you can discount the few stiff animations still remaining from the PSOne Smackdown! titles. Moves are flawlessly executed, and the wrestlers do a believable job of selling their moves. Also, for the first time in the Smackdown! series, blood has been included. All of the sets from the popular WWE TV shows and Pay Per View events have been recreated for the game, and they look magnificent. The game runs at a rock solid 60 frames per second, but there is no support for widescreen or 60 Hz modes.
Here Comes the Pain seems to have taken a step back in the sound department with the omission of all ring announcing, be it during a wrestler's introduction, prior to the start of an event, or during a match. This is quite disappointing, as it felt as if Yuke's and THQ had found a decent balance with their commentary in Shut Your Mouth, and every wrestling game needs a ring announcer. All of the current wrestler's theme songs are provided for their respective intros, but no new custom songs have been added, and all of the legends are lacking their respective entrance tunes. Sound effects consist of all the bumps, crashes and clangs you'd expect to hear from a wrestling game. There is no support for surround sound.
Doesn't Tap Out
Unlike its cover athlete, WWE Smackdown: Here Comes the Pain doesn't tap out under pressure. The game is almost a perfect update - it adds much more to the Smackdown! formula than we were expecting. There is still a little room for improvement for next year's game, but for now, this is the best wrestling game available. The best thing about wrestling titles is their accessibility, so you'll be able to get into this game even if you don't give a hoot about wrestling. Recommended.
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