September 25, 2008 - A few weeks ago, IGN debuted the details about Road To WrestleMania, WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009's story mode that has players choose from seven wrestlers and set out on a character-driven storyline that features voiceovers, cutscenes, and the works.
The Interwebs exploded. Fans launched message board posts demanding to know why only seven Superstars could be used in the mode, e-mails poured in demanding to know what this meant for created Superstars, and I'm pretty sure somewhere people burned a scarecrow made up to look like THQ Senior Creative Manager Cory Ledesma. Of course, all of these extreme reactions were a bit premature. THQ and Yuke's have been playing their cards close to their respective vests when it comes to SVR 09, so it was safe to assume they had something up their sleeves.
Today, the cat's out of the bag -- Career Mode is in SVR 09. It's open to every Superstar, Diva, hidden character, and created wrestler in the game. It allows you to pick what titles you go after. In the mode, you get to pick the matches you'll compete in and set win conditions. This is how you will build your created character's stats and abilities -- the game monitors how you perform in the matches and awards you attribute points in the durability, strength, and so on areas.
The setup is simple (there are no cutscenes or storylines) but from my five hours with the mode, it seems like a refreshing and challenging way to build a character.
You can take any Superstar you want into this mode, but for me, Career is geared for your CAWs. When you choose your character -- you can only have one Career going at any time -- you'll start at the bottom of the ladder. When I created two-time BYWF Champion and current IGN Champion of the World Gruesome Greggy, the man that would be a star started with a meager (see: crappy) rating in the mid-30s.
That's out of one hundred.
When the new mode begins, you'll find yourself on your Superstar's private jet, which is a scene similar to last year's locker room. You can click on an event program to check your stats such as your record and the total number of matches that have ended in pins or submissions, you can choose the exit sign option to go wrestle, and you can click your cell phone to see what's going on with your title path. See, depending on whom you choose to start your career, you'll have a handful of championships to go after. You choose a path -- Greggy's extreme, so he went the way of the ECW title -- and are then presented with a list of four Superstars and one mystery champion at the top. Your goal is to steamroll through everyone on that list until you're fighting the champion.
What happens is that you pick to go fight, and the game asks you whom you wish to fight. You pick someone, and then a list of eight singles match types or seven tag match types pops up. You're free to choose whichever bout you want, but in the beginning, you'll only have a few to pick from; more will open up as you knock off each title's No. 1 contender. Even when you're starting from square one, you'll still have some options. When you decide to just have a normal singles match, you're welcome to turn off pins to create a makeshift submission match, turn off countout, and so on.
Of course, Gruesome Greggy's hardcore; I turned off DQ and countouts so I could drag Elijah Burke and whomever else got in my way to the outside and beat them with weapons and such. During my first match, this customization option seemed like a nice bonus, but it turns out it actually weighs pretty heavily into your Superstar's progression. Once the match is over, you'll get kicked to a rating screen where the game will use a five-star review to summarize your bout and where the game will award you attributes based on what moves and techniques you just used. The attributes pop up and slowly fill depending on what you did out there. Because Gruesome Greggy was beating the hell out of Burke with weapon after weapon, his Hardcore rating exploded while Agility and Technical attributes got minor bumps due to the occasional submission hold I tossed in or whatever. When I decided to start leaping from the turnbuckles a bit more, my speed stats started to grow.
Awesome.
On top of the straight moves to attribute point relationship, there are awards and abilities to keep in mind. THQ has about 100 awards packed into this game that you unlock by performing specific stuff. Cheese with That Whine? Award comes after you argue with the ref at least four times and Too Many 2s is awarded after winning a match by pinfall after five two counts. Aside from getting these little medals at the end of the match and then being able to view how many times you've earned them, certain awards give your stats a boost. For instance, if you pull your opponent's shoulder off the mat during a pin four times in one match, you'll get the Continue the Pain award, which gives a one-time boost to the Superstar's Charisma attribute. If you can go an entire match without striking, you'll get On Strike and that'll bump up your Strength.
If you've been following the SmackDown Countdown here on IGN, you're probably well aware of the game's Abilities, which give Superstars special moves, taunts, and so on. To get Abilities for you created Superstar, you'll need to earn them in Career Mode. You do this by performing specific actions. Pull off at least 50 object attacks in your career, and you'll unlock the Object ability so that you can perform grapples with the stuff from under the ring. If you rake in three five-star matches with three different opponents who have the Dity Pin Ability, you'll get that Ability. From your private jet, you can scope what Abilities are in the game, but the title won't tell you how to unlock the options until after you unlock them.
Personally, I'm excited about Career Mode, but I can understand how some people might be put off. Usually, I only heavily use one created Superstar a year, so the lengthy molding process in Career -- with five hours under my belt, Gruesome Greggy's only at a 69 rating -- appeals to me. However, if you're looking to create an entire roster, having to mold each one in Career rather than just assign them stats, might get old. Still, this is definitely new ground for the SVR franchise. It's a little odd just going through, beating people, wining a title, and moving on to the next belt, but the character creation and ability to customize your matches seems way better than last year's stifling 24/7 mode.
Also lmao at Ashley being the game.
no:
I hope it doesn't suck...>_>
