Well, I got the game on Tuesday and have been playing it nonstop. So here's the review.
Gameplay: If you loved the first DOR game or WWF No Mercy (what most people, me included, say is the best wrestling game ever found in the US) then you will have a blast with this one. Basically two new gameplay additions have been made: the stamina bar and a new submission bar. The stamina bar basically means that if you do a lot of running, strong moves, etc. then your stamina bar will go down and you will start doing the exact opposite: run slower, leave your self open to attacks by gasping for breath, etc. The submission bar lets you do 4 things with the C-Stick. You can make someone submit faster, recover stamina, taunt your opponent to build your special, or drain (I think it drains your opponents stamina or special meter).
The only thing that I dont like about the gameplay is the AI. Dont get me wrong, it's fun and challenging but when you play any mode that involves more then 2 people, then the AI gets super cheap. You can barely even pull off a move while the other computer opponents try to beat you up. They dont even fight each other, imagine this: You're in a fatal way match. You're beating up on one of the computer, the two other opponents are looking at each other for about 4 seconds then they both quickly turn their attention to you and only you. Even if you try to run out of the ring, they will still follow you. It's basically a 3 on 1 handicap match.
Rating: 9/10
Sound: Unlike Wrestlemania 21 (Xbox), this game has no voice overs whatsoever in story mode. It's all text based so I'm kinda disappointed in that. The music in the game is decent. If you like rock, heavy metal, or techno, then you'll most likely like it. All the bands in here are "underground" so dont expect any famous bands like in the previous games. Another minor thing I dont like is the announcer during entrances. It's Tony Chimel (the Smackdown announcer) and he announces for all the events, even Raw (it's suppose to be Lilian Garcia). Only highlight of the sound for me is that the entrance themes are the complete versions, not looped like the Smackdown games.
The crowd is alright. They have chants some times during the matchs and it makes it pretty interesting. They even start "Holy Shhh" chants if you do something amazing,
The entrance themes are accurate except for two wrestlers (Batista has his old theme, not the current one. Stacy Keibler has her generic one that shes been using for years now in wrestling games). Some ones that I'm happy that they got the rights for are Christian's theme, Edge, Christy Hemme (was expecting a rip off theme of Walk Idiot Walk), John Cena, and Randy Orton.
Rating: 4/10
Graphics: All the wrestler models in the game are simply amazing. Almost of the wrestlers look like their real life counterpart andit's pretty scary cause I was watching John Cena making his way into the ring and my mom thought it was live on tv. I would give it a 10/10 but Wrestlemania 21 clearly has the better graphics out of all of this year's wrestling games.
Rating: 9/10
Features: Many match modes that you would expect of a WWE game. It's basically all the same from the previous game. Classics like ladder match, TLC match, steel cage, hell in the cell, royal rumble, etc. DOR2 easily has the most arena types currently out of Wrestlemania 21 and SVR (until SVR 2 comes out). There's the classic ones (like Wrestlemania, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble) but new ones not found before in any other WWE game (Great American Bash, Taboo Tuesday).
Onto what most people are wondering about, the story mode. Unfortunately, I havent started it yet but I'll write from what I've read about it. No voice overs like I mentioned before. If you played the first game, then you'll be happy that there will be little tidbits of the story from the previous game. Unlike last year's game, this year's version is not as linear. You still follow in one path but you get to choose some choices when you're confronted with a decision. Expect your typical WWE storylines like joining a faction, deception, etc.
The CAW (create a wrestler) mode is almost the same thing like last year. There's only one gripe that I have with it (along with most people), LOAD TIMES. Even if you're picking the color of hair for your CAW, it will take about 8-15 seconds to load. Now imagine that happens almost everytime when you're doing something to edit the CAW. What would usually take 20-30 to create one would now take twice the time thanks to the load times. If you dont mind them though, there's still a lot of stuff you can do to make a CAW. If you played the first one, you know what to expect.
Rating: 7/10
Replay: There are 2 things to do once you finish story mode, unlock legends and get more attribute points for your CAWs. The legends in this game are alright, wish there was more. Skip the next paragraph if you dont want to find out.
SPOILERS
Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Mankind, Bret Hart, and Hulk Hogan.
END SPOILERS
There is no create a belt or create a pay per view mode like WM21 or SVR so that hurts the replay value. Another gripe I have is with the Royal Rumble mode is that once you get elimnated, you cant rejoin like the SD games. I understand it's realistic but it's not fun if you're playing with other people.
Rating: 3/10
I guess thats everything. If you're a hardcore wrestling fan, this is easily the best game out of the 3 current games on each console. It's like the child of No Mercy, it has very simlar gameplay to NM but enough distinctions to separate it. I preordered the game a week after the game was announced and glad that the game didnt disappoint. A must buy for sure if you dont mind that it has limited replay value.
Final Verdict: 9/10
