WWE Allstars is the latest installment in the WWE series, but it's not what many gamers might expect. Allstars is a huge departure from what we've seen in the past from wrestling franchises such as Smackdown, and is instead much closer to 2009's WWE Legends of Wrestlemania. Does WWE Allstars truly manage to set itself apart or is it just another unsuccessful attempt at a new take on the genre?
The biggest difference you'll see as soon as you jump into the game is the completely different gameplay style to Smackdown titles. Allstars is over the top, very quick and just down right bonkers. Being able to jump 20ft in the air with a 275 pound man on your shoulders truly is the definition of over the top, and that's what this game offers. With its fast paced movements and gameplay style you'll never been on the ground for too long like in WWE games of the past.
Included in the gameplay overhaul are completely new modes. There's still the standard 1v1 matches, steel cage matches etc, but they're not put in a 'career' mode so to speak. The 2 modes you have to choose from are 'Path of Champions' and 'Fantasy Warfare'. Path of Champions has 3 sub-sections to it; the Legend path where you'll end up facing the Undertaker, the superstar path where you'll end up facing Randy Orton and the tag team path where you will face DX. There's no real storyline to these other than fighting other wrestlers to earn respect and eventually be able to challenge the main event, where you can win a title belt. It's a pretty generic career mode with not much length, depth or purpose other than to play a variety of matches.
The better of the two modes in my opinion, Fantasy Warfare, puts you into fantasy matches you'd never expect to happen to determine the best wrestler. They take one legend and one current superstar to answer the question - which one of them is the better man? There are many categories like the best undisputed champion between Triple H and The Rock, or the best big man which is Andre the Giant and Big Show. There are 15 of these fantasy warfare matches overall, which are all interesting match ups that can be often be quite challenging. The best part about this mode is the story behind why they were selected. There is a short video before every match showing each wrestlers accomplishments and why they are in this specific fantasy warfare match. It does grip you in to an extent often leading to you deciding from the video who deserves the title, then allowing you to play as them and determine the outcome for yourself!
As you go through the game you'll be sure to notice the health bar - a feature not commonly seen in WWE titles. The health bar makes the game edge closer towards a fighting game than your standard wrestling game. The health system actually works quite well as you'll never see any noticeable damage on your character until you are KO'd. This also gives you an additional way to win the match as you can perform your finisher when their health is flashing red resulting in a knock out. Fear not - the health doesn't go down very fast though so it's not like the matches are over too quickly. Matches can go on for a fair amount, allowing you time to perform a variety of moves and get much enjoyment out of the gameplay.
In some matches, however, KO's are not possible, these are specialised matches. Matches such as 'steel cage' can be very difficult to win simply because at first your not too sure what you have to do. For example the controls for escaping the cage are very fiddly and do take a while to trigger. By the time you've got the game to obey your commands your opponent will be up and attacking you, making it tough to escape the cage. Matches like these can end up being frustrating and often drag on for a long while.
When this frustrating gameplay comes about, you'd think that you'd be able to turn down how 'intelligent' the AI are in the options menu. However there's no slider options like in Smackdown, but instead just simple sound and gameplay difficulty options. Depending on what sort of player you are this could be dissapointing, as previously in every other WWE title you've been able to tweak various slider bars to suit the game to how you wish it to be played. With the lack of these you will either have to stick out the specialised matches or just not play them full stop.
The roster in the game features 30 wrestlers and is split in half with 15 legends and 15 current superstars. There are all the ones you'd expect to see such as The Rock, Triple H, Undertaker and John Cena. That said, there are also some strange additions you wouldn't expect such as Kofi Kingston, however even these are still enjoyable to play. The roster has a good balance of brawlers, high flyers and technicians. THQ have also confirmed there will be a few DLC packs with new wrestlers so you should be able to find a chunkier roster in the near future.
If you do not wish to wait for DLC, there's always Create a Superstar. Yes it's back in Allstars! You'll probably think you'd be able to make a truly over the top wrestler, but the feature is sadly limited. The CAS options are very simple and are a significant step back from Smackdown. The game gives only a few limited options for face and body etc, but also limits the amount of clothes you can have. This feels like a total missed opportunity. Making an over the top wrestler could have been an absoltuely fantastic feature with the endless possibility of options that could have been implemented. The wrestlers on the game really are OTT. With every single character 'beefed up' beyond belief it'll make you laugh to see little Rey Mysterio with massive muscles jumping 40ft in the air doing his 'West Coast Pop'. These little perks made the game that little bit more enjoyable.
Online is also extremely basic and feels completely behind the times. It simply offers player and ranked matches, with the option to either enter a quick match or create a match. There are no real options when you create the match either - only the match type, and what arena you'd like to fight in. At the time of writing the online playerbase was fairly small, making finding a match quite difficult. That said it is quite enjoyable in short bursts when you do manage to get into a match.
The great novelty of the game is for a wrestling fan to pit old legends against current superstars in over the top, roof flying action with 'roided up' characters and crazy visuals. The single player and multiplayer modes are fairly lackluster, despite the core gameplay being good fun. WWE Allstars is a good game, but it lacks in depth and feels like a missed opportunity in some areas such as Create a Superstar, which hold it back from being a great package. Despite that being said, you can have great fun with WWE Allstars - this is the sort of game you'll jump onto every couple of weeks for 30 minutes for a good laugh.
WWE Allstars Gets An Official Game-Pad: 7.0/10