The new camera system focuses on the active wrestlers instead of showing the entire wrestling ring, and has both positive and negative aspects. The camera system attempts to keep the active wrestlers as large as possible on the screen, which makes them appear more true-to-life, but sacrifices "ring awareness" in return. "Inactive" wrestlers, such as your opponent's tag-team partner, interfering wrestlers in singles matches, or new entrants in Royal Rumble competition, are mostly kept off-screen by the new camera system unless you actively engage them. When these wrestlers are off-screen, it is difficult to keep track of their whereabouts to avoid their attacks and interference with your pin-fall and submission holds.
There are a few things that stayed the same in DOR2, including the inability of female CAW's to participate in Bra-and-Panties matches. The only aspect where Day of Reckoning 2 seems to have regressed is in the artificial intelligence of its characters. In single-player Triple Threat, Fatal Four Way, and Royal Rumble matches, your opponents seem to only concentrate on attacking your wrestler, making these matches difficult to win.
Beyond the three major goals of completing the story mode, earning enough money to buy everything in the WWE Shop, and unlocking the five hidden characters; there is little in DoR2 to hold one's interest for long. The continued exclusion of championship belts from Exhibition mode makes DoR2 boringly repetitive once those goals are accomplished. If you don't have a wrestling game for the GameCube, then Day of Reckoning 2 is the one to get. If you already own Day of Reckoning, you can safely skip this game for something more interesting unless you are buying the game for an avid wrestling fan. DoR2 does not add enough new features to make the game a compelling purchase.
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The Roster: Batista, Big Show, Booker T, Carlito, Chavo Guerrero, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Chris Masters, Christian, Eddie Guerrero, Edge, Eugene, Heidenreich, JBL, John Cena (he's the WWE champion in the story mode but the game is missing his WWE Champion spinner belt), Kane, Kenzo Suzuki, Kurt Angle, Muhammad Hassan, Orlando Jordan, Paul London, Randy Orton, Rene Dupree, Rey Mysterio, Ric Flair, Rob Van Dam, Shawn Michaels, Shelton Benjamin, Snitsky, Tajiri, The Hurricane, Triple H, Undertaker, William Regal, Christy Hemme, Stacy Kiebler, Torrie Wilson, Trish Stratus.
The unlockable legends: Brett Hart, Hulk Hogan, Mankind, The Rock, Steve Austin.
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I've spent the better part of Labor Day weekend glued to this game. If you liked the first Day of Reckoning, you will like the second installment just as much, if not more.Pros:
The controls and gameplay are exactly like the first. It's very fluid and easy to manage. Not much has changed here and I'm glad that they didn't mess with it.
The AI is much improved. I've played numerous Tag Team matches and the CPU is much smarter than before. Now they will cut off the ring and keep you on their side. They tend to throw you into the turnbuckle and perform a lot of double-team moves. If one of them is pinning you, the other will jump into the ring to try and prevent your partner from breaking up the count. If, by chance, the CPU is whooping you up on your side of the ring, they will knock down your partner before they try to pin you. Don't worry, it's not to the point where it's totally unfair. In my opinion, this makes for a much more enjoyable game. It's a little peskier, but definitely more realistic and fun.
The storyline is also improved. You must still use your created wrestler to play in the Story Mode. In the first DoR, you basically went through the same storyline with each franchise. This time, you start off on RAW and eventually find yourself on Smackdown. The biggest improvement to the storyline is that there are a few occassions where you are asked to choose your destiny. For example, you are given the choice of choosing your Tag Team partner when both of those wrestlers approach you and express interest in pairing up with you. I've only come across about two or three of these instances so far so I only know one storyline. I assume (and hope) that if I had chosen the other options, I would be in a totally different scenario. Nonetheless, just having the option to make choices is an upgrade over the first game.
The Create-A-Wrestler is about as deep and intuitive as the first. I've heard that there might be a few less features but I haven't really noticed. When creating your wrestler, you must now take into consideration his/her Skills when you are distributing his/her Attribute points. The Skills are what you need to raise in order to unlock new moves. There are several Skills categories including Grappling, Striking and Dirty Tactics. As your Skill level rises in each category, new moves will become available to you. As a result, you must find a good balance when you distribute your points. If you distribute too many Attribute points, you will be stuck with very weak and unimpressive moves.
Also new to CAW is your Call Name and Location. Just like in real wrestling, there will be a ring announcer who says the name, location and weight of the wrestler who is about to enter the arena. While this is a neat feature, the Call Name is limited to a number of preset recordings that are pretty generic (ie. The Alien and The Monster). Actual names are included as well but you will need a common name like David or Jennifer to be able to use this. If you don't like those, you don't need to use the Call Name.
The graphics are great and a lot better than the first DoR! Everything is so much smoother and cleaner. The faces are more detailed. This game probably has the best facial reproduction that I've seen in a video game. New camera angles are also another fine addition.
Cons:
The game's soundtrack is lacking. All the wrestler's themes are there, don't worry. But there is no licensed music on this game like there was in the first. Now there are a bunch of cheesy rock instrumentals to take its place. They're not too bad but they're not great either.
There are still no voice-overs. All the dialogue is still in plain text across the screen.
Summary:
As you can see, there aren't too many negatives to this game. What negatives there are don't take away from the overall experience either. This is a great game and a worthy sequel in the DoR franchise.
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It's da bomb! The graphics are as realistic as it gets and every bit of your brain can be used. When you're on a submission, there's one of four pain choices to choose from (drain, submit, taunt, and rest). Your opponent must choose the same choice as you in order to escape the hold.The new stamina is slightly awesome. almost every move you make reduces your stamina a bit. Sounds bad? Actually, it's part of the realism. See, once your stamina's gone, your person gets tired and weakens everything. But, a good rest will restore your stamina.
Story mode continues where the first DoR left off. Your titles gone, and you must win it back. Although one of the main objectives is winning the championship, another thing is important to the storyline, and that's a personnal rivalry. I not at that part yet because i'm stuck on Summerslam, a nearly impossible match (a fatal-four-way cage)
CAW is top-notch, but a bit inferior to the first DoR, because in order to access a move, you must raise a stat attribute. And many must be raised quite high.
Anyway, this game rules. When it comes to getting this game, TRUST NO ONE!
REKANIZE!!!
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