WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2011 for Xbox 360 Reviews by Gamers

I think the most innovative addition to this version of SD Vs Raw is the WWE universe feature which is like a never ending season. It creates rivalries and partnerships based on the matches. Contenders are established via wins and losses. It's as close as THQ has gotten to Smackdown: Here Comes The Pain PS2 (which kept track of wins and losses, title histories, titles held, etc really gave it a realistic feel) and Smackdown 2 PS1 (which allowed you to make allies or enemies based upon your action in the locker room or in matches). That type of feature is often lacking and is necessary along with solid gameplay to really create a realistic and robust game. It allows you to sort of create your own episode of WWE Raw or Smackdown in a virtual sense. The career/story mode is the typical fare where you play on the road to Wrestlemania and can make choices to dictate what happens. While fun to play though it's not particularly innovative or new.

This game is lacking in one major area. The game play ad it relates to moves and grappling, which had always been a strong point in the past. THQ did away with the strong grapples and made reversals far to easy. You have such a repetitive and limited number of moves it's pretty frustrating. Bring back the robust move set from previous versions of this game and it would be a 8.5 or 9 easy. They dumbed this one down it would seem and it really took away from the game play.

Overall a fun game, but not one I felt like buying.

Let me try to put this in the simplest way possible. Will they ever re do the moves? Honestly, you can't call this game to be for 2011 if the wrestlers still walk like robots; look at UFC;TNA and MMA; they got down the mechanis- why is it so hard for you to do the same?

First off; in traditional SvR series predictability; they've taken perfectly good controls and decided to screw it up to make it 'exciting'. They made it even easier to reverse (both strikes and grapples are dodged by using the trigger) and left the ridiculous talents like getting 3 finishing moves in a row which basically prohibits you from enjoying a positive experience.

Character creation- much more in depth than last year......a little too in depth. To make a full character with moves/entrance it takes around and hour and a half or more. Too much to keep me interested.

WWE Universe mode aka Gm Mode? Career? doesn't matter it's a DISASTER. Very random events; which have no sort correlation. No real explanation on how to use it. Gives no real sense of accomplishment; Just bring back to good ol' Gm mode, is it too hard? That was easy to understand and made it more like a sport now it's all 'how many times can i beat up on Santino before I get a title shot'

Entrances are nice so are the graphics with a few issues.

Less characters? It certainly feels like it. Once again I'm forced to play as Rey Mysterio in RTW really? bring me someone fun.

MUCH more in ring actions which actually pleased me.....but it doesn't matter since if you play online you'll never use anything more than a running strike/grapple and set stats to 100.

Few mistakes; move wise they're almost done right although I wonder; was it too hard to give the Hart Dynasty their actual tag team finisher and not some generic move? Getting lazy on us?

Voice acting is decent; some people(CHRISTIAN) seem to have lost all interest in providing decent voice over but other than that most are good. Free roam is pointless.