TNA iMPACT! video game

[thatblindgeye]

Played it at a friends house, and it really isnt that good. Playing against a friend helps matters, but only for so long. Doesnt have any fun factor playing as anyone because everyone is pretty much the same, people get up too quick, finishers dont seem to make a difference, AI being horrible, story mode and CAW are the biggest flaws though. The story mode may have continuity, but you play through it once (it seems at least thus far) and that is it. There's no point in playing it again. I'd rather have SD!'s story mode with at least SOME differences between the first and second time you play than have a story mode that is going to be exactly the same each time around. SD!'s season has gotten worse over the years, yes, but TNA definitley need to fix theirs. At least make it so it isnt some over the top soap opera thing. Make it an actual season/story mode where you get to make decisions and where said decisions affect your path, make it so that if you lose a match you dont have to go back until you win and instead make it so that the loss brings you to a new branch. The CAW needs a MAJOR overhaul. More moves, more customization. Just a really poor CAW, especially when the season is based on only using CAWs.

The first game: bad. Really should have been a demo disc to show what point Midway is at with the game so they could continue tweaking it, releasing it in the spring. AI, match structure (come on, no count outs and no DQ EVERY match? no submission finishers from what I saw?), gameplay needs to be worked on... The small stuff like that also needs to be majorly worked on. Making the matches harder to win would be good if the AI was better and you didnt just have people getting up a second after every move and having the AI continually do the same move over and over and over. That's really the only reason it was more difficult to win matches, and while I like a challenge, that was NOT the way to make matches more challenging. It was just annoying as fuck.

So Impact 2 (if there is one) needs to REALLY deliver on the stuff that Midway lied about having in this game, and make it seem like an actual wrestling game instead of a demo build of one.

[Your Mom]

Ok I take back what I said. Screw this game! I can't kick out of a pin at all and my partner never helps! This is stupid. Maybe I can return it.

[Cactus Drags]

You just flick the sticks up and down to fill the gauge, it's not that hard.

[Your Mom]

Oh! Up and down you say? Forget what I just said

[alldaws1]

I just flick the sticks whatever way and it usually seems to kick out unless I've been finishered.

Played it at a friends house, and it really isnt that good. Playing against a friend helps matters, but only for so long. Doesnt have any fun factor playing as anyone because everyone is pretty much the same, people get up too quick, finishers dont seem to make a difference, AI being horrible, story mode and CAW are the biggest flaws though. The story mode may have continuity, but you play through it once (it seems at least thus far) and that is it. There's no point in playing it again. I'd rather have SD!'s story mode with at least SOME differences between the first and second time you play than have a story mode that is going to be exactly the same each time around. SD!'s season has gotten worse over the years, yes, but TNA definitley need to fix theirs. At least make it so it isnt some over the top soap opera thing. Make it an actual season/story mode where you get to make decisions and where said decisions affect your path, make it so that if you lose a match you dont have to go back until you win and instead make it so that the loss brings you to a new branch. The CAW needs a MAJOR overhaul. More moves, more customization. Just a really poor CAW, especially when the season is based on only using CAWs.

The first game: bad. Really should have been a demo disc to show what point Midway is at with the game so they could continue tweaking it, releasing it in the spring. AI, match structure (come on, no count outs and no DQ EVERY match? no submission finishers from what I saw?), gameplay needs to be worked on... The small stuff like that also needs to be majorly worked on. Making the matches harder to win would be good if the AI was better and you didnt just have people getting up a second after every move and having the AI continually do the same move over and over and over. That's really the only reason it was more difficult to win matches, and while I like a challenge, that was NOT the way to make matches more challenging. It was just annoying as fuck.

So Impact 2 (if there is one) needs to REALLY deliver on the stuff that Midway lied about having in this game, and make it seem like an actual wrestling game instead of a demo build of one.

The AI isn't horrible at all. There's some negatives such as the repeating a move over and over but other than that I think it's pretty good. Even the tag team partner AI has been decent in the matches I've been in. And while the CAW may not be as in-depth as SVR's, I find it's easier to make a realistic-looking wrestler than in SVR's. I also like the movesets, it doesn't take you an hour to set one up and it's easy and quick to just change one or two moves.

And over-the-top soap opera thing? It's wrestling, the best storylines ARE over-the-top soap opera things!

No count-outs, no DQs and no submission finishers are bad, I'll give you that. I'd also like different situations for finishers and not have the majority go straight into pins because it causes the opponent to get up immediately afterwards.

[thatblindgeye]

I dont know. When I was playing the AI was really bad. The aforementioned things were what made it bad for me.

CAW, I like in depth customization for. I like being able to do a lot both appearance and move set wise. The CAW shouldnt be simple in the first place, though, because you're building a wrestler from scratch. You should be able to have as much customization as the game allows.

The storymode is really just way too over the top for a wrestling game, though. Getting beaten up and left for dead, signing back with the company as a 'different' person, and fighting to the top to get revenge or something? Not my cup of tea. I prefer an open ended storymode, like the early SD!'s and No Mercy. Impacts storymode is really only worth one play through it seems and then you're done.

Fair dues if you like the game, though. I just dont care for it and feel it's a major let down. Even ignoring that fact the game just isnt that good for my tastes. Impact 2 has the ABILITY to be a much better game now that a base is there, but we have to wait and see. Maybe Midway can/should release Impact 2 in spring 2010 instead of doing what THQ does and doing it a a year or so later. Will give them a few more months to work on it.

[Gabriel]

As over the top as the story sounds, it sure as shit beats being magically turned into a woman.

What I want from story mode, is to have each character being given a character specific story to follow. Either take an angle they've done in TNA already, and run that, with choices being made, and match outcomes affecting how it progresses.... or leave it like it is, where it's the same story no matter what, and that you must win to progress the storyline.

Then, from there, they could offer new character specific storylines for characters as DLC.

[thatblindgeye]

They definitely shouldnt make it so that its the same story no matter what. There'd be little replay value.

Story mode should really be open ended. Make some specific storylines for certain wrestlers (the bigger ones like Sting, Angle, Joe, Booker, Jarrett, AJ, etc etc), then the others (MCMG, LAX, Shark Boy, CAWs, etc) have a different set. Both, though, should be open ended; be allowed to make decisions that affect your path so that you have to literally play the story mode several times with one character in order to go down every path. Make it so that if you lose, you still progress in the season mode but you are now branched off into a different direction. That is why I LOVE No Mercys and even the early SD!'s story modes. If Impact could do THAT with story mode, and get a great CAW system, id definitely buy the game.

[alldaws1]

The storymode is really just way too over the top for a wrestling game, though. Getting beaten up and left for dead, signing back with the company as a 'different' person, and fighting to the top to get revenge or something? Not my cup of tea. I prefer an open ended storymode, like the early SD!'s and No Mercy. Impacts storymode is really only worth one play through it seems and then you're done.

You're beat up and left for dead but you don't remember anything except what you were told, that you were left in Tijuana. You're not fighting to the top to get revenge, you're wrestling because it feels right. It just so happens that the local company has a gauntlet match that leads you back to TNA. I think it's a good story, certainly better than magically being turned into a woman by Candice Michelle as Gabriel mentioned. I can't imagine it has any replay value once you've unlocked it all though, you're right about that.

[Gabriel]

As it stands, the game has 1 storyline, completely set in its' path, and you can only be a Created Wrestler.

What I'm proposing is a natural progression in the right direction. 25 storylines, 1 for each character, completely set in its' path. It's a much more logical next step than completely scrapping what ideas they had and just giving us exactly what we want.

Similarly, another step they may take would be to have a completely open-ended storyline, where just like SVR, you take whichever character you want through stories and matches that, because they aren't character specific, may end up coming across as completely retarded. Sting and Chris Sabin becoming a tag team against Beer Money, anyone? No thanks. I'd much rather have the limited number, knowing that once I beat it with a wrestler, that if I play as them again, it will be the exact same.

[thatblindgeye]

Im not going to try saying that the TNA season mode is utter shit and the WWE's isnt. That's not what im getting it. I KNOW some of the stuff in the SD!'s season modes has been bad, and its gotten so bad I stopped buying the games after the first SDvsRAW. And I wouldnt know what exactly the season mode is about. I played a little and it just seemed like you were going under a different identity to get revenge after eventually remembering what happened/who you were at some point or something.

And to each their own. I prefer open ended to the point where I can play the season mode several times as one character without it being the same, you prefer the opposite Gabe. I dont think that Midway needs to make it open ended to the point where we have Sting and Sabin teaming up against Beer Money (unless it's a choice or something like that), but just allowing for more choices and more replay value instead of having to go through it once with someone and go "okay. I did it with him already and its the same this time around." But I think we're just going in circles about it. Point is that the season mode needs a rewrite for Impact 2 in some way.

[New Damage]

You don't stay down for long enough after finishers? Well in the SD games there are little to no difference it time on the mat and with Fire Pro, which is possibly the most realistic (in terms of fighting/wrestling styles ie. having to wear an opponent down) wrestling game out right now probably, the finishers seem to have no extra effect to hitting one of your other most powerful moves.

So it's not really Impact's fault if that's the case, it's all of their faults too.

[thatblindgeye]

Again, I'm not saying anything about SDvsRAW. Im talking about Impact. Just because Im saying in Impact people dont stay down long after finishers/the finishers have little to no effect doesnt mean Im saying that the SD! games do feature finishers that do significant damage. Though I must ask, do the finishers have any significant value when wrestlers are more in the red/damaged? Because maybe that is why, since I did finishers to rather healthy people.

[Gabriel]

Ideally, I'd like for each character to have a specific storyline start, which can branch off in at least two ways with every choice/match outcome.

So, the beginning would be the same every time you used Sting, but if say, his storyline starts when he came out to stop Joe from beating down Booker T, and you're given a choice right there to... 1, nail Joe with the bat and lay him out... or 2, warn him, but then let him make the decision on his own and just watch as Joe brutalizes Booker T.

Of course, if you used a different character the second time you played, you'd start at a completely different thing... but if you chose Sting again, you'd have the same start. But with so many different possibilities (if there are 15 stages to a story mode, and 2 branches at each stage) the replay value would be tremendous. Much like No Mercy, in that you could be going with the exact same story until just before the end, where you change one thing, which opens up something totally new.

Like I said though, I'd love for TNA to use character specific stories that mirror things that happened in real life, or were discussed by the booking teams, but ultimately decided against.

[IDOL]

When and where are Curry Man and Petey Williams able to be downloaded. I went on live today and looked under downloadable content and neither are there?

[Your Mom]

The game just came out. It's way too soon to release new content. I would guess a month or 2

[IDOL]

Alright, I'd heard Petey and Curry Man were available, but I guess not yet. thanks

[King Ellis]

The game just came out. It's way too soon to release new content. I would guess a month or 2

That's the trouble with DLC, too soon and (especially if you charge for it) people will say you just held it back from the actual game to milk a few more $'s out of the customer. Leave it too long though and people have stopped playing and wont care about it.

[Cactus Drags]

My main gripe with the mvoes is that it doesn't seem to matter whether you do a chop, DDT or finisher, they all seem to do about the same amount of damage. The coloured helath charts are a nice idea (blatantly ripped from Smackdown), but they seem to have no relevance to the opponent and how long he stays down or how he walks etc.

I'd like to have seen the Knockouts in the game too, they wrestle a lot more than the WWE Divas (although admittedly, they've been getting better), it would've been good to acknowledge them.

[Sean O'Game]

Being Someone who beat this game already (PS2, so no Caws), I gotta say, they realy droped the ball.

My NUMBER ONE COMPLAINT, No 6 Sides of Steel. Thats just something that should be there, their is no excuse for its exclusion.

Number 2: No Knockouts. This doesn't bother me much... but I realy wanted to watch Awsome Kong beat the tar outa Jerrett and Abyss at the same time.

3: THE DAMN GLITCHES>_>