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| Hulk strikes a pose. |
So far I've let you know about all LOW2 has to offer, but nothing about
gameplay. This is not a case of saving the best for last, though, as the gameplay is repetitive and not that exciting. You are given an attack
button that lets you throw punches or kicks, but the collision detection seems
inconsistent and whether or not a punch lands a random event. You'll spend
most of the time moving up against your opponent and pressing the grapple
button. Once you have your opponent locked in a hold, you can then move
him into position to put a move on him. There are a few holds per
wrestler, from both the front and back, and a few moves that can be done per
hold. All told, there are about twenty or so moves per wrestler.
However, there is not as much variety as you'd think. First of all, the
matches run long and there is inevitably a lot of repetition because of
this. Secondly, your wrestler seems to repeat the same moves in spite of
what you try to tell him to do. Finally, many wrestlers share the same
moves. Since each wrestler handles the same and there are a limited number
of different move, your choice of wrestler is really inconsequential. For
such a personality driven game, there is very little personality to the
wrestlers.
The game allows you to reverse a hold and
turn the tables on your foe. When an opponent has you in a hold a meter
with a moving dot appears at the top of the screen. If you press X
when this dot moves into a box on the meter, then you reverse the hold. When playing against computer controlled opponents it is easy to
reverse holds, and as a result it is not too hard to win most of your
matches. After the novelty of all of the wrestlers and game modes wears
off, you'll begin to notice that the gameplay actually runs towards the boring
end of the spectrum.
To its credit, the game tries to add some interesting elements to the matches.
Unfortunately they don't quite live up to their potential. You can leave
the ring and brawl on the arena floor, but you're limited to a small space
surrounding the ring and doing so will expose the terrible looking crowd
graphics. You can use a cheat button to call in a teammate for a little
two on one, but this amounts to having a wrestler run into the ring for a few
blows and then hastily exit. The game also monitors the crowd's excitement
during a match. The crowd reacts favorably to things like good moves, hard
hits, and blood, and negatively to repetitive moves and lack of action. As
the matches drag on, you can't help but to use repetitive moves and you don't
have enough control over things to be able to regularly generate positive
reactions. This makes the crowd reaction basically a non-entity when it
could have been an interesting component of the game.
If you like wrestling and followed the sport during the 70s and 80s, then you
might find a good deal of nostalgia here. In addition to the wrestlers of
yore, the game includes some video interviews that provide insight into the
world of professional wrestling and a glimpse at some of its
personalities. However, if you're not a fan of wrestling and are just
looking for a fighting game, you'll be disappointed in the gameplay provided by
LOW2.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
60%. If you love wrestling you might
find this one enjoyable, otherwise it won't hold your interest for too long.
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