PC Review: Total Extreme Wrestling 2008

by Adam Montgomery on June 11, 2008 at 1:59 am

TEW 08

Mainstream professional wrestling has more in common with the cast of Saturday morning cartoons then any television drama. Man’s best and worst traits are identified and amplified in the larger than life characters: the snob, the hero, the witty, and the racist. There’s no room for a personality of vague definition.

If the entertainment itself demands such extremes, it’s little surprise that it has such a polarising effect on viewers – it’s something people either enjoy or ridicule.

It’s that fact that brings me to a necessary warning: this is not a game for non-fans. If you’re not interested in wrestling, just walk on by, because there’s nothing for you here. Total Extreme Wrestling 2008 is every bit as narrowly focused as the name suggests.

TEW is the opportunity to step behind the curtain, remove the distortions, and get to grips with the reality behind the fake world of wrestling, to tackle the business at the centre of the spectacle.

Your goal, as with any other business, is to make money. Build a local hero up in the fans’ eyes and they will pay through the nose to see him face off against the villains of the world. Bring two long-term rivals together in a huge contest and you will have paying customers lined up around the block. There are many more routes to success, but if you give the fans what they want, they will keep coming back– and they might bring their friends, too.

Unlike any other wrestling game in stores today, most notably the WWE franchise, this is actually a simulation, a simple text-and-numbers affair. A particularly charismatic youngster could receive an “A*” grade for his abilities, whilst your company as a whole may be rated as having “E-” popularity.

It’s this reliance on letter grades and numbers that has always been the biggest problem with this long-running series. After a time spent playing, it can feel like you’re not actually leading some fast-growing company, but are simply shuffling numbers on a spreadsheet, and the experience deteriorates into a repetitive logistical task.

2008’s sequel attempts to combat this by bringing greater life to your employees. Personalities differ from person to person, and it has an effect on others in your locker room and on your business as a whole. For instance, a professional and humble person would be quite happy to lose in front of any number of fans, simply for the good of the company. However, a more arrogant person may complain about your decision to have him lose – possibly leading to him putting it weaker performances, and upsetting the harmony among the group.

Largely, this addition adds immersion to the game. The decisions you make have more visible consequences as you see the people you have control over moulded by your decisions. It’s a great high to see a once-irresponsible member of your crew transform reform into a reliable, successful star because of your handling.

This interface has been tightened up, with many of the frustrating mouse-clicks needed to navigate between menus having been removed. The visuals are generally clean and simple, but there are odd instances where you come up against some very cheap, rushed-looking graphics.

While many will be excited by the prospect of controlling “real-world” wrestling companies such as World Wrestling Entertainment or Ring of Honor, it’s worth mentioning that TEW only allows you to do so if you install a fan-made mod for the game. By default, you can play in a fictional universe which, while featuring imaginary workers newcomers to the series won’t be familiar with, offers a much more balanced and stable experience then anything unofficial, as this fictional data was designed with knowledge of the game’s inner-mechanics in mind.

Despite this, Total Extreme Wrestling 2008 remains an addictive and satisfying challenge for anyone interested in stamping their own personality on the cartoon world of professional wrestling.