Ring of Honor: Unchained 2017

Ring of Honor: Unchained 2017 is a 3D professional wrestling game developed by ACS Osaka Studio and published by ACS. It is based on the American wrestling promotion Ring of Honor (ROH). Released for PlayStation 4, XBox ONE, PlayStation Vita and the Samsung Zeo. The game is considered a semi-sequel to Ring of Honor Wrestling, and will be the first in a new series of wrestling games based on Ring of Honor. It is also ACS Softworks' first licensed game, as the previous game was published by Activision.

Unlike the previous game, which ran on the Unreal Engine 3, Ring of Honor: Unchained 2017 runs on the Unreal Engine 4.

Gameplay
The game carries over the same engine as the previous game, Ring of Honor Wrestling, but with various changes with the system to add more depth to it.

The biggest change in the game is the inclusion of Wrestling Styles. Each character is classified under five wrestling styles: Power, Shoot, Catch, Submission and Lucha, each with their own stance, strengths and weaknesses.

Power: Specializes on strong grapples. Shoot: Specialzes on striking moves like punches and kicks. Catch: Specializes on countering and quick grapples. Submission: Specializes on submission holds. Lucha: Specializes on high-flying maneuvers.

The game now allows the use of both of the wrestlers two finishers at the same time, but the method of performing them remains the same: activating Unchained mode (Fired-Up mode from the previous game) and pressing a shoulder button when the correct position is acheived. When both finishers are of the same position, however, one can perform the second finisher by pressing a direction of the d-pad and the shoulder button.

Also included is Face and Heel tactics, where face and heel wrestlers have their own ways to fill meter. For example, faces can gain Heat by performing a successful chain of grapples without getting hit and playing to the crowd, while heels can gain Heat by performing illegal actions during matches with DQ (like sneaking in foreign object shots and attacking the referee) and arguing with the crowd.

Most of the match types remain the same from the previous game, like single, tag and cage modes, while also adding Scramble Cage mode, which adds four platforms on the top of the cage for wrestlers to jump in and do high-flying spots from. The game now includes eight-player support, but only for online play.

Like in the previous game, in-game commentary is provided by Kevin Kelly.

Modes
The available game modes are as follows: Quick Match, Main Event (Exhibition), Career, Create and Options.

Quick Match
Quick Match mode allows players to start a single match against a random opponent, without the need for setting up rules or choosing the opponent.

Main Event
In Main Event mode, players can create a single match of their choice against the CPU or other players. Available match types are as follows.


 * Single


 * 3-Way


 * 4-Way


 * Battle Royal (6-Man, 8-Man)


 * Tag Team
 * Cage (Single, Tag Team)


 * Scramble Cage (Single, Tag Team)


 * Hardcore

Career
One of the newest additions in the game is an in-depth Career Mode, which allows players to take on the life and career of eithe an ROH or created wrestler.

Players start off as a Jobber, working on house shows. Once they garner enough popularity (achieved by winning matches and getting a high performance level), they would be elevated to Rookie and appear on the main program Ring of Honor Wrestling.

From here, the player would continue to increase their popularity until they reach a certain rank and reach popularity levels required to compete for a title. Midcarders are allowed to go for the ROH World Television Championship, while reaching Main Eventer status would grant players the chance to compete for the ROH World Championship. The player can also choose to create a tag team with another wrestler and compete for the ROH World Tag Team Championship. Storylines are also included in the game, and are intertwined in the career mode.

Career Mode is presented in a calendar format, where the player's progress is shown by a calendar that shows the current date and when they would perform. Also in Career Mode is Relationships. Depending on their interactions with the wrestlers, they could become Friends that can help the player out and are eligible as tag partners, or Enemies, whom the player feuds with and occasionally ambushes the player in certain times.

Players are only allowed to play as a male wrestler or created wrestler in the game. Female wrestlers, meanwhile, can be seen in some of the game's storylines.

Create
The game retains the Create-A-Wrestler modes from the previous game, with the new addition of the ability to create female wrestlers. MP3 support for entrance themes is also included.

The variety of moves available for created wrestlers has been multiplied, and each download of a DLC character also adds 20 new moves to the game per character.

The amount of CAW slots has also been increased, with 60 CAW slots now available for use.

Roster
Roster accurate as of September 12, 2016

Male Wrestlers

 * ACH


 * Adam Cole


 * Alex Shelley


 * B.J. Whitmer


 * Baretta


 * Bobby Fish


 * Caprice Coleman


 * Cheeseburger


 * Christopher Daniels


 * Chris Sabin


 * Colt Cabana


 * Dalton Castle


 * Donovan Dijak


 * Frankie Kazarian


 * Hangman Page


 * Hanson


 * Jay Briscoe


 * Jay Lethal


 * Kenny King


 * Kenny Omega


 * Lio Rush


 * Mark Briscoe


 * Matt Jackson


 * Matt Sydal


 * Michael Elgin


 * Nick Jackson


 * Raymond Rowe


 * Rhett Titus


 * Rocky Romero


 * Silas Young

Female Wrestlers

 * Amber Gallows


 * ODB


 * Taeler Hendrix

DLC

 * Bob Evans


 * Delirious

Default Champions

 * ROH World Championship - Adam Cole


 * ROH World Television Championship - Bobby Fish


 * ROH World Tag Team Championship - The Addiction (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian)

Portable Version
The game was ported into the PlayStation Vita under the name Ring of Honor: Unchained 2017 Portable Editon. The port features all of the wrestlers from the console version, with DLC available as unlockables instead, but, because of limitations, also downgrades the graphics, removes Scramble Cage mode (Cage and Hardcore are locked and included as unlockable match types instead), and cuts the available CAW slots to 30.

Sountracks
The game's soundtrack features 15 hard rock and metal tracks from recent bands. Players can add their personal MP3 songs to the soundtrack.


 * A Day to Remember - "Paranoia"
 * Asking Alexandria - "The Black"
 * Bring Me the Horizon - "Happy Song"
 * Bullet for My Valentine - "You Want a Battle? (Here's a War)"
 * Killswitch Engage - "Strength of the Mind"
 * Of Mice & Men - "Pain"
 * Saint Asonia - "Better Place"
 * Skillet - "Feel Invincible"
 * Slipknot - "The Devil in I"
 * Through Fire - "Stronger"

Trivia
The game's cover features current ROH World Champion Adam Cole.