Cover featuring Adam Cole
Ring of Honor: Unchained 2017 is a 3D professional wrestling game developed by Headrush Games and published by ACS. It is based on the American wrestling promotion Ring of Honor. Released for PlayStation 4, Xbox ONE, PC and the Samsung Zeo. The game is the first licensed video game based on Ring of Honor and the first installment of the Ring of Honor: Unchained series of wrestling games.
Ring of Honor: Unchained 2017 runs on the Unreal Engine 4, allowing for highly detailed in-game graphics and realistic character models.
Gameplay[]
The gameplay is primarily based on a heavily modified gameplay engine based on ACS' previous wrestling game, Pipeworks Studios' IPWX Danger Zone, which the development team had previously worked on. It emphasizes the use of tieups and weak/strong grapples, but also includes elements from other wrestling games.
The game uses a conventional control scheme common in most wrestling games: punches, kicks, grapples, picking up weapons and entering/exiting the ringare relegated to the face buttons, while running, reversals and modifiers are mapped on the shoulder buttons, switching focus is done via the d-pad, movement is done with the left stick, and the right stick is used for taunting. The game incorporates both quick and strong grapples, which depends on whether the player instantly pressed the grapple button for a tieup or held and released it for a certain amount of time.
Each players' HUD consists of the Heat meter, which increases as the player successfully attacks their opponent and decreases as receive significant damage, the Status meter, an electrocardiogram-esque meter which slowly changes color from green to red as the player receives more and more damege throughout the bout, and the body damage indicator, a body-shaped diagram segmented into four parts: head, body, arms and legs, which flashes for a short time to indicate which body part gets damaged following a certain attack and changes color from green, to yellow, to orange, and finally to red, to indicate which body part is severely weakened.
When the Heat meter is filled to its maximum level, the player can activate "Unchained Mode", During Unchained Mode, the player gains certain advantages, such as added power, speed and reversal success rate, and when the right conditions are fullfilled, can perform one of their finishing moves. Each wrestler has two finishers, but the player may only use one of each per match; for example, Christopher Daniels has both his Angel's Wings and B.M.E. finishers in the game. Unchained Mode is activated either by taunting or performing one of the wrestler's signature moves, both of which can only be done as the Heat meter gets maxed out. The player can also opt to save a finisher for later use instead of activating Unchained Mode. However, saved finishers are much weaker than regular finisher done while in Unchained Mode.
The game utilizes a tug-of-war submission system where the attacker and must mash buttons in order to make the defender tap out, while the defender can do the same to escape from the hold. The more damage in the targeted body part, the less opportunity there is for the defender to escape (for example: locking an opponent with severely damaged arms in an armbar will cause the escape marker to start a few inches near rhe "Submit" end of the meter). Similarly, pins can be escaped from by timing a moving dot into a marked space in the middle. The more damage a player receives, the smaller the space becomes, and the harder it is to kick out. The player can also used an instant-kick out in exchange for their saved finisher, but this may only be done once during the match.
The game includes certain match types as seen in ROH television such as single and tag modes, as well as support for up to eight wrestlers on-screen. with a limit of four human players. In-game commentary is provided by Kevin Kelly.
Wrestling Styles[]
Each wrestler in the game is classified under five Wrestling Styles: Power, Shoot, Catch, Hold and Lucha, each with their own stance, strengths and weaknesses. Wrestling styles also dictate the moves that the wrestler can use at their disposal. For example, Lucha wrestlers cannot perform power moves like powerbombs and press slams, while Power wrestlers cannot use high flying moves like hurricanranas, sunset flips and most top rope moves.
- Power: Specializes on strong grapples.
- Shoot: Specialzes on striking moves like punches and kicks.
- Catch: Specializes on countering and quick grapples.
- Hold: Specializes on submission holds.
- Lucha: Specializes on high-flying maneuvers.
Modes[]
The available game modes are as follows: Quick Match, Main Event (Exhibition), Career, Create and Options.
Quick Match[]
Quick Match mode, as its name suggests, allows players to start a single match against a random opponent, without the need for setting up the rules or choosing an 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 (Normal, 4-Corner Survival)
- Battle Royal (6-Man, 8-Man)
- Tag Team
- Cage (Single, Tag Team)
- Scramble Cage (Single, Tag Team)
- Tap-Out
- Ladder
In several match types, players are able to choose between several rulesets that change up the rules of the game, making them much stricter or more loose.
- Normal
- Hardcore
- Pure Wrestling
Career[]
The game features an in-depth Career Mode, which allows players to take on the life and career of either 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 and/or managers, or Enemies, whom the player feuds with and occasionally ambushes the player in certain times.
Create[]
The game includes an extensive Create-a-Wrestler Mode which not only allows the players to create their own wrestlers, but also includes options for editing an existing wrestler's appearance, profile and moveset, among others.
The game also includes a wide variety of wrestling moves, including moves used by both ROH alumni and other wrestlers working outside ROH, allowing players to create wrestlers from outside promotions such as WWE and Impact Wrestling, among others.
The game includes 50 CAW slots available, with each slot including three outfits.
Roster[]
Roster accurate as of September 12, 2016
Wrestlers[]
Pre-Order Bonus[]
Default Champions[]
Sequel[]
A sequel to the game, Ring of Honor: Unchained 2018, was released in 2017 for the PlayStation 4, PC and the Zeo.
Trivia[]
- The game's cover features then-current ROH World Champion Adam Cole.
- ROH and NJPW wrestler Kenny Omega was included in the pre-order editions of Ring of Honor: Unchained 2017, entitled the Bullet Club Edition.
- Although the game's playable roster doesn't feature any female wrestlers, some of them can be seen in storyline cutscenes in Career Mode.