Raw Is Weird

Author's Rating:

Pros: Customized entrances with original them music and Season Mode

Cons: Horrible computer AI, limited options in Create-A-Wrestler Mode, No play-by-play

The Bottom Line: 
A great game with some flaws. Most of the flaws are easily overlooked. Grab some buddies and have a great night of brawling!

Author's Review
WWE Raw 2 for the XBox is, overall, a great game. But, there are some flaws that make this one a bit weird at times.
Let me start with the pros:
1) Graphics/Animation: This game has incredible graphics! Raw 2 shows what the XBox can do if used properly. The wrestlers looks like their real life counterparts. There is no guessing when you see someone walk out. You know for sure that it is The Rock, Hogan, Goldberg, etc. The crowd has been rendered in 3D as well, which makes them look much more realistic. No more cardboard cutout crowds! The entrances are right on as well. Each superstar walks to the ring in the same manner they do on TV. The arenas look incredible and the Titantron movies are flawless. Graphically, RAW 2 is impressive.
2) Match Types: Raw 2 offers a huge selection of match types. You have Ladder, Table, Cage, Singles, Tag, Hell In A Cell, King Of The Ring, Royal Rumble, and many more. You have so many match choices that you'll be busy for a while trying them all out. If you have some friends over you can have fun pummeling each other in multiple matches.
3) Season Mode: The addition of Season Mode is a welcome one. The first Raw grew old quickly with no Season Mode. Raw 2 has much more replay value do to this mode. It does have its flaws, however. (I'll talk about those later) In Season Mode you take your superstar through a month by month schedule, wrestling on Raw, SmackDown and the monthly Pay-Per-View. You can choose to do many things during each show. You can seek a manager, attack an enemy, encourage a friend, rest, set up a trap for an enemy, interfere in a match, and more. The Season Mode, overall, is great fun.
4) Create-A-Wrestler: Always a welcome feature, Raw 2's CAW mode is pretty impressive, although not quite as in-depth as SmackDown's. You have quite a bit of control over your created superstar's appearance and personality. You can create some pretty intense wrestlers with the CAW mode. You can even customize your superstar's entrance with music ripped to your hard drive. You can add pyros to your character's entrance and you have total control over when the pyros are ignited. You can also customize your wrestler's Titantron. No more walking out while someone else's video plays behind you! Another nice feature is the ability to create your wrestler's backstage appearance as well. During backstage cutscenes you don't have to walk around wearing your full wrestling getup! You can wrestle in a sparkling green bodysuit while wearing a flash mask and boxing gloves, and you can walk around backstage wearing nothing but sweatpants and a t-shirt. It's a nice change.
5) Audio: The ability to use original music from your hard drive during entrances is nice! The game also features the voices of the real WWE refs. The rest of the audio is worthy of the cons section, so I will talk about it there.

And the cons:
1) Graphics/Animation: During the entrances there are some animation flaws. The superstar's feet sink into the ramp and floor when they walk. This is bad unless they are supposed to be walking on mattresses. Also, during custom entrances there is a lot of slowdown when the pyros go off. This is not a major issue, but it is quite annoying. Also, the wrestlers walk like they need to use the restroom badly or already did it in their pants! It's hard to explain, but they walk stiff and just look funny.
2) Match Types: The list of match types is great. The only thing that could have improved it was the inclusion of the Elimination Chamber. I guess I'll have to wait for the new SmackDown to play that one.
3) Season Mode: There are some flaws here for sure! One of the oddest is when your sworn enemies come down to interfere in your matches and then beat down your opponent. How is this hurting you? Also, there are no vocals or subtitles during the cut scenes. For example, Stephanie will come out to the ring and stand there talking and talking and you have no idea what she is saying until the cut scene ends and it tells you she just booked you in a match for the next show. The game also throws people together as tag teams with no rhyme or reason. I have a created tag team in my season and the game threw me into a team with Kurt Angle. Why wouldn't I be with my designated partner? On my game the current Tag Team Champions are Trish Stratus and Billy Gunn!? I admit that I don't watch WWE TV, but I am willing to wager that Trish and Billy are not a Tag Team, and definitely are not the current champions! Another small complaint is the fact that every show begins with a cut scene of the current champion arriving in a limo. It serves no purpose other than to waste some time. The Season Mode is a great addition, but it would have been much better with a little effort. Where are the story lines? Nothing happens unless you make it happen. I like SmackDown's story lines much better than Raw 2's. Also, the computer AI is severely lacking. During a match it is not unusual for your opponent to go for multiple pin attempts in a row. In one match Goldberg tried to pin me 7 times! Every time I kicked out he would jump up and immediately go for the pin again. Also, during tag team matches your partner comes in when you attempt to pin your opponent and grabs at your opponent, which often results in the pin being broken. During one match, I had Booker T as my partner and he got knocked off the ring apron and stayed on the floor! He stood outside the ring for the remainder of the match, so I was in a handicapped 2-on-1 match from that point on.
4) Create-A-Wrestler: Although the CAW mode is nice, it has it's flaws as well. One major complaint is the inability to layer. For example, If you choose a face paint you can't add to it. And, since the eye colors are on the same list as the face paints, you can't have a guy with face paint and your choice of eye color. It has to be one or the other.
Also, the game doesn't have the ability to fit items onto your character properly. Of your CAW has large hair and you try to put headgear on, the hair will stick out and look stupid. To remedy this, you can make the hat bigger but it will look even more stupid. You aren't able to change the colors on the masks that are available to you. This would have given you more options when creating masked grapplers. Also, the number faces you get to choose from is quite limited. I have a fantasy fed that has 48 wrestlers in it. RAW 2 gives me the space to create them all, but the face choices is making it difficult. A lot of my superstars look very similar facially. Overall, the CAW Mode is great, but it could use some work.
5) Audio: There are no spoken words other than the refs! Where are the commentators? The matches consist of smacks and grunts only, with the occasional "rope break" from the ref. The game would have been much better with so play-by-play and some catch phrases from the superstars.

When compared to the original RAW on XBox, RAW 2 is a huge improvement. If you're looking for a solid wrestling game on the XBox, I can say you won't be disappointed with RAW 2. It is currently the best wrestling game available for the XBox. (Which isn't saying much considering the limited number of wrestling titles on the XBox!)