Reviews of WWE Raw 2 - Xbox

Customer Ratings:

*sigh*

It seems like every time a new wrestling game comes out, it brings new awesome features and innovations, but at the same time, it makes sacrifices on the best of the old features. WWE Raw 2 remains true to this formula.

I've played WWE Raw 2 with a friend of mine on his X-box for a while now. We've played through 4 years of "story mode" or "season" (or whatever it's called on this one... heh heh). I find the game excels in some areas, while it falls extremely short in others.

Pros:

-Really nice, clean graphics... though I think the X-box could've pulled it off a little better.

-Multi-player "story/season/career" mode. All wrestling games should have this option.

-Decent "Create a Wrestler" mode. While it's not the best I've seen, it is more than adequate. Using your own music in entrances is great. As far as your guy's look, don't expect loads customizable details. It's pretty much just head/body type/clothing... not very deep at all.

-The various ways to interact with other wrestlers in "story" mode are pretty cool. "Enemy/Ally" meters for wrestlers is one of the best additions to a wrestling game, yet.

-At first I kinda felt like there weren't enough moves per wrestler, but after playing a while, I realized it wasn't that bad. Yeah... with a regular standing grapple you only get 8-10 moves. But, that kinda forces you to do irish-whip moves, ground moves, turn-buckle moves, apron moves, etc., and when you figure in all those, you have quite a few. In past games, I rarely used all those other move types, because I had so many "ready" (standing grapple) moves.

-Plenty of match types.

Cons:

-When your "enemies" interfere in any of your matches, they ALWAYS attack your opponent.

-I don't know if anyone else had this problem, but both my friend and I won NUMEROUS title matches before we ever actually got the belts.

-Computer always gets up in about the same ammount of time, regardless of how hurt he is, or how devastating the move you put on him is.

-Computer rarely, if ever pulls off a successful move, after throwing you into the ropes.

-When pinned by the computer, if you kick out, he will almost always immediately pin you again, and this will go on until you tire of button-mashing and lose the match. Occasionally, the computer will mess up the timing on this, and you might actually get up.

-If you're playing a tag match, it's almost impossible to get the pin. The computer's partner will always interfere. When you are pinned in a tag match, as far as I can tell, your partner will never interfere. This can usually be handled by going for the submission win.

-The ref seems to count slow when you go for the pin, and quick for the computer. Not always, but more often than not, this is the case.

-The "story" mode player interactions, while a cool addition, could have had more variety for each type. Examples... they could've had at least 2 or 3 different random traps for the "Set Trap" option, they could've had more animations for "Resting", they could've had different random areas for each to take place in, etc. As is, they tend to get old and monotonous, and you'll find yourself skipping straight to the results.

-As far as I can tell, there's no difficulty setting. WTF?

-As far as I can tell, all matches have a 10min time limit. Again... WTF?

-No blood. I normally wouldn't consider this a problem, but if you're gonna have weapons (like, oh... a barbed-wire bat), it kinda makes sense to at least have an option to turn blood on.

-Female wrestlers (Divas) seem to get allot of WWE and World title shots. There's also way too many mixed (male/female) tag matches. I'm not trying to sound sexist here, but in real life, that just doesn't happen as often as it does in this game. I haven't watched pro wrestling much in the last few years, so maybe things have changed.

-The champ is suppose to come out after the challenger. This is how it's always been done in real pro wrestling, and as far as I can tell, it's always been done wrong in EVERY wrestling game I've ever played... they always have the champ come out first. This isn't really a problem, but I figure someone will get it right, one of these days... maybe.

I have a theory that most of the bad features of this game are due to either a rushed release or just bad, inadequate testing. Overall, the AI in this game is absolutely horrid. Thorough AI testing seemed to go out the window on this one.

People who gave this game a high rating either haven't really played a good wrestling game, or they haven't played this one very much, in my opinion. I felt like WWE Raw 2 looked really good, had some innovative features, and had tons of potential, but for vaious reasons, it ended up as a disappointment. I hope the next wrestling game can take the best of this one, and do it how it's supposed to be done.

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Here are some of the pros and cons of WWE Raw 2

PROS

up to 4 players in season mode

all new hell in a cell

Improved walking animation

Improved CAW

45+ superstars on updated roster

Backstage areas

Cons

THQ's failure to let out info on the game

Corrections

Ripping music from your hard drive for CAWs isnt confirmed. Ripping tracks for background music is

Fighting in crowd hasnt even been made a possibility by THQ

It isn't yet XBL compatible

Season Mode

You have a match on every card. There's a raw and a sd each week and a ppv every month. Between matches you are given several choices. You can interfere in a match, attack sum1, steal something, etc. Example: you steal Kurt's metals. this gains yourself respect from HHH and the Rock. Your friendship with each of them makes them closer for the fact they hate the same guy, Kurt.

Best Deals for WWE Raw 2 - Xbox

This is not a step forward from the last Raw game, instead it's a big step sideways. Raw 2 is like the game makers perfected the original Raw game (it only took them 2 years). First off this is a wrestling game, the player may select from one of over sixty WWE "superstars" to compete in a match. During this match the player may use different strikes by pressing the directional pad and the X button and may grapple his opponent by pressing the A button. When performing a grapple, the player can do a weak maneuver by pressing X and the directional pad or a strong maneuver by pressing A and the directional pad. Each WWE "superstar" in the game has their own moves, taunts, strikes, grapple maneuvers, high risk maneuvers and even ways to get in and out of the ring. Unfortunately there are not many submissions in the game, so everyone has the same half Boston crab submission. The game uses a new "spirit" meter that tracks how well the wrestler is doing, when the spirit meter is green, they are doing fine, when it is red, they are ready to do a finishing maneuver, and when it blinks danger, that person is ready to be finished. The wrestlers are big, bold, and life-like chiseled versions of themselves in the game. Even with the great graphics of the game, six wrestlers are allowed to compete at once, and even a referee is in the ring! The matches players can compete in are Normal Singles Matches, Tag, Triple Threat, Fatal 4 Way, Battle Royal, King of the Ring Tournaments, Cage, Hall in a Cell, and Tables, "Ladders and Chairs" (TLC). Despite the game allowing six people in the ring at once there are no six-man tag team matches, however there are Hall in a Cell Matches that allow six people and a referee in them. There are four different referees who count at different speeds, it can be extremely difficult sometimes, because the referees can count so slow you can never get a pinfall! There are fourteen arenas to compete in, Raw, Smackdown and all twelve of the Pay-Per-View Arenas (unlike the original Raw game that just had one arena). Now for the big part of the game, the modes, there are so many modes in this game! You have a quick play mode, for people that just want to throw a match together, an exhibition mode, so you can make your own match to play in, a season mode, which is an ongoing story where you compete show after show in matches, a King of the Ring mode, where you set up a bracket style tournament, a "tournament" mode, where you set up a bracket style tournament, but you can also make the match types yourself. a Royal Rumble mode, where its your wrestler against up to 64 other wrestlers that come to the ring; the object is to throw everyone else over the top rope. There are also design modes like "create a superstar" where you create your own wrestler and save up to 64 of them! "Create a tag team" that allows players to create either a two man or three man tag teams and create their entrances and a movie mode so you can see all the WWE superstar's entrance videos you have enabled. Now that you know all the modes, here are some in depth things about the Season mode and "create a superstar" mode. With the season mode, a month for the season consists of only one Raw, only one Smackdown, then that month's pay per view! The season mode works on a popularity system, lets say you play as Brock Lesnar, he is popular, Rico is not. So what does this popularity do? There are titles, the WWE championship, the "World" championship, Women's, Cruiserweight, Smackdown Tag, and Raw Tag. The popularity of the title-holder of the belt determines who can compete for that belt. World champion Triple would not let Spike Dudley compete for the belt, but he would let a popular superstar like Shawn Michaels go for the belt. So how do you get more popular? For each match of a TV show, you can do something to get more popular, you can win your match, interfere in someone else's match, sneak attack a wrestler, set a trap for a wrestler, call out a wrestler, manipulate a wrestler to attack your enemy, encourage an ally, find a manager, steal something (this is how you enable outfits and entrance videos), or break up with a tag partner. Everything you do can either get you more popular or less popular, and there is a chance you could fail doing these things. Everything you do will cost you spirit for your match on that show, so you could go into your match in "danger." You can also build alliances and enemies in the season mode. Create a superstar is extremely detailed, everything from their in ring attire, their out of ring attire, their name, alliances, attributes, and "character" to their wrestling moves, and an extremely detailed entrance where you can pick their lighting, pyrotechnics (you can even time the pyrotechnics!), their entrance video (you can even make their entrance video with the created superstar), you can also use music on your X-Box for your superstar's entrance theme! Finally, there are over 60 wrestlers in the game, and here is a list: Austin, Goldberg, Batista, Big Show, Billy Gunn, Kidman, Booker T, Bradshaw, Lesnar, Bubba Ray, Chavo Guerrero, Val Venis, Benoit, Jericho, Christian, Chris Nowinski, Chuck Palumbo, Crash, D-Von, Eddie Guerrero, Edge, Goldust, Hardcore Holly, Hogan, Hurricane, Jacqueline, Jamie Noble, Jazz, John Cena, Kane, Kevin Nash, Kurt Angle, Lance Storm, Lita, Mark Henry, Matt Hardy, Molly, Nidia, Orton, Mysterio, Rhyno, Flair, Rico, Rikishi, Rob Van Damn, Scott Steiner, Shannon Moore, Shawn Michaels, Spike, Stacey Keibler, Stephanie McMahon, Steven Richards, Tajiri, Terri, Test, The Rock, Undertaker, Dreamer, Torrie, HHH, Trish, Victoria, and William Regal.

Honest reviews on WWE Raw 2 - Xbox

wwe raw 2 is a really fun game it shows you what being on the

wwe wrestling show.you can get another wrestler to jump an enemy

or you can set a trap on them.theres alot of diffrent wrestlers

to choose from.like trish,goldust,booker t,stacy,rikishi and

alot more.you get signed up for diffrent kinds of matches.

along the way you can chat with the other wrestlers or fight

them in the locker room,trash talk them in the ring or get a

mannager. if your interested in the wwe or like fighting and

story line games. buy wwe raw 2.

Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for WWE Raw 2 - Xbox

Here's my two cents worth of this. Is this the best wrestling game out there. To me, no. Does it have merit, and is it worth playing and owning? Yes.

The presentation overall is quite good. Graphically and soundwise I like this a lot. It's well done. The conrols, to me, were easy enough to learn with reading the manual and a bit of practice. Every move resounds with the sound of impact when you land a punch or a kick or a move of any type at all really, and particualarly when attacking with weapons. I like the fact that when the tables break, the peices STAY in the ring and can also be used to hit your opponent. The only thing is that with six tables in the ring, along with a couple of chairs and what have you, you have a mess. It can be real carnage in the ring sometimes.

There is no commentary in this game. This is not a bad thing. The only thing is that after the last two Smackdown games, I miss the commentary. You may not, but that's up to you. The story more is kind of fun, but at the same time, it's limited in it's scope. Before every show, there are eight to ten matches, and you can decide what you want your wrestler to do before each one. You can rest, call someone out, attack them, set traps, complain, and a few other things I can't remember right now. The action you choose will be accompanied by a short cutscene of your wrestler doing what you chose. However, there is no text to explain things in Season Mode like the Smackdown games have. You have to watch characters body language to figure out what exactly is going on in this season mode. The only voice-work is done by Lillian Garcia and Howard Finkle, the ring announcers.

This brings me to the real strength of the game: the Create a Superstar Mode. You can customize your height, weight, and call name, all the way to the lighting, pyros, and music for your entrance. This really helps you customize your wrestler and feel like you are wrestling as yourself. Coming out to your own music and having your home state announced really makes you feel like you are part of the WWE action. On the other side of the coin, the season mode only lasts until you get to Wrestlemania, and as far as I can tell, goes no further. You don't get to play AS the Champion after you win the title, as far as I can see. I beat Hulk Hogan at Wrestlmania and after a brief celebration screen, it went to the closing credits of the game. At least in Smackdown I could play more and defend my belt and such.

In closing, this is a good fun game. I gave it four stars instead of five because I miss things. I miss commentary, and I like a scripted story to an extent. Will I get Smackdown Here Comes The Pain? I hope to. Is Raw 2 worth owning? To me, yes it is. Both it and Smackdown Here Comes The Pain are and will be good titles with their own strengths and merits. If you pick this up, I wish you much fun with it, because as a fun wrestling game that lets you have your own personality, this does shine. Peace to all who may read this. God bless you all.