WWE Raw 2 - X-Box

WWE Raw 2 by THQ When I received the copy of Raw 2 I was quite excited as I was looking forward to finally playing a good wrestling game on the X-Box. Unfortunately I was left still wanting to play a good wrestling game on the X-Box... As a lifelong fan of WWE, when I say lifelong I've been a fan of WWE for about 20 years and a fan of wrestling in general all my life, I think that I can say what passes as a good product and what fans may not like. That being said the copy of Raw 2 that I played is not the final version of Raw 2... The first game that I played was an exhibition match against Simon and the two of us both had the same feeling that the wrestlers moved very slowly and it was not a true simulation of the world of WWE. In our first matches we found out that you can't break any rules as the referee will not have any hesitation in disqualifying your wrestler which, as we all know if you've seen any WWE matches, is not a true representation of WWE. I still persevered with the game in the hope that I would find a great game despite my initial thoughts. I played a few one player exhibition games and I was still not impressed, the one game I played that sticks in my mind was when I chose to play as Rey Mysterio against Billy Kidman. If you watch WWE programming you will know that if Rey puts any of his finishing moves on his opponent the match would almost certainly be over, in Raw 2 I couldn't even keep Kidman down for a two count, in the end I had to use 4 619's and a West Coast Pop to finish off the opponent. I decided the time was right to have a look at the roster as in the original Raw I was not impressed with the few wrestlers that were put in the game, but in Raw 2 there is a much better roster as it seems up to date with the current crop of superstars. All the top stars are included along with a Titantron video of each of the wrestlers that we see on WWE programming each week. This was one of my favourite parts of the game as I had the chance to see just how up to date the programmers decided to be and to my surprise the videos were very much as we see them on the television each week, including Kane's "unmasked" video. The season mode plays exactly the same as the exhibition mode but there is a full programme of Raw or Smackdown to be played out. The season mode also had, what I thought, was a nice touch in that before any match you could attack an opponent or a nemesis so you can weaken him before the match. When the match starts, but only in season mode, as your opponent comes down to the ring if you're already in the ring you can attack the opponent while he is walking down the ramp, which is the best thing that come out of the original Raw so I'm glad that that has been left in Raw 2. The only other parts of the game that I can't comment on are the create a wrestler mode and the sound, and as it was not the complete game that I have played I will give THQ the benefit of the doubt and say that I hope that any in game music will be better than the version that I played. The create a wrestler mode is not the best of any wrestling game that I have played but in the unfinished game it was still a lot better than the original Raw with a decent choice of heads and body parts and different costumes with quite a lot to unlock. The best part of Raw 2, in my opinion, is the option to import any music you have saved on the X-Box hard drive as your created superstars entrance music. Overall I think that Raw 2 has a long way to go before people will start talking about the Raw series of games as a classic series on a console but it is still going in the slightly right direction of improving on the last Raw, that being said I'm sure it could not have been any worse. Overall - 36% - Reviewer: Matt Jackson