WWE Raw 2

"A Solid Wrestling Game."

Well, after the abomination of a game that was WWF RAW a little company known as Anchor was re-hired to make WWE RAW 2. Everyone thought the game would bomb, and then after some great screen shots everybody though it was going to be the end-all, be-all wrestling game. Now that the hype is over and the game is out, who is right? In my review I will compare RAW 2 with RAW, No Mercy, and Smackdown!: Shut You Mouth. I will tell you if the game is great, or garbage.

Graphics: 8/10 - The graphics in WWE Raw 2 are amazing. It's just like watching the WWE on T.V. The wrestlers look real, and they all come complete with their signature taunts and moves. For those of you that played WWF RAW, you probably remember the horrible walking animation. Well, guess what, it's back again! That's right Anchor still seemingly had trouble getting the whole walking thing down. Although the animations are vastly improved from RAW, the wrestler's still look like they've just been released from prison. Other than the small walking animation problem the graphics, and animation's are beautiful.

Sound: 9/10 - The sound is fantastic, all the wrestlers with the exceptions of Matt Hardy, and Victoria have their correct theme music. Everything else is pretty much up to date. The crowd sounds great, cheering the face's, and booing the heel's. The background music while playing is fitting. Lets not forget that WWE RAW 2 has custom soundtracks! That's right, you can have any entrance theme your heart desires. Wrestler's also grunt and groan while being hit. No, I can't tell if it's really the actual superstar's voice's, but it's pretty damn close.

Gameplay: 7/10 - Gameplay is much improved over WWF RAW. The gameplay is similar to that of WWF No Mercy for the N64. There are strong, and weak grapples. There are strong, and weak strikes. Controlling your wrestler is fairly easy, and fairly deep. Which is very good. The A.I. seems quite weird though. The computer will every so often do things like stand in one spot, or continuously pin you in the beginning of a match. Though I've noticed that this can be avoided by changing the difficulty setting. All in all the gameplay could use some minor improvements here and there, but it is solid none the less.

Create-A-Wrestler: 6/10 - Now this is where I get slightly upset. The create-a-wrestler, or CAW for short, isn't up to par with WWE Smackdown!: Shut Your Mouth. I feel that each game of the same genre should always try to improve upon it's predecessors. Now, the CAW isn't bad in the game, not by any means. In fact it's the second best CAW out of all the WWE wrestling games. It's just that I can see where an extra month of tweaking would have made it the best. There seems to be a big lacking in the facial editing department. Which is one of the most important parts of a CAW feature. Things that it does do right though are the create-a-titantron, and create-a-entrance. Boy does it do those right, you could spend hours just customizing your wrestlers entrances.

Options: 9/10 - Many, many options to chose from in this game. One on one, Hell In A Cell, Hardcore, Tag Team, Ironman, King of The Ring, Season, Royal Rumble, TLC, etc.... it goes on and on. This game has more match types than any other WWE game to date. All these options make for a very high replay value. It's a blast in multi-player too.

Overall: 7/10 - The game is a vast improvement from WWF RAW. It's extremely fun, and looks great. The little flaws the game has are easily forgotten with all the fun you'll be having playing the game. As always though I recommend you rent this game first before you buy it, because this is just my opinion and you might hate the game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/16/03