Nameless Gaming - WWF: Raw Review
WWF™: RAW™ Review
Hi everybody! Welcome to my (belated) review of the Xbox's first wrestling game - WWF: RAW. After delay, delay, and delay again this game was finally released on February 12th, although I didn’t see it until much later that week when I ordered it from ebgames - I'd like to put a little plug out here for any gamer to not order or by any gaming items from CompUSA or their little "GameFIXX". It is Un-American (actually you probably just wont like the service), and makes you a communist immediately (you wont get what you want.) Anyways, onto the game.
Graphically, RAW is one of the most stunning WWF Games I've seen yet - if you disagree with me pick up a copy of No Mercy, any game from the Smackdown series, and compare them to RAW. Ultimately I find RAW ends up winning simply because its characters are as lifelike as they can be while maintaining their textures. All the screens featured in this review are of created wrestlers, so they cant give you all that good of an idea of how life like the graphics are, because THQ didn’t design special faces for AirChameleon modeled after my own, but you can check out the actual superstar photos on THQ's RAW Page. The entrances, are some of the most amazing parts of the graphics, Pyros, lighting and even the audience all look better then I've seen in a game before - although the audience is still the same old set of cardboard cut outs we've seen in previous games, its ludicrous to expect Anchor to have modeled every aspect of the audience in 3d without forcing my xbox to burst spontaneously into flames. Sometimes the game might have you thinking that it'll do just that, because RAW runs on 60 frames per second there are times when it bites of more then it can chew and the frame rate drops (both in game and in entrances). It doesn’t really hurt the game, in fact it makes it more dramatic, but it does slow down the pace a bit.
As far as the game play goes, I feel that Anchor did a pretty good job of combining the previous games' control settings while creating their own. Mainly, Anchor incorporated the Grappling system from the N64 Games (No Mercy, Wrestlemania) and it took the striking moves from Smackdown (as far as i can see, because in the N64 games you only got two or three striking moves while in Smackdown and raw you get 4+). And the weapons in this game are completely new. Not only are there 150 of them, they break after you use them for a certain amount of time, and you can then beat your opponents to death with the remains of that weapon. However, as with everything in this game, repetitive action causes the audience to hate you and your voltage meter to go down, so you really need to learn to balance between grapples and punches, along with taunts. The voltage meter shows you who the audience wants to see win, which is one of the aspects of the game that I feel takes away from it. In past games, you can actually have a fair fight, while in RAW, if your, lets say (for the sake of argument) Steve Blackman, taking on Steve Austin, you do stand a chance, just not very much of one. The modes in RAW, are very typical of a wrestling game which is the first on its system, you have your typical 1 on 1 match (with managers), 2 on 2 tag matches (again with managers), King of the Ring (which includes all matches listed above), Title Match mode (similar to Wrestlemania 2000's "Road to Wrestlemania"), and the 2 on 1/3 on 1 Handicap matches. To tell you the truth, I’m rather disappointed in Anchor - because they had almost two years to work on this game, and it was released with matches that were less then thrilling. The thing I feel this game misses most is the Royal Rumble (which is the 30-man battle royal) which for me really would have set this game apart from the rest.
The only real bragging rights THQ has for this game (which I wouldn’t have bragged about) are the Double-Feature replay mode, and the six men in the ring at a time device the game uses. It seems foolish to have the capability to have 6 men in the ring at once and only to use it really on Interference and Managers. Speaking of Interference, the AI in this game is the most inconsistent thing I've ever seen. When interfering in a match, the wrestlers (usually who have no alliance to you) will destroy your opponent, and then turn immediately on you. This wouldn't be so much of an issue in the ring as it is on the outside of the ring, where the AI lacks even further. If you run around the outside (up the stage, and behind the announcer's table), you can frequently notice how the computer controlled players will get stuck behind obstacles like the steel stairs, tables, etc. The only other thing that really bothers me is how they pick up weapons whenever they’re near one (which makes it difficult to put someone through a table).
Now, I'll talk about the single most important element of every wrestling game, to me. The Create-A-Wrestler (or superstar) feature, in RAW, it is still one of the best. While not as customizable as the ones in the Smackdown Series, it still offers a very full selection of moves (minus the samuri driver), clothing (although you look silly with a trench coat on and no shirt), and entrance customability. You can also customize your "faction" (which is where "UPS" is on Wilco's entrance screen), as well as your nickname (which is what the ring announcer says as you make your way out to the ring). There are a total of 20 pages worth of nicknames, and if you don’t want the announcer to say anything, you can enter your own. As far as customizing faces goes, I think that 16 pre-made faces is kind of cheap, as where in the smackdown series' create a wrestler modes you can customize everything from eyes to nose, etc. Another thing that bothers me about RAW's CAW is its lack of the customized music feature which many of the other xbox games have taken advantage of, but Anchor seems assured that when they make their sequel it will include this highly-desired feature.
The sound in the game is decent. Wrestlers make expressions of pain when punched, and this feature is also selectable in the create-a-wrestler feature. The entrance music is very good, although I wish some of the older themes (mainly the DX theme) had been included. One issue I have with the ring announcer, is that when announcing the winner of a match, she says that you, AND your manager won, which obviously isn’t right. Furthermore, when a manager accompanies a tag team of two she doesn’t seem to know what to say, for example, "Here are your winners AirChameleon, and Orcman, AND The Lion!" I’m sorry, it doesn’t sound right when she uses "and" that many times in the sentence.
Overall, I feel that RAW is an unfinished product - don’t get me wrong, its a great game, but if your looking for the thrills of Wrestling games such as a beefy story line, cage matches, and a royal rumble, you wont find it here. For those of you who actually love the wrestling, not just the gimmicks this is definitely your type of game. I'm sort of a hybrid of both as I can have endless fun with my created wrestlers, and I can also have fun with the gimmick matches (although their missing from this game, I hope we'll see some in the sequel) And that’s really the only thing that prevented me from giving raw a higher score.
Air's Score: 7 out of 10
Come see the screens that didnt make it into the review @ AirCham's Gallery
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