There haven’t been any really good wrestling titles for the PC. THQ, the leaders of this genre as far as the console market is concerned, decided to experiment with their Xbox title “WWE: RAW” on the PC. The game had huge expectations from the fans of this genre. Let’s see how it turned out. The teaser trailers and gameplay footage released by THQ prior to the release of this game were enough to get the fans drooling over the drop-dead gorgeous graphics in the game. Even the casual gamers were made to sit up and take notice of the immense detailing that has been put into the game by the developers. The Xbox release further increased our expectations. Needless to say, THQ had caught the PC gamers’ attention with its campaigning. It was the poor execution of a brilliant foundation that led to this game’s downfall. The game starts off with a series of introduction and acknowledgement screens, which CANNOT be skipped. Maybe THQ were aiming for a true TV style presentation, or maybe they were just being careless. Anyway, the intro movie opens out to a realistically modeled arena with lighting, fireworks and other great special effects, which again reminds you of the countless wrestling events you’ve seen on TV. Being a console port, there was no mouse support, and the menu was a bit tacky in appearance as well as in functionality. THQ could’ve at least modified the presentation of the game a bit to suit the PC gamers. Sadly, as with most console ports, they turned out to be too lazy for that little bit of extra effort. The main game type offered is the Exhibition mode, which consists of 1 v 1, 1 v 2, 1 v 3, 2 v 2 matchups, a Triple Threat, a Fatal Four way and a Battle Royal. Now if you happen to be a true follower of this sport, you’ll immediately notice the exclusion of gameplay modes like Royal Rumble, Ladder Matches, TLC Matches, Table Matches, Iron Man matches, Cage Matches…….. The list just goes on…….. Considering that most, if not all of these modes have already been included in previous wrestling titles like Smackdown2 for PS2 (which, ironically, was developed by THQ itself!!). The lack of a Season Mode (or career mode, whatever you may call it) is another notable flaw in the game. This means that players are reduced to playing repetitive lone matches. There are a couple of game modes, although they hardly offer anything innovative. In the Title Match mode, you pick a superstar, choose a title, and battle your way through a series of matches with opponents of increasing difficulty. It might sound a bit unique, but gets downright boring, since all titles have the same procedure. And with no in-game save option, it isn’t a mode you’d want to select for a quick game or two!! Then there’s the King of The Ring mode, in which you select a superstar and let him fight his way through a knockout system to the King of The Ring crown. The matches in this mode can be any from the ones described before. But again, the process gets too repetitive for anyone’s taste. The game consists of most of the well known superstars, with some notable exclusions like Rob Van Dam, Brock Lesner, Rey Mysterio, Hulk Hogan and the like. I’m yet to figure out why the hell THQ included Fred Durst (from Limp Bizkit) as an unlockable superstar. Sheesh!!! How dumb can you get!!! The actual game starts with a true TV style presentation, with the superstars shown walking towards the ring as their intros play on, with a giant Titantron playing their intro movie. The Entrances are complete with background music, superstar-specific gestures and special effects. The Graphical excellence of the game again shows in these entrances, although the walk of the players could’ve been much better (I mean, are their pants too tight or what??!!). Once you get down to the actual fight, you’ll start noticing the crappy control system of the game, another console-port-specific flaw. The controls are highly unresponsive in many cases, and the system has been designed in a rather weird way, which makes it quite a task to pull off certain moves, especially aerial and running moves. THQ might argue that their control system lends a bit of realism to the game. Well, all I can say is – who needs realism when you can’t play the game at all!!! Another disappointment was the various objects you find around the ring. Make no mistake, there are plenty of things you can find if you look carefully enough….. It’s just that interactions with them seem too limited. You have ladders, tables, chairs, potted plants, masks, hats (don’t ask me why!!!), television sets……… everything but the kitchen sink (wait, was that there too???). But interaction with these objects is limited to just throwing them at your opponents in a very unconvincing and ineffective manner. You can’t jump of ladders and pull off any cool moves with chairs. You can put people through tables, but it’s a hell of a task!!!! The AI is decent, but could’ve been much better. Even at the hardest difficulty, the game is fairly easy to beat, and in most cases, it boils down to a session of button mashing! The camera is placed at an isometric view of the ring, and manages to get the job done. A strange thing about the game is the sheer imbalance of all the moves. Although all moves are rated according to their power and impact, it does not seem to count at all in-game!! For instance, you may lay a chokeslam on your opponent, only to see him get up half a second later. But at the same moment, you might give him a mild slam, and watch him spend a couple of minutes on the mat. This sheer imbalance of moves is quite laughable, actually. Although the state of players is determined through a popularity meter (which shows the audience support for that wrestler) and his own stamina meter, this poor execution of gameplay renders these two meters almost meaningless, except during pinfall or submission moves…….. There are a few plus points in the game, though. Music is pretty good throughout the game, and consists of licensed stuff for each superstar. The sound effects, however, are downright dismal. They come nowhere near the standards they were set to achieve. The graphics are the major plus point of the game, the only flaw being the audience, which look like cardboard cutouts! There’s a create-a-superstar mode, which is fairly good too, given its level of detail, although personally, the one put into Smackdown2 was better. There’s also a WWE Museum, where you can check out the biographies and intro music and videos for each of the game’s superstar. The game is relatively bug free and stable. For a title with came with plenty of expectations, WWE RAW has been a big letdown. Nothing apart from the graphics and special effects really count as clear pluses for the game. THQ does manage to achieve its goal of a TV style presentation, but loses out on the basic driving force behind games, the core gameplay. The game still might appeal to hardcore WWE fans, but for the others, it’s just another title that comes and goes. THQ has released a sequel for RAW on the Xbox, but after the dismal performance of this title on the PC, it’s going to have second thoughts on releasing a PC port of RAW2. Highs • Great Graphics and special effects • TV style presentation • Decent music, Create-a-superstar mode Lows • Unresponsive controls • Poor gameplay • Horrible sound effects • No season mode • Very few gameplay options • No in-game save • Repetitive
The Good: If you have a second controller, you can play multi-player with your freinds The Bad: There is so much bad I can't possibly put it all down. WWE Raw is a good game when you first start to play it, but I... Read Full Review
My son's name is Jake and he is my 13 yo son and he's been after a wrestling game for ages (not owning a console, and only allowed to play computer games when he gets to stay with me one weekend a month). EB Games said t... Read Full Review
