You know, when Bill Gates brought out the Rock to introduce the Xbox to the mainstream press, the thought of a brand new WWF game on such a powerful machine was eye-popping, to say the least. Promises were made! What? Blood! What? The ability to grab an opponent's clothing! What? Fighting in the crowd! What? Backstage brawling! What? Wrestling fans were salivating with anticipation - with the developers of UFC utilizing the power of the Xbox, RAW would be a landmark title in wrestling game history. Finally - a challenger to the mighty Giant Gram/Fire Pro/No Mercy triumverate! Er, nope.

That's not to say that RAW is all bad. There are some very good aspects to this title, and there is a solid base here to build upon for future revisions. As it stands now, however, the staggering amount of shortcomings in WWF RAW far outweigh any positives that I can mention.

Let's start off with the graphics, shall we? With a few caveats, they are outstanding. The crowd looks beautiful, far more realistic than WWF Smackdown: Just Bring It. The WWF Superstars themselves are detailed smoothly, right down to the lifts in Chris Jericho's shoes. The high polygon count really makes the difference in bringing the wrestlers to life - musculature, realistic hair, smooth skin joints, blinking eyes, it's all there. There are a few exceptions - HHH's face looks more like Scott Walker of the Nashville Predators than the real-life Paul Levesque, and Shane McMahon just looks, well, hilarious. The pyro and lighting effects are jaw-dropping, and the sound is very well-done, with chair whacks, slams, punches and kicks coming through loud and clear. Wrestlers writhe in pain, their mouths open and grimacing when locked into a submission move or taking a kick to the ol' mean bean machine. The level of detail isn't on the same level as DOA3, but it is several light years ahead of the PS2's WWF offering.

The museum option is a nice touch - you can look at superstar biographies, detailing their work in the WWF, and even recapping some of the best angles. Weapons and equipment that you find during matches are also stored here. Nothing like seeing Ivory wearing Jerry "The King" Lawler's crown in the middle of a match.

The gameplay options are where disappointment first rears its ugly head. Exhibition mode has the usual matches: 1 on 1, 2 vs 2 Tag Team, 2 vs 2 Tornado, Triple Threat, Fatal 4-Way, Battle Royal, 2 vs 1 Handicap and 3 vs 1 Handicap. Sounds nice, doesn't it? Well, I certainly hope you like fighting in the RAW arena because that's ALL there is. No Smackdown. No Heat. No PPV-specific arenas other than King of the Ring, which just has the KOR signage where the RAW would usually be. You like cage matches? Won't find 'em here. Hell in the Cell? Negative. Hey, do any of you remember the Invasion wrestlers from last summer? Folks like Booker T, Rob Van Dam, Lance Storm, Stacy Kiebler, Diamond Dallas Page, the Hurricane and others? Absolutely nowhere to be found. This is inexcusable, especially when guys like K-Kwik are still on the game's roster. What's up wit dat?

So how's the actual gameplay? Is there no hope? Honestly, this is RAW's saving grace. You can spot the UFC-influences in this title, as the gameplay isn't as frenetic as Yuke's Smackdown nor as methodical as the AKI-developed No Mercy, the latter which is still considered one of the seminal wrestling games in North America. The grappling animation is fluid, although transitions between moves have a somewhat stilted look to them. There are a plethora of moves to choose from, and RAW incorporates a new kind of meter to judge not only how much stamina you have, but how well you're performing for the crowd. This voltage meter climbs higher for your wrestler depending on how many moves you pull off in succession, as well as the different types of moves you employ. Use the same grapples over and over, and your voltage meter will drop while your opponent's climbs. Keeping track of this while also keeping an eye on your wrestler's stamina means that a grappling move you could pull off with a high crowd involvement won't necessarily work in other situations. Top-tier wrestlers have an easier time getting the crowd behind them than the curtain-jerkers, and while some folks have complained about this, I heartily endorse this idea as a realistic one. The Rock should be able to get the crowd behind him easily when facing a midcarder like Perry Saturn, for example, and the fact that WWF RAW reflects this is a nice addition. It is a pain during multiplayer when one person's avatar is weaker than another's, but that's how it is in the WWF - midcarders have to work much harder to beat the main eventers.

Reversals work on a timing/button system, where you not only have to time your tapping of the reversal button correctly, but also guess which attack your opponent is using. RAW's gameplay is definitely more simulation style, and is a welcome change from the arcade-style of Smackdown. Aerial moves are a bit of a waste - even the Jeff Hardys of the WWF don't get much elevation, and as a general rule it doesn't feel like much damage is being dished out from above. Beating a wrestler into a groggy state is all fine and good, but if you hit a groggy wrestler, he immediately comes out of his vulnerable state. This is a serious problem when trying to set up your opponent for a hardcore grappling move or finisher. On that note - finishers don't do the damage that they should. I had to hit Kane with 3 Pedigrees in order to pin him, and that was on normal mode!

There is no career/story mode to be found - again, something that was in previous THQ efforts is MIA in RAW. Even Smackdown: JBI's half-baked story mode was better than nothing, and nothing is exactly what RAW presents for Title Matches. This also leads to another one of my beefs, and a major irritant with this game - in order to capture a title, you must face a succession of wrestlers. Fine, even with no story mode, that's no big deal, right? Well, what I absolutely cannot fathom is why Anchor in their infinite wisdom decided not to include a save-game option between matches. When you have to face 12 wrestlers to win the WWF Championship, and each match takes between 15-30 minutes real time to win, you're looking at nearly a full work shift of grappling before you're done. Maybe if you're getting paid to play the game, you won't mind spending a good chunk of your day earning the WWF Championship title, but out here in the real world, people don't often have the time to make that sort of investment. Look at this way: it only took Chris Jericho 30 minutes on the last WWF Pay-Per-View to retain the Undisputed WWF Title, why on earth should I have to spend 6 hours to do the same thing on my Xbox? The hardware is available for saving - so use it.

CAW mode has promise, but it is also unfulfilled. You can create your own pyro entrances, which one of the best ideas to come along in a long time. Fog, lights, camera flashing - all can be set up seperately with lots of color and timing details to create the intro of your dreams. The amount of options for the creation of wrestlers themselves are very limited in comparison to No Mercy, unfortunately. There are only 16 faces, both on male and female sides, to choose from, and the number of moves available for use absolutely pale in comparison to Smackdown and No Mercy. RAW only allows the storage of 16 wrestlers maximum to the HD, which is absolutely pathetic considering the amount of space that the Xbox has. The single most irritating aspect of RAW's CAW option, however, is the complete absence of the ability to use ripped songs on the hard drive as part of the wrestler entrance. Xbox is the only console with a built-in HD and one of the main selling points of Microsoft's console was the ability to put your own music on the HD and use it in games. Project Gotham Racing is an excellent example of how this can add to a title's enjoyment. WWF RAW absolutely screams out for this option, and why it wasn't included is a baffling mystery.

When it comes right down to it, THQ's WWF RAW reeks of a rush job, even with the extended development time. There are a plethora of small details missing that the WWF's licensing quality control should have caught before this game shipped, many of which were present in No Mercy. Austin not wearing his vest to the ring, for example, or HHH's missing beard. The walking animation, down to the ring and during gameplay, is absolutely ludicrous - the stilted, Robocop strut is disturbing. Wrestlers who have a belt assigned to them as they walk to the ring have it magically velcroed to their shoulder, even when knocked down repeatedly. Christian has his new music, but no pyro? There's no way to skip King of the Ring matchups your wrestler isn't involved in - you must actually go into each match, press pause, and then choose Skip Match. Edge doesn't have his Rob Zombie entrance music. You can't save your rules - any changes made to Time, Count Out, DQ, Rope Break and others before an exhibition match will be reset the next time you play. Weight differences aren't taken into account at all - pit Molly Holly against the Big Show to see exactly what I mean. No ability to use ripped songs off the HD in CAW entrances. No location-based damage. No tracking of who is holding any particular championship belt - once you've earned it, it is made available in the Items section, but that's all. No fighting in the crowd. Wrestlers holding one-handed weapons as if they were still holding chairs. Wrestlers who kick out of pins recovering faster than the pinning combatant. No Tag-Team Championship belts. Many of these are little things which have been addressed in previous THQ games, and they are nowhere to be found here. Makes no sense at all.

So basically it boils down to just how badly you want to play WWF on your Xbox. Frankly, if you can find yourself an N64 and a used copy of No Mercy, you're much better off than purchasing this unfinished game. The innovative gameplay and sweet graphics keep WWF RAW from receiving a failing grade, but the bare bones gameplay options, limited CAW menu, flaky single-player AI and overall anemic offerings here really hurt this game, especially when compared to others in the THQ line. Don't bother trying to shoot the messenger - point the finger at the publisher for raising the bar (and our expectations) to such a high degree with games like Smackdown and No Mercy. Hopefully another year's development time will result in a fully furnished game for the Xbox next time around, because WWF RAW is not worth the price being asked. An occasional rental or a used purchase is more in line with what the pittance being offered here.

I'm holding out for Wrestlemania X-8 on GameCube. Fingers crossed, people.