Rayman 2 starts where the original Rayman left off. The story ended where Rayman had a huge battle with Razorbeard and his army of robot pirates. The pirates had broken the heart of the world and scattered the energy. This took away the power from Rayman’s energy spheres. Rayman was defenseless and was captured by a robot pirate and enslaved.

The original Rayman was a huge success selling over 4 million games worldwide. The original was a masterpiece in visual detail for a side-scrolling platform port over. Rayman 2 transforms the 2D game into a lush 3D world with the same visual detail. The best thing about this game is that you have no foul language, no blood, and no death matches. Most games on the market rely on mature content to sell their games. The Great Escape relies on pure fun and enjoyment for the entire family.

The storyline concept takes the framework of other console games such as Super Mario 64 and the Donkey Kong 64. You collect Lums while learning new skills to help you advance in the levels. What you learn is used and you will need to perfect most skills in the advanced levels of the game. The reason for the exploration by Rayman is that he is in search of four magical masks that release Polokus. Polokus will rid the world of Razorbeard and his robotic army. Other than the basic 3D movements of the console clones, you shouldn’t see many more similarities.

The graphics of Rayman 2 are stunning. Each area of the game is detailed and laid out beautifully. The areas range from green forests to the high blue seas. The detail brings Rayman’s world to life in full color. The characters are extremely detailed and animated also. They show convincing expressions of humor and sadness throughout the game. Some of the animations do not need words to convey the story to the player; they merely rely on the fantastic expressions.

The sound and music are also fantastic. The background music and environment sounds are believable and help involve you in the game. The speech for each character is somewhat of a fantasy dialect with subtitles. The subtitles depend on the language that is selected at the start of the game.

Gameplay is vast in play styles, and each one is creative and fun in its own way. They range from riding down a river of lava on a berry to flying a barrel of black powder. Each play style takes some time to learn, which allows for replay value to be good. Also, levels have secret items you sometimes may have to go back to when you learn a new skill. Rayman 2 consists of 40 levels with tons of secrets and each has their own bonus area, which may require you to play the level a few times to find it.

The game is easy to learn and consists of the first half of the game training you in the different ways to move Rayman so that you may advance in the upcoming levels. The game is suited for a gamepad instead of the keyboard. Some techniques must use a combination of jumping, strafing, and shooting and would be difficult with a keyboard.

The only minor complaint I have is the save feature. You must finish a level before you’re allowed to save your game. You may die and continue within a level as much as you like, but you cannot save it in the middle of that level.

This game is sure to be a top ten game of the year. Not just for its graphical beauty or its creativity and fun -- just for having all of those aspects without the mature content that designers swear sell games.

Installation: 7 Nice installation that allows you many install options.

Game Play: 9 A great overall gameplay that allows all age groups to enjoy.

Graphics: 9 I would almost give it a ten, but I am sure there are some flaws that I didn’t catch. There couldn’t have been many. Beautiful graphics.

Sound: 8 I love the speech that the characters speak with language subtitles. Nice background music.

Concept: 7 The same concept as some console games. The detail makes it believable for the PC.

Difficulty: 9 The right amount of training and advanced techniques throughout the game. No need for a difficulty setting.

Value: 10 I loved it. My boys loved it. A good solid game for all ages.

Overall: 8.4