You’re skimming through press releases, nearly fall asleep on this typical
weekday afternoon. Then BAM! – you see the headline – Jet Li is coming to
PS2. I was pretty shocked. Jet Li, the man who reportedly turned down a role
in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions because the studio wouldn’t
pay enough, would appear in an all-new video game in 2004. A new, innovative
gameplay style was promised, along with an involving story and voice-overs
from Li. The developers also took the time to recreate Li’s face in polygonal
form. It’s not perfect, but the early shots were convincing enough to excite
the fans.
One year
later and the game is on store shelves everywhere. After playing an exciting
demo that ended way too quickly, the time had finally come for me to explore
the final version.
If you’ve seen the
commercial (you should have by now considering how frequently it airs), you
should have a pretty good idea of what the game plays like. It’s a little
weird and it’s a little different, but it’s also very cool.
If there’s one thing the
developers did right it’s that they kept their promise. Using the analog
stick to attack in place of the face buttons is not exactly a new feature.
Sony’s very own Ape Escape introduced this concept back on the PSone!
However, I’ve played nearly every major title released for the PSone and PS2
and I can happily say that Rise to Honor’s attack methods are more than an
expansion of past concepts. The innovation isn’t overly obvious. Even after
playing the game for a while you might not realize how much depth is actually
inside.
Incase you’re unaware of
how the control scheme works, just erase the face buttons (X, square, etc.)
from your memory. Now take any of the actions you might expect the face
buttons to have (like punching and kicking) and give them to the right analog
stick. Jet Li can now attack his enemies from any angle.
Attacks consist of
one-hitters (press the analog stick once in any direction) and combos (press
the analog stick consecutively four or five times). This creates a pro/con
situation. On one hand we have a simple, innovative attack system in which Li
can attack from the front, sides and rear with little hassle. On the other
hand we have a simple attack system that never goes beyond the complexity of
pushing the analog stick in a particular direction. It’s not easy tapping the
stick consecutively at first, but once you get used to it it begins to feel
like button-mashing. Or in this case, stick-mashing.
Most of the battles are
pretty lengthy; you either have several standard enemies to kill, or one or
two powerful enemies with a huge health bar. The game doesn’t end there
though. Rise to Honor is supposed to be the video game version of a Hong Kong
action flick. And what action flick would be complete with bullet-dodging
chase sequences? Depending on the level type, you might be running for your
life as a gun-toting helicopter attempts to close in on you, or fight fire
with fire by gunning down enemies on foot. During those stages you’ll have
walls, boxes and other obstacles to crouch behind. R1 serves are your
"action" button in the game, so in this circumstance it’s used to crouch.
Release it to come out and return fire.
As fun as it is to play a
game of shoot-and-sneak, I had little trouble diving right into the action. I
ran towards two and even three enemies, firing as quickly as possible. Each
enemy had at least one gun in their hand. In most games the third guy would
get you. You’d have no problem killing the first and the second is generally
not that much harder to take out. But that third guy — you couldn’t possibly
take him out before he got a shot off. Not so in Rise to Honor. Just keep
running and firing and your health meter will hardly suffer, if at all.
In terms of combat, level
and enemy types, expect to see the same thing over and over again. Expect to
see some variations, but just because an enemy has a different outfit or a
slightly different fighting style does not mean the game is fresh throughout.
The game begins to age after the first few stages. At that time you realize
that it’s not going to go any further than it already has. And that’s a real
shame.
Disappointingly, the game
does not give the player nearly as much freedom as I had hoped for. You can
only pick up certain things and use them as weapons, things that are common
and found in many next-gen games: sticks, chairs, poultry. There’s not much
more beyond that. I saw boxes that could have been used as a great way to
distract the enemy, but those could only be kicked, not picked up. I saw
glasses sitting on unoccupied tables – why can’t I use those as a weapon?
Surely a broken glass could do some severe damage. Programming so many
details would have been an arduous chore, no doubt. But if Hideo Kojima can
add magazines and several dozen bottles to MGS2 just for the sake of realism
(you can shoot them from any angle, causing a different animation each time),
why can’t Rise to Honor have more usable and perishable objects for the sake
of fun?
As much as I like parts
of this game, overall it’s a bit of a snoozer. Truth be told, the excitement
ends after the first 30 minutes. By that time you’ve seen the best of what
this game has to offer. A surprise here and there might be enough for Jet Li
fans, but most gamers will not be compelled to continue playing. The gameplay
is more repetitive (and less rewarding) than some of the most repetitive
titles on the PS2, including Chaos Legion. It’s sad, it really is, because
Rise to Honor has so much going for it. But "so much" just isn’t enough.
Gameplay: 6
I don’t know what
happened. If you think about it it makes sense; Rise to Honor is essentially
a single-player fighting game. And when are fighting games the most fun?
When you have a lot of friends (and enemies) to battle. Rise to Honor is a
fighting game without friends. The single-player experience can only be fresh
for so long. Look at the crazy coin system Mortal Kombat used to try and keep
its single-player experience fresh. Rise to Honor has some great concepts,
but as a whole the game needs to be heavily reworked. Either a great variety
of levels or a gameplay change is necessary. Or something new and innovative
– but isn’t that what the 360 degree attack system was trying to accomplish?
Graphics: 8.5
Outside of the
movie sequences you won’t see too many faces. You’ll see Jet Li’s, and every
time you do you’ll be pleased. It’s not as realistic as the technology allows
(just wait till you see Vin Diesel in his upcoming game), but it still looks
very good. Li’s fighting animations are also worth noting.
Sound: 8
Rise to Honor has
a good soundtrack, but some of the songs are really out of place. They’re too
jumpy when they should be slower and more intense. That doesn’t take away
from the quality of the sound but it does lessen the impact that the music has
during those particular parts of the game.
As for the voices,
they’re fairly decent. Li’s performance is of course the best of the bunch,
but some of the other actors did a pretty good job as well.
Difficulty: Easy/Medium
Rise to Honor is
short. Expect to spend no less than a day or two on it.
Concept: 8.8
Imagine a control
scheme with no boundaries when it comes to tackling a large group of enemies.
Imagine a game where Russell Crowe can engage in a bar brawl without ever
leaving the house. If you can imagine that, you can believe in Jet Li: Rise
to Honor. Its 360 degree attack system is simple and fun to use, not to
mention innovative and free of the clunky-ness that accompanies so many games.
Overall: 6.4
Close, but no
Black Mask. Jet Li: Rise to Honor is the game that could’a, should’a, would’a
– but unfortunately did not. Case in point: it’s repetitive. Extremely
repetitive. That’s really all that needs to be said. I can praise the
control scheme until I’m blue in the face, but that doesn’t take away from the
fact that the game repeats itself like a radio station with a small collection
of songs. Rent it, play it, and hope for a sequel that’s as exciting all the
way through as this game is for the first 30 minutes.
