Jet Li: Rise to Honor (PS2)

I won't go into details about the story, you'll have to play it yourself for that, but i found it a little weak when surely that could have come up with a great plot for Jet Li, or maybe even used an idea from one of his films. However this doesn't matter too much as the fighting really makes up for it. Its all choreographed by Cory Yuen, so you know that its going to be pretty good. There is a variety of cool moves that you can use to defeat either the many opponents that surround you on several occassions or the individual boss confrontations that you find yourself in, again quite often.

The only problem really with the fighting side of the game, is how you control it. Basically its all worked with the right analogue stick, which may not seem hard when you haven't played the game, but believe me it does get quite difficult. The game was probably designed this way to stop the 'button bashing' that you get with most fighting games, but i found even more difficult and it would have been nice to be given the chance to choose between 'button bashing' and the analogue stick. After a while though, you do get adjusted to it so don't let this put you off too much.

You don't just have to throw kicks and pucnhes, there are a number of grapple moves that you can perform on your enemy and if your near a wall or object then you can throw them into it. As well as this you can use almost anything else as a weapon that you can find including: chairs, baseball bats, fish hooks, pieces of metal and knives to name but a few. So if you come up against a tough opponent, which you will, then try abd find some objects to help deplete their health.

The graphics in the game i thought were very good. They aren't andything special but for this game they are fine, especially when you consider that the game is over a year old now. There are quite a few levels, which get quite tricky towards the end, so a casual gamer should find quite a long lifespan, although i'm not sure about a hard core gamer. Its not all fighting though; there are a few stealth missions and even some gun fights down alleys etc so there plenty for everyone.

Overall, 'Rise To Honour' is a good game from Jet Li, which i can't understand why it didn't become more popular. There are a few imporvements that could and should be made if a second game was to arrive in the shops (maybe for PS3), but on the whole a fun and entertaining game. If you want a game that has fight scene after fight scene, and the chance to beat up multiple opponents on a 360 degree level, whether you like or dislike Jet Li, this game is for you.

Gameplay wise, the game works fairly well, incorporating some stealth elements, all out shooting and martial arts combat. These all go together well, and the game seems to work well. The martial arts combat is the most interesting of these three though. You use the right analogue(i.e. to punch, kick etc) and depending on the way you move this, depends on the attack. This allows for a nice 360 degree feel to fighting. There are also some nice elements such as one area where you have to just run away from a massive helecoptor and need to press the right buttons to avoid the obstacles (think Shenmues button press action bits.) There are also some hidden characters to unlock and some making of videos which are a nice touch.

Graphically the game is very classy, with a nice selection of locations (including rooftops and buildings, to nightclubs etc) There is nothing particulally special about them (such as lighting) but they are good for what it is worth. The cutscenes use in game graphics, but because they are of a fairly good quality, this works well enough.

The sound, is optional! You can either have the voiceovers in english or japanese (you'll be pleased to know that with the japanese option there are english subtitles! This is a nice touch and something very rarely ever seen in computer games. It also gives it that sort of Jet Li authenticity to it.

Problems-it does get EXTREMELY hard towards the end, where you'll want to destroy your PS2, and secondly, its only about 5 hours long, and theres not much reason to play through the game a second time (unless you normally do that with every game) so i give the game a respectable 4/5 stars