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- Rise To Honor
Rise to Honor
- February 17, 2004 13:54 PM PST
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Jet Li makes his videogame debut in this action-packed adventure styled just like a "Hong Kong" action film.
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The Joy of Sticking
Basically, you move your fighting character (Li) around with the right stick and merely press the left stick towards your designated victim/human punching bag to bust a move. The artificial intelligence instantly unleashes badass Jet Li kung fu on the poor sap as you spin the left stick to target another victim. Super moves are available after you build up power that?s monitored by the Adrenaline Meter.
Obviously, from the get-go you can look very good in spurts. To the game?s credit, however, the system takes time to fully master in all-out multiple opponent combat and the A.I. adversaries are no pushovers. Also there may be several different moves available for display depending on the situation, so you can experiment to find out just what you?ve got. The adventure is lengthy, too; taking place in Hong Kong and San Francisco in 11 environments broken down in to 63 chapters.
There?s also firearm combat where the left stick enables you to quickly switch among multiple targets. This system succeeds in workmanlike fashion, but be prepared to take beaucoup hits. There?s an Adrenaline-Meter-driven bullet-time move, too, that will be wasted early on while you?re in training.
Rise to Honor also does a good job of weaving orchestrated action into the gameplay. That is, this is one of those action game that during some chases prompts you to, say, jump, climb, or hide by pressing R1. Naturally, it looks very cool when your timing?s correct, but if it?s off, virtual Li either looks lost or he?s dead.
The Li Way
Rise to Honor?s look and feel is very much Hong Kong action film lite. Jet Li?s a bodyguard in H.K.; his ?boss? is killed on his watch; he must find an estranged daughter in America; and he must avenge the hit.
Although the gameplay mechanics are the critical feature, there?s no doubt who the star of this show is. Jet Li, his favorite movie stunt fight coordinator Cory Yuen, and a gang of martial arts stuntmen and wire-artists spent countless hours at motion capture mania to record all the potential fighting moves you can bust in this game.
The payoff is your ability to command and view some amazing Li kung fu. Among the show are great multi-hit kicks, gravity defying runs along walls, and (in areas where you team up with another character) Li?s signature two-person team attacks. You can chain moves and fire-off combos. Li also uses weapon techniques with staffs and double sticks with ease, and can also turn some unlikely items into fierce forces if you?re imaginative enough to search around (hint: the term ?food fight? takes on new meaning here).
Although the repertoire is great, it appears some concessions had to be made. In particular, because so much about 360-degree fighting technique relies on angles of attack you?d like to have a sideways ?strafing? move to set up your offense. Also, while Li (as observable in his films) is master of the counter-strike, so, too, are some of his opponents here and you?d like to have a jump back move in addition to the normal block and counter.
Fung Swayed
Honor?s cinema-influenced presentation is effectively entertaining. The sounds and music sustain the tension in the story that?s fueled by authentic Chinese dialogue of course. The visual style is clean and sharp, but the fluid, diverse animation is really the star of the show.
Rise to Honor displays great imagination and attention to detail that is at once challenging, innovative, and fun. It accomplishes the task of re-creating the venerable beat-em-up genre with honor.
