Rise to Honor

"Short-term Excellence"

OK, this is my first review ever and i wonder why i chose this game lol. Rise to Honor is an action/beat'em up type of game. It is in ways very similar to Jackie Chan:Stuntmaster (which i think is Rise to Honor's predecessor). . Now, on to the review!

Graphics: 10/10
The Graphics in this game are crisp and clean. I was astonished to see how much Kit Yun resembled Jet Li. You would think they were twins or something. The thugs and gangstas look and resemble your average Hong Kong action film type bad guys and Michelle is......hot lol. Everything in the environment, from the rubble, to the vehicles are very well-detailed and you get that ''watching a movie'' feel.

Story: 5/10
Ok, this is your average Hong Kong movie script. A close person of a hero is killed, and now the hero wants revenge. All though there is some shockers in the story, there is not enough to keep you from saying ''Wow, i swear i have heard this before''.

Sounds: 8/10
Oh my god, it felt sooo realistic to hear the thugs and gangsters in Hong Kong speak Cantonese. The sounds of kung-fu fighting are very realistic sounding, and the gun shots are very similar to what you would hear in a movie like Training Day. What gives me a reason to give it an 8 is a few things: a)They didn't seem to put in the sound to resemble the blocking, that sounds lame, but it just threw me off. And B) The sounds are soooo repetitive. It sucks that when you die, you have to hear the same crap over and over and over and over, it makes you want to push mute during a gun battle.

Gameplay: 10/10
This is where this game shines. This is where it's sooo much fun. I'll break this section into 4 sections.

Fighting: You push the right Analog Stick and Kit does a Jet Li signature attack. How awesome is that? You push the analog stick in different directions, you have a Kit Yun that looks like Neo fighting all the Mr. Smith clones in Matrix Reloaded. Too many enemies?? Push R1 and pick up a weapon in a style that you would see in a Jet Li / Jackie Chan movie. Jet can even wield DUAL weapons, making him even more of a force to be reckoned with. The fihgting is sooo much fun, and the only reason you would replay the game is to experience it all over again.

Guns: This can either be boring, or exciting, it's all up to you. Jet has unlimited ammo (like the hero does in most action movies) and there are multiple environmental objects that he and his enemies can hide behind. In a way, it's kind of like Time Crisis to do pop-up style fighting except for the fact that you can do an Enter the Matrix style dive to liven up the experience. If the fighting wasn't so awesome, the guns would bring down the score as it gets VERY old quickly.

Running Away: Your running away, and someone is shooting like a psycho at you. There are objects to jump over, and the way Kit will jump will put a ''oh my god, that was sweet'' on your face, at least in the first time you see it. Like the guns, this gets pretty damn old too.

Sneaky Sneaky section: Guards have flashlighs, and you must avoid them. It's a pretty nifty section of the game, but you'll think it's dumb (i did) when you chop someone unconscious and a guy that's like 14 feet away won't hear it. But yeah, pretty nifty.

Replay Value: 1/10
Oh my god, you will beat this game in 4-5 hours and there is nothing else to do afterwards. There are a few secrets and cool stuff, but that doesn't change the fact that you can beat the game 4-5 times in one day. At least Way of the Samurai had differnet endings to be achieved, Rise to Honor has NOTHING. The only way you'll play this game again, is if your craving Kung-Fu madness!!!

If you are a Kung-Fu fan, then make sure you pick this game up. If you are not, rent it, and if you are hooked, pick it up (i bought my copy used 3 days after it came out, it was still brand new hehe)you'll find a used copy in no time and it's way better than the $40 bucks for a new one.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/24/04