Rise to Honor

"Repetitive but worth while."

The story line doesn't really make much sense but the game play is unique and fun. You either unleash your kung-foo moves, massacre the enemy with your dual guns or render the enemy unconscious with your karate chop from behind.

The controls are awkward at first but they prevail once used to them. The moves are smooth and for the most part realistic. The environment is very slick. Waxed floors are indistinguishable from the real thing. Shadow, lighting and reflections make it a work of art.

The one peeve I had about the game was that the guns had infinite ammo and Kit would always throw them down. Sure you can't have guns whenever you want (which would spoil the game), but come on, there has to be a better reason for him to throw his guns down, that's like asking to be killed.

Controls 8.5/10:
Unique and original, and surprisingly not annoying. The simplicity of only using about 4 buttons does not distract from the gameplay.

Sound 7/10:
The music did not catch my attention, which is good and bad. Good because not noticing it means that it does not distract attention from the game itself, and bad because when I did hear it, it wasn't that good.

Story 7/10:
We've all heard the line, ''To leave the Hong Kong under ground, He must go back in....'' Sure that sounds cool, you'd swear you were playing a different game than the one depicted in summaries. It seems as though I was just getting into fights for no apparent reason. It was cool how people in Hong Kong spoke Chinese and not English with annoys me in most games and movies.

Graphics 9/10:
Simply amazing. There were not noticeable edges and everything sparkled beautifully. Getting into details can be very hard so I will cut straight to the point, you need to play it to get it.

Gameplay 8.5/10:
The game play is what True Crime wanted to be but had no chance of grasping. The angles and moves made me feel like I was watching a movie, which seems to be the trend of recent games.

Replay Value 6.5/10:
I don't see myself replaying Rise to Honor. Maybe that's just because I don't replay to many games, but it's good the first time but it will lose its pazaz the second time around.

This was one of the few games I felt compelled to beat and actually followed through on. Definitely worth a rental and possibly purchase.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/17/04