Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

"Tis a good game...really, I AM being honest!"

CTHD is a fairly basic game based on an amazingly breathtaking film. To be honest, I don't think it is possible to actually capture the film for all it's glory. Anywhoo...

Graphics: 5

Graphics aren't everything, but they contribute to this games gameplay. There is nothing unbelievable about them. You cans ee who you are, where the enemies are. The buildings look like proper Chinese architecture and the weapons look very...painful. The Green Destiny looks especially nice for this games time. The characters are quite a different story though. Jen: Zhang Ziyi is a stunning actress and has stunning features. But wait? Who is this?! The 'Jen' in this game hasn't got really any of the characteristics as the Jen in the film. She looks porkier then Zhang Ziyi, this was a great upset :( . Shu Lien looks normal, but her face looks a bit beaten in the FMVs. Mu Bui looks probably the best as the characters go.

Sound: 7

The sound in this game is also very mixed sound effects. The music is from the film, which is very good, because if it wasn't then this would have got about a 2. The sound sounds get very annoying, it is SWISH SWISH SWOOP and then you get bleeps when you level up or use a healing salve. The speech is done in Cantonese which is also a plus, but not done by the actual actors. Which is a downer.

Controls: 8

The controls are very basic, you have two hand to hand buttons and two weapon buttons. Unfortunately, you don't actually get a great deal of combos. You can use the grab button and whilst grabbing the enemies you can use a button code to perform a Special Move which looks quite painful indeed.

Gameplay: 6

The game plays out very fluently where you have 5 scenes for each character. Upon finishing this you get to play as another character. There are 4 playable characters (one after you complete the game). They have a different style of fighting, yet they all dodge the same. In the film, Jen used a lot of acrobatics, whereas Shu Lien didn't. Yet Shu Lien has a backflip kick in her combo. I think all the characters should have been probably thought out on how they move and dodge. The camara can be very normal sometimes, but it annoys me when it is so stubborn that it doesn't shift from the front of a ledge. Also, when it is a ledge which you need to jump off and you cannot see where you need to go, that provokes an outburst of a massacre kind.

Overall, I feel this game is only for die hard Kung Fu fans with nothing to do for a week. I completed it with all 4 characters in a week and it took me 13 hours, so look for a rent before you purchase.

:)

Happy gaming

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/05