Rise to Honor

The story is setup like your standard kung-fu action flick in which Jet Li has the role of Kit Yun, an undercover cop posing as the bodyguard to notorious Hong Kong crime boss Chaing. When Chaing is assassinated, Kit must deliver an important message to his boss's estranged daughter living in San Francisco. While this tale takes on a few predictable plot twists and clichщd characters, it's convincing enough to be one of the more effective plots packaged with a video game. Besides the story sticking to motion picture principles, Rise to Honor mimics the typical DVD movie by splitting level into various chapters. However, you'd never know this thanks to streaming stages and movie sequences that forgo load time. Adding to this DVD authenticity is the option of including subtitles and hearing either English or Cantonese during the Hong Kong environments, as Jet Li and fellow voice talents recorded lines in both languages for the full kung-fu effect.

Jet Li didn't just add his name, face and voice talent to this product either, but also participated in the motion-capture of more than 3,000 of the signature moves. With chorography provided by action director Cory Yuen, not only do these moves appear to be authentic, but they're also fluid. During hand-to-hand combat stages, this gives the gameplay a fast and furious feel with punches and kicks performed alongside blocks, headlocks, counters, and throwing interactive objects. As adrenaline builds up in Kit, he can unleash a series of moves in a Matrix-style slowdown. This effect is even more significant during the gun-filled stages that use a slap technique similar to the brawling button scheme. However, these levels aren't a favorite of mine due to their sometimes frustrating nature. Nevertheless, they offer a nice diversion from the beat-Сem-up gameplay that would be stale otherwise.

Really, repetitiveness is the obvious problem gamers are going to pick up on right away. Rise to Honor is an extremely linear game and being anything but that would compromise the ideals of this strictly action-oriented title. There are a couple of levels that entertain sneaking around, but it's all about either brawling or gun-battling the entire time. Luckily, a total of 64 chapters challenge gamers into just that, though, there's too few meaningful extras included to extend playability any further. Some unlockable items such as alternative costumes, a soundtrack player, and artwork add little to the game itself, each reminding me of almost every supplementary bonus Sega used to squeeze into its games for fun. On a rising note, a behind-the-scenes video about the making of Rise to Honor is definitely worth viewing and if you're compelled enough to go back into the game, it can be a little more enjoyable now that you've gotten the hang of each level.