Another action title comes and goes into the midst of mediocrity.
You can tell when a genre has been done to death, and only to have another mediocre title on the brink isn’t the best decision to build a new system upon. Azurik: Rise of Perathia is the latest in the shameful debauchery that is the 3rd person fantasy action/adventure category. While early screens and movies dictated a promising title, the game proves disappointing upon arrival. Not that Azurik is the most painful experience I’ve encountered, but the game offers nothing new to the genre, and seemingly borrowed everything from elsewhere. The pain is there though, believe me.
Graphically Azurik looks shoddy compared to other Xbox titles, and obviously does not show off the system’s power in any stretch of the imagination. From the blurry textures, to the unoriginal character designs, Azurik fails to impress from beginning to end. Throw in some frame rate issues from time to time and you have a mess. Even the lighting, which looks spectacular on the back of the box, seems dull when playing this game in real time. Finally the game throws in a wacky, poor collision detection camera into the mix and presto you have Azurik. If this game was done on the Dreamcast, this tale might be told differently… but come on, I want more out of my Xbox titles than this.
Audio is actually rather nice, which keeps this title from the depths of an absolute crap score. What you get is very decent voice acting in the cinemas, a nice background score, and even a fine job on the 5.1 surround mix to round out a solid effort in the sound department. If only the graphical engine got as much attention, this game could have… ah who am I kidding, the graphics really aren’t the big issue.
What is the problem is the fact that I for one am sick of these overdone fantasy/action games that do nothing but hack, slash, and throw a few neat spells about. The story is bland, the characters unoriginal and very uninteresting. The enemies couldn’t frighten my cats, and the level design is boring. Am I being too critical for what is basically a launch title? No. Why? Because if you do look at the caliber of the titles that did launch ( Oddworld, Halo, Gotham, Dead or Alive) one should expect more from this system, and it is capable of doing so much more. If I were Microsoft, I would not have bothered to put my name on the game’s cover. Azurik fails to take advantage of what Microsoft’s powerful machine can handle. The game also could have benefited from a better script and plot along with writers, but that’s a whole other rant.
Gameplay is basic hack and slash with an odd twist in random level designs, which make the game even more confusing than why Microsoft put this title out as is. Not that it plays bad; it’s just been done so many times in the past.
Lasting appeal? None... heck if you finish the game you have more guts than me my friends. At least I got mine for free and my price was enduring this wretched title for several hours, which seemed like an eternity. The game does get slightly better towards the end, but man is it a painful journey getting to last few stages of decentness.
Is Azurik really that bad? No, but I am tired of settling for this tripe. It’s games like this, which nonetheless somehow still sell, that keep this genre stale and lifeless. If more gamers would speak up and tell it like it is, we would have more quality titles. I want more for my 50 bucks. As is, Azurik is a rental at best, but why even waste that money when there are far better titles to play.
