Introduction:7/10

"Rise To Honor" for the sony playstation 2 game console, is a one player fast paced martial arts 3-d action and adventure game starring the famous and well known Beijing China man known as the famous superstar "Jet Li" starring in the game that was created by "Sony Computer Entertainment America"  which was released in the year 2004 only for the sony playstation 2.This game is similar to how the old school hong kong martial arts movies were from the 90's with a lot of martial arts mayhem,and also giving you the choice to either change the language settings  to "Cantonese" with english subtitles,or just simply "English".In this game you control "Jet Li" who has dozens of martial arts moves,taking on street thugs, and criminal bosses through out the game  

Game Play and difficulty:7/10

In this game "Rise To Honor" it is really all about fighting ,it is a 3-d beat em up style game ,where you must initiate combos to be able to defeat all enemies who approach you,and as you continue to strike enough ,you will get a power meter up ,for you can get the adrenaline activated,and go in rage mode where your moves become more powerful ,but it is limited and you must press the right rotating anolog stick,slowly and (not quickly) like when you are fighting normally.Speaking about the controls,for a first timer, who is playing the Rise To Honor game ,the player will notice that this game's rules are like no other martial arts game.The Rise To Honor game takes you to a different level in controls which may be a little confusing as you first start,i know i was confused the first time i played this game ten years ago .The buttons such as ,triangle,square,circle ,and (X) do not work for ,blocking,kicks,throws or punches,but instead ,all your kicks ,blocking,punches and throws, are ALL on the right analog stick. [To be continued]

Controls are not that easy in "Rise To Honor"  as my review about the controls continues :

Yes you read that right up there,ALL the moves are on the right analog stick,and you might be thinking,how is that possible? well,(I hope the way i describe the controls does not confuse much but) the only way to do dozens of different moves, on just one stick, is to move the right analog stick ,in different directions repeatedly,which is (UP-UP) ( left left) (Down down) (right right) (high right,high right ) (high left ,high left (low right ,low right) and (low left ,low left) phew! that even confused me as i wrote it.But not finished with the controls! now to to a spinning break dance move ,you will have to rotate the right analog stick quickly as possible ,especially if you got your adrenaline meter up,which will make you able to preform a powerful 360 move on surrounding enemies.You can also pick up weapons ,by pressing (R1) then using them with the right analog stick.

A little more to write about the controls:


Not done! now to grab enemies you will have to hold the block button (R1) and never let go of that ,till you are done with everything ,but then,you will also have to press and hold the right analog stick (HOLD) on an enemy ,then rotate in any direction, and Jet Li will preform a take down followed by a foot stomp ,or any other take down move that happens.The controls are kind of like ,random as that is how it will feel  because you will never know what he will do ,if you do not memorize which direction is which for certain moves and which moves will happen,while moving the analog stick repeatedly in different directions.Now the blocking is simple ,it is (R1) as i mentioned before.When the gun levels come up ,all you have to do to shoot is (Hold) the right analog stick in whatever direction the enemy is at,to shoot,not that hard.And to take cover behind walls ,it is (R1) ...Phew! done with this one,now to the sound f-x and soundtrack music.


The Sound f-x and music: 8/10

The sound in this game is great ,such as the fighting sound f-x,and also Jet Li's voice over ,when he fights ,it is jet li's fighting voice,and when it is a cinematic cut-scene ,it is also the acting voice of the one and only Jet Li.Sound is great ,moving on to the music.The music soundtrack sounds pretty good,like an action movie ,and has that feeling of the types of movies that jet Li has made. 

Story:7/10

The story in Rise To Honor is pretty good,not really PERFECT,but okay for a martial arts game that has Jet Li in it.The first bosses are two martial arts twins at night time in a hong kong rooftop .Good luck on the controls fighting two high skilled martial artist at the same time.Start off in China in the city of Hong Kong,then travel to San Francisco California ,and then eventually, it is all the way back to Hong Kong.Each boss and enemy ,is skilled with different combat style moves such as the  drunken fist,to wushu ,and many more.This game is also filled  and action packed with cinematic scenes ,and also ,martial arts action as you see Jet Li preform some martial arts moves in situations,like fly kicking a guy out of a motorcycle,preforming some crazy and bizarre stunts similar to Jackie chan's in certain situations,and also eventually meets up with an old friend,a skilled martial arts asian female names "Michelle Chiang" who will help you combat enemies only in certain areas in the game .Progress through the missions ,on your way to the criminal leader "Kwon" on the last floor of a high building in Hong Kong.On that level,Michelle Chiang's life is at stake ,while she is hanging on the edge of the top of the building ,where you must take out Kwon as fast as you can.Hmm! not an easy task,but what can you do,it is a hard game ,and not that easy .

Depth of this game:8/10

This game has a lot and a lot of fighting ,that you may find it very repetitive ,does not take weeks or months to finish,but You can unlock pretty neat stuff ,by beating the entire game more than once,which will unlock cinematic videos such as,a clip of Michelle Chiang's childhood preforming a "Kata" martial arts demonstration,or jet li's childhood preforming his own kata demonstrating,with decent martial arts animations.Also ,you can unlock two different style attires along with the head style of two different real life movies Jet Li has done .You can unlock the Jet Li character model of "fearless" with the white clothing and pony tail with the bald head,or an attire that is similar to how he is dressed in "The Defender" also unlock artwork,and the soundtrack list of the game. When the whole game is beat,you will be given a DVD style screen ,where you can play any level,and the screen looks just like the clip menu from a film.You can also take a look at a clip on how the game was made,which shows Corey Yuen, Who is the action choreographer of this game, while seeing Jet Li himself in an interview,and the rest of the crew.




What do i think of "Rise To Honor" and what would i have liked in it  to make this game better:

I found the commercial interesting ,when it was released and thought it was going to be one of those games that i was used to ,until i realized the rules of the controls but eventually figured them all out after a hard time trying to figure them all out.I would have prefered the controls to be (Square) for jabbing combos,(Circle) for kicking combos (Triangle) throwing objects (R1) for shoot (R2) for block (L1) for grab (L2) for weapon pickup (X) for jump ,and there is no jump in this game ,just climbing high places by pressing (L1)  and thats the only thing ,because i did not  like much the controls ,if it had better controls,this game would have had a better review by game reviewers at least .


To close up on my review about "Rise To Honor" for the playstation 2.

All though "Rise To Honor " may not be recommended for every playstation gamer,while there are plenty of new modern day generation consoles out there,with newer game releases to play ,there really is not many motives ,and reasons to play any game that has had mostly bad reviews for the old generation console known as the playstation 2,but no matter how many new generation video-game consoles come out ,there will always be some one in this universe trying out games from the past generation consoles ,testing games they have never played ,despite that they are pretty old ,or the limit's of graphics and game play.Rise to honor is a potential complicated game if you cannot get used to the controls,but on the other hand ,if you know the controls ,and can manage to be professional,then this game becomes surprisingly easy to manage , and kind of comfortable in a way , even though ,it it mostly irritating, for those gamers who cannot play this properly.To finish up on the review,This is not a perfect game ,but for the fans of Jet Li ,it is one of those games ,that is not  that bad,but fairly ,an okay game.Overall: 6.8