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Dom Robinson reviews
Ubisoft 
- Price: £39.99
- Players: 1
- Widescreen: No
- Dolby Digital 5.1: Yes
- Xbox Live-enabled: No
- Downloadable content: No
When I reviewed the2000 movieupon its DVD release, I said it was the Chinese equivalent of Gladiator.
Sadly, this game is the Chinese equivalent of the recent and dreadfully dull,Gladiator: Sword of Vengeance,in that it’s one long hack-n-slash game getting from one level to the next until… there’s more of the same tofollow, each time knocking them out with a “swish, swish… swish” of your sword and then an optional kick tosend them flying into the air, as you use the ‘strong weapon’ button in combination with the regular one, evenwith a view to ‘swish’ them again on the way down for extra pain. Or, just use the strong button to send themflying – job done, mostly.
You can collect power-ups along the way, usually dropped by baddies or foundinside big vases and boxes, and while I started off as Jen, who stole theGreen Destiny sword from Sir Te, I understand you can go on to play the othersbut if they’re all as tedious as this one then I doubt I’ll bother.
At one point, one of the enemies exclaimed, “Close the gate so they don’tescape!” – Exactly what difference will that make since the charactersare meant to be able to fly through the air anyway?
The graphics are the best thing about this game – when they’re static. Thanksto bloody awful camera work, I had to use an overhead view because I couldn’tsee what was going on, and it’s possible to get stuck behind trees too, althoughat least with wooden stairs those go transparent when required.
It’s taken four years to release this game, it looks nice but plays like a gamefrom four years ago. Just don’t bother and spend your money on a far betterfighting game for the Xbox like the stunningSoul Calibur II
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
PLAYABILITY
ENJOYMENT
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.