THE MARK OF KRI (PS2)


Sony gives sword-play a whirl

By MARTIN KINGSLEY

In the grand scheme of things, it's nice to have a sword. You can open bottles with it, you can open doors with it and you can achieve a finely sliced sausage sandwich with it, not to mention being able to impale pillaging enemy invaders when the mood takes you and let's not forget scratching those hard-to-reach places.

It's weird how quite a few people just don't have one, despite how useful they are.

Rau, however, does have one, and boy, oh, boy does he put it to good use, as, by extension, will you, in Sony America's latest 3rd person slash-em-up, The Mark of Kri (TMK).

With a decidedly oriental flavour and visual style reminiscent of that annoying Disney kids classic Mulan, and the hands-on violence of Dead to Rights, TMK initially looks promising if slightly confusing as to which particular audience its marketed towards.

Is it an adult slasher, or a slightly over-enthusiastic teen brainstealer? I played it for hundreds of hours and after all that time, I'm still not quite sure...

Rau is your average 7'2" basketball player -- I mean village hero -- looking for a more adventurous lifestyle than the one he has currently, which consists of peeling potatoes and keeping an eye peeled for talent scouts from the Harlem Globetrotters.

With his superior training and terrible hair cut, he could surely get a position as a bouncer at that trendy nightclub down the street, if only he could remember to open doors before walking through them and to tell his left from his right.

Or not.

Anyway, Rau soon gets his chance to show off his fancy sword skills when the local forest is taken over by a skinny and rather ill-armed group of bandits who insist on being painful and not leaving.

So begins a tale of violence, disembowelment and shish kebab, as told by a wizened old artist and one badly rendered raven…without a single "Nevermore" in sight, I might add.

That's about as much of the storyline as you're going to get from me, so just take it as read the plot pretty much follows standard fantasy conventions and gives you a "save the world from Darkness" set of circumstances; you know the kind: "village boy discovers he is the Chosen One, goes to stop special rift from opening and pouring Evil into the world, insert cinematic here".

But don't let that get you down, for most of TMK is quite fun and at least reasonably funny to boot, although it's more funny to people with sadistic tendencies (i.e me), for the reasons I am about to outline.

In Rau's quest for truth, justice and Mum's home made apple pie, he will decimate enemy ranks with whatever comes to hand, sometimes opting for grabbing someone by the seat of his pants and hammering his head into a wall several times, or even just stabbing them through the throat with their own sword.

Not that you'll mind an awful lot, because you will probably be busy dispatching the other three soldiers who have chosen this time to sneak up on you, although it must be said that those of us not fond of steak and kidney pie may find it slightly off-putting for the first ten minutes or so.

In TMK's defence though, the gore displayed is nowhere near as realistic as that on display in Dead to Rights, and has more in common with the comic book violence seen in a Spiderman game, for instance.

People may get tossed through storefronts and be blown out the window of a twenty-story condominium, but at the end of the day you'll be able to go to sleep with your thumb in your mouth, knowing that it's not real.

Control is reasonably easy to maintain, as context-sensitive algorithms control most actions that interact with the environment or, to put it another way, fiddly bits have been reduced to a minimum.

If there's a wall to flatten against, walk on up and you'll flatten against it; if there's a ladder to be climbed, approach and you'll climb it. The scraps you'll get into need no real button hammering ability to win, and those familiar with futuristic anime-styled beat 'em up Oni will feel right at home with The Mark of Kri.

In order to get into a scrap, however, you actually need something to scrap with, and Rau gets a small if quite decent armoury to perforate and decapitate with.

Other than Rau's big 'ole sword, you have a decent bow for when you feel the need for a bit of medieval sniper action, along with a pair of meaty fists which occasionally come in handy when thwacking someone about the head is the order of the day, and quite possibly a few magical items of dubious nature.

However, Rau's most powerful weapon by far is that of Kuzo, his raven spirit guide, who can fly around and spy on the enemy, letting you know exactly just how badly you're outnumbered, and also "liberate" all those tricky secret items hiding around the place.

Kuzo should really be considered a novelty addition, but the inclusion of puzzles that require his unique abilities mean that he gains a role somewhat equivalent to that of Primal's Scree, although with not even one iota of his personality.

And he don't have no Babylon 5 voiceover either, so, if it's all right with you Sony America, I think I'll stick with the stone gargoyle, but thanks all the same...

Seriously though, TMK is a good old fashioned romp through forests, temple ruins and the world of darkness, in search of the ultimate recipe for quiche and someone to remove that annoying bird from your shoulder, with lots of gruesomely funny combos, fluid animation and a cool briefing system.

Just make sure the young 'uns are tucked into bed and safely visiting the land of Nod before you settle yourself in front of the telly for a night of feudal mayhem and madness.

And, apropos of nothing, in the "I-have-no-idea-what-it's-there-for-but-I-like-it" section of this review, special mention must go to the briefings for having cool pictographs accompanying the suitably B-grade narration, which draw themselves in (literally) as the narration progresses, giving it that "behind the scenes" look. Mmm, beta testers.

ORIGINALITY 70%
SOUND/GRAPHICS 85%
PLAYABILITY 85%
ENJOYMENT 80%
OVERALL 80%