Review: Azurik - Rise of Perathia (XBX)

Being human we’re unfortunately created with the desire to explore and achieve but set against today’s society we have to make do with packaged adventure tours and false hope.   The achievement of finding your way around the one way system in Glasgow or the roundabout nightmare of Livingston are the nearest that we will come to sampling those feelings experienced by past explorers.   Stuck in this society it comes as no surprise that many enjoy adventure videogames simply because they satisfy a need, regardless of the fact that millions have played Zelda or discovered the treasures hidden in Tomb Raider, each game is personal and rewarding.   So will Azurik - Rise of Perathia (the first adventure on Xbox) be a glorious expedition or yet another soul-destroying trek?

Few stories in these fantasy/adventure games retain any degree of originality, mainly because titles such as Zelda set the trends that others follow.   It comes as no surprise that Azurik shares many similarities with the infamous Nintendo series.   You play the role of Azurik a novice warrior who has a great responsibility thrust upon him, save the kingdom of Perathia from the Guardian of Death who has possessed the power hungry warrior Balthazar.   Whilst Balthazar was no angel he was a formidable warrior and now is a frightening force to be reckoned with.   These events were prophesied and now only you can prevent the apocalyptic ending.   Such an unimaginative story also spreads to the character designs, blue people and bland enemies, instantly forgotten.

The power of the kingdom is derived by the elemental discs, which ensure the natural elements of Fire, Water, Wind and Earth are kept in state of equilibrium.   Balthazar has managed to shatter each of the discs and the pieces are spread throughout Perathia.   You need to restore each of the pieces in the Temple but you can master each of the elements and use their power against Balthazar.   Your quest will take you over the various lands of Perathia where each has a theme based on one of the elements and as you acquire their power new avenues will open for you.   The walls of fire or blocks of ice that once prevented progress fall by the wayside as you grow in power.

The game begins with a modest cut scene which displays its PC origins for all to see, it just doesn’t look right on the Xbox and perhaps hints that Adrenium had another format in mind when first creating Azurik.  The training mode is laughable simply because there are just a handful of moves to master, which begs the question, why bother in the first place?   It immediately shows the limitations of the combat system, which has been snatched from a roaming 3D, beat ‘em up.   Combat in the actual game soon becomes tiresome, as your enemies (no matter what shape or form) are predictable and easily dispatched.  

The AI is appallingly bad as you can approach an enemy group but by simply moving slowly you can attract the first two and dispatch these while the rest wait for you to advance.   When you have made this discovery you are unlikely to wade in, staff twirling and by the second level you will just run past enemy positions while they give chase.   Killing the creatures does provide health and elemental power ups which replenish your levels, useful but thanks to some poor level design you should never rely on such rewards.   Each level contains an insane amount of things to collect each of benefit to you and because these are in such bountiful supply it makes the game far too easy. 

Whilst the introduction may have been modest, the graphics contained within each of the levels offers a slight improvement.   Occasions occur when you will look down on the landscape and pause to take everything in, there is plenty on show but it never amazes the player.  More often than not you will stop and think how nice but never wow, those outstanding moments seen in Gunvalkyrie or Halo are missing.   Your village acts as the central axis to each of the elemental lands and here you can go into each building and climb up to the temple.  As you do so, one of those nice moments will occur, stand and gaze at the lava flow and waterfall cascading down the huge mountain face.  The water and fire effects are standouts in the game but things start to go wrong when you notice the variable frame rate and graphical pop up in the distance.  The Dreamcast was blighted with bad ports from the PC early in its and Azurik is similar in this respect as it fails to take advantage of the undoubted power of the Xbox.   The only advantage is that the game suffers from practically no loading times whatsoever.

Playing Azurik is a disheartening experience not only for the repetitive combat but the sheer size of the levels.   As many have apparently said, size isn’t everything.  Clues are scattered around each of the levels thereby pointing you in the right direction but mainly you are running around killing enemies and hoping to discover the aim of it all.   For a peaceful kingdom there is a huge gap in the economy for a sign maker and mapmaker because it lacks both commodities.   The design of each is frankly lazy and after playing challenging examples such as Maximo and Gunvalkyrie it just heightened my overall disappointment with the game.    The camera is a mixed experience and requires constant centring and correction as it fails to adapt to new environments and combat.    Invisible walls exist in certain areas where the developers thought you wouldn’t explore; for instance a gap between a village house and rock contains such a force field.   Azurik can quite easily become stuck in scenery when climbing and jumping, the annoyance factor is heightened by the camera doing so at the same time.

Azurik is a missed opportunity to bring some much needed exclusive adventuring to the Xbox.   I was reminded of Dragon Riders the Dreamcast title by Ubi Soft that had a great story but lacked the graphical touches it so desperately needed.  Put this and Azurik together and we’d have something very interesting but as it stands I’ll be waiting on Panzer Dragoon to arrive.

Rating: 3 / 10

Words by Jason Julier