Techtite Game Reviews ---

Azurik is yet another example of X-box's quite different yet graphically superior games upon the system's opening launch. While this is another game with Microsoft's own logo in the opening credits, it is often as different from Halo as night and day. If you think that's a very bad thing, you're wrong; it's only a slightly bad thing...and if it wasn't for the most preventable of game design flaws, Azurik would be second only to Halo as THE game to buy for any new X-box system.

Who's Azurik? Where's Perathia? Well, Perathia first: it's a magical realm whose lands are held in balance by six elemental discs. You're the apprentice guardian of these discs: Earth, Air, Fire, Water, and Life. As any smart magical realm would do, the sixth, death power disc was deemed too dangerous, and hidden from view in the main temple...until a power-mad guardian comes across it, of course. In a struggle to gain absolute power, the five discs explode into 4 fragments each, shooting like meteorites across the land of Perathia. You know where this is heading; it's up to you to find these pieces, restore the discs, and of course, defeat the evil villain.

Aiding you in this quest is a powerful weapon; your only weapon. This double-bladed magic staff gains powers as you collect them. In time, you can fight fire monsters with water,

Rock monsters with lava fire, and so on, with very special-FX savvy battles as the result. You can even mix-and-match. Fire and Water, for example, makes your blades steam-tipped, melting through most ice blocks standing in your way. Similar mud-like boulders can be melted away with acid (Water&Earth). Of course, these mixed spells do similar added damage to your enemies as well. What's amusing about this is, the "rumble feature" of your controller vibrates according to how badly you're hurting enemies: there's either no vibration at all (if using water to defeat a water monster), a "mini shake" (if using your staff as-is), or a "thunderous"-quality shake (if using water against a fire monster). To top it all off, your staff can be used as leverage to slide down thin cables just by jumping under them. While this leads to a typical, Obi-Wan type of game limitation --only one weapon to choose from-- it's hard to deny that this weapon has everything a warrior would need.

Such powers also aid you in adventure-game related puzzles along the way. Harnessing the power of air allows you to have wings for a short time; "Level 1" air power allows for a super-jump of sorts (the wings only flap once, then disappear), while Level 3 allows for wings that can help you go for long lengths in any direction. Harnessing the power of fire assists in dark areas (in at least two points, this helps you see your way across catwalks in pitch-black caves). Harnessing the power of water can, quite simply, put out any number of "firewalls" placed inexplicably throughout the realm. This all adds some amusing adventure puzzles to an otherwise action-only game title. In most cases, an obstacle is solved by either discerning the right elemental spell, or searching for the orbs that upgrade your powers, if they aren't strong enough yet.

What I really liked about this world, was that it is probably only 1/3 linear. I say 1/3 because, of course, there are some things you cannot do until you're strong enough, or have the right inventory item. Aside from that, all levels are linked, which means they can be visited and re-visited at will. You can jump from the Fire to the water realm with ease, or from the Earth realm to the water realm, or...well, you get the idea. All realms connect to the center village of Perathia, which can be used primarily as a "resting place," a midway point, or even as a place to juice up your stats (search for rare orbs called "obsidian," and return to the temple for health or energy bar enhancements, among other rewards). Aside from a rather linear beginning (you must begin your journey in the water realm, with no exceptions), the rest of the game is surprisingly non-linear. Personally, I liked this freedom in a console video game, regardless of the frequent "backtracking."

As in the case with most X-box exclusive titles, graphics are made to use the nvidia graphics chip to the fullest. This is particularly important in an environmental game like this, though truly, these are some breathtaking levels; the level editors can be very proud! Even little details, like the way the waves splash on the beach in the first world explored, are amusing enough to tempt you to just stay put and enjoy the view for a few seconds. In the air realm there are amusing air tubes that connect like snakes to the larger platforms, allowing for travel between them. Some levels aren't as inspired as others (the fire realm --oh, what a surprise!-- resembles the inside of a volcano), though for the most part, this is the most inspired, unique "alternate world" I've seen since the old days of adventure games like Altered Destiny and Out of This World.

Game gripes I had with Azurik weren't "major" gripes per se; I was addicted enough to play this game for several nights, well into the wee hours (I had a tad less enthusiasm with Obi-Wan, thanks to its excessive battle droid missions. As for Shrek, 4-get it!). What annoys me about Azurik's limitations, however, is that every single one of them was preventable, with just the smallest amount of "tweaking" in the game. For one thing, the toughness of enemies was repetitive and --unlike the environments themselves-- boring. Hitting, hitting, hitting, and still hitting the exact same enemy is tiresome. As soon as you discerned what element was that enemy's biggest weakness, their defeat should've been as easy as one hit.

Likewise for big victories, like defeating the big bosses of each element, to retrieve the last piece of each magical disc. This leads to an automatic return to the temple in the middle of town, and should lead to no less than hoots and cheers from your peers. Not so; throughout the game, they all say the same sound bytes, like "Don't give up!" and "You're our only hope, Azurik." I would've preferred some accolades here, not unlike the praise received when saving the small desert town from similar elemental monsters in 1990's Quest for Glory 2. You'd expect the townsfolk here to gradually say something like, "You restored the water disc! Cool!" or "Hey, my indoor plumbing works again. You rock!"

The most unforgivable flaw of them all, however, is console-itis; the need to save games only at save game "platforms" that are very, very scarcely scattered across each level. I still don't know why so many X-box games --with an internal hard drive staring them square in the face-- wish to resort to saves as namby-pamby as "at the end of a level only" or "at save points only." That's just dumb. This is bad enough in Obi-Wan or, Halo; in this game, it's unforgivable because --brace yourself-- the game's programming already knows how to save at any time!!! Look at the gray sidebar at the above-right of this review, and read the programmer's code to save anywhere in this game. So, why'd the game designers make this into a "cheat code" and not an inherent feature? Because save games don't work while your character is in motion (say, on a treadmill or a moving platform), and they were too lazy to correct this glitch. So, you must either search for those scarce save game points, or click the six-key code to save your game elsewhere (when standing still; remember that!). To be honest, this wasn't too difficult to do constantly in-game, though it was tedious, and it didn't have to be.

Aside from that, however, I had a good time playing Azurik. It may not have the marketing muscle of Oddworld, though its colorful, vibrant worlds seem much more suited for the Box than that grayish-darkish game title. Some adventure game puzzles may also be too complex for the modern "aim/shoot/repeat" generation of action gamers, though to this old-school adventure gamer, it was a welcome change. If you're into a little thought in your games --and have a fair amount of patience-- I'd give Azurik a shot. It's not like you can play Halo forever.

	Final Rating : Large Crater. Some difficult puzzles, and some other preventable flaws, though otherwise a very fun action/adventure.
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Azurik:

Rise of Perathia

A Techtite Review