The Mark of Kri

By: Gabriel Quinteroz Staff Writer Phoenix Genesis / MBS LP www.phoenixgenesis.com April 27, 2004.

I.    Project Overview

      My goal for Phoenix Genesis is to review video game Interface for the popular Sony PlayStation 2 video game entitled, "The Mark of Kri." I will review the story and characters as well as the issues the game has.

  

II.    Project Assets

      The Mark of Kri starts out as a beat-'em-up-, offering gamers the ability to play as the barbarian-like warrior, Rau. Accompanying Rau is the family's sacred bird, Kuzo, who assists Rau by activating doors and ladders and reading ancient scripts throughout Rau's adventures. Kuzo is an important element in the game, as he provides a bird's eye view, and a first-person perspective at upcoming enemies. But the game's main focus is its unique fighting system. The game enables players to select a group of enemies by attributing face buttons to them (using R3), after which the player can then attack the surrounding group using various button combinations. Rau can attack enemies without having to face them, and the fighting system, which starts off by permitting three enemies to be selected, eventually enables players to select and fight off as many nine enemies at once.

      The combo system in the game is great. It’s designed is to create a great group of fighting experiences, while simultaneously eliminating the problem of camera orientation. By using a targeting system for not one but multiple enemies, the game allows players to face forward but fight enemies behind, on the side, or in front of Rau. Also, the game enables Rau to sneak around enemy-filthy territories slicing off heads and piercing guards with arrows. Once your cover is blown, as it inevitably will be, and the swarm of thugs encircles you, Rau can block from any angle, and with a swing of his sword, or other various weapons such as an axe, he can clear the room with a few swings.

      By all means, the fighting system is unique and innovative. Enemies can be selected in groups, or solitarily (press and swerve R3 to select enemies, or press R3 again to de-select them). It takes time to master, and honestly, it can be frustrating at times. It's not perfect. In between attempting to pull off combos, players must perform a healthy amount of button mashing to free up the possibility for one good combo. And, thwarting your slicing pleasure at all times, enemies try to block your attacks, so skill and timing must become a part of your ascent up the curve. It also requires a certain level of strategy. To get the system working really well, a healthy amount of time must be spent playing this game.

      Even though it’s great, the combo system has some problems. The sword is a good sturdy weapon, but the damage it does grows old quickly. What's probably the least favorite weapon in the game is the Taiaha. It's a limited weapon, and it should be more powerful. Great for clearing out big groups, it's slower and less effective against mid- to small-size enemies. As you prepare to swing, the smaller enemies quickly run in and jab, poke, and nibble at you. What makes using it less then desirable then is that switching from one weapon to another (like in most cases, the quicker sword) requires too much time in a fight, after which the animations must follow, too. Switching from weapon to weapon should have been implemented with a much faster scheme, such as using the shoulder buttons, the D-pad or various other setups. There is nothing I can even find remotely wrong about the axe, my favorite weapon in the game, except for that it just comes too late. Once you get the axe, you'll never use the Taiaha or the sword again. The axe is an awesome, mighty tool that instantly butchers those creatures in its way. Enemies lose limbs, heads, and are quickly sliced in twain when this thing starts swinging. It's so fun to use, it puts the other two weapons to shame. All in all weapon-wise, there should be more weapons in this game, and the ones in it, such as the Taiaha, should be more effective.

  

III.    Navigation and Interactivity

      The roaming camera, usually in the third-person perspective behind Rau, switches to a single-player view when using the bow, and in a group fight, it encircles the fight to provide the best possible view. On a few occasions the camera gets stuck to an object causing seconds of despair, but it happens rarely enough to avoid a bitter rant. It's a better camera than in Spider-Man, but it's not perfect (and by the way, I have yet to find a camera system that is perfect in any game). After it shows you one side, this simple enough beat-'em-up becomes something else. A "stealth" game. The second level shows you how to take the brawny Conan-like brute, Rau, and transform him into the sleek, stealthy Solid Snake. Rau quickly learns single stealth kills, wall stealth kills, double stealth kills, and more. It's a brawler -- with stealth kills! Then, soon after learning these skills, Rau becomes a masterful archer. He learns to use a bow and arrow, which offers a game mechanic that works extremely well, perhaps better than any bow and arrow set up I've seen before. With the bow he can target an enemy's body or, with skill, the head, dusting him with a single deadly shot.

      After that, Rau learns to perform drop stealth kills, earns another weapon, the sacred Taiaha (a powerful spear), and later, perhaps too much later, he earns himself the all-powerful two-handed axe. With each new item and skill, The Mark of Kri grows deeper, almost entirely stripping itself of the simple premise of being a combo-heavy beat-'em-up. The Mark of Kri is weird at first because it seems like an action-adventure game that should pack bucketfuls of collectible items, secret paths, interactive backgrounds, and stuff of that nature. So, it may seem disappointing at first because there is little in the way of interactivity. But once it gets going, San Diego's Studios' intentions become clearer. Like a good stealth game, The Mark of Kri can be played at least a few ways, stealthily or haphazardly, or a little bit of both. But the more you pay attention to the strategic and stealth aspects of it, the more the game has to offer. In every level, there is at least one divergent path, subtly placed. In each, players can collect a handful of items, including a special scroll that rewards them at the game's end. There are lots of items to unlock, too, ranging from additional outfits, bonus levels (mini fighting games), artwork, and well, more. The Time Challenge (kill nine enemies as fast as possible) and Body Count (slaughter as many enemies as possible within a set time) are good mini-games that open up as rewards, which indirectly build player skills.

      It's hard to ignore the animation. Every single movement of the characters in The Mark of Kri was hand-done and the clean animations and the particular styles are very eye-catching. The characters move with an extremely stylized, strangely bouncy behavior. Its great fun to see an enemy's armor smashed off, piece-by-piece by your axe, or when they show a different death animation, or when they crawl slowly across the landscape gasping for their last breath of air. The animation is the most noticeable aspect of the graphics. While simple, the textures are also elaborately designed and highly stylized. Each character close to Rau is tattooed with a set of Indonesian-style markings. What's more, these same kinds of markings permeate the entire game, sometimes reoccurring in the backgrounds, other times appearing in cut-scenes or loading screens. The characters are well textured, but simply so. Other aspects of the game are intriguing. The landscapes are beautiful, especially the first ones. The New Zealand-like jungles that appear first, followed by the tree forest, caught my eye with their structural layout and living atmosphere. There are also notable special effects such as huge fires, tons of blurring effects, the filter of Kuzo's eye through which players see, great smoke effects, and some nice particle effects, too.

     Perhaps the most unique aspect of the game's visuals, after the animation, is the artistic way in which each aspect of the story is told. Between missions, players watch as a blank parchment page is sketched in, as if stop-motion captured after every few strokes. The drawing unfolds before your eyes, filling with forms, faces, then details, filling, and finally color. Until the entire drawing is complete. Then as you wait for the final seconds of the next mission to load, the picture again transforms, this time from a 2D picture to a 3D scene, in which the drawing comes alive and you can then take control of it and play. This process is a masterful way of telling a story and useful way of filling in load times. In both regards, it provides a window into the artistry behind the game and the painstaking work that went into it. Casting a wide net for its graphic influences, the designers at Sony fished in a slightly smaller pond when they selected the music. What you'll hear is a combination of tribal drumbeats, accompanied by various flutes and horns, creating either two kinds of sounds: ethereal background sounds, or tense, high-powered drumming. What's cool about the music, like many games today, is that it's interactive with the game play. Whether you select a weapon, target an enemy, or are seen by an enemy, the game reacts with sound to your actions. The ambient sounds, especially the water and creature sounds are notable, adding sufficient texture to the game's overall tone.

     One of the best aural aspects in The Mark of Kri is the deep, resonant voice of the narrator, who explains the story, describes Rau's complex odyssey, and lends his wonderfully powerful baritone to the serious tone of the game. It's also a fun little game trying to find out who the narrator is in the game, a question answered at its end.

  

IV.    Conclusion

      As you can tell, I like The Mark of Kri. And in my opinion, it's the best beat-'em-up on the PS2. To be honest, there are few competitors. Its designers are trying to do something better and different in the genre, and for the most part, they succeed. For that, they deserve a lot of credit Rau can spin around with his battle ax and chop a handful of enemies completely in half at once--sending fountains of crimson into the sky. As if chopping bodies in half weren't enough, Rau can always go for the throat and watch the enemy helplessly hold his neck trying to stop the bleeding. With up to nine enemies attacking at once, it's not hard to imagine the carnage that can ensue. Rau will impale enemies with his spear, stick the spear into the ground, and watch the dead body slide down its length. If enemies are crawling on the ground in pain, Rau will run them through and finish them off. The Mark of Kri isn't perfect. The camera isn't always where you want it, the weapon selection system could use some work, the weapon selection itself is small -- and could be much heftier with just one or two more weapons. And the weapons themselves do not have a chance when compared to the mighty axe, once you earn it. Also a co-op mode, a two player or on-line session, and more mini-games would have greatly added to this already excellent game. Perhaps it could have been a little longer, and it certainly, definitely, most assuredly could have used bosses. It's a great selection for your PS2 library, and it's got enough replay value in it to play it at least twice, perhaps even more.

     Perhaps the most unique aspect of the game's visuals, after the animation, is the artistic way in which each aspect of the story is told. Between missions, players watch as a blank parchment page is sketched in, as if stop-motion captured after every few strokes. The drawing unfolds before your eyes, filling with forms, faces, then details, filling, and finally color. Until the entire drawing is complete. Then as you wait for the final seconds of the next mission to load, the picture again transforms, this time from a 2D picture to a 3D scene, in which the drawing comes alive and you can then take control of it and play. This process is a masterful way of telling a story and useful way of filling in load times. In both regards, it provides a window into the artistry behind the game and the painstaking work that went into it. Casting a wide net for its graphic influences, the designers at Sony fished in a slightly smaller pond when they selected the music. What you'll hear is a combination of tribal drumbeats, accompanied by various flutes and horns, creating either two kinds of sounds: ethereal background sounds, or tense, high-powered drumming. What's cool about the music, like many games today, is that it's interactive with the game play. Whether you select a weapon, target an enemy, or are seen by an enemy, the game reacts with sound to your actions. The ambient sounds, especially the water and creature sounds are notable, adding sufficient texture to the game's overall tone.

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