Review
When I first started playing Azurik, after the opening intro, I thought to myself, "Oh crap!!, it`s another Turok Dinosaur Hunter game! Boy, was I wrong. As I played further into the game I found myself falling completely in love with this game. It is just truly amazing.
You start out with practically nothing, save your Axion, and are thrust into the Water Realm. At first the camera takes a lot of getting used to, but with a little practice you master your own views. This is a plus to me because it gives you the feeling of complete control of your game.
You find Gems, Obsidians, Keys, Disk Fragments, and Powers on your journeys as well as acquiring health and fuel cells to replenish yourself and your Axion powers. Azurik walks, runs, jumps slightly, and in general does what most characters do in any other game.
Instead of magic, you acquire powers which you affix to your Axion to produce certain results or defeat enemies more easily. I like it because it is simple and to the point without an excess of button presses. One other feature I do like is the ability to quickly readjust the camera view in front of you with a simple right trigger pull, especially if an enemy is beating on you and you want a better angle.
Since Azurik has different Elemental Realms to visit, there is a diversity in the graphics too. At one point you are in an ice area with the steam flowing from Azuriks breath, and at another point you are deep underground surrounded by the flow of lava. The graphics in this game are awesome!!
Another part of this game I love is the action/reaction scenes. There is a plethora of mechanical devices in this game in which you have to get keys or perform some type of action to trigger and they are some of the most imaginative devices I have ever seen in a game. Sort of like Turok meets Myst.....but this game is much different and far exceeds both.
Okay, here is the good and bad of it.
The Good:
The graphics in this game are killer and you will never be bored by the scenery.
The Ice Realm is especially well done with its mesmerizing reflections and crystalline color blends.
The lava flowing in the Fire Realm looks deadly hot, (which in fact it is), and almost makes your skin crawl watching it.
The people at Adrenium are to be commended for the amount of detail and work that obviously went into the construction of these environments.
The music fits the quest nicely with its orchestrated ambiance and the grunts and groans of the enemies in the distance add a degree of suspense and tension to the atmosphere. But on the other hand, at times it is repetative and sparse.
The control is more than adequate and this certainly helps as there is a lot of platform hopping and precision hang gliding, (courtesy your Air Power),involved in certain areas of your quest.
Is this a hard game?.....You bet your Azz it is! You will die many deaths in your quest to save Perathia and become frustrated at times because of the difficulty. You will scream, kick, cuss, and throw a tantrum, and maybe even swing your pet cat "Morris" by the tail in anguish...... but you will never want to give in and quit because this game is that addicting. This adventure is gigantic and may take you several weeks to finish, or maybe even months.
The Bad:
I really do hate the fact that after saving and then getting killed, or starting again the next day, all the enemies return and you have to keep starting all over with them again. Sometimes the enemies are right there at the save platform beating on you before you even have a chance to get started again. It would have been much more enjoyable if the dead enemies stayed that way. But on the other hand it makes for a more challenging game and a longer quest.
After a while your quest gets kinda lonely. The people in town only throw 1 liners at you and they all say basically the same thing. There is no interaction between you and anyone. Maybe in the future, if there is an Azurik sequel that is, a beautiful babe companion will be included. One can only wish.
I love the difficulty in this game but if I hear Eldwyn tell me to "Press the A button to continue your quest" once more, I'm gonna strangle his feeble ass! Wish there was a way to turn his voice off.
And last but not least, when you get to the Life Realm at the end you have to aim a laser cannon and shoot the filaments out of the core of moving sattelites. This part of the game is totally frustrating and it may take you hours, or even days to complete. I really do wish that they had forsaken this part of the game in favor of something else more interesting.
That`s it!.......Now for the score.
A must buy for every Adventure/Action/Fantasy enthusiast.
