Way of the Samurai

October 04, 2002

Reviewed by: Rock_On

PLOT/STORY/GAMEPLAY/CONTROL:
.The story is nothing more than shitty, revolving around enemy clans trying to take over the Mejei Government, and you can choose one of four Samurais to fight with a clan in feudal Japan.

Sounds pretty corny, eh? Well I thought it would be cool, but Bam! Entertainment(also the developers of Driven, go figure) absolutely ruined it.

The game wasn't very strong on the story, so don’t expect to be involved in a gripping story or anything(in fact, don’t plan on being involved in anything related to this game). As you traverse the Rokkotsu Pass, you’ll encounter various Samurais from different Clans that depending on if you win or lose in a battle with them, will accept defeat and ask you to join their clan or will do something to you like tie you up on the train tracks or something. In fact, a majority of the game moves along by talking to different people and depending on what you say, will affect the outcome of something that’ll happen next.

In fact, there are a variety of paths and sides you can take in this game depending on how you answer people and who you win and lose to. For instance, depending on how you act, different clans will ask you to join them. Of course if you join and change your mind you can always betray them and start fighting them instead.

Anyway, since you’re a Samurai, that means you study the art of sword fighting. Well if they could get the fighting system right, then it might be a fun game to play, but with the sloppy controls and poor reaction time decreasing the game play, they need a little help on fighting.

When a battle initiates, you can draw your sword, and start fighting. In the beginning of the game when you’re first learning sword techniques the enemies aren’t very skilled and so it gives you the perfect chance to learn new moves by using different button combinations with the D-Pad. There are lots of techniques to learn, including the use of blocking attacks with your sword, and these little techniques called off-balance and learning the habits of your enemies. Off-balance techniques allow you to do some fancy pushin’ and shovin’ to keep your Samurai a$$ alive(you’ll learn them in the game), and the technique of learning your enemies habits just comes with time of playing the game.

Personally, the fighting system can be “in-depth” at times, but aside from the major fights with strong people, the regular chums, you come across during the game are the basic “1-2-3” hack n’ slash type thing. This is partly the reason I didn’t like the game, because it ragged on and on and on with boring cut-scenes where people’s lips would move, the message box would come up, but there wouldn’t be any voices. Also the controls is horrible. Trying to control the camera is like taming a snail to run 10 mph, which isn’t fun when you’re in the midst of a word fight. The controls were also un-responsive at times, and it really is noticeable.

Since you’re a Samurai and are a master at swords, you can get different swords after enemies drop them when they die and also from a blacksmith. You can only carry two swords at a time while you’re in the game, and only one can be equipped at a time(I think it’d be cool to have added the ability to equip a sword to each hand, sort of like when Anakin was fighting with the two light sabers before Yoda comes in and kicks a$$ in Episode II). On your HUD(Heads Up Display) you’ve got two meters; your life meter and your sword meter. You obviously want to watch out for your life meter and don’t let it drop to zero, and your sword meter decides the hardness of the sword until it’s about to break, which then you’ll have to fight like a thief(short dagger, Way of the Thief).

GRAPHICS:
Way of the Samurai is definitely not a game to be showing off your PS2 with as the graphics are absolutely horrible. The frame rate is horrendous and often dropped below a playable level, the environments are choppy and you can see the lines as the pixels try to keep a constant environment. For a game to be rated “M” for blood and gore, there sure isn’t much of it as each slash drops a couple drips of blood, nothing that a game should be rated “M” over.

Adding to the bad frame rate and choppy graphics(mostly seen in the environments) would be the blocky and UN-smooth looking characters that move like robots. The game is playable without paying attention to the graphics, but eventually you’ll get tired of the choppiness. This game needed a bunch more work at smoothing out some (a lot) of the character textures and a ton of touch-up on the environments.

SOUND:
“Aieee, Shee Naw!”. There isn’t much in this department. Virtually there’s no music, just a little Japanese song going on in the background and the sound effects which include swords clashing, blood squishing, body kicking, screams, and other sounds someone who’s getting stuck with a 3 foot sword would emit.

Rocky’s Corner:
I was a bit disappointed in Way of the Samurai, and I can only recommend it as a rental as it is WAY to short to warrant the waste of your money. The graphics are choppy, controls are sluggish and at times( the whole game) un-responsive, there hardly is no sound, and it was a rushed product overall.