The Mark of Kri

Here are the Mark of Kri pics you will see in the review

the rest are in order of how they will be placed through out the review

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That pic looks like your barbarian guy is killing Kratos. How does Katt Williams play into the game i'm dying to know.

here is another pic for either the rotating banner or the top of the page

I think I have come up with my little headline:

Come find out why Dante and Krotos are pussies. . .

I will have the review of MotK up tomorrow.

YAAAAAAAAY

Zimes!! This review looks fun. I will check back tomorrow night to make sure you really did post it.

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Mark of the Kri (PS2, 2002)

Alright, alright, I know I have been slacking in my reviews and not putting them out as often as you guys would like but a few things keep me from writing them. Namely my job and my family but I can at least write in between cant I? If you follow the forums at all I have been saying that I would write a review of one of my favorite ps2 game series Mark of the Kri followed by Rise of the Kasai. This review is only for MotK since I don’t think I have played enough of RotK to remark on its story line.

Now as far as games go you have First person shooters (FPS Halo), role playing games (RPG Final Fantasy Series), Action Adventure (Mario galaxy), Real time strategy (RTS Starcraft), and my personal favorite hack and slash (God of war, Devil May cry). Mark of the Kri is one of the best and underrated hack and slash games out there. I hope that I can write this review in such a light that it will get you (the reader) interested in it enough to play and hopefully own the game.

Now to help with this I will be matching popular hack and slash main characters (from here on out calling them pussies) to the main character of MotK, Rau. The only character in existence that could shame Rau would be Conan. I respectfully bow to Conan as being head of the Hack and slash bad ass but, strongly argue that Rau is the second choice.

--Conan pic here--
No one in their right mind would claim the title of bad ass over Conan!

Now, if you were expecting the game to be more graphically advanced than those of God of War of even the Devil may cry series you will be disappointed. The game is cartoonish but not so much that it is not believable. It actually gives the game more depth as the story goes and you feel more like this is a legend that you are playing not just some hero.

--the drawing pic here--

Story:

The story consists of a legend of a mark. The mark of the Kri which is an evil spell that will link the world to a dark, demented, and evil realm. This mark unfortunately could not be destroyed. Whenever a piece of this mark would be destroyed it would manifest itself on a new born baby. This world forgot about this powerful spell and now Rau must now fight for the world and defend it against those that would use this spell.

Now with any good story there must be a narrator. The Narrator is the spirit guild through Mark of the Kri and tells the story very well of Rau and how he became to be what he is. He speaks about how Rau was trained, how he loves to fight, how he is favored among the townsfolk, and most importantly about how he successfully dispatches the many enemies he faces.

--Mercy kill pic here--
This is how I show mercy!

The story is just part of the game but, when you start playing Rau you find out just how badass he is. Just with any hack and slash game you get the very basic weapon: the sword (except for Krotos (God of War), the pussy gets chained blades from a god). And fortunately for you there just happened to be some robbers in the area. Its time for you to go to work. Rau has been dying to actually use his skills rather than train over and over.

Now, if you want you can go into the camp, announce your arrival, and commence beating the crap out of everyone there and walk out with the robbers heads on a post letting you know that no one f***s with you. Or, you could sneak in, tack people to the wall, take the robbers weapon and use it against them, or decapitate the enemy without them ever seeing you. Just in the amount of violence that Rau does in the first level UNARMED makes Dante and Krotos both look bitches. Are you mad that I am calling out these guys? Tell me one time, JUST one time that either of these two pansies fight bare handed, take weapons from the enemy and use the weapon against the owner, or sneak up behind someone and tack them up to a wall and I will lay off. Its o.k., I'll wait. . . . .


--Katt williams--
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.
.
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.
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That’s what I thought. Until then they are both wussies.

Now, I am not saying that they can not dispatch their enemies in awesome ways, I’m just saying that Rau does it better. "Krotos can take on gods, goddesses, and Titans. What can Rau do?" Take on the same and Necromancers and doing it all where he can dispatch enemies with more gore and loose limbs flying all over the place. Really, any one of these characters can put an over-grown dagger in an eye of a Cyclops but, can Krotos and Dante remove limbs, heads or torsos from their enemies? Not that I have seen. "Dante takes on the underworld and makes sure that no daemon gets to our world. What can Rau do?" True, Rau never went to the underworld to take on daemons but, if he did, he would not need daemon powers to do so. He would kill them by his own skill and power and not need daemon power to defeat his enemies.

--DMC pic here--
"Whah, I can’t beat the daemon on my own so I got to use daemon power" . . . pussy.

Gameplay:

Just like any hack and slash game the Gameplay is awesome. You can go though Mark of the Kri by just mashing buttons (to a point) but, you will have to develop some skill on how to dispatch your enemies quickly in order to progress further in the game. There are no levels to gain but there are health bonuses to find and mini games and trials to unlock. You also get more weapons at Mark of the Kri progresses and the best thing is that you can interchange the weapon at any time you need to and that includes going bare fisted.

The targeting system here is great. While you move with your left analog stick, you can take your right stick and do a quick sweep of the battle field. Depending on the weapon you have equipped depends on how many targets you can acquire with the sweep. You can have as little as 3 (sword) or as many as 9 (axe) when you do your target lock. Also when targeting your enemy with the bow and arrow you can choose to make your target suffer or shoot him in the eye and end his life quickly.

As the story progresses the game gets harder and harder. If you do not develop the skill of successfully dispatching your enemy you will not make it. But, as the legend continues you find that you are guarding an ancient symbol that is called Mark of the Kri. This mark is put on different places and people and if put together the undead will take over. It turns out that your sister has part of this mark on her and it so happens that she is the last piece of the Mark needed to open this portal.

The last level is all gore. You must fight the legions of the undead to get to the necromancer. Of course the dead do not care if they are missing limbs but it’s kind of hard to fight you when you not only decapitate them but, cut their legs out from under them, chop off their torso, or take off their arms all in one swift move. Being a true barbarian he makes sure that the necromancer does not live to see another day after you have fought his army. If Krotos or Dante were in Rau's shoe's in that last level, Krotos would have found some bitch to screw while the necromancer ended the world and Dante would be stuck at the first daemon trying to convince it of how beautiful he looks. Boys, leave the pussies alone and play a real mans game.

--Wall tack here--
I’m sorry, what was that you said about Krotos being a bad ass? He can’t do this can he?

Weapons:

Near the end you end up having all the weapons. The Sword, Bow and Arrow, Taiaha (spear), and Halberd axe. Now when I found out that I was getting a spear to fight with I thought it was a bad weapon, until I picked up a guy with the point of my spear and watched him slowly impale himself on it when I put it perpendicular to the ground. I also thought I would get the axe sooner than I did although I did like when the enemies had it because it made a hard enemy very easy to beat when I took it from them and put it in their neck.

--Sliding down the pole--
It's my spear, you can't have!

The Sword: It is your basic weapon and deals decent damage. You can swing this thing pretty fast and it acts great for silently dispatching enemies by lobbing off the head or tacking them to a wall. If you get the button sequence down you can end up taking heads off or removing limbs from your opponents. The target tracking in this makes sure that you are facing and attacking your enemy, even if he is off screen.

The Bow and arrow: You do have a limit to how much ammo you have. The aim with this thing is great since it will give you a flashing icon when you have someone targeted and it will give you a solid icon when you have a head shot. You can also use this as a distraction so shoot bells to get your enemies to focus their attention somewhere else so you can easily kill them.

The Taiaha: This ended up being my favorite weapon of the game. It is quick and I can have double the targets of the sword (6). Although I really only target one so I can get the combos to really fly. Unfortunately you do not get to see any decapitations or removal of limbs although there are some great moves that involves impaling or stealth moves that end up with the enemy on the ground and the point of the spear in the enemies throat.

The Halberd Axe: This is what you SHOULD be able to do in World of Warcraft. Really this weapon is awesome at mangling enemies. Once you get this thing swinging you really do some awesome moves with this that gives you a wide area around you to keep swinging. If any enemy is stupid enough to try and attack you while in the middle of the swing they literally find themselves in two places at the same time. your poor target will not last long when blocking since your moves will break their weapons once you get the momentum up and if you get the combo right, you can remove their legs, at least one arm, torso, and head.

--Krotos look alike head removal--
Now you have a head, soon you won’t

Bare Hands: Rau is so bad ass that he can use his hands to dispatch his enemies. Now when he does not have weapons in his hands that usually mean that he is sneaking around and will snap someone’s neck but, in the case that you get surprised and cant draw your weapon in time or you actually want to fight bare handed (which most cases I do) you can take the weapon that they are using and use it against them. If you take a dagger from an enemy, you will end up tossing it back at them making sure that it sticks out of their throat. If you take a spear from them you will leave them watching the ground slowly get closer to them as they impale themselves with their own weight. And if you take an axe from them you will return it to them by cleaving it into their shoulder right next to the neck.

Wraping up:

Look, despite if you like the pansies that were mentioned above or not Mark of the Kri is a title that has aged well and that probably gave birth to most of the things you do now in Devil May Cry and definitely a base on which all of God of War has been built on. This game was under marketed but, people that went out on a limb on this were not disappointed. This game got an "M" rating for the gore and there is plenty of it. It did not get it because some dumb programmer can’t keep his dick in his pants and wanted to put porn into the game. And it did not get the rating for mouthing off when action is needed. This game is a must have for the strategists and the brawler. Do yourself a favor and pick this up!

--GoW pic--
"I’m ready for the fisting."


Final:

Graphics: now take in mind MotK came out in 2002 and RotK came out 2005 but, while they were made back then and because they did more of a drawing type animation the graphics don’t take a hit. So when you start this game up on your ps2 you can actually think that this is a new game rather than it coming out 7 years prior. 8.5

Sound: The music was great and every time that you needed to do stealth the music would automatically fade so you could hear what is going on. 8.5

Gameplay: Its hack and slash with so much gore it gave a cartoon based graphic game a rating of "M" what the f*** more do you want? Gameplay is excellent with nothing out of place and very easy to swap weapons when needed. 9.5

Story: original, exciting, and the narrator help keep the essence of the game alive. 9

Replay value: excellent. Can’t tell you how many times I pick the game back up just to put my axe into one of the mobs in the first level. I would pick it up more often if my little kids were not around. 9.5

Overall: 9. the game is dated, not the blood and gore. This is a must have for anyone wanting a lot of blood and gore with a good story line. Pick up Mark of the Kri and learn how to dispatch your pixel enemy like a real man.




welcome to manhood

Hate to be the English teacher but you have a couple grammar errors you should clean up before it is posted.

booo! I was hoping Katt would have been in a pimp joke or something.

Is there any place to buy this game? I am a sucker for barbarian action games. I even bought that really bad Age of Conan game.

its ok, my English is terrible but what was wrong with the sentence?

you can get it off of Amazon I beileve
http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Kri-Playstat ... 838&sr=8-1

while you are at it get rise of the kasai.

I think he's having a problem figuring out what it means. I am too:
Yeah no one in their right mind would call bad ass over Conan! ???

You mean like: Yeah no one in their right mind would be called a bad ass over Conan!

or Yeah no one in their right mind would call, "bad ass!" over Conan! ??