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The Mark of Kri
(Playstation 2)

Rau from The Mark of Kri makes Kratos and Dante look like pansies.

By Zimes

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 can't 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 The Mark of Kri followed by Rise of the Kasai. This review is only for The Mark of Kri since I don't think I have played enough of Rise of the Kasai 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). The Mark of 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 The Mark of Kri, 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.

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.

Story:

The story consists of a legend of a mark. The Mark of Kri 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 The Mark of 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.

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 Kratos (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 Kratos 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...

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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. "Kratos 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 Kratos 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.

"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 The Mark of 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 The Mark of 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 The Mark of 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 Kratos or Dante were in Rau's shoe's in that last level, Kratos 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.

I'm sorry, what was that you said about Kratos 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.

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.

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 can't 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.

Wrapping up:

WELCOME TO MANHOOD

"Now You're A Man" - DVDA - Orgasmo Soundtrack

Look, despite if you like the pansies that were mentioned above or not The Mark of 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 is 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!

"I'm ready for the fisting."

Final: