Azurik: Rise of Perathia Preview
Azurik is a third-person action-adventure game in which you play as a mage who controls the elements. We spent some time with the game at E3 so that we could tell you how it's coming along and what you should expect in the final release.
To explain away Azurik: Rise of Perathia as simply a Soul Reaver clone isn't really fair; but for our purposes, it's the easiest way to illustrate the niche that Adrenium Games and Microsoft are trying to fill in the Xbox lineup. In this third-person action-adventure game, you are Azurik, a young apprentice mage who channels the power of the four elements to defend his world from its enemies. Most of the plot details have yet to be revealed, but essentially the game begins when you learn of a prophecy that foretells of an evil force coming to ravage the four elemental lands. As you learn, the invaders are intent on capturing and controlling the powers of the elements for their own devices. After a brief tutoring from your aged mentor, you're sent out to defend the elements and cleanse the four sacred lands from the clutches of evil.
Azurik's world is divided into four separate lands, each home to one of the four elements (wind, ice, fire and earth, respectively). These lands are massive, and to make progress through them requires a lot of backtracking and puzzle solving. Notably, each world is a continuous section, divided only by occasional "choke points" or doors that can only be opened after Azurik has completed specific objectives. The four environments are so large that their environments vary within themselves. The Water Land, for example, features arctic caverns with icy overpasses (which use transparencies to enhance the effect) before transforming into watery oceanic caverns (with several islands dotting an underground lake). Later on, the water world changes again into a lush jungle scene--we saw all this after just ten minutes of exploration. The other elemental lands promise to be just as varied. While your overall progression through each level is linear, the lands in Azurik are so large that you'll often find multiple paths that lead to the same destination. Like in other third-person adventures like Tomb Raider, Soul Reaver, or Drakkan, exploration is just as integral to the gameplay as killing enemies and solving puzzles. Adrenium rewards the curious player with power-ups that can extend Azurik's life or strengthen his attacks.
Gameplay in Azurik is divided between battles with creatures that will attack you from ground, air, and occasionally water, and the aforementioned exploration and puzzle solving. When it comes to the melee, you'll defend and attack your foes by mixing and matching the powers of the four elements through your powerfully oversized wand (which looks a bit like those jousting sticks used in American Gladiators). The four jewel buttons on the controller each represent an element. Hit the correct button combination, and you can mix wind and ice into a furious blizzard that quickly douses any fire-based enemies in your path. Similarly, a couple of button presses lets you freeze the ends of your wand into sharp points, while another combination creates burning torches, with which you can toss fireballs at your foes. Adrenium claims there are more than a dozen specific types of attacks possible with the right combination and that each of the many enemies you encounter will be vulnerable to a specific elemental combination (though, trying to find what works will be easier said than done).
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- GameSpot Score5.0mediocre
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Azurik: Rise of Perathia Movie 5
Azurik puts out a fire in this movie.
- Dec 3, 2001
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Images
- Microsoft Game Studios
- Adrenium
- Fantasy Action Adventure
- Release: Nov 25, 2001
- ESRB: Teen
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