Azurik: Rise of Perathia

Xbox Exclusive

It may be a bit strange to handle at first, but once you get the feel of it, Azurik will astound you time and time again with it's lush graphics, wonderful sound, and massive environments.

GameSpy

Power through some early dullness and potential confusion, and you'll find a grand adventure in a rich and colorful game world.

GamerWeb Xbox

The game demands a certain passion for the action/adventure genre, old and new and school alike. It also requires some time, some patience, and then some more time.

Team Xbox

For anyone who played the game for an hour and says it’s no good should put a little more effort into the game because that is what the game is all about. If you expect to get anywhere in a short amount of time you can forget about it.

Media and Games Online Network

Overall Azurik whilst not setting the genre on fire with innovation remains still a good adventure game with an RPG style.

IGN

In spite of all the things that work well in Azurik (level of detail, plot, saving mechanism) there are too many things (enemy animation, level design) about the game that fall short of what we should expect from an action adventure game on the Xbox.

Gamezilla!

The plot was as dry as the Sahara desert, the graphics were weak, and the controls were downright comical.

Electric Playground

Azurik does not have huge flaws that bring it down. It's a lot of little things that just don't add up to a sum I like.

G4 TV

Truly stunning visuals, excellent, non-linear map design, hours of playtime, and an innovative magic system help bring it up a notch above the competition. Unfortunately, the control problems, a few technical glitches, a slow start, and a lousy camera hamper the experience.

GamePro

The main problem is that you will roam freely to the point that you’ll wander around, trying to figure out what to do for much of the game because your goals are not laid out in a clear and linear direction.

Adrenaline Vault

If flawed controls don't kill the experience for you -- and as a plaform jumping, blade wielding title they certainly do affect the quality of gameplay -- then the constant backtracking and key hunting will eventually drive you to the point of distraction.

All Game Guide

Little more than an epic scavenger hunt through vast and varied worlds.

GameShark

The game doesn't look anywhere near Xbox quality, and trying to perform some simple tasks like jumping a platform or climbing a rock may take several tries because our hero can't latch onto them on the first try.

GamePen

Choppy and stiff animations, unexplained frame-rate drops, pop-up when you come around corners and clumsy controls are the first things you are greeted with when you first start.

Four Fat Chicks

Had the camera views been acceptable, I guess I could have recommended this title to those who care not about plot but love fabulous graphics, unusual monsters, and very basic, predictable, repetitive slash combat.

GameSpot

Every system has its share of dogs, and like a painter writing off bad paintings for being "good to get them out of your system," it's good for the Xbox to get this one out of the way early.

Game Informer

Just about everything about the playcontrol is cumbersome. [Feb 2002, p.91]

Game Revolution

What really puts the hurt on this game is the lack of any real challenge or fun.

Play Magazine

It’s also home to some of the most pathetic voice acting I’ve ever heard. [Feb 2002, p.59]

Yahoo! Games

For every imaginative, interesting and appealing puzzle, there's one long, drawn out, dull key hunt. For every awe-inspiring graphical vista, there's a boring, black, featureless tunnel. For every sparsely spread save point, there's a (or rather, many) long plummets to unexpected insta-death.

Electronic Gaming Monthly

It’s hard to take a game seriously whose hero looks like a plastic, blue Reboot reject. I think Paul Reubens would have been more believable. [Feb 2002, p.164]

Official Xbox Magazine

This game drops the ball in every conceivable way, providing a wholly lackluster experience. [Feb 2002, p.74]

XenGamers

After only a few seconds gamers will realize that the vilest foes in Perathia are amateurish graphics and formulaic gameplay.

Gaming Age

Not that Azurik is the most painful experience I’ve encountered, but the game offers nothing new to the genre, and seemingly borrowed everything from elsewhere. The pain is there though, believe me.

Xbox Nation Magazine

Sports one of the most mind-numbingly frustrating camera systems in recent memory. [Spring 2002, p.92]

TotalGames.net

There is nothing in this game which stands out to make it playable; not in the story, nor the gameplay, nor the graphics, and the vast majority of it is poorly thought out, second hand, uninteresting and redundant drivel.