Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

Written by Bryan Montford  on February 05, 2004

Full Review: An astoundingly beautiful movie - an amazingly dull game.

Tweet

Comments

In ancient China it was believed that there is a natural balance to all things. Ultimately harmony prevails and any evil is countered in some way by good. The game and movie seem to support this ideology. Yin is the movie: Nearly flawless in its beauty, and its depths profound. Yang is the video game: Fatally flawed, ugly, and flat as a two-dimensional pancake.

Such is often the story of movies gone video game. This title does nothing to question that the adage is a myth, but instead reinforces the concept. Underlining it with a big, red sharpie marker.

I loved the movie even though I'm not a huge kung-fu flick guy. The subtlety, cinematics, story, music, and atmosphere were mesmerizing. Near the end I almost cried. (I can be a little emotional at times. What? Don't look at me like that!) I connected with the characters and felt their heart-rending turmoil. But I never got that sort of feeling with the game. True, I almost cried. But it was at the beginning, and truthfully I never finished it.

I feel a certain duty writing reviews. You do it right or you don't do it at all. Doing it right means playing the game, all of it. Sometimes it's not possible, sometimes not practical. In this instance, well, I just couldn't do itЕ

So what caused so much unpleasantness for me? Games are about gameplay, and this has very poor gameplay. The camera is bad, the controls are not intuitive, the story is dull, the puzzles are repetitive, the fighting is repetitive, the sounds are repetitive, and the repetitiveness of it all is ultimately very, very repetitive. The main character models are pretty good and the use of some music from the movie is very nice. But all in all the rest just flops.

If you really loved the movie, by all means rent the game. I might even suggest buying it if you're a very hardcore fan, but only for the aspect of adding it to your collection of movie related memorabilia. For anyone else I have trouble even mentioning the title, and that's such a shame. First and foremost, the movie is excellent and the game represents it poorly. Secondly because Ubi is a very good company, and this game is a poor reflection on them and Genki too.