Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Underappreciated"

Mark of Kri is an interesting variation on the stealth-action genre. A massive barbarian warrior who is trained to take on multiple foes at once with a large sword, staff and axe surely sounds like the protagonist of an an action game. A stealth barbarian? First time I've heard of it. Like Solid Snake you're the ultimate warrior but you can make your life a lot easier by sneaking around and picking off enemies one by one with stealth kills and arrows.

Contra Gamespot, I consider the stealth aspects to be where the game shines more than its action. At first taking on multiple foes at once is suitably visceral and satisfying experience but by the last mission you're likely to be tired of lopping off heads and limbs. The stealth parts are perfectly intuitive, work well, and if you get caught it's a good excuse for said barbarian brutality. In my opinion, it added a level of immersiveness to be able to decide how to tackle a mission. I think it's been of benefit to the action genre to add stealth mechanics because it's always been implausible in action games that every enemy automatically knows that you're there through some mystical sixth sense.

But to me where the game really shines is its aesthetic choices. A frequent complaint I find with modern games is that they're "made to order." With larger budgets and corporate consolidation comes a dwindling of imagination and freedom that was present earlier in the gaming industry. With Mark of Kri, however, it's clearly based on an Asian aesthetic which distinguishes it from any other stealth-action game I can think of. The hand-drawn cutscenes, which are drawn as the cutscene unfolds, were distinctive and visually superb. The storyline and the atmosphere were also more akin to an Asian natural environment and although the game isn't flashy it has a sense of substantiveness to it. Like it's a world that hasn't been reiterated in every game of that genre ad infinitum. Why do so many developers insist on designing tankers, warehouses, military bases, and apartment blocks? Don't they have anything more exciting or visually pleasing to draw?

If there's a criticism to be made, it's that Mark of Kri is fundamentally not anything new, and doesn't excel as a stealth or an action game. But to my mind, it was a hell of a lot better in the gameplay department than Metal Gear Solid 2. I recommend hunting it down.