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BRUCE LEE: QUEST OF THE DRAGON (XBOX)
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Publisher: Universal Interactive.
Developer: Ronin Entertainment. Released: September 2002 (Europe). Genre: Beat 'em up. Posted 11th July 2020. By Shane Battams © 2020 |
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Perhaps the most influential martial arts star in history, Bruce Lee’s impact would be felt for years after his death, changing the landscape of combat, and how Hollywood portrayed it. Unfortunately, he also stars posthumously in Quest of the Dragon, one of the most inept beat ‘em ups to come from the sixth gen of consoles. Bereft of quality in almost every area, Ronin Entertainment would let loose one of the shortest, ugliest and poorest games for the Xbox, and it’s not even so bad as to deliver moments of unintended comedy. Instead, it effectively defecates on the legacy of its titular hero and is not worth any player’s time.
From the moment you land your first punch, you can tell something went very badly wrong with the development of Quest of the Dragon. As you guide Lee through several stages, goons often come in numbers and must be dispatched. You can punch, kick and block as well as mixing them to create combos, and you can also activate Dragon Power to boost attack potency. Unfortunately, combat is undone by a multitude of crippling flaws. The lock-on is painful, often seeing you skimming straight past foes despite targeting them. The camera regularly causes trouble, with environmental objects obscuring your vision and zooming in too close, seeing you take attacks from off-screen opponents. The A.I. is awkward to fight, swinging between docile and aggressive while showing an irritating tendency to quickly slide away from you, making hits connect even harder. It’s repetitive, unfulfilling and sometimes barely functions, making for poor action.
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You're far better off having a night in with Enter the Dragon or Fist of Fury, than playing this sorry mess
With the core gameplay being so bad, surface elements fail to rescue the experience. The story is a bore, seeing you hunting down Lee’s father who has been kidnapped by a crime organisation along with the monastery’s relic, with obvious twists and a ton of really awkward moments that fail to compel you to the end. Between brawls, you can break objects to find recovery items, but the path is so linear and obvious this doesn’t add anything. Bosses slightly change things, turning the game into something akin to a 1v1 fighter, but the gameplay mechanics are unchanged, meaning it still sucks. Between levels, you can spend coins on upgrading your stats, buying new moves and increasing your ranking, which in turn unlocks more purchases, but there’s little reason to see these upgrades through to the end, with special moves not making much of a dent into anything. You can also freely practice, and once you complete the four-hour campaign – yes, you heard right – Bruce’s challenges unlock, offering a few slight variations on the same 1v1 encounter. It all fails to add much.
Despite releasing on the powerful Xbox, Quest for the Dragon is one of the worst looking games of its generation. Characters look borderline hideous, with even the digital recreation of Lee looking subpar, with tons of rough edges and wonky texturing. The environments suffer this same fate too. Animations are stilted and cutscene movements somehow look even worse. Despite this ugliness, the frame rate is often inconsistent, ranging between a full 60fps to sub-30fps, creating a choppy appearance. Somehow, the sound is even more woeful. The voice acting is abysmal, with canned lines and terrible accents polluting an already-unremarkable story. The music is so nondescript, you’ll think the tracks are on mute. The effects are poor, with perhaps the only highlight being some acceptable recreations of Bruce Lee’s combat sounds.
Despite releasing on the powerful Xbox, Quest for the Dragon is one of the worst looking games of its generation. Characters look borderline hideous, with even the digital recreation of Lee looking subpar, with tons of rough edges and wonky texturing. The environments suffer this same fate too. Animations are stilted and cutscene movements somehow look even worse. Despite this ugliness, the frame rate is often inconsistent, ranging between a full 60fps to sub-30fps, creating a choppy appearance. Somehow, the sound is even more woeful. The voice acting is abysmal, with canned lines and terrible accents polluting an already-unremarkable story. The music is so nondescript, you’ll think the tracks are on mute. The effects are poor, with perhaps the only highlight being some acceptable recreations of Bruce Lee’s combat sounds.
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A stain on the legacy of a martial arts icon, Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon is a terrible experience. From its extremely poor combat, complete lack of depth and total technical ineptitude, you’ll wonder how quickly this was cobbled together. Add a lame story, a lack of genuine challenge and little incentive to return, and it sits close to the bottom of the pile as one of the Xbox’s worst games. It doesn’t even offer the consolation of unintentional hilarity, bar a few strange moments during the story. Even taking into account the game’s brevity, it feels as though the time drags as you muster the courage to work your way through. Even Lee aficionados should give this one a wide berth, lest you waste your time and money.
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VERDICT
"A stain on the legacy of a martial arts icon... Even Bruce Lee aficionados should give this one a wide berth, lest you waste your time and money." OVERALL: 2/10 |