Summary Rayman returns and better

Pros: * Nice graphics * Simple, intuitive and fun gameplay * Variety of environments
Cons: Why don't you tell me?

Reviewer's Comments

When Rayman 2 came out, I had already been a Rayman fanatic, but I was rather hesitant to play the sequel, knowing that it’s a three-dimensional game this time. Back then it was the trend to release sequels to popular platform games in 3D, and quite a few of those turned out to be real duds (for examples you can check out Prince of Persia 3D, which came out just before Rayman 2, and Earthworm Jim 3D, which came out a while later).

But being the fan I am, I had to give the game a shot, and I never regretted doing so. “Rayman 2: The Great Escape” turned out as fantastic an experience as the original Rayman was, maybe even better.

Traditionally, let’s start with the story. In a good action game, the story plays a rather marginal role, so let’s get it out of the way. The evil Admiral Razorbeard (a mechanical duck of some sort) and his army of evil Robo-pirates are attacking Rayman’s world, capturing all of its inhabitants and holding them prisoners in their huge flying pirate ship. Rayman must once again save the day, only he is captured too, so first he must escape the pirate ship. Hence the name, “The Great Escape”.

In reality, this “Great Escape” ends before level 1 begins. Yep, you heard me. It all comes down to Rayman and his friend Globox sliding down a tube in the pirate ship and falling down to earth. The fall is long and nasty, but our friends survive; only now Globox is lost, and Rayman goes on alone.

The synopsis of the story is quite simple. Rayman’s first task is to find Ly the fairy, who will explain the situation to him. It turns out that to save the world from the pirates Rayman (that is you) must awaken Polokus, the spirit of the world. To do so, he will have to find four magical masks, scattered in four God-forsaken places. Once Polokus is awoken, he will defeat the pirates, but it will be up to Rayman to face Admiral Razorbeard in a final showdown.

During this quest, you will have to beat many levels (a total of 19 in the game), fight various enemies (mostly Robo-pirates) and collect yellow lums. The lums are little flying glittering thingies, which, according to the story, composed The Heart of the World, until it was shattered to 1000 pieces by the evil pirates. As you probably guessed, it means that there are a total of 1000 lums in the game, usually around 50 in each level. While you don’t have to collect them all, you will need to collect at least some of them to be able to advance beyond certain points, but it poses no problem, as they are very, very hard to miss. The majority of them are on your direct path through the levels, and only a few are hidden.

Rayman’s friends will help him throughout the game. Ly the fairy will grant him newer powers as the game progresses, in a similar manner to Rayman 1. At some point Rayman will be briefly reunited with Globox, who will help him through some tough spots. And there are some more friends. All the time, however, you keep control of Rayman and Rayman alone – you can interact with other characters, but you can never control them.

Those who played the first game will remember the cages that Rayman had to break and how hard it was sometimes to find them. Well, the cages are back, but this time they play a different role. There are a total of 80 cages, and each tenth cage you free increases Rayman’s life bar. This means, you don’t have to locate and find all cages to beat the game, but if you do, your battles with the baddies may become easier.

Like most action games, the game is very linear. You advance from one level to the next, and you have to beat a level before you can go on. However, just like in the first Rayman, you can revisit levels you’ve been to. In some cases it’s necessary to progress, but most of the time you can do it just to grab lums or cages you missed, should you want to.

What makes the game fun is the variety of the gameplay. In the first game, all you had to do was run, jump, climb, slide, shoot and occasionally ride a moving platform. Here you do all that in 3D, which naturally adds more freedom, but you also get various activities you didn’t experience in the first, like water-skiing attached to a snake, riding a shell (basically a horse) or navigating a pirate ship. And you also get a share of “boss” battles, right up to the final encounter with Razorbeard. There are also a few bonus levels where you can race against time or against a pirate, for prizes like lums, health bar recharges or more powerful fists.

All in all, these little varieties will prevent you from getting bored quickly, and the difficulty level is adjusted rather well – it’s not too easy, but it isn’t frustratingly difficult – something that Rayman 1 was quite famous for.

The replay value of the game is, sadly, lower than it could be. After you collect lums and cages, they don’t reappear. Neither do the bosses you beat or any other special events that you experience on your first run through. This means, that while you can replay levels over and over, some of them will feel rather dull and empty after the first time. Of course, if you missed some lums, you can go back to collect them, but after you find all 1000 of them, and all 80 cages (which isn’t hard at all, actually) – there really isn’t much else to do. You can restart the game from scratch, but it will be exactly the same, only the challenges will all of a sudden seem very mild.

At the time of its release, the game’s graphics were nothing short of astounding: colorful environments, from green forests, through underwater tunnels all the way to lava pits, all beautifully detailed. There is a catch, though – the PC version of the game seems to conflict with way too many video cards, which can lead to the game becoming virtually unplayable. Drivers sometimes help, sometimes don’t, and it seems that the game works best with original 3DFX cards, because the graphical engine was especially adjusted to them. However, since I am reviewing the game, as it is on the different platforms and not the technical aspects of the PC version, I’m willing to give the graphics a perfect score.

The sound and music are good, although nothing extraordinary I’d say. What seems to get on the nerves of some people is that the characters talk gibberish, and only the written subtitles disclose the true meaning of their words. I, however, absolutely loved this idea. After all – why would the creatures in Rayman’s world talk English, or French, or Russian, or anything else for that matter?

An action game review cannot be complete without mentioning the control system, because this can be the “make or break” aspect of a game. When it comes to Rayman 2, the controls most certainly don’t break anything. They are very simple – you have four buttons to move, a button to jump (also activates Rayman’s famous helicopter hair), a button to fire and a strafe button, which also locks your aim on your target during a battle. The camera sometimes plays tricks, but you will quickly adjust, and there is also a look button, which you can use to see everything around, above and below, or to adjust the camera manually - simple and to the point.

On the PC version you can play with the keyboard or a joystick/gamepad, and the only downside is that the keyboard controls are non-customizable. Luckily, they are arranged in a rather sane way, and make the game very much playable even without a gamepad.

All around, "Rayman 2: The Great Escape" is a fantastic experience, whether you’re playing on a computer or the console of your choice. Ubisoft managed to convert a great 2D game into a great 3D game, and even make it better. All thumbs up!