Konami/Chrome Studioes
Platform: Nintendo Game Cube, X-box, Playstation 2
E.S.R.B. Rating: 'T' for Teen for violence.

Overview:

The True Story Behind The Legend... Historians agree that the classical medieval 15th century tale of King Arthur rose from a real hero, who lived and died a thousand years earlier in a period known as the dark ages... By 183 A.D. the Roman Empire extended from Arabia to Briton, but they wanted more- more land, more people subservient to Rome... but no people so important as the powerful, defeated, Sarmatian cavalrymen. In exchange for their lives, these Sarmatian warriors were incorperated into the Roman millitary. Better they had died that day... For the second part of the bargain they struck indebted not only themselves, but also their sons, and their sons after, and so on, to serve the empire as knights for fifteen years each in Britain. For two hundred years this continued, each generation sending sons from their Sarmation homeland to Britain to fight for the Empire. Each of these Sarmatian knights reported to a Roman commander in Britain, ancestrally named for the first Artorius, or Arthur...

Violence:

This is as violent as it gets without having blood or gore. There are levels with torture chambers (with prisoners on racks, hanging from chains, e.t.c.), swinging logs with spikes - trust me, it is not pretty with ragdoll physics- and there are little red bursts when you hit someone. I don\'t think it\'s blood though. It\'s like those comic book bursts when a superhero hits someone. It would have been nice if they made it a different color like orange or yellow, though.

Violence: 2.5/10

Language:

E.S.R.B. generally ignores bad language in video games unless it contains the \'F\' word, but I won\'t. The game does use d*** a few times. Although it\'s only a few times it should have gotten a \'Mild Language\' parental warning.

Language: 7/10

Sexual Content/Nudity:

Everyone\'s who hasn\'t seen the movie or the game is probably thinking Lancelot and Guinevere have an affair. Well, that is not the case. They did not put that in the movie. That really surprised me. The only thing that is suggestive in the game is Guinevere\'s war uniform. The thing is pretty much only a leather skirt, boots, and a leather strap with tassles across her upper chest.

Sexual Content/Nudity: 6.5/10

Occult/Supernatural:

There is not much occult in King Arthur. The knights are paganists from Sarmatia (which is part of Russia), and there is a reference to Merlin of the Woads as a dark magician. Besides the occultic environment and few references, you don\'t see any paganistic rituals and Merlin does not use magic.

Occult/Supernatural: 7/10

Cultural/Moral/Ethical:

First off, the game portrays Catholic/Christians very darkly and there are levels where you kill monks. I was very surprised. Some may find this offensive, others may think that they were trying to be historically accurate. In my opinion, the way the monks were acting was not Christian (They were torturing Woads, sacrificing them, e.t.c.)so I do not know if they really count as Christians. God does not need sacrifice.He paid the ultimate sacrifice at Cavalry on the Cross. The thing that I really don\'t like is this gives unbelievers a negative opinion of Christians.

Cultural/Moral/Ethical:8/10

Gameplay:

This game is the first hack-and-slash game I have ever played, and I found it to be a good introduction. The game is very fun, but I beat it in 1 to 2 days. It has some R.P.G. elements in that you can upgrade your character with points you earn from fighting well. The horses you ride have more attacks than you do while riding them. The concept of the horse and rider fighting as one unit is interesing. The enemy A.I. gets very predictable after a while and makes later levels extremely easy.Some of the horseback riding levels you can pretty much charge through the whole thing. The game has excellent replay value, and you can unlock multiple short documentaries on how they made the game, which animation students such as I find interesting. The fact that it had multiplayer surprised me and was an added bonus that gives it good longevety. It would have been nice to play as Germanus and Merlin in Multiplayer, but they have a nice assortment of characters anyway.There are interactive objects in the game such as breakable barrels, ballistas, and catapults. All in all, it\'s a fun hack and slash game that is predictable and short. Plus, the game has ragdoll physics, of which I am a fan of.Also, the game has co-op mode.

Gameplay:16/20

Graphics:

The cinematic graphics are awesome! They merged C.G.I. Graphics with movie clips and did a pretty good job of it. The enviroments are very nice too. The in-game graphics are o.k. but not great. The animation in the game is fidgety at times, but is fair. The thing that impressed me was that they scanned photos of the actor\'s faces into the game. They are currently developing technology used in this game for future Konami games.

Graphics: 8/10

Sound:

They most of the actors from the movie, and the game sound effects are pretty good, but some of the sounds get to seem recycled near the end, and some of the multiplayer character\'s voices don\'t sound like the people from the movie.

Sound:6/10

Stability:

The game is pretty stable and I noticed no glitches.

Stability: 5/5

Controls/Interface:

The controls were standard hack-and-slash and the heads-up-display is good, but the camera was very annoying. It is at a fixed position the whole time and you cannot rotate it, which makes it very easy to get cought from behind. And the same is true for multiplayer and there is no split-screen.

Controls/Interface:3/5