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 Rayman
2 Revolution is actually a slightly enhanced version of Rayman
2: The Great Escape previously released for the N64, Dreamcast,
Windows, and PSOne. Like
the earlier versions, Revolution
follows the adventures of the limbless hero Rayman as he saves his
planet from an invasion by the evil “Robo-Pirates”.
Limbless?
Yep. Rayman’s
arms and legs aren’t physically attached to his body.
That slightly off-beat style carries over to the rest of the
game’s art. In fact,
Ubi Soft has done a nearly perfect job of converting the lush,
cartoony world of the original 2D Rayman
into the 3D world of Rayman 2
Revolution. Colors
are rich, vibrant, and shift subtly with excellent lighting and shadow
effects. Characters are
smooth and rounded, showing no signs that they’re constructed out of
polygons. Everything from
flying pirate ships to marshes and lava flows look as good as they did
in 2D. Unfortunately, the graphics are marred somewhat by the often
frustrating camera angles which sometimes seem to be picked randomly.
Even
the music is surprisingly good. Platform
games typically have cheesy “happy” music (for lack of a better
term), but Rayman’s is
more frequently moody than silly, and matches the environments well.
Good environmental effects and decent voice acting (selectable
between several languages) make this one of the best sounding platform
games ever.
 While
the graphics really stand out, gameplay is fairly standard 3D platform
fare. Rayman can cling to
ledges, climb, swim, float to the ground slowly with a helicopter
spin, and shoot enemies with energy spheres.
In earlier versions of the game, Rayman starts out with most or
all of his powers, but Rayman 2 Revolution requires players to purchase new abilities with the
lums (yellow spheres of energy) collected in every level.
It’s a minor change, but adds a welcome extra dimension to
the gameplay. Control is
usually very precise, except it’s sometimes difficult to tell
whether you can grab on or jump to a ledge, or it if it’s just part
of the scenery. Bad,
sometimes hard to adjust camera angles can make it difficult to judge distances, leading to unnecessary
deaths. Luckily, the game
usually restarts close to where the death occurred with only a slight
reduction in stamina as penalty, making it less of an issue.
Levels
are more linear than most 3D platform games like Ape
Escape or Super Mario 64. There’s
almost no exploration, and very little emphasis on collecting items,
giving the game al faster pace than most 3D platformers. You just use Rayman’s basic abilities to keep running, jumping,
and climbing to get through a level. Occasional
segments such as Rayman riding a missile, using a giant blueberry to
cross lava flows, or water skiing behind a giant serpent help add
variety, as does the occasional mini-game.
Boss battles also show some originality.
For example, destroying a boss by shooting rain clouds
together, rather than using direct attacks
It’s
worth noting that I encountered several bugs while playing Rayman
2 Revolution. On
several occasions I noticed sound effects or music either not playing
at all, or else continuing to play when they shouldn’t be (the
helicopter sound effect continuing to play even after Rayman had
landed, for example). The
graphics displayed some minor errors with some distant objects
flickering slightly, as if the graphic engine couldn’t decide what
order to draw them in. A
duplicate copy of Rayman was even left in place on one level.
I jumped to a platform, and another copy of Rayman was left
behind. I never encountered anything that made the game unplayable,
however the number of bugs I saw makes them worth mentioning.
Despite
the name, Rayman 2 Revolution
is anything but revolutionary. If you’ve played nearly any platform game before, you know
what to expect here. What
you do get is a great looking, fast paced action game.
Worth a look if you have 10+ hours you’d like to fill.
 Note
in regards to other versions of Rayman 2: Overall, I judge this to
be the best version of Rayman 2
available by a slim margin, primarily because of the new gameplay
elements (such as having to purchase abilities).
Graphically, the Dreamcast version has better textures in some
places and no visual glitches, while this version has better lighting
and slightly higher polygon counts.
In other words, both versions look excellent. Rayman
2 Revolution and Rayman 2:
The Great Escape are nearly the same game, so I would recommend
buying whichever version you can find cheaper.
I do recommend the Dreamcast and Playstation 2 versions over
the other editions, simply because they look so much better.
However, if you’ve played an earlier version, there’s no
real reason to play Revolution. Save your
money for a new game.
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