Combining a solid fighting-adventure game with a first-rate martial arts master like Jet Li puts Sony's Rise To Honor on the fast track to being a must-have for fans of this type of game.

In Rise To Honor the player takes control of Jet Li's character, Yun, who is the bodyguard of a Chinese gang boss. After his boss is assassinated, Yun must redeem his honor by going to San Francisco and finding the boss' daughter.

Sony was very proud that they had actually worked with Jet Li for two and a half months on motion captures for the game. This extensive investment in motion capture yielded over 3000 moves that players will see in the game.

All these moves are seen in a fighting system that allows the character Yun to fight enemies in six zones that are chosen by the player with the right analog stick. The zones consist of three to Yun's front and three to his rear. This allows Yun to attack the enemy of the player's choosing in quick combo attacks that evoke the actual feel of a martial-arts film.

According to Sony's demonstrator, Yun starts the game with all the moves and attacks he'll ever have, but not all of these attacks will be apparent immediately. Many attacks are contextual. Examples of this would be like when Yun slams an attacker's face onto a hot stove while fighting in a kitchen or when Yun throws an enemy into a support pillar and a monitor mounted on the pillar crashes down on his head.

The environments are rich in detail and offer many items that can be used by Yun. In the E3 build, graphics already look outstanding and the control system is solid. The quality Sony is putting into this game is very apparent.

The next few months will tell the tale if Sony is able to pull it all together and polish it off to a fine luster. Set for release in the forth quarter of this year, Rise To Honor looks like it may well be a winner for PS2 owners interested in kicking some ass and taking some names.