In general, the Gamespot review sums it up pretty good -- this game looks incredible and sounds wonderful, but it has so-so gameplay. This is mainly due to the combat, which has its moments, but is somewhat weak. For a hack-and-slash game, that is a HUGE fault. Combat seems random, like there are die rolls going on behind the scenes, which might explain why arrows pass right through their targets sometimes, and other times, a sword will connect and do damage even if it didn't touch the enemy on the screen. This problem is at its worst with missile weapons, which I found to be almost useless in this game. If you are using a bow, then you will find yourself constantly running backwards. If you use a melee weapon, then you have to use "hit-and-run" tactics, since the shield hardly seems to do anything, and there are no special move combos that you can use stand toe-to-toe with someone. Melee combat seems to be a simple and somewhat unsatisfying game of "click the hell out of the mouse as fast as possible". That's not to say that the gameplay is never satisfying. The level design is very good and does a good job of keeping you moving along. You have to pick up an occasional key or flip a switch, but it's pretty easy to figure out, and you won't waste a lot of time doing it. The checkpoint save system can be brutally difficult, if not impossible. I finally had to cheat to get past one of the game's levels, because it was so insanely difficult. This game seriously needed more checkpoints. As I said previously, this game has gorgeous graphics and is just dripping with inspiration. The detail in every room and in every environment is incredible. There is a large variety of indoor, outdoor, and underground environments, and they are all gorgeous. The animations for you and your enemies is equally impressive. This game has the best motions for running, jumping, and swinging a weapon that I have ever seen. I love the soundtrack for this game. It's as good as the best RPG soundtracks out there. The sound effects for the game are great too. This includes lots of little details, like the sound of your bow string being pulled back. The swords and axes in the game make loud noises when they connect with something and your characters make convincing grunts and cries when they attack. The voice acting is good, but your character never says anything, and NPC's seem to have one or two guys doing every voice. I have only played through the Light side campaign, which took me 9 or 10 hours or so to finish. There is a Dark campaign to play through, and the variety of characters that you get gives each mission some replayability. I wish that this game had more fun combat and a better storyline to match all of the fascinating settings. Then it would have been superior. In summary, I found this game to be pretty enjoyable despite its problems, and I would recommend that you at least download the demo to get a feel for it.
I bought this game first came out, 6 years ago, at the time the graphics were too much for my AMD Athlon 64 system. Fast forward 6 years and now my q6600, nvidia 260, 4gig ram system laughs at this game. Yet, it is still... Read Full Review
The right saying describing this game is "TOO BAD" -too bad because there are lots of people there who where eagerly waiting for exactly such a game- rare in the business, 3D person, action, adventure games(Rune, LOTR:R... Read Full Review
