Combat is fairly mundane in the beginning and unfortunately, it never really does pick up. It involves the exact same routine, spot an enemy and mash the A button. You’ll have the option to block also but it really is counterintuitive, you’ll lose health for every attack you block. Block too many attacks and you’ll be dead a lot sooner than you’d like. You generally have a better chance of survival by just running at your enemies and hacking away like Paul Bunyan on crack. It’s really sad too, because the combat is exactly the same no matter where you are in the game. Enemies never really do get smarter and although they don different clothing and outfits, they’re basically just foxes in sheep’s clothing.
As far as I’m concerned there are only two types of enemies, a) ones that run at you and try to hit you over the head and b) ones that sit back and toss random objects at you. Both of them are pretty run of the mill and suffer from some poor AI coding. B-type enemies must have had their feet glued to the ground because they are unable to move towards you to attack you. That means that they’ll only attack you from their position and only their position, just move out of their range and you’re home free. Type A enemies suffer from the same amount of stupidity. Most of the time they’ll just stand idly by as you beat their asses into the ground. Hit one of them in the back? You can expect them to stand there and take it like a man. Of course they’ll have weapons in their hands but hey, who said that everyone knows how to use a club? Then of course you have the enemies that run around in circles for no apparent reason, it’s amusing at first until you realize that the guys who tested this game for hours on end actually let this fall through the cracks.
Boss battles are equally as bad. As I mentioned above, the Fellowship appears beside you during the large boss battles. The problem? They literally just sit there on their collective asses and do absolutely nothing. There are certain sequences where they give off the illusion that they are actually fighting and being helpful but again, it’s all for show. They can’t die and for some reason, they don’t deal out any damage. They’re just like the extras in the background of those cheesy westerns, they’ll attack each other but they’ll never die.
This game seems to have an awful lot going against it and to be honest, it does. There are quite a few positives, however. WXP has done a great job of bringing the environment to life. You’ll notice leaves falling from trees as you run through the town, butterflies and birds flying about, beautifully rendered water and a whole host of attractive details. I especially like the way the villages look, they really have the whole fantasy, geekdom sort of locales down pat. The entire look of the game definitely fits the image that popped into my head as I was reading the novel.
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