Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 to 20 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Surprisingly good"

This game really is not an RPG - it's an action/adventure game, where you can play as the big tough dude, Caddock, who uses various melee weapons, or the hot elf babe, E'lara, who uses a bow and arrow. They're quite an entertaining and likable pair, trading wisecracks through the whole story. You can level up various skills and types of magic (such things as firing an arrow which freezes your foes, with the freezing effect getting more powerful as you devote more experience points to it). There are three different weapons skills and three magic spells you can choose from. But there is no inventory system of any sort, so I wouldn't call it an RPG.

Several times in each chapter, you're given the opportunity to switch characters. So if you're tired of the shooting action with E'lara, you can switch to Caddock and do some hack 'n' slash for a while. Or you can play as one character throughout the whole game if you desire. The combat is actually fairly deep, as you learn to use your skills to better effect throughout the course of the whole game. You can "power up" your partner by infusing them with magic power, and if they power you up at around the same time, you create a spell link that makes you devastatingly effective.

What I really love about the game are the environments - really nice, atmospheric dungeons, some of the best I've ever seen. And about half of the game is spent outdoors, and the environments there are very beautiful and occasionally quite memorable as well. You can play co-op, either online or with someone using a second controller on your PS3. I played the whole game myself and the AI works perfectly well. Better than me in many cases :) There's also a "Crucible" mode, where you can design your own levels and play through them. You can choose a good variety of environments, and you have a ton of control over what sort of enemies you'll face and how many of them there will be.

But the game is a little rough around the edges. The graphics on the main characters look like hi-def renditions of characters from a PS2 game - they really could have spent a lot more time adding extra detail to them. Which is odd, because all the environments in the game look great. And there's the occasional small annoyance, like E'lara's bow will sometimes block your view of what you're trying to aim at.

Overall I had a great time with this - one of those games I'd start playing and the next thing I knew, several hours had gone by. I'm currently on my second playthrough and enjoying it a whole lot this time as well.