Beowulf: The Game review

Dec 11, 2007

If you've played many movie tie-in games before, you won't be surprised that Beowulf is more for fans of the film than for gamers. While the poem is epic, the gameisn't even legendary. For the most part, it's a fairly simple button-mashing hack-n-slasher... or whatever you call a game where you sometimes slash things with a sword, but also punch and kick them like some pissy 4 year-old. Which you'll do quite often, since the local swordsmith couldn't make a sword that lasts more than a few minutes if his life depended on it.

The game borrows liberally from God of War, with contextual button moves and tons of mythological beasties to battle. But it also borrows a bit from Entourage - yes, the HBO show - as it lets you bring three buddies along who you can not only order around but also upgrade; they open doors for you, they can treat your wounds and attack enemies as well. For his own merits, Beowulf has a Carnal Fury mode, which isa sort of Smart Bomb option that makes him temporarily invincible; though also a bit of a jerk since, while furious, he can also hurt his entourage.