Beowulf Review: The legendary hero would fall on his sword after playing the game.

The heavier name they bear, the harder they fall.

BEOWULF was supposed to transfer the epic story of the old Norse hero torn between brutality and nobility to our PCs. The original story takes place mostly in Denmark and Sweden; nevertheless, since it is the only surviving AngloSaxon heroic poetry, it is revered as England's National Poem.
To those of you not having to struggle with its old English in high-school and are not familiar with the story: the Viking hero comes in aid of king Hroogar and defeats three foes (Grendel, Grendel's mother and a giant (sea-serpent) Wyrm - that unfortunately delivers Beowulf's fatal wounds as well). Since the poem runs for 3,182 lines, you can bet that the story is a lot more complicated than this.
It was this epic that provided J.R.Tolkien with the seed ideas for his LORD OF THE RINGS Trilogy (he had even published a paper on its influence on Western literature).

Towards the weight of such legacy UBISOFT demonstrated...total and blatant disrespect. To try and fail to follow the complicated story could be forgiven. To flagrantly display no intention of using the story for anything but an excuse is unforgivable.
The game is released in tandem with the Beowulf movie. Yes, that means that the game drafts the appearances of Anthony Hopkins, Angelina Jolie, and John Malkovich.

This is the game that could had been (amongst many other things) RUNE's spiritual successor - being a Third person action slasher with Viking swords and axes and special moves. Well, it is definitely NOT!
As an innovation, two fighting modes are introduced: unarmed (carnal) and armed (heroic). Although your preference will determine the ending, this is not really a choice since the game pretty much favors the one fighting mode over the other at various segments. Using each fighting mode earns you points to be used in either improving your character's or your squad's abilities (in rudimentary RPG-like fashion - which this game clearly is not).

Yes, for a game following a Hero's quests, you actually have a group of followers, the Thanes. Of all the stupid sidekicks and squads I have ever encountered (remember the DAIKATANA bunch..?), these Nordsmen were surely...dropped the hardest at childbirth. Their AI is truly dismal! An enemy may be hacking just besides them yet all they do is stand idle and stare. You are supposedly able to encourage them to fight harder - yet to no effect. Even ordering them to do simple tasks will often fall on deaf ears...

The graphics are good but not great - when compared to this season's major releases - and its hardware requirements are pretty steep for what it eventually delivers. To be fair though, artistically it manages to be more atmospheric than over-hyped games such as BIOSHOCK.

No, I cannot recommend it to anyone - not even English-Lit Majors...
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Source / Author / Credit: Anonymous