Game along with the Geek: X-Blades Day Two

I'm now in my third day playing "X-Blades," (despite the titles of the last two posts), and I am realizing something important -- I don't want to play it for more than an hour at a time.

If your gaming habits are anything like mine, you'll find this as odd as I do. I mean, when I'm enjoying a game, be it RPG, platformer, shooter, sports title, whatever, when I'm enjoying it, I'm playing more than I'm sleeping. But, not "X-Blades."

This isn't a statement on the quality of this game, either. Six hours or so in, I'm still having a good time. But, given how repetitive each level is, and, given how tough some of the levels are, by the time an hour has gone by, I'm just ready for a change of pace. I played three sessions today (not to mention a couple of hours playing XNA Community games), all lasting about an hour.

In case you are wondering, yes, I took care of that Spider. I also took care of another talking wolf (this one was evil), as well as a particularly annoying enormous dragonfly.

While the storyline is still nothing to write home about (I get the feeling this is going to end with some cliche statement on good vs. evil and infecting souls and whatnot), I was relieved to see the I am only about halfway through the tale. Given how intense the level just before the evil wolf fight was, with literally 35 consecutive minutes of just melee action, I was worried this $59.99 game was only six hours long.

The bad news of this halfway point was the realization that the game designers apparently got a tad bit lazy. At this point, right after beating the second wolf, I began having to go through the ruins a second time, this time in the evening. Yes, the demons are much more difficult this time around, with that particularly annoying dragonfly, but the level designs are identical.

And about that damn dragonfly. You know those little dragonflies that shoot lasers from their cyclops eye? Well this is an enormous one. Further, it controls six of the little tiny T-Rex looking things. SO, I go in there and cut down the little'uns in order to get the Dragonfly unprotected. I kill the dinos, and, thinking how powerful this dragonfly must be, I say to myself, I need a stronger spell to hit him with. After all, I've had the fireball spell all game, it must be weak. So I pay 25,000 souls for the spell, use it on the dragonfly -- and no effect. At which point, I check the bestiary and read two things: 1) You can't kill the dinos, he'll just spawn more and, 2) the dragonfly is vulnerable to -- you guessed it -- fire. What a pain in the rear.

Anyway, at about an hour into my session I encountered a "Dark Elemental" I didn't know how to kill. Soooooo... end of session.

In a nutshell, some of these battles are a pain, the repetition is wearing on me, but I sure as heck will be fighting that elemental tomorrow morning. For now, "Spaceballs: The Animated Series" is on G4. Enjoy!