The recent film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings novels are clearly responsible for mainstream media’s renewed interest in Medieval fantasy. From a wealth of films that have come out of Hollywood to a surge of fantasy-themed video games, it’s clearly not a genre lacking in attention. In October of 2006, Ubisoft took a stab at the genre with an RPG/FPS hybrid game, loosely connected to the Might and Magic franchise, called Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. While showcasing some brilliant graphics for its time, Dark Messiah was roasted by most critics for having a complete lack of direction and overly repetitive combat, and also for providing gamers with a plethora of infuriating bugs and glitches.

Fast Forward to February 2008 and Ubisoft has returned with this same Dark Messiah game, only this time for the Xbox 360 and sporting a nifty new subtitle - now known as Dark Messiah of Might and Magic: Elements. Unfortunately, this new version and subtitle add absolutely nothing new to the original game except a sub-par multiplayer experience and a few more letters to the front of the game’s packaging.

Dark Messiah’s story involves a young adventurer named Sareth, apprentice of the mage Phenrig, who’s on a quest to locate and procure the mystical artifact known as the Skull of Shadows before the “bad guys” get their hands on it. Along the way, Sareth will confront orcs, goblins, giant spiders and the occasional damsel in distress: namely Leanna, Sareth’s love interest. There are plenty of story developments and plot twists during Sareth’s quest, but the majority of them are completely obvious well before the cat’s let out of the bag. There are a few choices you can make to alter the game’s ending, but none of them are very revelatory. Which ever way the story turns out, you probably won’t care too much.

Alas, speaking of apathy – that’s for sure how you’ll feel not too long after you’ve powered this game up. Not only does the game rehash all of the original PC game’s problems, but Elements’ base-control mechanics are flawed to their very core. Your character has an unnatural gait about him, to the point to where just trying to walk in a straight line can sometimes get you killed. There are pitfalls abound, and even falling a short distance will result in your early demise. And when you take into consideration that the developers expect you to successfully pull off a vast amount of poorly handled first-person platforming, it should come as no surprise that you and the load screen will become very familiar with one another.

By far, the game’s biggest culprit, in the form of cheap deaths, is the Rope Bow. After you pick up this item during the game’s fourth chapter, you’ll come to many areas where your only way to proceed is to make proper use of this diabolical contraption. To operate the Rope Bow, you must locate a wooden plank or platform and fire an arrow directly into it. A rope will then drop down, which you can climb and leap from to reach higher up or lower ledges. While it may sound easy enough to use, the Rope Bow also presents many, many (and many more) problems. Sometimes you’ll climb a rope you’ve placed and then somehow get stuck into or against a wall. Usually, the only way to remedy this situation is to drop to your death or hit the pause button and load your last checkpoint or saved game. There’s also the issue of properly lining up your jumps, while leaping from one rope to another. You must move and turn very slow and cautiously, lest you’re eager to get up close and personal with the cold, hard pavement below you. Hence, once the Rope Bow is in your possession, saving frequently becomes a necessity and not an option.