All this apparent gaming goodness doesn't offset the boredom, the "been here, done that" feeling and bizarre difficulty. On Mortal (the lowest of the three settings) and playing as an Aztec Shaman, we had to avoid battles altogether due to the overwhelming swarm of giant spiders, barbarians, monkeys, flying insects and other cast offs from a Wild Kingdom episode that would sniff us out from miles away. Attempting a stand off resulted in immediate death every single time.

Loki comes with several online features, which is far and away the best part of the game. Six players can take part in the game via the co-op mode. Two players enter, one player leaves in the Player versus Player Duel. A dedicated battle arena exists for two teams up to four players each. "Challenge" allows up to six players to tackle 20 different confrontations against the games most dangerous monsters. The Cynaide GameCenter (which installs with the game and must be used to play online) offers a ladder ranking system to keep track of conquests.

In the end, Cyanide Studio tried too hard to mix and match too many elements from a hoary host of other RPGs and fell short in creating their own distinct experience that gamers (outside of hardcore RPG types) will want to play. What's more, timing is to video games what location is to restaurants, and Dreamcatcher released this game at the worst possible time. Right this very moment there's a slew of far better games on the market (including a free action RPG), and these aren't simply better games...these are some of the most critically acclaimed games ever released; the type of games that define genres. Loki may be a Norse god, but even his powers won't keep this game from getting lost in time.