Beowulf - Video Game

Beowulf: The Game is a basic retelling of the movie in a playable manner. Having not seen the movie, my only experience with the story was from the epic poem, which I found to be a very different story. The epic poem relied on the allure of treasure, glory, and fame to drive Beowulf, but the game took a very different approach. Those closest to Beowulf, his wife and advisors, seemed to have very little respect for him, often mocking his blunders and poor decisions. Beowulf has respect and power everywhere except for his own castle. In one instance, he chases a wounded Grendel to the cave of Grendel's mother, where Beowulf is seduced by Grendel's mother and rewarded for his new loyalty to her. However, the biggest outrage of this game was the final battle with the dragon. Just before the battle with the dragon begins, Grendel's mother reveals that the dragon is the son of Beowulf. She says that he fathered this monster with her on the night that he killed Grendel. I almost stopped playing at that atrocity of a plot twist, but I toughed it out. These perversions, along with the many others, of the original text seems typical of a remake, but that does not stop me from disliking them.

The driving forces behind the characters in Beowulf: The Game keep fairly close to six of the seven deadly sins, chiefly pride, lust, greed, envy, anger, and gluttony. The game opens with a race between Beowulf and Brecca, showcasing their ability to brag. This race was a foretelling of Beowulf's future because we see Beowulf hunger for victory and fame at any cost. One of the functions of the combat mode of the game was the ability to enter a mode that made the character nearly invincible for a short amount of time. This mode was called Carnal Fury, and it was the result of Beowulf unleashing his anger. Beowulf loses the race to Brecca, but not before unleashing his anger to fend off sea serpents. The game seems to indicate that the use of this anger is not a good thing. When the invincibility ends, Beowulf is reduced to little health, and he is momentarily stunned. Additionally, this mode allows you to kill your thanes, Non-Player Characters that assist you in battle. This is where we find the main part of the game. The story has a script to follow, and the missions are all beatable with a little effort, but it would not be a good game unless it allowed the player to make some choices. The style of play that is used determines where Beowulf lies on a moral compass that is showcased at the end of each mission. Using Carnal Fury repeatedly and fighting without regard for the safety of your thanes causes whispering female voices that sound much like Grendel's mother, the temptress. This style of play causes you to slip to the red end of the moral compass that is labeled Monster Slayer. Fighting in an organized manner and ensuring that no thane is in danger allows you to use power-ups and boosts that aid you and your thanes. This style of play pushes you to the blue side of the compass that is labeled Hero King.
Except for the moral compass, this game is simply a scripted replay of the movie. I personally chose the Hero King path, mostly because I was tired of hearing Beowulf's wife and advisors tell him he was such a bad person, but the path of the Monster Slayer had a bit of irony at the end of the game. Beowulf spends his career fighting monsters and gaining the title of Monster Slayer, and he ends up fathering the biggest monster in his universe. The twist was canned, the original story was destroyed, and the NPCs were annoying, but I cannot deny that it was an enjoyable slasher.