As the new generation of console gaming hits what should be its main stride, we're seeing a flood of "good" but not "great" titles. This is definitely the case with X-Blades by SouthPeak Games -- It's a game with a lot of very good things to offer, but it's knocked down by some level design and gameplay balancing issues. There is a good game here, but as with so many others, it falls short of being a great game.

X-Blades is a straight-forward hack-n-slash action adventure, a-la Devil May Cry. You play the role of Ayumi, the arrogant, scantly clad, cute little protagonist, who also happens to be a death machine of a treasure hunter. You are equipped with your thong, high heeled boots, and twin gun/swords, gaining magical powers and new skills, collecting goodies, and killing hoards and hoards of evil creatures. Ultimately, you're trying to remove a curse placed upon you by a tainted artifact you collect. The curse gives you the ability to channel good and/or evil demonic powers, but also makes you feel as though you've lost a part of yourself, and may be the harbinger of the end of mankind. So you have your work cut out for you...

The combat and control system works quite well, and is typical for the genre. You move yourself with the left analog stick, look about with the right analog stick, use the d-pads to activate special abilities or trigger spells, and use the triggers and bumpers to lock on to enemies. Your character will learn a lot of different abilities and spells along the way, as you earn points for completing feats. You must choose from a shopping list of abilities, deciding to go with a jack-of-all-trades approach, or getting particularly good at one set of skills (e.g. you could concentrate on fire skills, shooting skills, or a combination, along with many other types of abilities).

Combat shows early hints of being somewhat strategic - the early tutorial levels teach you to slash your swords, jump and slash, shoot, use special attacks, and cast magic. They try to also show you the best times to use the abilities, or when to combine them. Unfortunately, as the game progresses, it feels like the level design and monster play-balancing falls down, failing to support any kind of strategic combat. Many battles start well, giving you a nice sense of rhythm (including multipliers for killing without being harmed). However, this usually escalate into hoards of monsters, reducing your strategy to frenetic running and slashing wildly just to pare down the number of beasties. It becomes a button-mashing nightmare.

As you explore each level (most of which are basic ruined temples like you'd see in Indiana Jones or Tomb Raider), you can break some items like crumbling jars or sarcophagi, finding loot of various types. You can find small hidden treasure rooms, or collect pieces of artifacts that will eventually grant new powers.

The story is pretty basic overall, as you quest to find out more about your curse, and it really doesn't affect gameplay, though there are different ending cut-scenes depending on some of your actions. All of the story telling is done via cut-scenes, which look terrific, and make good use of the game's cell-shaded 3D anime art style. The scoring and voiceovers throughout are very well done and actually do tie most of the action together decently.

In game visuals are excellent overall, with nicely detailed 3D models, and fun visual effects for spells and monster attacks, etc. Unfortunately, the level scenery is pretty generic, repetitive, and mostly static. Levels actually feel more like arenas, as they're generally small and closed-in - there's no Tomb Raider-style of exploration to be found.

The music throughout is largely heavy metal, which fits the combat intensive nature of the game, though it's hardly stirring or interesting to listen to. (Okay, I'm not a metal fan...). Voice-overs are in the cut scenes only, and the sound effects in combat are simple, but effective.

X-Blades is a solid, and sometimes entertaining, action hack-n-slash adventure. Alas, it doesn't offer anything terribly unique, and the lazy level/AI/monster design gets in the way of what could have been a fun, strategic beat-em-up adventure. Still, if you like Devil May Cry, or want something akin to Heavenly Sword, you could certainly do much worse.  Available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.