Okay I was just starting playing the game, and well it kind of svcks. It has some serious issues with key fetures.

One, health and health potions. Your health gets eaten through so fast that unless you hide the entire time in cover or behind your shield you are screwed. On top of that you don't find many health potions, and that you can only carry one health potion at any one time till later svcks.

On to that even while in casual mode melee is worthless because enemies can easily stagger and overwhelm you with simple quick attacks. And not to mention range is iffy because of how much everything in the game blends together and the fact that enemies seem to be rather good shots so even popping out to fire can be risky. Add that with the lack of health and health potions, you can be screwed over quick.

And on top of all that the characters are rather uninteresting and as bland and random as the rest of the landscape and game. It is far to hard to get in to.

Later in the game, both your health and mana will increase. Also, you will be able to carry more vials as well.
They are upgraded by completing various of stuff. Can't remember exactly what, or the numbers, but for an example:

Kill enemies with the bow (E'lara) 150 times = Arrow damage upgrade.
Etc etc.

// EDIT

Sorry, double post.

I don't see what's wrong with not taking cover or shield up and taking damage quickly.


It's easy for a newbie drain out their health fast and easily. So in early of the game you will find lots of health potion but very less mana potion.


Shield up before enemy land a strike on you. Dodge back to cover when you saw a arrow is coming.

*What are you expecting? Remain still like a tank when got hit? Keep tapping attack, use health potion when running low along all the way to see the maybe-not-so-happy-ending? That's boring!


Just take my advice and play the game. We'll see.

I am playing through with my nephew on his PS3 on Co-op splitscreen.

We started on the "GAMER" difficulty, and we were both starting to get frustrated even though we were really enjoying the game.
So we tried it on "CASUAL"...and that really worked. (Mind you, we are both seasoned gamers).

I found it best to break from the game industries conditioning of thinking a Warrior "Tank" character like Caddoc should not be using any cover, ever, and start using it! It's a lot of fun...and makes sense.

Also, swinging and following through with turning and moving your character as you swing really helps. If you just stand there, rooted to one spot, yer gonna die(.)

And you can keep your shield up...(just keep holding the BLOCK button) while also making your attack. That helps also.

I really enjoy the combat dynamic of the game...alot.

Unfortunately, there is no way of "backstepping" while keeping the same facing when using Melee or Ranged weapons. ( You can only do this when using Battle Magic). When you try, you quickly auto-turn to face that direction...THEN you can move that way. That would have been awesome and really worked so well with this game. ANY DEVS READING THIS?

To be honest, this is a 'learn to play' issue. I shared your experience the first hours of playing this game. It was exactly how you describe. I was playing as Caddoc whilst my friend played E'lara, and I would get beaten up left and right (this was on hardcoe difficulty). But I rose to the occasion and learned how to play this game, and so can you. When melee enemies are approaching you, greet them with your shield and block their attacks. Learn how many times they will strike before you can lower your shield and retaliate safely. Once you've retaliated anything from 1-4 hits, quickly hold down a strafe key and press space (for PC anyways) so you roll sideways out of harms way. Rinse and repeat. But the most important thing to do is to buff (Battle Charge) each other a lot. Me and my friend didn't discover how ridiculously good buffing each other is until the 2nd slag encounter, and from there on we did it almost every fight.

I do agree that the game starts off a little steep however. Potions are actually plentiful, but Caddoc's shield durability is annoyingly low in the beginning, so you'll find yourself running without a shield a few times. Consequently, some of the earliest battles are more suited for E'lara, meaning Caddoc will have to hide behind cover and use his crossbow. Mana and health will be lower since you can't carry 3 extra potions, so you can't just waltz right into combat recklessly. Add that you don't know how enemies will behave nor will you be familiar with the physics and controls of the game, so yea, you will take extra hits and it can be a little steep to begin with -- But it's nothing you can't learn to handle. Once you get into Act 2-3, start buffing each other a lot and learn how to mix in weapon magics. When buffed, Caddoc's charge attack (the name always escapes me) will 2-shot Minotaurs and 1-shot pretty much anything else. And since mobs and nearby crates often drop mana potions you can continue the momentum and go on a charge rampage. If you were to fight by simply meleeing unbuffed it would take a lot longer and consequently be a lot more lethal to your health. Me and my friend are now in the process of beating the game on Old School difficulty, and we're able to do so because we've learned how to play. You can do the same. Don't blame it on the game, because the game is actually fine.