Even fans of Christopher Paolini’s tale of a boy and his dragon will likely be disappointed with the mediocre action in Eragon. For those unfamiliar with the premise, Eragon is a young farm boy who comes across a dragon egg. When it hatches, he finds himself swept up in a quest for revenge against the evil king Galbatorix as he learns how to be a Dragon Rider. But the game’s brief and grainy cut scenes do little more than provide a general outline for the film’s plot and will not satisfy those looking for juicy details on what the movie has in store.

So what does lie in wait for you? Lots of mind-numbing button mashing as Eragon repeatedly hacks and slashes his way through hordes of the same five enemies. Combos never get more involved than alternating between the strong and weak attack buttons. But if that gets too tiresome you can always just run past enemies to skip ahead to the next unrevealing cut scene.

The lack of camera control adds to the frustration as you flail at enemies outside the screen or behind a column in the foreground. In addition to his sword and bow, Eragon can use several magic attacks to shoot powered up arrows or flames. But most of the time, your magic will be reserved for creating stepping stones out of boulders or clearing debris to open up the next path in Eragon’s linear levels.

Interaction with Eragon’s dragon, Saphira, is limited for the most part to scripted events where you call her to help take out enemies in the background. There are also several frustrating dragon riding levels where you’ll be firing unimpressive looking magical arrows from Saphira’s back while trying to guess which way the camera will pan to avoid crashing into trees and walls.