Inside the box was a poster. Here's the front:
And here's the back, which lists all the spells you can cast. No reason you'd use this poster when the in-game help tells you the same info, but it looks cool.
I couldn't get this game to run at all on my Windows 10 PC. Fortunately, I still keep an old Windows XP machine, and the game ran well on that.
Since the game came out after Book 8, I waited until I finished Book 8 before playing this game. It turns out the game takes place sometime before the novels, and you don't need to have read the novels to enjoy the game. But reading the first three novels will help you follow the lore and terminology, and you'll have fun recognizing the places and factions from the books.
You play as Elayna (not to be confused with the book character Elayne). She is the Keeper of the Chronicles of the Aes Sedai, the order of magic users who safeguard the seven seals that imprison the world's greatest threat, the Dark One. Unfortunately, the Aes Sedai are not in possession of all seven seals, and the Dark One still has a lot of influence on the world despite being in prison. There are people who secretly serve the Dark One and seek to free him. In the world of Wheel of Time, you never know who might be working for the Dark One.
The interesting thing about Elayna is that, unlike the other Aes Sedai, she has no inherent magical ability. But she is an expert in using ter'angreals, which are magical devices that even people without magical ability can use. (She is a member of the research sect, the Brown Ajah, for the WoT fans who are wondering.) These ter'angreals are your weapons in the game.
There are over 30 ter'angreals, and you select one by first pressing the number key for the ter'angreal's group, then you press that number repeatedly until you've selected the ter'angreal you want from that group. When the action gets fast and furious, it's pretty difficult to select the best ter'angreal for the situation. Not only are you trying not to die, you're also trying to remember which ter'angreal does what. So sometimes I would just use brute-force run-and-gun tactics, relying on the simple but effective weapons like Fireball and Seeker. Other times, I would quicksave before a fight, jump into the fight to gauge the enemies' abilities, then quickload and select the optimal ter'angreals.
I briefly tried the game on Hard difficulty and it was too much of a grind, but Medium was plenty challenging. The enemies attack with speed and accuracy, and can dodge your projectile attacks. Some enemies can cast the same spells as you. To beat them, you have to manage your ter'angreals effectively while aiming and dodging. Or you could get lucky and have the enemy AI get stuck on some obstacle and unable to move, which happens fairly often.
The game depicts the books' setting accurately, with lovely architecture, creepy sound effects, and a fitting folk rock soundtrack. Some of the levels are pretty big and involve a little puzzle-solving; I had to look up a video walkthrough a few times to get unstuck. And there's an easter egg that, while perhaps not completely impossible in the Wheel of Time cosmology, is still a pretty odd and amusing anachronism. I'll show it in this spoiler:
Although the lengthly cutscenes between each mission look dated, they are fun to watch. Elayna's emotions are well-portrayed in both animations and voice-acting. Some lines are taken from the books, including insults. It was great when Elayna called another Aes Sedai "wool-headed."
The only real sore point of the game was how it ended. The final level is a retread of a few earlier areas. And while the last cutscene wraps the story up adequately, it could have been more emotionally resonant.
I don't consider this game a must-play for shooter fans or even Wheel of Time fans. If you're a WoT fan who's curious about the story, you could just watch the video walkthrough or even just the cutscenes. But I'm glad I played the game. It's been a struggle to read the fat, plodding books. Sometimes I wonder why I even bother. The game made me realize why: I freaking love the world Robert Jordan created. Playing the game made me excited to continue reading the books, which means a lot. I'm already pretty far into book 9!