Maybe you got a bad copy, I've put 30+ hours into mine and it hasn't glitched or crashed yet.
I think the combat AI looks perfectly suited to the style of game this is. It makes the combat look like a cool martial arts movie. If all the city guards attacked at once it would be nothing more than another brainless hack-and-slash. It's an action game that makes you THINK, OMG what a crime!
If you want brainless crap where everyone attacks at once, go buy Conan.
Played a group of them on CoD4 the other night in Ground War. They're not bad, even though the room lagged out with us winning :)