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Wednesday, November 12, 2008 |
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The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
By madmex @ 8:12 PM :: 2071 Views ::  :: 360
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Spyro made his debut on the Sony Playstation, and 10 years later, has finally come to the Xbox 360. The conclusion to the trilogy had me excited until I played it. The game is not terrible by any means, but it is not first-rate either, there are issues with some of the game mechanics, among other things, that anchors this title down from achieving greatness. Fortunately, there was enough interest in the boss battles, the fierce combat and the puzzle solving to hold my attention.
The story picks up where the last game left off, Spyro and Cynder were trapped inside what appeared to be a gem. Some bad guys come along and set them free (though they remain unconscious) only to ensnare them again in some kind of magical leash (which I will get to in a few). When the two dragons awake they find themselves tethered to a pillar with an enormous Golem barreling down on them. Though they are both equipped with their elemental arsenal, in this state they are no match for the monster and must proceed to evacuate, which begins their journey to defeat the Dark Master Malefor.
This is interesting because the first encounter that a player receives is a boss battle (escaping the Golem is more like it). The scope of this enemy is fantastic, it is the size of a small building and looks amazing on the screen. There are other giant encounters such as this throughout the title which adds a lot of flair to the visual candy this game provides. Sometimes the “boss battle” is not a fight with a main character; rather it could be defending the walls of a glorious city or crumbling a majestic dam.
The mêlée is fun and frantic in Dawn of the Dragon, terrorizing foes with relentless combos and furious grappling. Aside from the fact that they have claws and a nasty tail, the better abilities of the dragons are the magical talents and breath weapons, Spyro with ice, fire, earth, and electricity and Cynder with wind, fear, poison, and shadow elements. These weapons can be leveled and doing so will give extra abilities to the artillery. Also, the dragons will stumble upon pieces of armor that will enhance the ability to cause or resist damage.
The puzzles in the game are fun and not always easy, but instead of just using one dragon they decide to let you switch between them both. The key element to any of the puzzles in this game is the fact that the two dragons are tethered together by a magical device. Spyro can not go very far without Cynder and vice versa. For instance, one section of the game finds Spyro and Cynder having to drag a raft to an injured ally. One dragon grasps the raft while the other flies upstream (since they are leashed together the one grasping gets dragged along). Sounds simple enough, but there are obstacles that require the attention of the dragons, either to defeat some enemies or unblock the river; it can get a little hairy. That puzzle is one of the easier ones to handle, and the further along you go the more difficult they become (unlocking the Ancient Doors had me stumped for a brief while). This would have been a lot more fun if I was not battling the problems with the camera and the flying mechanic.
There are many games that continue to have camera issues, and this is one of them. The camera is not bad when the dragons find themselves in an open world setting but when it comes down to the dungeon crawling or city street segments (which are the majority) there is much left to be desired. Mainly, it is the fact that I feel as if I am zoomed into the action and can not back away. Too many times the edge of a cliff suddenly pops up next to me in the midst of battle and I go tumbling over, lucky for me I can fly…well sort of.
If a dragon has wings and can fly then why is there a limit to how high I can go? Especially in the open world setting, if a crystal is on a ledge a dragon should be able to fly to the ledge and grab it, not in this case (instead, there are platforming elements that must be traversed in order to get the gem). The different range of altitude is so inconsistent in the flying it always leaves you yearning for just a bit more. I began to wonder about how much improvement could have been made to this game if they invested a little more money into the mechanics rather than dumping all kinds of money into the voice acting (what you would have is an excellent label with a decent camera and dragons that really fly).
When spending an exorbitant amount of money for Hollywood caliber voice actors, there is a level of professionalism that should be portrayed through the characters. Elijah Wood does a great job voicing Spyro but Christina Ricci makes for a horrible Cynder she was totally bland and did not appear interested in the role. The worst by far was the quirky side-kick Sparxs played by Wayne Brady, the lines were fine but the delivery was unprofessional and careless. On the other hand, Mark Hamill plays the role of the Dark Master Malefor and he puts on an excellent performance. But just because you have some decent acting, mixed with the awful it turns out all bad.
The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon is a fun game, even though it has a few problems. The combat system is entertaining. Plus, the puzzle solving is intriguing and the boss battles can be beautiful and challenging. You can not go wrong choosing this title for the kids; it would be a great purchase for the holidays.
7 out of 10
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