I love dragons, I think it all stems from when I used to play Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (let the childhood memories begin) with my mates on one of the many lazy Sundays that we used to have, the problem with that game though is that you use your imagination to have dragons crush the enemies, so what we needed was someone to bring the dragons to life on our consoles and Vivendi have decided to do just that using the rights they acquired for the new blockbuster movie Eragon, but have they succeeded in winning all us fantasy fans over?
When you load the game up and begin the first thing you are treated to is some cutscences which while ok graphically, don’t really explain in great detail what is actually happening story wise, this is unfortunately the general theme for the problems you will experience during the game as things don’t get any better, during the action for example, the camera angles leave you stuck behind the scenery time and again, what this means is that you wont be able to find the doors you came through and you will find it difficult to see any enemies that may be lurking, the camera seems to pull you in directions that just don’t make sense and this makes for very frustrating gameplay.
On a more positive note, there are some pretty good moves during combat, by using the correct combination of buttons (there are only three buttons to press so this isn’t hard), you are able to grapple your opponent and then finish him off with your sword, the combat is definitely the best part of the game, although learning new moves doesn’t seem to happen once you are deeper into the game and you are therefore limited to those which you learn at the beginning.
After a few levels your companion will teach you magic spells such as magic arrow and force push (which can come in handy for moving barriers and defeating opponents), these are quite handy although given that you can easily defeat any enemy at anytime using your combo moves they aren’t really needed very often, however they do produce some nice affect and are therefore a worthwhile addition.
Unfortunately the game doesn’t seem to utilise the fact that you have a dragon on your side, you seem to spend most of the game fighting alongside your companion and the dragon is limited to a few levels where he will fly down do his stuff and then leave again, although saying that you do get to ride the dragon occasionally it’s just that the camera really limits these stages with it’s awkward viewing angle (which incidentally you cannot change).
There are a couple of bonus missions which have been added just for the Xbox 360 version of the game, these are playable by finding the secret eggs in each level and this adds slightly to the otherwise repetitive gameplay, although it is up to you to decide if the extra cost for the Xbox 360 game makes them worth having.
The most enjoyable part of the game is when a friend jumps in using your spare controller via Co-op plays drop in/out option, this can be good fun as it always is when another player is there and since we are on the subject this leads us to another disappointing aspect to the game in that it does not use Xbox Live in anyway, perhaps if you could have played Co-op using Live or have some sort of dragon joust against your friends, then this game would have been improved immensely, maybe this will be added at a later date or maybe not but we will see.
The sound effects provide some good dialogue and fantasy music, the voice acting is by no means the worst that I have heard and in general this is a pretty strong part of the game. Graphically the game is also ok, the HD graphics are as you would expect from a next generation game with some good lighting effects, there is plenty of details used in other areas too, a good example of this is when you catch fire and try to put yourself out as this is done well and looks pretty realistic.
While this review may not seem the most positive you have ever read, Eragon is fun to play, it’s just that after a while you will not go back due to it’s limited gameplay, it certainly isn’t the worst game I have ever played and if I was to rent it I would not feel as if I had wasted my money, but then again I am a big fan of this genre, so perhaps it’s best to get down to your local video shop and rent this one for yourself, only then will you know for sure if it’s for you or not.
