Gaming Trend

Gaming Trend Review

The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon

1. Official Site
2. Platform: 360
3. Publisher: Sierra
4. Developer: Etrangles Libellules
5. Release Date: 10/21/08
6. Genre: Action/Adventure

by Jason Ballew

The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon is the final game in the trilogy which began in 2006 on the PS2 and Xbox with Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning.  Featuring a new designer in Etrangles Libellules and new gameplay concepts with the ability to fly at any time and drop-in co-op multiplayer, Activision is seeking to close the trilogy with a bang with this introduction of Spyro to the Xbox 360.

Given the sheer number of platform adventure games which have come out over the past couple of years, the question is if Spyro can make the leap from the PS2 and Xbox to the PS3 and Xbox 360, or will it find itself left behind some of the other great adventure games of this generation?

The first thing I noticed about Spyro: DotD is that the game is absolutely beautiful.  The colors pop on the screen, even on my 27" SDTV, light reflects off of objects, and wet rocks actually shine.  This is one of the best looking Xbox 360 games I've seen in a while, and proves that just because you don't have a HDTV doesn't mean that you can't enjoy pretty games.  As a side note, the menu graphics are actually large enough to be read on my TV, which was a huge plus. 

The characters all had quite solid detail, and each of the enemy types was relatively easy to tell apart, and even the Elite monsters had solid visual clues in SD, which help when trying to defeat them.  We are used to graphics in our games being excellent, but it's nice to see one do it at 480i.  I can't wait to see what this looks like at 720p.

First off, the voice acting in the game is quite solid, featuring some major Hollywood talent, including Elijah Wood, Christina Ricci, Wayne Brady, Gary Oldman, Blair Underwood and Mark Hamill, with the rest of the cast rounded out with industry veterans who know how to do good voice acting.  The time and money spent on these people shows in the quality of the word.  The characters all sound believable, and even if the lip syncing doesn't always appear to mesh, it's a small, easily overlooked issue. 

The music is absoltutely stunning.  The battle music is all timely and sets the proper tone for the area that you're in, and the different level themes are really wonderful, with some that especially stand out above the rest, and are even worth setting your controller down, and just listening to the game for a while.  The sound effects are solid for both the elemental and melee attacks, as well as flying, and the entire thing comes off very polished.

If one area of Spyro: DotD can be said to be lacking, this is it.  Not so much because of the controls themselves, but because of the very limited camera in the game.

The controls are pretty standard fare for any action-adventure game, with X and Y providing quick and strong attacks respectively, A jumping, and B grabbing your enemy.  Your left trigger switches between Sypro and Cinder while the bumper blocks and evades.  Both the right trigger and bumper handle your elemental attacks, the D-pad selects the element to use while the left analog stick moves your dragon while the right moves the camera.

The problem with the camera is simply that it is limited.  If you are anywhere near the walls, either physical or arbitrary, the camera simply will not cycle around it, as the wall not only blocks your movement, but also that of the camera itself.  This means that quite often you're limited to a very awkward camera angle, and at worst, the camera gets stuck behind scenery, which can make things rather frustrating indeed.  The simple addition of a 360 degree camera would have solved just about all of the issues.  Unfortuately, this is one of the weakest parts of the game.

Spyro: DotD picks up approximately three years after Spyro: The Eternal Night, and begins with Spyro and Cinder, as well as Sparx, confined in a crystal.  Freed by Hunter of Avalar, the story finishes the trilogy begun two years ago with Spyro: A New Beginning.  Malefor the Dark Master has begun his conquest of the world and it is up to Spyro and Cinder to save the world and defeat the Dark Master.

Each level is of a good size with definite objectives, although you aren't really timed on any of them, and can pretty much wander each area with ease, fighting monsters, finding secrets and powerups, and generally exploring.  The game does a good job with giving you a tutorial everytime a new play element is introduced, although the jump between gameplay and either tutorial or other cutscene can be pretty jarring, and there were a number of times I wished that it was a bit faster and smoother, as it kept pulling me out of the experience.

The game features three different powerup systems:   Orbs give you health (red), mana (green) or experience (blue), and then there are special crystals you can destroy that will increase your magic power (green) or life meter (red).  Also, periodically you will find chests that contain armor to upgrade your abilities.  Your experience points are used to increase your elemental attacks, with each of the four per character having a number of levels available to unlock. 

While the game does add the ability to fly anywhere and at any time via a triple push of the A button, as well as drop-in/drop-out co-op multiplayer, the game really doesn't bring anything new or different to the table.  Beat the monsters, find the secret items, level up with experience to unlock new moves or abilities...it's been done in some form or fashion for at least the last six or seven years.  The game itself is solid enough that it doesn't become too boring.

One thing I would like to point out is the difficulty level:  This game is not easy, especially given that it's rated E-10+, which would lead you to believe it's aimed at the pre-teen market.  Perhaps it's time that games also mentioned what the target audience was, but there were sections that really frustrated me and made me walk away for a while, and if it can do that to a seasoned gamer, I wonder how a 10 year old boy or girl will react. 

With many games now, it's not just about beating the game.  Spyro: DotD is no different.  While the main game will clock in around 20 hours or so, there's also a completion meter in the game, and some players may choose to try to reach 100%, which involves tracking down and defeating all of the Elite monsters as well as finding all of the power ups and pumping each of the elemental powers to full capacity.  If you throw all of that in, you're looking at a possible 40 to 50 hours of gameplay, which isn't bad for a game that's currently going for $50 on the Xbox 360. 

The ability to go through the game co-op helps as well, although it would have been nice if the game included online co-op.  Still and all, there's a lot to keep one busy for a fair amount of time, and that's really all you can ask from a game.

I honestly was not expecting to enjoy this game.  If it wasn't for the rush to get the title reviewed, I would have taken much more time to get through the game.  While the game is frustrating in a number of parts, it's still rather fun to play, if perhaps a bit too much for the young audience it's aimed at. 

There's enough gameplay to make it worth the cost, and it's a solid enough game to be worth picking it up for Christmas at full price.  I still can't get over how great the music and graphics are in this game.

Gaming Trend Score

86

1. Graphics: 93
2. Audio: 95
3. Controls: 73
4. Gameplay: 85
5. Value/Replay: 85
6. OVERALL:86