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Spyro Dawn of the Dragon
Spyro has been around for quite some time
now and since his incarnation on the PlayStation, our little dragon has
come a long way. Although our colourful and fire breathing dragon has
had a few ups and downs in his career, Spyro Dawn of the Dragon is the
latest title of the franchise which not only pays homage to the original
premise but also takes the franchise onto the next evolutionary stage.
Continuing from the previous game, Spyro
has teamed up with his nemesis Cynder who are about to liberate the
world from the Dark Master Malefor. Ironically, the current story has
undertones of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and considering that Elijah
Wood who played Frodo in the movie also voices our little dragon, it's a
little ironic, although in a good way.
In its essence Spyro Drawn of the Dragon is
your classic arcade game that has the gamer solving puzzles, quests and
of course a healthy dose of combat. The fun part of the game is flying
through the interesting gaming environments that younger gamers will
simply adore.
The catch to this game is that both Spyro and Cynder are
connected via a cursed magical chain and in single-player, you can swap
between both characters. The AI of Cynder or Spyro is ok, however if you
want to spice things up, why not try to play the game with another
player which makes things quite more enjoyable.
The combat in the game allows you to
perform a variety of attacks from melee to elemental powers. You can
also guard against attacks and perform a quick roll to evade them plus
the option of grabbing some of your smaller foes. At times, it feels
like there is an unending line of enemies coming towards you and as you
progress do do the enemies which become more powerful plus the odd boss
battle here and there.
The boss battles are frustrating as you need to
work out what tactics work and what don't which means you'll may need to
repeat these battles due to trial and error. The fun part of the combat
is that Spyro and Cynder have four elemental powers to use which creates
some interesting battles as you fry and freeze your enemies. Of course,
Dragons also have the ability to breathe fire so enemies beware!
Graphically, Spyro is a visual treat on the
XBox 360 with an amazing colour palette and some truly detailed
environments. The characters are all well animated and match that with
some decent special effects and lighting and this is a rather impressive
looking game. The most annoying aspect of the game is the camera angle
which does become annoyingly frustrating at times.
Musically, the score
suits the genre perfectly that changes with the gameplay. Elijah Wood is
great as Spyro as is Christina Ricci as Cynder who really get into their
characters. My favourite is of course Mark Hamill as Malefor who really
goes over the top for his character. Definitely one of the better games
when it comes to voice acting.
In conclusion, this game is on the mark for the fans and will take
the average gamer around 10 - 15 hours to successfully complete. Great
visuals and music, the only downside of the game is the sometimes
mediocre arcade aspects, however fortunately these are far and few and
with this in mind, the game is targeted for the younger gamer. |
