The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
A breath of fresh fire
Tags: Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon Categories: Reviews, Xbox 360 Reviews
Posted by Tracy Erickson on Dec 23rd, 2008
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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Purveyors of family-friendly entertainment eternally struggle to provide something that captivates the adults towed along by their children. Making something palatable to a mature audience is a significant challenge when the primary focus is broader. Disney films often succeed in this, peppering cutesy animated tales with mature quips and suggestive situations. A quick glance at the original VHS box art for The Little Mermaid is all the proof you need.
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Video games like The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon have a much harder go of it, though. Spyro’s purple hue won’t entice anyone over the age of 10, but the game’s varied combat system will be lost on a child the same age. It’s a mix of kid-friendly looks and mature gaming that strikes an unusual chord. Few flaws and several layers of polish could have seen this odd combination through as a success; unfortunately, the game is so riddled with silly errors that it can’t achieve the lofty goals it sets for itself.
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Dawn of the Dragon embarks on an ambitious blend of traditional platforming and hard-hitting action. As titular dragon Spyro, you awaken at the start of the game to find yourself magically tied to your former nemesis Cynder. Together the two dragons must fight in search of a means to unlocking the chain that binds them. It’s a kid’s take on God of War that runs through 10 massive levels of fire-breathing, enemy-clawing action. In line with previous installments of the franchise, Spyro and Cynder are able to jump and fly to tackle the various platform challenges peppering each level; however, the emphasis lies squarely on the action.
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Amazingly enough, it doesn’t disappoint. By far, the combat system is the strongest argument for Dawn of the Dragon. Playing alone, the player can switch between Spyro and Cynder to utilize their distinct abilities. Each possess a slate of four elemental powers that grant special abilities when the player spends a bit of mana. Spyro, for instance, taps into fire, ice, electricity, and earth elementals that afford specific special attacks. Activating fire results in flaming breath, naturally. Cynder’s elementals are totally distinct, granting a set of alternate abilities that the player can utilize to defeat enemies and solve puzzles. In fact, learning both dragons’ elemental abilities is crucial in overcoming obstacles throughout the adventure.
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Upgrading these elemental powers is possible too. Experience orbs dropped from fallen foes allows the player to dedicate points for upgrades in any of the four elemental categories. As it goes, the more advanced an upgrade, the more experience required. Fortunately, racking up hit high combos rewards a greater amount of experience, which naturally means the player is pushed into fighting constantly. It’s a good thing because Dawn of the Dragon is responsive, dynamic, and exhilarating–until the camera gets in the way.
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Tight spaces pose a problem, to be sure, but the camera is an annoyance even in wide open areas. Expect resistance from the camera whenever you scale a wall or fly past a cliff, as it often jumps to odd angles or gets hung up on an object. This becomes a more serious problem during battles, obstructing your view of the action and putting you in danger of death. It’s even more troublesome when playing cooperatively. Dawn of the Dragon generously supports drop-in, drop-out cooperative play through the campaign, yet it doesn’t have a camera system capable of managing two players at once. Tying the two dragons together does dual duty in terms of the narrative and technically, but the camera still wigs out nonetheless.
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Contributing to this problem are over-the-top elemental effects that fill the screen and obscure the view. Especially in later levels, unleashing an upgraded elemental attack causes the screen to go crazy with colors that prevents you from seeing what’s actually going on. In a cooperative session, it makes it impossible to know what’s happening as the supporting player. It’s such a silly error–these effect need to be toned down.
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There are plenty of other problems to be found, sadly. Graphically, Dawn of the Dragon is filled with flaws from copious clipping to obscene loading screens. Interrupting a cutscene with a black loading screen, for one example, is an egregious shortcoming. Why these sort of inexcusable mistakes were made when the potential existed for this game to excel will remain the quiet anguish of those in charge of rushing it out the door. Clearly, more time was needed to clean up what has the shape of something good. Unfortunately, what few positives that can be gleened from Dawn of the Dragon are all that can be enjoyed–slick action, responsive controls, and straightforward levels. Without polish, however, the game feels about as naked as our little mermaid.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ Slick combat system + Responsive controls + Cooperative play |
6.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
|
- Awful camera - Uneven visual quality - Inexcusable loading screens |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| It's death of a thousand cuts for The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon. Too many silly mistakes lead to an overall letdown in what could easily have become an amazing game. A slick, responsive combat system goes wasted on bland visuals, a poor camera, and a myriad of other flaws. While the cooperative support and combat mechanics offer some enjoyment, on the whole it's more a dark mark than rising star for Spryo's latest outing. | |
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Tags: Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
Posted by Tracy Erickson on Dec 23rd, 2008 and is filed under Reviews, Xbox 360 Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
