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Spyro has come a long way since his debut on the PlayStation, and not every step has been a triumphant one. With more than a few falters and a few more jerks backward, it has finally come time for Spyro to settle into a well-deserved retirement. So how will The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon settle its star into life after adventuring?
Gameplay:
A decade ago, it would be hard to look at Spyro the Dragon and conclude that Dawn of the Dragon (DotD) would be the ten-year culmination in the Spyro series. Spyro originated as a 3D platformer (with a dash of adventure) after all, and DotD is far from a platformer purist’s dream-come-true. Indeed, DotD has probably become the yang to the series’ original yin, as in every way the game plays and feels like an adventure (with a dash of platforming). Every good platformer has an object to collect, be it coins, rings, gems, bottle caps, baseball cards, stamps, whatever. Spyro’s collectible of choice has always been gems (and plus 10 “nerd points” if you can name all of the original colors). Gem counts and dragon rescues used to relate to which area you could visit, but in DotD the story moves on a linear path you simply follow from start to finish. Spyro, Cynder and Sparx (along with a DRASTICALLY re-imagined Hunter) must travel through the world of Dawn of the Dragon saving kingdoms and putting an end to the conquest of the evil Malefor, and gems, instead of being a collectible necessary for progress, now tie in to health (red), mana (green) and experience (blue). Along the way you can collect armor for both Spyro and Cynder, and their health and mana can be upgraded with larger, correspondingly colored lodestones. Each dragon can wear three pieces of armor at a time – a helmet, a pair of bracers and a tailplate – and each piece has a different effect. Some increase defense or attack power, others provide a regenerating effect to mana or increase combo multipliers. Of course, that brings us to combat, which isn’t exactly DotD’s strong suit. There are some very basic combo attacks using X and Y, and a few grapple combos after you grab an enemy with the B button. The Right Trigger and Right Bumper use Spyro’s and Cynder’s breath abilities, like Fire Breath or Poison Breath, and the experience you earn from enemies and experience lodestones upgrades these attacks to make them more powerful. Both dragons have four breath attacks which you can choose on the fly with the D-Pad. As you fight, you build up a “Fury Meter,” which will let Spyro and Cynder go ballistic with a beam of purple energy that can absolutely wreck a group of enemies.
Now that Spyro and Cynder can fly at will, there is a bit of air combat to go along with the ground combat. The downside to all of this is the execution. The ground and air combat are both terribly simplistic, but not in a “pick up and play” way. Instead, most of the ground combat ends up being an X button "mashfest", and air combat is just awkward and difficult. The camera does nothing to alleviate this, as enemies can come off camera to smack you when you least expect it. This makes fights with pitifully easy enemies unnecessarily complicated and difficult, simply because of the number of unseen cheapshots you’ll be hit with. On the other hand, the combat is actually quite fun when you use your breath attacks. This is especially the case with Cynder, who has some unique abilities in contrast to Spyro’s element-based attack theme. The problem is that breath attacks use up mana, which must be replenished by fallen foes or from green gems scattered throughout the stage. Mucking this up is the fact that Cynder is a magic oriented dragon, and Spyro is a combat oriented dragon. However, Spyro has no additional attack combos, cannot do any additional damage for using physical attacks (without a piece of armor designed to do so, and Cynder has armor doing the same for her magic) and this is especially noticeable in co-op gameplay, he has less mana than Cynder, as well. The co-op play is actually very good in spite of that, letting players do some nice moves together, such as paralyzing a group of enemies with Spyro’s lightning attacks while Cynder smacks them around. Once again, though, the camera plays more of a detrimental role here, and can make combat cramped and awkward for two people sharing the same screen.
While the addition of flight is very nice, it is pathetically simple in execution. Press A + A + A, point in the direction you want to go and press A to flap wings for speed and altitude. You cannot fly upward or downward, barrel roll or perform any other flying maneuvers. Everything is controlled with A – even landing. It’s a shame, because some of the areas you visit in the game are just perfect for flying, but you’re constrained by shoddy flight mechanics and, even worse, you’re limited in where you can fly by “wind currents” that force you to go through a bit of platforming instead of simply flying upward. That just doesn’t make sense.
Graphics:
Dawn of the Dragon is something of an oddity. It is both a gorgeous game, and “exhibit A in ugly visuals” at the same time. To clarify, the character models are fantastic. Spyro, Cynder, Hunter and all of the enemies look great close up or far away. While Spyro and Cynder are a little too “shiny” for my tastes (I expect dragons to look scalier, like an iguana, rather than slick like a gecko), they both still look very good, and the environments are gorgeous as well. Every crystal, boulder, building and droplet of water looks breathtaking, especially in the first outdoor area you visit. The grass, water and trees look phenomenal. All of the breath attacks that Spyro and Cynder use look great as well, and Spyro’s Right Bumper lightning attack is just a visual treat. Unfortunately, there are some cringe-worthy graphical shortcuts that make me think back to the Nintendo 64 in terms of quality. In particular, the big battle scene where Spyro and Cynder are defending the dwarves comes to mind, as all of the attacking troops are flat, 2D sprites (and ugly, ugly, UGLY pixilated ones at that) doing the same animation over and over in the background to create the illusion of movement. That’s just lazy, and really inexcusable in what is otherwise such an exceptionally pretty game.
Sound:
The sound, overall, is mostly good. I liked the music, which felt sweepingly epic in some instances. The music always felt appropriate and well placed, and never made a spectacle of itself over the action or dialogue, which is largely good. Elijah Wood reprises his role as Spyro while Christina Ricci guest stars as Cynder. While I don’t really like Wood as Spyro, it has nothing to do with his performance, which I felt was top-notch from start to finish. To his credit, he really does do a great job putting the appropriate emotion into his lines. I have equally high praise for Ricci, but feel that she is a more natural fit for Cynder. Hunter, who is voiced by Blair Underwood, is now the serious and soft-spoken guide leading Spyro and Cynder through their journey, and does a good job here as well. I didn’t like Wayne Brady as Sparx, but I think it had less to do with Brady and more to do with the cheesy “funny guy” lines written for him. It just felt too forced and typical, and it really didn’t fit at all with the more serious tone set over and over again throughout the game. As for Mark Hamill and Gary Oldman… How can I really complain about their contribution? Well, I can’t. Mark Hamill is one of only a few voice actors who is welcome in every game I play. Maybe if they had contracted Steven Blum to voice someone I would have bumped the score up one more point (just kidding).
Longevity:
Dawn of the Dragon is a big game. The levels can be huge and sprawling, leaving a lot of room for exploration, especially for those of us who enjoy tracking down every last upgrade and secret. The game allows you to go back for anything you missed by using “Chapter Mode” from the main menu, but this feels somewhat awkward. I would have liked it a lot more if the game had allowed players to travel back to previous areas naturally, rather than replay the ENTIRE level to get missed items. That can be tedious, to say the least, especially when you don’t know where the item is and you have to invest time in searching. Depending on how much you want to search, how quick you find everything and how good you are at the combat, you can get anywhere from 15-20 hours out of Dawn of the Dragon. Co-op doesn’t add anything to the game, outside of the pleasure of going through it with a friend, which I would highly recommend in spite of the complications that can sometimes arise. My biggest complaint is that this game would have been perfect for sidequests, yet there are none. Why in the world would you create such a huge world with such large levels to explore, throw in an experience system and then not include sidequests?
Overall:
The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon is a solid game weighed down by dents and dings that could have been hammered out had it been given either more time on the anvil, or a more scrutinizing once-over. The game feels epic in many parts, but fails to deliver during much of the gameplay. The combat can be fun or frustrating, yet still feels hopelessly simplistic. Puzzles can be surprisingly complicated and confusing, which makes the E 10+ U.S. rating confusing to me. How is a young child supposed to figure a puzzle out while getting slammed by wave after wave of baddies (with no health in sight) when it took me a good 15 minutes just to understand what to do? While it could have been so much more, Dawn of the Dragon settles on simply being a decent-to-good experience that feels like it was on the cusp of being great.
| Review By: Jared Brickey - Overall Rating 7 (out of 10) |
| Gameplay: |
6 |
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| Graphics: |
8 |
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| Sound: |
7 |
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| Longevity: |
7 |
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| Overall: |
7 |
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