Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon Xbox 360 Review
The Last Installment in the Legend of Spyro Trilogy
Spyro got his start way back in 1998 with a simple, rewarding, and humorous platform adventure. Spyro gets his strength from his mischievous behavior and simple, yet rewarding, game mechanics. This latest addition to Spyro's game library fails to deliver the traditional elements that made Spyro the lovable dragon of yore.
Publisers: Activision, Inc.
Developer: Etranges Libellules
Rating: Everyone 10+
Release: October 21, 2008
Genre: 3D Platformer
Story
Dawn of the Dragon is the last game in the Legend of Spyro trilogy. The first glimpse of the game's hero shows a suddenly grizzled and unfriendly looking purple dragon the uninitiated might expect to be a villain. A lot has gone down since leaving the valiant little dragon at the conclusion of Eternal Night. Spyro's nemesis, the Dark Master, has been stirring up all kinds of trouble. And as one might expect, it is Spyro's job to take care of business.
Gameplay
The introduction cut scene shows Spyro and Cynder being tethered together with magical serpentine collars that create an inseparable link between the young star-crossed dragons. This creates an interesting dynamic for co-op play because Spyro and Cynder must coordinate their movements to solve puzzles and defeat enemies.
However, the lone gamer will be stuck with a highly ineffectual AI. But the single player does have the capability to switch between Spyro and Cynder at will, granting a wider array of abilities for use in combat.
For the first time in the Spyro series, Spyro can fly at any time. Unfortunately, a combination of poorly executed mechanics and maddening invisible ceilings and crosswinds make flying an arduous task at best. Fighting in flight was a nice idea but gets messy due to the absence of a targeting system.
Combat is a mishmash of button smashing and yelling. Boss battles are long, frustrating, and slow paced. At the end of most boss encounters the player is prompted by a sequence of button commands that initiate a finishing blow (made popular by God of War). Fail in this task and the boss will rejuvenate a sizeable chunk of hit points that will need to be whittled back down. Worse yet, the finishing blows lack the creative intensity present in other games that use this idea, like God of War or Force Unleashed.
Sound
The voice acting is the most enjoyable aspect of the game. Elijah Wood and Gary Oldman reprise their roles as Spyro and Ignitus respectively. Mark Hamill, Christina Ricci, and Wayne Brady also join the cast for this last episode. The actors do a superb job despite the game's failings. It is most unfortunate that the thrill of hearing these terrific voices is disrupted by repetitive gameplay and stumbling level designs.
Camera
A large portion of the player's time will be spent fighting with the camera. The trouble with the camera in this title is that it lacks logic. Often times the player will want to backtrack to collect items or replenish heath or energy but will be met with a stubborn angle that will not allow a forward looking perspective.
Problems with the camera crop up all over levels, sometimes rather unexpectedly. It's understandable why the camera might not be able to squeeze itself between Spyro and a rock wall but what's stopping the camera from swinging over an abyss or a sprawling meadow?
Summing up
Dawn of the Dragon twists the lovable easy going platform adventure that was Spyro into a frustrating and agonizing experience. This game is riddled with repetitive combat, tedious boss fights, maddening combat mechanics, confusing level designs, annoying camera angles, and suffers even further because so much of the old humor is absent.
Score: 4
(1<10 scale)
Box Art
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Spyro and Cynder in flight
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Cynder takes the lead
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Spyro's flame attack
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