
	Platform Xbox 360 Genre Action Adventure Publisher Activision Blizzard Developer Entranges Libellules ESRB E10+ (Everyone 10+) Released October 21, 2008

‑Better-than-average storyline supported with standout voice acting ‑Provides plenty of gameplay in fantastic-looking environments ‑Plenty of Big Boss battles

‑One of the worst cameras in any game of the current generation of gaming platforms, rendering the game nearly unplayable at times ‑Big Boss Battles tend to cause gamers to lose their placement in the fight, especially during co-op action

Review: Bee Movie Game (360) Review: Tales of Vesperia (360) Review: Overlord (360)
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Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon

Score: 7.0/10

He’s the little flying purple dragon that could, overcoming all kinds of bigger and most definitely badder enemies throughout his many gaming adventures. The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon on the Xbox 360, Spyro's latest quest, just also may be his last as the title completes a trilogy on a somewhat mediocre note. Although Spyro can take flight at literally any moment for the first time ever, and despite a good story, great graphics and insane Big Boss battles, a truly horrible camera and sometimes-aimless gameplay extinguish this dragon tale’s flames of fun.

Despite not too much originality, the story is actually pretty good, as Spyro must team with his former tiny-dragon adversary, the female Cynder, to defeat the nefarious plans of the Dark Master, who intends to plunge the world into a new age of darkness. Helping the story along is a Hollywood cast for the voice acting: Elijah Wood (who knows a thing or two about saving the world from an evil presence from his Lord of the Rings work) is Spyro and Christina Ricci is Cynder. Gary Oldman and Mark Hamill also lend their voices to the production, helping to weave a first-class saga for Spyro.

Along with the story and voice acting, Dawn of the Dragon features some truly stellar, graphically gorgeous environments. Some of the locales Spyro and Cynder with traverse are just unbelievably beautiful. Along with that are outstanding visual effects, especially the elemental powers that both Spyro and Cynder use, particularly when they have been leveled up to their highest level.

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However, those impressive elemental effects do tend to obscure the two dragons during the heat of battle, making it easy to lose placement on the gaming screen (even worse is that Spyro and Cynder are close in appearance, and it’s really easy for a gamer to confusingly think they’re Spyro on-screen when they’re really Cynder). This causes

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many instances of injuries being sustained and making it much harder to defeat those enemies, small and large, that are being fought at the time.

Nothing loses a gamer’s placement on-screen, however, more than what could be one of the worst cameras of the last five years. The camera is absolutely dreadful, being completely inflexible and locking into place on undesired areas of the environment, making it totally and frustratingly impossible at times to play the game with any enjoyment.

This is supposed to be a third-person game, with the camera placed directly behind the character. Instead, inexplicably the camera winds up in front of Spyro and Cynder, showing them heading into the game action without showing any glimpse of what game action lies ahead. It doesn’t lead to many “deaths” though, because for the first time, a Spyro title allows gamers to take flight at any time, meaning that even if Spyro and Cynder fall off a high-scale precipice due to the inadequacy of the camera, a simple button push puts them into flight.

And considering that Spyro and Cynder are chained together throughout the game, that’s a good thing. No matter if gamers take on Dawn of the Dragon alone or with a co-op partner, Spyro and Cynder need to work together to advance through the game. This has its own collection of frustrations, though, as one dragon’s misstep could cause the other to literally be dragged down, too. Many times the game is better suited for a single player (the final fight in the entire game is much, much simpler completed by a singular gamer) while at other times having a co-op partner is the best solution.

No matter if Dawn of the Dragon is played alone or as a duo, by far the best aspect of the game is the Big Boss battles. While many of the battles against smaller foes are monotonous (and somewhat confusing, because there is never any indication of how close you actually are to winning a particular multiple-enemy battle), it’s the Big Boss battles that games will find most fun.

Facing enemies that can literally fill the screen and that are inestimably larger than the small heroic dragons Spyro and Cynder, these Big Boss fights challenge gamer’s dragon skills, with the end result being well-deserved victories. Plenty of save points throughout the game also assist gamers from having to backtrack too much, especially when it comes to the battles against Dawn of the Dragon’s Big Bosses. But even with the save points, gamers will find it relatively simple to unfortunately not have any idea of what their next objective is, as there can be much aimless wandering because there isn’t any hint system to give gamers a clue what they should be doing next.

Taking flight for the seemingly last time, Spyro gets regrettably grounded by some debilitating gameplay features, most notably the camera that will have gamers madly spewing fire and brimstone. However, if gamers can endure the intolerable camera, there’s a very good story and some compelling gameplay that soars above the game’s weaknesses.

- Lee Cieniawa
lcieniawa@armchairempire.com
December 18, 2008