Is this the best Spyro adventure yet?
Over the years we have been on many adventures with our little purple friend Spyro, once again we are to join Spyro and his adventures, but is this the best Spyro adventure to date?
Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon begins with Spyro being trapped within an block of ice with Cynder (his enemy) and his sidekick Sparx for a few years. They are finally released and have a short battle with some small grublins and one huge golem, this is treated as the tutorial. After the tutorial you are ready to play the game properly.
The fighting system in this game is surprisingly deep for a simple platform game, there are a number of button combinations you can do to execute some pretty cool moves. Along with the combat both Spyro and Cynder can use 4 different types of magic which are different for both dragons. Spyro has fire, earth, ice and electric magic to cast at enemies whereas Cynder has fear, poison, shadow and wind magic to cast. All of the magic will need to be used at some point of the game not just for battle but to proceed to the next area of the game, it’s a nice touch to the game. Unfortunately the combat sequences in this game fail to impress as they are highly repetitive and can be highly difficult. Sometimes enemies may be immune to a number of attacks but the game will not give you any clues on how to beat them, which to brings me to my next point.
Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon often fails to tell you exactly what it is you have to do. It will give you a short sentence and leave you to it, this can be frustrating as you can be wandering around the area for a considerable amount of time until you finally figure out what it is you need to do. Younger gamers will not enjoy that so much, they will prefer something to guide them along the way. Even sparx Spyro’s trusty sidekick stays right near you most of the time and rarely leads the way to your destination. This is something that should definitely be improved on.
On the other hand, in some parts of the game you will get a small help sentence come up when you need to break a wall down or wall run, you will be able to do it no problem as you just follow the sentence. The help sentences just don’t pop up often enough to give you a piece of guidance or advice.
Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon had the potential to be a great game
The game is based on a lot of cooperation as Spyro and Cynder are attached to each other by a secured brace around there necks, the braces will only let Spyro and Cynder go a limited amount of distance away from each other. You can understand how this works but it can be very annoying when you control Spyro to go somewhere and Cynder will not follow as she has gone the wrong way, you have to go back and do the same again but slower to get her to follow you exactly the way you went.
There are parts of the game where Spyro and Cynder both need to open a door together or need to both grab a weight to place on a pressure pad and many more examples. These parts of the games are okay but there are just way to many of them, some of the puzzles are very difficult too and yet again there will be no help sentences to guide you. More frustration.
The graphics on the game are a mixed bag. Some environments can look beautiful whilst some can look uninspiring and bland. Near the start of the game you come across a huge field covered with rich green grass and trees. It will dazzle you until you are exposed to some drastic frame rate issues. There can be some nice textures on walls and floors which gleam in the light, but even these are fairly scarce. I also came across an issue where I could see a nice mountain from a distance then all of a sudden it disappeared for about 5 seconds, when it came back onto the screen it was like the detail of the mountain had completely gone. Some of these issues can be dismissed if they happen in short amounts of time. Sadly, sometimes this is not the case.
The cut-scenes in Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon can be entertaining and generally good to watch. It would have been better if the cut-scenes were all from the same graphical standard. Most of the time the cut-scenes look really good and fairly detailed. Sparx can be quiet amusing in the cut-scenes too, he is also one of the smallest characters but best characters in the game.
Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon had the potential to be a great game, especially when Spyro can now fly freely. I think Edios should have definitely payed more attention to the flying mechanic in this game and I cant see why they didn’t. It almost feels as if the flying system feels unfinished.
The boss battles are nothing really that special either, repetitive and difficult. You will be forced to fight the same Golem boss numerous times.
The storyline in this game is okay, its nothing special but It will keep the younger gamers happy.
The audio in this game is fine, nice music throughout the game. The music in battles gives the game a boost of excitement, but not much.
You can switch to being Cynder at any time, they both feel the same and most gamers will prefer to be Spyro. Finally armour parts can be found throughout the game, though they do not really do much.
If you like Spyro games that much and you have been following the previous games then you shouldn’t miss out on this Spyro game. If you arent a huge fan, I wouldn’t recommend it.
Spyro is still our purple friend, he just needs time to think.
The Bad: highly repetitive, flying is awkward, your companion can be annoying.
