Eragon is a semi-fun, fantasy aerial-combat game that is probably worth a rent for a rainy day.

User Rating: 6.5 | Eragon PSP
By gautam3 | Review Date:
Eragon is another attempt at bringing an epic adventure game to a console system. The PSP edition of the game basically takes aerial combat to the fantasy realm by having the user play Eragon, the rider of the dragon that is the character you control. Being a dragon is certainly fun – the flying, the fire breath and fights. This can get tedious, especially with the single player levels being so heavily focused on micromanaging the environment. Graphics are fairly well done, and ironically, the rating might have been higher were this game released last year around this time. The scenery is left to the wayside, but that doesn’t really matter in Eragon. This isn’t a game where high-end graphics are important, especially since being in the air and moving doesn’t allow for much sightseeing time.
To contrast, the epic-fantasy soundtrack suits the game really well and there is no doubt that the upcoming movie (of the same name) will feature some of the very same tracks. The sound effects are standard fare. In other words, they are nothing much to speak of. The major issue is controls. There isn’t much in the way of customizing them, and the dragon tends to do things you don’t intend to. This might cost you time and thus success in missions. Other than that, expect to control your dragon like an-odd-kind-of airplane. Some control buttons can do multiple things, which can get annoying.
Missions are lined up fairly predictably and tend to surround similar tasks. After all, there is only so much one can do with the dragon riding theme on a portable system. The HUD is decent and not terribly accurate. These details don’t really matter since the gameplay is fairly easy and doesn’t require a great deal of planning or thinking (Not that most games do, but amazing games make the cut by standing out in some way).
Multiplayer can provide a bit of fun, but apart from a few hours of gameplay in the single player mode, that’s about it in Eragon. I don’t find this game to be a waste of time, but it isn’t worth owning.

GRAPHICS: 7/10 (It could be better, but it isn’t really terrible. This is partly because aerial gameplay allows developers to forgo a lot of detail)

SOUND: 8/10 (Great music, decent sound effects. Think Lord of Rings with respect to the soundtrack.)

CONTROLS: 5/10 (Controls are always an issue for the PSP, and Eragon is no exception.)

DIFFICULTY: AVERAGE (The usual game difficulty, really)

VALUE: 5/10 (Single player is a play-once thing, the multiplayer has potential)

LOAD TIMES: MEDIUM OVERALL: 6/10 (Innovative for the PSP in the fantasy genre)

Other Helpful Reviews for Eragon

  • Rating:6.8

    Interesting concept, but too much defending and bad controls kind of ruins it.

    By Villimax | Review Date: Dec 24, 2006 | PSP

    In this game, the player is a dragon who flies around and eats or burns things. The dragon sometimes has someone riding on its back who has extra weapons, though the player must manually use them. The majority of the ga... Read Full Review

    5 of 6 users found the following review helpful
  • Rating:1

    Horrible, just horrible.

    By jstrife | Review Date: Jul 23, 2008 | PSP

    Fans of the book, Eragon will burn this game to the ground when they finish this trash. You play as this one dragon and go around and kill enemies and yea, you won. There's no variety at all. Go ambush enemy territory , ... Read Full Review

    2 of 2 users found the following review helpful
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