A Game to Avoid
For those who have never played a game based off of a movie, the game loosely follows the plot of the film and it is quite common to add extra scenes to the game that were not in the movie. Since Eragon is a pretty lengthy movie, there was enough content to the film to not need extra scenes to the game. The game may have been better if there were some extras added to it.
Some people may not have heard of either the book or film called Eragon, so a brief summary is needed. Eragon is a farm boy who discovers a strange blue rock. The rock is actually a dragon egg. He hatches it and raises a blue dragon. This dragon is very powerful and sought after the forces that be. Eragon befriends and grizzly old warrior and the two of them set out to find Eragon’s destiny and in the end save the kingdom. It is all pretty standard fantasy fare. I am sorry if I ruined the whole plot, but most of this was in the movie trailers and even on the back cover of the game. Needless to say, there is not a whole lot to the story on this game.
The game play itself has little or no creativity to it. The game is two player game where Eragon is controlled by the gamer and his teammate is controlled by the computer. Both have swords and a bow and arrow. There is a light and a strong sword attack, a ranged attack with the bow and a block button. This is all really standard to any hack and slash style game. The problem is that there is no really good targeting system to the game. Eragon will face other enemies on the screen when there is one directly next to him on the battle field. When using the bow, there is a green diamond on the enemy, but there really is not an easy way to switch to different targets, the computer mainly does it but this can put the player into tight spots at times. Even with all of this said, the game is still pretty easy even on the ‘Hard’ setting. This is not the only flaw.
The other problem with the game is that it is short! Really short! It can be beaten in five hours and even for an adventure game that is short. There are hidden eggs throughout the game that can add some replay value to the title, but they are not that hard to find the first time through the game. The aspect that makes the eggs somewhat hard to locate is that there is no way to pan the camera, it is 100% controlled by the computer. In some games this is the fastest way for the title to end up in the garbage can, but the camera usually is placed in a respectable location. Having the ability to pan the camera would make locating the game a little easier, but the game is already easy. The only real reply value the game have is that there are achievement points gained for beating a level on ‘Normal’ level and then again on the ‘Hard’ level. Word of warning, the achievements do not stack, so if the level is defeated on ‘Hard’ the ‘Normal’ achievement is not also gained. There are further flaws with the game is the form of the graphics.
For a next generation title, the graphics are sub par at best. Part of the problem is that this game is a cross platform game. The cross platform is also cross game generation. It was released on the Xbox, PS2, PC and Xbox 360, so the developers were not going to rewrite the game to take advantage of the next generation hardware. This being said still does not make the game any easier to look at. The game characters are stiff and very generic in appearance. The animation has a terrible frame rate and at time reminds the player of a marionette in motion. The full motion video is also has the same problems. There is a unique aspect of the game is the animation has a look like it was lifted from a storybook giving the cut scenes a somewhat unique ambiance.
This game is not worth owning, even if found in the discount bin. The game is barely worth the rent. The real point in playing this title is if the player is a rabid Eragon fan or the player wants some fast and easy achievement points.