The second game of The Legend Of Spyro series is a great sequel and is utterly underrated
It's nearly been 10 years since the first Spyro came out, which was a great game then, as well as it's next two sequels. Further throughout the years there have been many new Spyro games, but none of them were as any good as the originals(excluding the new games). All these games were developed by insomniac. Apparently, after their first Spyro attempt on the DS(which was poor) they gave up on the series.
It wasn't all bad though, as they sold the license to Vgames, so as now Vgames are going to develop the new Spyro games. Krome Studios have created the first two of the series and they did a great job on both games. Unfortunately as I heard, they will not be making the 3rd game of the series, for the reason I don't know.
Anyway, this review of The Eternal Night will now begin, I found the previous instalment underrated and it turns out that the sequel is underrated as well. Regardless, anyone should at least give the game a try, even the old spyro fans who gave up on the new series. I really do sometimes hate most game reviews from websites like GS, IGN etc. They can get players to not buy some good games which they rated as bad. Also, I have heard that players gave up on this game that it was too difficult. Ridiculous, I know people(like 10 year olds) who completed this game without much problems. Seriously, there's more than enough reasons to say that the new series is underrated. (I think I'll end my speech here). Also, one more thing, this review actually makes more sense if you have read my review of A New Beginning.
(Note: The following paragraphs contains info about the game's storyline. Purposely the story told here, contains spoilers, and is NOT accurately written, to reduce the amount of spoilers. You will notice that it is quick brief, and partly explained. Character's lines are not written for example)
The Eternal Night continues off sometime after A New Beginning. With Spyro having a nightmare of his final battle with Cynder, discovering that she was not evil after all and was under control of the dark master. After she was defeated she returned to her original size and happens to be the same age and size as Spyro. Because of this, Spyro did not leave her behind in the 'realm' which was being destroyed.
After a few events, when Cynder leaves the temple, because of what she thinks she put Spyro through. Spyro mysteriously faints, and later finds out he does, because a voice speaks to him. The 'chronicler' calls him, and commands Spyro to search for him. This happens in Spyro's dream.(These dreams are actually short tutorial levels in the game)
After Spyro wakes up, the dragon temple gets ambushed. Spyro then has to fight them off, Sparx, who follows him, but does completely nothing(part from putting some humour into the entire game, which isn't a bad thing if you ask me). Spyro eventually finds Ignitus- the dragon elder of fire from the previous game. Ignitus helps Spyro fight off the enemies. The bad guys eventually retreat.
Ignitus, Spyro, Sparx and all the other dragon elders; Terrador,Cyril and Volteer meet inside the dragon temple. Ignitus explains that it is no longer safe to slack around and do nothing, as this attack was the first of many. He finds out that Cynder has left, and was unable to discover where she is. Spyro tells them about the recent nightmares he has been having.
The Dragon Elders send Spyro to an unusual forest, where he must follow where the 'voice' from his dreams tell him to. Like always, Sparx follows him. While on his journey Spyro must face new and old enemies, such as the monkeys and apes. Players will later find out about the leader of the evil creatures- Gaul. He is arriving at the' Temple Of Souls', where he would resurrect the Dark Master, the terrifying enemy who started it all. Players will find out why these monkeys are evil, who the actually Dark Master is, and plenty of surprises throughout the game. Like its predecessor, The Legend Of Spyro The Eternal Night has a strong, dark and truly epic story. Which pretty means, that it's great.
(End of spoilers)
Similar to to its prequel, the gameplay here is nothing like the old Spyro. Like ANB it has an action-oriented gameplay, and seems to be focused mostly on combat, which is never a bad thing- if done probably. A New Beginning had a few problems, the worst is that the gameplay was quite repetitive, and the levels were quite linear- resulting in a short game, but of course since this is a sequel; there are improvements.
Let me begin to tell you what the differences(from the old games) are , if you have played the prequel already you got the idea. The enemies have a life bar, which was not in the old Spyro games, and to add to that, no enemy dies in one-shot. What makes Sparx useless in the new series, is that he no longer takes any hits for Spyro, as Spyro actually has a health bar. Which is a good addition to this new series. Another main difference is that you no longer collect gems, but they are used to restore your health, magic bar etc. Red gems restore health, green gems recover you magic bar, blue gems increase your exp points(which was a great new addition that I liked in ANB) and finally, purple gems steadily fill up your fury bar, until it's maxed out. You find crystals in the game, which when attacked, give you gems(corresponding to the colour of the crystal). Defeated enemies give you gems as well.
The combat in the prequel had a good foundation, but it needed some building up. I found it to be a 'Devil May Cry Lite'. You can attack you enemies with melee and elemental attacks. Melee moves can be used to execute combos, and do to other things like blasting you enemy(or enemies) into mid-air to extend you combo. Also, in this sequel, you have some cool new combos to try out.
As for your elemental powers(aka 'breaths', your special attacks). Spyro can use 4 elements: fire, electricity, ice and earth(same as the prequel). Guessable, fire is the first element that Spyro re-learns. If you have played and finished A New Beginning, Spyro looses his powers at the end of the game. Of course, he learns them again in this sequel. Throughout the game, Spyro re-learns his powers throughout his dreams, which are like short tutorial levels. Each of these 'dream' levels are different, with different attacks explained for each element throughout the levels. Like previously mentioned, each of these powers are unique and need to be used at the right time, such as the puzzles, which involve using a certain element to do the job. Not only that, but Spyro also learns new moves for each element, which are not available in the previous instalment. The new moves are much better than the previous ones, and make the game's combat so much better. Oh, and like ANB you collect blue gems(which enemies drop and are in blue crystals) give you exp, which allow you do level up your elements, so they become better and more effective in battle- one of my favourite additions to the new series.
There's one more thing about the combat. Like ANB, you will be able to use the 'Fury' attacks. Fury moves are available to use once when the 'fury' meter is full(purple gems build it up), then you will need to fill it up again. Basically, it is a big move which is different for each element, can deals a bunch of damage to your enemies. Another great addition.
What platforming you ask? Well, if you have played ANB, you would have found that most of the game is combat, which gets quite repetitive. However, this time around it has certainly been improved. Puzzles are light, but give you a rest from continuous combat, the puzzles barley repeat themselves, which is great. Platforming has sufficiently improved as well, not only that there's much more of it, but you'll need to jump and glide to get to areas at the right time. All puzzles and platforming are even made better with the use of 'dragon time'. Which you'll find out what exactly it is in the next word.
Played Prince Of Persia? Loved the slow-down function(heh, you have to!)? Well that what it is. Dragon time is an ability that Spyro learns very early in the game. It needs to be used to solve puzzles, and to make sure platforming doesn't kill you. You can use this ability if there is any juice in the dragon time bar. You won't need to collect anything(like gems) to replenish this ability. It fills itslef full within 7 seconds. Dragon time is required to beat certain enemies(like bosses), puzzles and platforming, and Krome has executed this new ability well with this game.
Yes, there are bosses(and some sub-bosses) in this game. However, this time though the bosses are not a piece of cake. They are much harder, in fact the entire game is a lot harder than its prequel(which was a walk in the park). There's more bosses, and each require a certain strategy to beat. Like ANB, all bosses have a big health gauge(the major bosses have 2 or 3). This time though, once you die, the bosses' health becomes full again. Unlike in ANB, which made battles so easy. Bosses are not impossible to defeat, and I can't believe it that some people gave up on this game, because the bosses, somehow, owned them(*cough*Skabb...*cough*). The boss battles were rather good last time, and there even better this time around. As stated before, the entire game is much more challenging than its predecessor, don't expect to beat the game without any deaths(which was possible in ANB, as I have done it before)
From a gameplay point of view, the newest Spyro delivers a great experience, which is improved so much from it's predecessor, it's a game definitely worth trying, and don't get me wrong, it's up there with games like Devil May Cry and God Of War. Combat needs a bit of work, like improving the lock-on/dodge system, as you cannot figure always, which enemy you are targeted at. Also, more combos would be nice.
Superb like its predecessor, the soundtrack here is top-notch, from the start of the game, right to the final battle, the music in these new Spyro games are epic, no complaints at all(at least from me). You'll here some sound effects from the previous game, which is a bad an good thing. The monkeys make there squeaky noises as usual, and Spyro shouts 'Ow!' The exact same way he did back in ANB. Well, the sound effects are definitely the worst part of the audio, but still are decent, and they won't disturb you in any way(well, maybe apart from Spyro getting hit....and shouting).
The voice work was great back in ANB, with a great cast of 'so-called' Hollywood stars. Elijah Wood is back to do the voice work for Spyro, however I don't think he did his best, as ANB proved. Gary Oldman, who acts as Ignitus is also back, with rather only a bit of voice work, but still quality. However, David Spade, Sparx's old voice in ANB isn't making a return here, which is quite a shame, because he done Sparx's lines pretty well. Instead, Billy West done his lines in The Eternal Night, while good, I think Mr Spade was better. Another adjustment was for Cynder. Cree Summer was her voice actor in ANB, but since she's no longer controlled by the Dark Master, it would make sense to make her voice sound less dark, Mae Whitman does her lines in The Eternal Night, both have done a fair job, but yet again the previous voice over; Cree Summer was better in my opinion.
From a graphical point of view, The Eternal Night looks quite impressive. Unfortunately, it looks all too similar to its prequel. There have been some minor improvements, such as better particle and lightning effects, but nothing much has changed. ANB ran great on the PS2 with a 30 frames per second mark, with some minor slowdown on the PS2. Unfortunately, The Eternal Night just isn't the same, during heavy(and sometimes light) combat, the game experiences some major slowdown at times. Addition to this, some character models are started to look outdated(especially the monkeys) have a low amount of polygons, so the characters textures look to smoothed out, which means there's less detail on them. It's certainly not all bad, as the game as colourful textures, good shadowing, lightning, and smooth animations. I'm also quite happy to say that the CGI cutscenes look even more great than what they looked like in ANB. Certainly, the in-game cutscenes are not FMVs, and look slightly better as it uses the game's engine. Finally, the game has a good range of environments(just like ANB). This time, you'll explore places just as, Temples, Forests, Pirate Ships and mountains. What would be good for the next Spyro would be a movie player, so players can re-view some of the game's glorious cutscenes. Also, the game supports 16:9 widescreen, essential for players using a widescreen LCD for display.
If you've played it, you know that Spyro A New Beginning was a short game. It was merely challenging and took only 6-8 hours to complete, and once you have completed it, there was no replay value. At all. Sadly, the sequel is quite short too, but not as short. It would take a player about 10-12 hours to finish on the first playthrough, depending if he/she played A New Beginning or not. Like stated before, the game is much more challenging than its predecessor, nonetheless the game is still short. Thankfully, it is worth playing through the game again, with a new treat which is unlockable after the game is first completed(I will not state it here, because it is quite a surprise). Another fact worth mentioning, is that you actually collect something in the game. They are called Scriber's Quills(them feather like pens). Each time you collect one you unlock 5 pieces of concept art in the gallery. There are 40 of them in all, some are easy to miss. So it's most likely you won't get all of them in one playthrough(unless of course, you use a game guide). There's a total of 200(=5*40) images to collect, and it's worth doing so.
So, to wrap it all up, Spyro's latest game is utterly underrated. Like(or lik'ed') Spyro or not, you should give this game a chance. If you've played the prequel, you must definitely get this, regardless if you enjoyed ANB or not. The epic story, tight gameplay and terrific audio should make you entertained and hooked with this adventure, and the next which is coming this 2008 fall. The game is utterly underrated. Nuf'said
Presentation(+Story) 9.0
Gameplay 8.0
Visual 7.5
Audio 8.0
Value 7.5
Personal view 9.0
Overall Score: 8.5- Awesome
PS2 Controls:
X is jump
() is melee
[] is primary breath
^ is secondary breath attack
R1 is charge
L1 activates/deactivates dragon time
R2 unleashes fury
L2 is lock-on