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"Eragon"

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This thread has been linked to the game 'Eragon'.
Tue 12/12/06 at 17:06
Regular
"8==="
Posts: 33,481
Eragon -

Eragon is a third-person hack and slash title and represents a progression from the Baldur's Gate style of games seen on previous formats. This is very much based-upon the Lord of the Rings slashers produced by EA except it's camera is a lot better, there are fewer niggles and it isn't frustratingly clunky.

Players start off with a few melee sttacks and are able to strike from a distance with their bow, as the game progresses you will learn more attacks and gain magical powers and skills.

From the beginning players on their own will have an AI companion. This is worthy of a special mention as the AI seems to be perfectly balanced, it's helpful in dealing with enemies but not so much that you feel it's doing all the killing, it's smart enough to survive and very rarely dies on you, it never gets stuck and it's certainly not dumb.

There is also 2 player co-op.

The level of challenge in Eragon is decent enough, it does get progressively more difficult but there are numerous checkpoints where you re-vive completely healed so, even on the top difficulty setting, there's little to trouble a player who's learnt the game's moves.

There are a fair few moves in the game but you certainly won't be stringing together many combo's. The moves are simple but effective yet there are enough that things don't become repetitive. Thankfully there are no enemies that require one particular move to defeat them, this is great as players are allowed to experiment and use the moves that suit them to defeat their enemies. Even when the game hints you should defeat an enemy one way it's also possible to go it your own way and achieve the same level of success.

There are rudimentry stealth elements in Eragon where players must sneak past guards to open doors, however, unlike some titles, if you're spotted the game continues and you must fight those you were trying to sneak past rather than restart the section - this is far less frustrating and more fun than games that reset a stealth mission upon failure!

The magical attacks are fun to play with, players will gain devastating attacks such as magical arrows (like a magical rocket) and telekenesis which allows spears to be thrown at enemies via the power of your character's mind. Telekenesis can be used to push or pull enemies from or towards the player or over lethal drops, although the enemies can fall over these lethal edges the player cannot. Another fun attack is the ability to set your enemies on fire from a distance. Objects can also be moved, via the telekenesis, allowing paths to be opened up in a way that's reminiscent of the Lego Star Wars games. The player's magical powers are charged up by killing enemies, occasionally the enemies will drop some health aswell upon death.

There are numerous and varied locations to fight through including castles, keeps, ports, river valleys, ruins and camps among others. There's a decent level of variety to the environments and it's fun to use the odd piece of it against your enemies via your telekenesis.

Considering it has a fixed camera Eragon plays really well, most of the time the camera's fine and in the rare instances when it isn't (and you find enemies are off screen) that's when the bow and magic skills come in extra-handy - no more charging off and fighting out of view!

The game breaks from the varied fighting by including a few dragon sections (3 + a dragon vs dragon battle). Whilst at first these may appear to be just 'on rails' sections there is a degree of control in that players can move the dragon about the screen and in doing so avoid projectiles and pick which of the upcoming paths they wish to fly down. These sections are in large and varied areas. Although large, these areas are closed off and players will find themselves passing through the same area blasting foes more than once. These are the most challenging portions of the game but are in no way frustrating once you know which attacks are best for each situation, however it is still possible to take a harder road and take on the enemies with a more difficult attack than a more suitable one.

This is the perfect rental. Easy to pick up, just enough variety to keep you interested and finishable within a few days. For younger players it might we worth a full purchase but a seasoned gamer will finish this in no time.

Enjoyable while it lasts - a good use of the licence.
Fri 15/12/06 at 18:30
Regular
"Blood on my suit"
Posts: 1,387
The book is class. Going to see the movie today. I gave it to a lad who never read books for a report, he read it, and now he's a HUGE fanboy. Its a small bit scary....
Tue 12/12/06 at 17:06
Regular
"8==="
Posts: 33,481
Eragon -

Eragon is a third-person hack and slash title and represents a progression from the Baldur's Gate style of games seen on previous formats. This is very much based-upon the Lord of the Rings slashers produced by EA except it's camera is a lot better, there are fewer niggles and it isn't frustratingly clunky.

Players start off with a few melee sttacks and are able to strike from a distance with their bow, as the game progresses you will learn more attacks and gain magical powers and skills.

From the beginning players on their own will have an AI companion. This is worthy of a special mention as the AI seems to be perfectly balanced, it's helpful in dealing with enemies but not so much that you feel it's doing all the killing, it's smart enough to survive and very rarely dies on you, it never gets stuck and it's certainly not dumb.

There is also 2 player co-op.

The level of challenge in Eragon is decent enough, it does get progressively more difficult but there are numerous checkpoints where you re-vive completely healed so, even on the top difficulty setting, there's little to trouble a player who's learnt the game's moves.

There are a fair few moves in the game but you certainly won't be stringing together many combo's. The moves are simple but effective yet there are enough that things don't become repetitive. Thankfully there are no enemies that require one particular move to defeat them, this is great as players are allowed to experiment and use the moves that suit them to defeat their enemies. Even when the game hints you should defeat an enemy one way it's also possible to go it your own way and achieve the same level of success.

There are rudimentry stealth elements in Eragon where players must sneak past guards to open doors, however, unlike some titles, if you're spotted the game continues and you must fight those you were trying to sneak past rather than restart the section - this is far less frustrating and more fun than games that reset a stealth mission upon failure!

The magical attacks are fun to play with, players will gain devastating attacks such as magical arrows (like a magical rocket) and telekenesis which allows spears to be thrown at enemies via the power of your character's mind. Telekenesis can be used to push or pull enemies from or towards the player or over lethal drops, although the enemies can fall over these lethal edges the player cannot. Another fun attack is the ability to set your enemies on fire from a distance. Objects can also be moved, via the telekenesis, allowing paths to be opened up in a way that's reminiscent of the Lego Star Wars games. The player's magical powers are charged up by killing enemies, occasionally the enemies will drop some health aswell upon death.

There are numerous and varied locations to fight through including castles, keeps, ports, river valleys, ruins and camps among others. There's a decent level of variety to the environments and it's fun to use the odd piece of it against your enemies via your telekenesis.

Considering it has a fixed camera Eragon plays really well, most of the time the camera's fine and in the rare instances when it isn't (and you find enemies are off screen) that's when the bow and magic skills come in extra-handy - no more charging off and fighting out of view!

The game breaks from the varied fighting by including a few dragon sections (3 + a dragon vs dragon battle). Whilst at first these may appear to be just 'on rails' sections there is a degree of control in that players can move the dragon about the screen and in doing so avoid projectiles and pick which of the upcoming paths they wish to fly down. These sections are in large and varied areas. Although large, these areas are closed off and players will find themselves passing through the same area blasting foes more than once. These are the most challenging portions of the game but are in no way frustrating once you know which attacks are best for each situation, however it is still possible to take a harder road and take on the enemies with a more difficult attack than a more suitable one.

This is the perfect rental. Easy to pick up, just enough variety to keep you interested and finishable within a few days. For younger players it might we worth a full purchase but a seasoned gamer will finish this in no time.

Enjoyable while it lasts - a good use of the licence.

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