When he first debuted on the scene just over 10 years ago, Spyro the lovable purple dragon starred in a series of truly excellent platformers on the original PlayStation. But oh, how the fire-breathing have fallen. The first two entries in his current trilogy, The Legend of Spyro, have been marked by mediocrity, and sadly, the conclusion follows suit. It's an unfocused, uninteresting game that, despite its flying heroes, never manages to get off the ground. Picking up where The Eternal Night left off, Dawn of the Dragon concludes the Legend of Spyro series with an extremely run-of-the-mill tale of our purple hero, accompanied by nemesis-turned-ally Cynder, taking on the Dark Master Malefor. It all makes for a typical wrap-up to a fantasy trilogy. Dawn of the Dragon certainly looks like the climactic chapter of an epic fantasy trilogy, too, and not just any epic fantasy trilogy. Specifically, it takes more than a little visual inspiration from the Lord of the Rings films. This influence is frequent and undeniable, from the initial confrontation with a massive fire-breathing demon of the deep, to a desperate battle against the siege towers of tremendous armies from the ramparts of a pristine city, to the foray into a scorched land dominated by a volcano above which the Dark Master resides. And as Spyro, Elijah Wood has some distinctly Frodo-esque lines of dialogue. While not very original, the visual design, coupled with a gorgeous musical score, is effective at creating the sense that the fate of the world hangs in the balance of Spyro's struggle. Unfortunately, the gameplay falls well short of matching that level of excitement.
The combat in Dawn of the Dragon has you employing a combination of weak and strong melee attacks, an assortment of elemental powers, and the ability to grab smaller enemies in your adorable little jaws and thrash them around. You can also guard against attacks and perform a quick roll to evade them. Despite this variety of moves at your disposal, the combat is never interesting. In the earlier parts of the game, you'll often fight so many weak enemies at once that the screen becomes a cluster of chaos, making it all but impossible to tell when an attack is incoming. Not that you need to be defensive, though, since pure button mashing is enough to defeat these foes. Later on, you'll frequently be waylaid by groups of larger, more powerful enemies. Much too frequently, in fact. These enemies are dull and require no particular skill to defeat, but they can take a long time to wear down, and they kill the game's momentum and make the last few chapters feel like an uphill slog.
The few boss battles look monumental, but they're simple and unimaginative. You avoid the same obvious patterns and exploit the same weaknesses over and over again. And worst of all, there are some so-called elite enemies scattered throughout the game who are wickedly frustrating. When you encounter one for the first time, you're given no clue how to defeat him, and initially, they may seem downright impossible. Even when, through trial and error, you stumble on the trick to beating them, they do so much damage that sometimes one slipup on your part can cost you your life. It's true that fighting elites is always optional, but you'll often earn some useful rewards for defeating them, such as pieces of armor that give Spyro's or Cynder's abilities a bonus, providing an incentive to just suck up the frustration and deal with the chore of fighting them. Lousy content is lousy content, optional or not, and the elites may frustrate and alienate some of the younger players to whom the game appeals.
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