Eragon is being developed by Stormfront, the same guys who’ve worked on a few of the LOTR movie games. The game itself will look to be based on the novel more than on the movie. As for the story itself, it’s about a young farm boy named Eragon who one day discovers an exquisite blue stone while out hunting one day. The stone actually happens to be the egg of a dragon. The boy and dragon grow together, in a world where the “Dragon-riders” (special people who ride dragons) are being eliminated by an evil king.
The game looks great
The story is a little over our heads at the moment, but we’ll focus more on that when the final game comes around. Still, the style of story telling was uniquely and stylishly driven. Given the pedigree, we weren’t surprised when we found the game to be an action hack-and-slash. The first level had us chasing a deer and learning a few of the controls. It wasn’t a particularly difficult game to get into but we were surprised at the depth that was shown in the swords play. You will also get a bow and arrows and a set of magic spells.
We were partnered with another character who, thankfully, could hold his own in the heat of the battle. Battles took place in rooms and you could only proceed once that room or area was cleared. Interestingly, the game has a fixed camera and thankfully, it didn’t get in the way too often and could point players in the right direction. The actual swords play could have used a bit more fluidity but we had little trouble stringing combos together. Your dragon is likely to come into play, in the form of the rail shooter levels. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to try.
A lot of this environment is destructible
While the game reeked of hack-and-slash, we were relieved that the game was consistently providing new things and features along the way. There were a few moments that look like they will bring some nice variety to what is sure to be a game heavy on slash. Obviously, we’re always worried about a game that is based off a movie or novel and history doesn’t always look favourably at such games. Essentially, the game looks to be similar to games like Drakengard (though hopefully done better). For a game that was still an early build, it played well.
Presentation-wise, the game will likely satisfy those looking for a fantasy setting. IT must be said though, that the environments were vividly superb. The attention to detail was very impressive and there were a few sights that had to be seen to be believed. Unfortunately, the character models weren’t so good. In terms of sound, there was nothing particularly memorable from out play time. Eragon looks like it will give the fantasy genre a good shake up. Given the involvement of dragons, we’re sure we'll be riding them and the hack-and-slash element has come up solidly. So it looks like the game is shaping up well, but since it’s the first of a trilogy, we’re not expecting to see much of an ending.
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