The Eternal Night takes place immediately after A New Beginning. After saving Cynder from the influence of the Dark Master, Spyro has lost all of his powers and is ordered to rest until they return. One night however, the Dragon Temple falls under attack by the Ape King, Gaul, who plans to kill Spyro so that he can resurrect the Dark Master. After successfully fending off the attack, Spyro reveals to Ignitus that he has been having strange dreams about the Chronicler, a mythical dragon who is said to appear to those in need. Astonished by Spyro’s claim, Ignitus sends the purple reptilian to find the Chronicler.
You wouldn't happen to know Jack Sparrow would you?
Like A New Beginning, The Eternal Night has a higher focus on combat than previous Spyro games. Nothing has really changed in terms of Spyro’s melee attacks; you’ll still have your standard attacks as well as a range of combo moves to perform. This time however, Krome have made the game significantly harder by improving the game’s AI. For example, in A New Beginning, when you fought a group of enemies they would generally take turns attacking you but in The Eternal Night, they now surround you and will attack simultaneously. Because of this, you’re forced to use a little strategy such as defeating the smaller, quicker enemies in a group before taking on the slow big guy or, when applicable, try to persuade a single trooper away from the main group. Unfortunately, over time the system can get highly repetitive as you walk from room to room doing the same stuff. To be fair, the developers have implemented a few puzzles to break up the combat sections, but these are fairly generic and only include tasks such as firing a cannon to break a wall, flicking switches and placing orbs in the correct pedestals.
Once again, players will be able to utilise Spyro’s different breath attacks (fire, ice, electricity and earth) and upgrade them to increase their potency and firing range. What’s changed about them from last year is that each have different effects. For example, Spyro’s fire breath is basically a stream of fire while his electricity breath will launch an orb that explodes when it comes into contact with an enemy. Similarly, Spyro’s ice breath launches an ice ball which can be used to freeze enemies or create platforms in rivers while the earth breath creates wrecking ball for Spyro to swing around. Additionally, each breath has a secondary attack which is designed to aid you when enemies surround you. An example is the ice breath which turns Spyro’s tail into an ice sword. When you press the triangle button, Spyro will perform a 360 degree turn which not only knock back all enemies, but will also freeze them. Unfortunately, there are only a few moments (bar one level where the Chronicler puts Spyro’s mastery of each breath element to a test) when the different qualities of each breath are used efficiently to solve puzzles or play on the weakness of enemies. This is a real shame as it could have added a lot of depth to the game but instead, it mainly comes down to which breath(s) you prefer to use.
Where's a fire extinguisher when you need one?
New to The Eternal Night is Spyro’s Dragon Time ability, the game’s equivalent to bullet time. At any time during play, Dragon Time can be activated/deactivated by pressing the L1 button. Dragon Time is primarily used to help you time your jumps correctly when you have to cross rotating platforms however, as the game progresses you’ll need to use it in boss fights. One particular moment that comes to mind is when you have to use the ability to dodge cannon balls that are fired at you by an Ape Pirate. Again though, like the breath attacks, Dragon Time just isn’t implemented well, and looses a lot of its appeal like a gimmick.
Visually, The Eternal Night is on par with A New Beginning. There are a few nice looking FMVs but the rest of the game looks very average with low polygon characters and environments. The particle effects however look amazing, and add a lot of flair to the breath attacks, but at the same time they cloud Spyro in a fog making him hard to see. This often leads to enemies being able to sneak in a punch or two without you noticing. While the soundtrack is epic and has some similarities to Lord of the Rings, the sound effects and voice overs sound a little distorted. Despite this, The Eternal Night features an all-star cast of voice actors including Gary Oldman and Elijah Wood who reprise their roles as Ignitus and Spyro respectively, while Billy West replaces David Spade as Sparx.
Not as impressive as the Black Pearl, but it'll do.
Although The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night has improved on enemy AI and given Spyro some new abilities, the game still lacks any real depth. It’s great that the developers have included a few puzzles to break up the combat, but they’re very basic and don’t take full advantage of Spyro’s new breath attacks or his Dragon Time ability. At times, the combat can also get repetitive while particle effects tend to fog Spyro out of view. If you liked A New Beginning, then there’s is little reason why you shouldn’t pick up The Eternal Night otherwise, you should stay clear.
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