Eragon

Eragon is the latest book/movie/video game tie-in from Sierra Games. Based on the upcoming film that was, in turn, a novel by Christopher Paolini (which he impressively started writing at the age of 15), Eragon follows the titular character as he fights through hordes of soldiers and enlists the help of his comrades and Saphira, his dragon, to remove the evil king, Galbatorix, from power and restore the dragon riders to their former glory. While the subject matter that the game draws upon has a huge cult following, the game is yet another unfortunate example of poor gameplay that expects the license to carry the product. Eragon is a derivative and repetitive game that will not likely be much fun to anyone, even those who live and breathe by Paolini’s novels.

Eragon follows the plot of the film, putting you in control of the young hero as he becomes unwittingly pulled into a battle against an evil king. Eragon finds what he believes to be a gem while walking through the woods, and brings it to his village in an effort to sell it. However, he soon discovers that not only was the gem actually a dragon egg, but his discovery of the item has attracted the attention of King Galbatorix, who will stop at nothing to find and destroy it and keep the now-defunct Dragon Riders from rising again. Galbatorix destroys the village and kills Eragon’s uncle. Along with the help of Brom, a former Dragon Rider, and Saphira, the dragon that hatched from the egg and bonded with Eragon, you must find a way to defeat the evil King and end his reign of terror.

While Eragon has a pretty deep story and background behind it, you will not see much of it at all in the game. The storyline is presented very poorly, through vague cutscenes that don’t reveal much of the plot. Don’t expect to get much of the story through the gameplay, as it merely comprises of repetitious fighting.

The combat in Eragon is largely uninspired. While you do have magic and bows in addition to swords, and you get upgraded weapons and spells with added stopping power, the combat degrades into button mashing and simplistic melee combat. Aside from the grapples, which aren’t entirely fleshed out, you pretty much swing away with your sword until all enemies are dead. And you will be swinging for a while, as the same variety of foes will pour out at you not-stop until for some reason or another, they just stop and it’s off to another lame cutscene.

The controls are also quite unfeasible with a keyboard, and cannot be remapped, meaning that without a good gamepad, you’ll be up a creek. Inexplicably, no one thought to include camera controls in the game either, which can be problematic at times, especially during the sequences where you are flying on the dragon’s back. Normally, flying on a dragon’s back is second only in coolness to ninjas playing guitar on top of a hill, but in this game it’s a frustrating chore.

Graphically, Eragon is nothing special. The PC version benefits from higher resolutions and cleaner textures, but is by no means the best looking game you’ll ever buy. The sound also falls to the same vice, as being decidedly average. The voice acting is decent, though not performed by the all of film’s actors (John Malkovich and Jeremy Irons are noticeably absent), and the soundtrack is standard fantasy fare.

Eragon is another disappointing licensed title that was no doubt rushed out the door to coincide with the release of a film. Considering the potential of the license, a better game could certainly have been done with more consideration. However, as it stands, Eragon should be avoided, especially if you’re a fan of the books or the film.

Gameplay: 4.0
Series of repetitive battles and some weak platforming. The dragon portions are fairly weak, and the lack of camera control is unforgivable in this day and age. The controls are a pain unless you have a good gamepad.

Graphics: 7.0
Some nice-looking character models, but lacks punch overall.

Sound: 7.0
Some decent voice work and run-of-the-mill fantasy soundtrack.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 4.0
While the story behind Eragon is good, you won’t get much of it from the game. Instead, you’ll have to settle for a series of pointless battles that do little to convey the storyline.

Multiplayer: 4.5
The hop-in co-op mode is a nice touch, but don’t expect much if you only have one gamepad.

Overall: 5.0
Another weak attempt to cash in on an upcoming film, Eragon will likely disappoint fans of the book and the upcoming film.