Panzer Dragoon

Review by DJosef

"What could have been a great game ruined by insane difficulty"

Panzer Dragoon is an interesting, unique, and extremely fun game...for the first 3 or 4 levels anyway. Then insane difficulty sets in and you may never wish to play this game again.

Story: You play as an un-named young boy who happens upon a soldier who has been struck down by a member of the organization known only as the Empire. In his last words the soldier tells you to take his dragon and make it to a tower before the Dark Dragon does. Easier said than done though; along the way you'll be attacked by giant worms, strange mutant falcon-like creatures, and giant, deadly flowers. Granted, this isn't exactly an epic story, but hey, it's better than ''The princess has been kidnapped for the umpteenth time, go rescue her!''.
Score-7

Game Play: You ride around on an un-named blue dragon shooting at enemies using a laser gun. The gun has the ability to power up and lock on to many enemies at once, or to lock on large enemies multiple times. You also have the ability to turn in 90 degree angles to turn and face enemies that may try to ambush you, so you all ways have to be ready and watching for the next attack. Another interesting feature is you not only have to shoot enemies as you move forward, but you also have the ability to move up, down, left, and right to avoid their fire, unlike most other games of this type where you simply shoot them before they shoot you. Your character has a life bar that goes down as you are shot, too many hits and you and the dragon go down. You only get one life, but there are continues that let you go on from the level where you died. Continues can also be earned by being accurate. Do a good enough job and you can net 5 credits. Also the game has decent replay value; you have the ability to earn a code that allows you to play as various things besides a dragon rider, such as the captain of a ship.
The main problem with the game play is the aforementioned difficulty. You're dragon will often speed up for no apparent reason and you'll have to both dodge enemy bullets and weave in between them while travelling at break neck speed. And sadly, although there is an easy mode they don't let you go past level 3 while playing on easy, for some reason. This only adds to the frustration.
Score-6

Controls: The controls with the keyboard are extremely odd and take a while to get used to, but they get the job done. I personally recommend a game pad though, as it would be much easier to use, but the keyboard can easily get the job done with some practice. All the keys that are used are placed in the lower left hand corner to make things easier, which is a good thing, since the constant turning, shooting and dodging can make things a little hectic.
Score-6

Graphics: Panzer Dragoon features vivid, beautifully rendered 3-D graphics. The backgrounds are smooth and realistic. The desert sand looks just like sand. All the enemies look very original and alien. Some enemies look like spotted manta rays, where as others look like some sort of giant worm. Also the enemy ships and their projectiles look smooth and realistic.
The main problems are your dragon, who appears somewhat blocky and jagged, and the FMVs between the various levels, which are illustrated well, but are incredibly boring and dark. There are some definite light and clarity issues with the FMVs, but they really aren't all that important to the story, except for the opening one. However simply upgrading from the pathetic Direct X 3.0 (which is automatically installed with the game) to a higher version will solve these problems.
Score-8

Music: The music for Panzer is quite varied. Most levels feature upbeat tracks, and the soundtrack uses horns (especially trumpets) constantly, giving it a very regal feeling, which fits the game quite nicely. The opening theme best demonstrates this style of music. Unlike most other video games Panzer focuses on using instrumental music instead of the standard unoriginal techno.
Score-8

Sound Effects: The sound effects are quite good. When a structure is destroyed and falls into the water an amazingly realistic splash can be heard, and your laser has a great futuristic sound to it. And the howls enemies (or in some cases your dragon) make when defeated are out of this world. They let out a roar of absolute pain that sounds like it could have been taken directly from some sort of nature documentary.
Score-9

Overall Panzer Dragoon is a fun game for a while, but unless you want to put a lot of time and practice into it I wouldn't expect to beat it very quickly. Still it's a decent deal at around $10.