"Going, Going, Era-Gone!"

Eragon for the DS is a 3rd person adventure game which borrows a couple of elements from the 3D Zelda games. The graphics are technically sound, the controls are reasonably tight (iffy camera at times), battling is quite a fun affair, and there is a nice levelling system for your weapons and spells. The lack of a flowing storyline doesn't really affect my judgment in these portable ports of movie-licensed games, but Eragon could have benefited a lot from a more coherent series of events; everything you do is disjointed and the end will hit unexpectedly, just when the game was starting to get good too.

Visuals - 7
Sound & Music - 7
Gameplay - 7
Lasting Power - 5 (4-5 hours, maybe 1 more to complete all side quests)
Replayablity - 4 (No branching customisation makes for identical replay experiences)
Difficulty - 6

Attack combos & Spells - 8
VERDICT - 7

Looks big, but... it's a small world after all!
The LOTR-like fantasy world of Alagaesia is depicted rather well for a handheld title not on the PSP. A solid 3D engine chugs out some nice grassy textures, simple water effects, and some nice character model animations. The lands you travel through appear wide and expansive, but in reality these areas are very much closed off and quite linear. The texture work seen in the caves and dungeons are not as good as the ones outside; a lot of repetitive drab and very dark colours were poorly chosen for the former (better to play on a DSLite!)

The visual style is what I base my grading on, and in this regard, Eragon does a pretty good job of showing us this fantasy world in lite form. The animations are particularly well done; all of your hero's actions are performed smoothly, from rolling and side-jumping, to the multiple attack strings performed with the few different swords available. Spells cast at enemies result in some pretty cool moments too. These include blasting them far back with a force-like push, and breaking all their bones with the aptly named bone breaker spell (this death animation looks great!) But the last few areas are quite disappointing with the aforementioned drabness, and there can be some dodgy camera work especially when you are trapped in a corner by enemies. It generally looks good, but doesn't quite reach greatness.

An epic score, a tiny tracklist
For what's there, the music is of high standards. There are less tracks than I have fingers, and the majority of them are of the 'environmental ambience' variety. That said, there was one nice melody with good play time, and the others did a good job of soaking up the fantasy connotations. But I am left wondering - what happened to all the other pieces which I assume will feature in the tie-in movie?

Adventure without a cause
You play as Eragon in your quest to defeat a certain evil and save a certain someone. I'm not too sure on the specifics since although the storyboards shown during interludes look okay, the presenting plot makes no sense to those unfamiliar with the unfamiliar book. Basically you journey across a variety of terrain, hacking monsters to death, completing simple tasks for the very few NPCs found around the few small towns, and head into even less dungeons or caves fighting a pathetically weak boss at certain random points in time.

But although I make it out to sound bad when I criticise each aspect for what it's worth, due to the variety of attacks and spells available to our funnily named hero, Eragon is still a fun guy to handle. As you dish out damage with your sword arm and bow & arrows, you will earn experience points. Levelling up opens up more weak/quick and strong/slow attacks to add to your combo strings, as well as upping the damage dealt. After learning all the techniques for your current sword, you strangely lose it completely in favour of a new one. Now it's great and all to have a new boy-toy, but you will lose all your accumulated attacks for your previous sword and will now have to start building up your combos again from scratch! Why couldn't they just make it so you can still select your old, weaker weapon with all bells and whistles intact if you choose to?

As for the spells, they are absent for the first 100 minutes of play or so, but then out of nowhere you will have a nice selection to conjure up some hurt. There is the energy bolt for frying up distant enemies; repulsion (AKA the "Force") for blowing back opponents off their feet; telekinesis to suspend an some objects or foes in midair, whereby you can even throw the former at the latter; and the bone break, my favourite ultimate punishment. There are times when you will have to solve simple puzzles utilising these mystical arts. For example, using the harden spell to make a rickety bridge more stable. The uses outside of battle are a nice diversion, but there aren't even a moderate amount of instances when you will be called to do so. Maybe this is due to the short length of the game, but this problem solving aspect seemed to be going somewhere good, and then nothing.

Dude, where's my Dragon?
Early on you will gain the companionship of a trusty dragon by the name of Saphira. There are certain hotspots from which you can enlist her aid to help you cross a gap or break down a rock barrier amongst other things. These sequences are such a tease though; it is fully scripted and you have no control of what happens, and so it is a crying shame that you cannot actually guide the dragon yourself here.

This game is called Eragon, and the game focuses on Eragon; the dragon factor hardly comes into play. But you do control Saphira in some flying sequences, kind of. When travelling between lands you have to fly through a set amount of rings (not as bad as Superman 64, but then not much better either...) in order to progress. The path is on-rails, you only have limited control over where Saphira moves to, and nothing remotely interesting occurs. If you are looking for some cool aerial action, Spyro's boss battles in his 2nd DS game would serve you better.

The second screen
The dual screen allows for your current spells, herbs and magic crystals to be shown whilst you roam about up top. The use of all these items requires you to draw certain patterns; makes sense for the spells but why herbs? The interface is easy to use, as long as you are comfortable with always having your stylus in hand. You can also manually target your bow with the touch screen, but automatic targeting is so much more effective. The best use is once again the map. This makes navigation a piece of cake as all close enemies, save points and goal markers are nicely placed on your mini-radar. It is annoying having to switch it on (from the default inventory display) every time you do nearly anything though; picking up even just a simple herb reverts back to the less useful inventory screen.

Better luck next time
Eragon is a deceivingly short affair, but it's still a one night stand that I enjoyed nevertheless. The combat does a good job of employing the lock-on system made famous by Ocarina of Time, the spells are fun to use (just make sure you're down with holding the stylus while playing), and the 3D fantasy world is a marvel by current standards for the DS. There are a couple of sidequests, but these just boil down to "get to this place in a certain time" or "go find me 12 fish"; they are very simple to complete and most of the time your reward is just a piece of concept art, whoopee.

You will be done in 4-5 hours, which is a very short length for this sort of game. You can unlock 2 minigames to play at your own leisure, but these offer no incentive and are boring after the first play. There are no difficulty levels, replays will be practically the same experience all over again, and so I really don't see the point of offering 3 save slots to begin with.

If you are a fan of the book or soon-to-arrive film, you may want to give this one a look. Just don't go expecting much, and by that I mean quantity.

7/10 - It starts to get pretty good, and then it's Era-gone!

26/11/06

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/27/06