	Eragon
	Developer: Sierra Publisher: Vivendi Release Date: Out Now Players: 1-2	Words By:
Although film tie-in games tend to be a rather shallow, rushed affairs I quite enjoyed the Lord of the Rings action games; they were no-nonsense simple control-but-fancy-combo games which were even better when you could bash them out with a mate. Unfortunately the only reason you’d want a mate around when playing Eragon is to take the pain away when the frustration of monotony and pure boredom sets in… The game follows the story of the book which has recently been released as an apparently rather lacklustre film, so perhaps I should be praising Sierra for finally making a tie-in accurate to the film? I’m not sure how much they tell you in the film about why you’re fighting and all that (LOTR had that big monologue at the beginning) but the game only tells you limited information through some poor grainy cut scenes with weird-looking fire. Now I know tie-ins aren’t meant to be intellectual affairs but I’ll be damned if I’m going to spend the next few hours running around villages and countryside if I don’t even know why! After the rather hasty scene-setting the game then overcompensates and holds your hand throughout most of the game; as if the levels weren’t narrow and linear enough you’ll be shown where to go and items that need to be destroyed or moved light up with big glowing icons, just in case you didn’t see it! The level design is one of the first things that starts to grate - Value biscuit selections have more variety. Your time in Eragon will be spent mostly running along narrow corridors (it doesn’t matter how open the environment looks) and killing the same few types of moronic enemies over and over. Occasionally you’ll need to smash a bunch of boxes, perhaps because they were evil too. Yes, they probably were. Moving things around with magic and the simple platforming wouldn’t have become so tedious if it wasn’t spelled out for you like an episode of Sesame Street, when it’s bloody obvious anyway! “…Isn’t Eragon about a Dragon Rider, what’s all this running about rubbish?” you might say. Well, I thought so too and up until the couple of sections where you get to ride the Dragon around all you see of it is when you summon it to swoop down and kick the ass off the guys in front of you; then he’s off again. The Dragon Riding missions could be accurate, since no-one really knows how a dragon handles. Apparently it handles like a twitchy flying manatee with one eye. And the cameraman’s got some serious muscle spasm problems: the camera won’t stay still! I can’t say I’m surprised given the level of quality seen in the earlier parts of the game. Frankly it made a change to smashing boxes over and over… The enemies offer no real challenge; your three-buttoned combos will be more than enough to take them on. If you think you’re really getting stretched then you can do the jump attack that guarantees you’ll kill them (they can’t block it) or use your magic to push them off cliffs. Later on you’ll get a fireball, which makes them wander about confused until they fall off the edge of something. You won’t get any moves after that though, that’s your lot. You’ll get some extra armour and weapons but you won’t really know where from and the levelling system doesn’t seem to have any relevance to how you actually fight, but does make a funny noise as it goes up… The graphics are passable but for the PS2 are just plain lazy. I know it’s nearly obsolete but I’ve seen beautiful games on the PS2, so it can be done. And then the game has the audacity to splutter to a halt if you have too many people on-screen at once! You have to laugh, really… Eragon can be completed very quickly if you want to stick at it. You’re rewarded with a small cache of utterly unworthy extras and no reason to want to replay the game. The longevity is only slightly lengthened by the co-op mode, which I spent most of my time playing, mostly because I just couldn’t bring myself to play this alone. Player two gets another character from the film/book but is never as good as Eragon and things are even easier than they were in single player. Eragon is a cynic’s delight. Half-finished film tie-ins are rushed out to coincide with the other merchandise releases but always, always squander the potential of what could be a good game by cutting corners everywhere, leaving you with a mess of a game. I just regret not being able to release this review sooner; now people across the globe will be forced to play this game because they bought it for their child or their parents bought it for them. Now I’ve said sorry, I think it’s time Sierra apologised…

Best Bits
- There’s a dragon
- …it looks a bit like Lord of the Rings

Worst Bits
- It’s not a very good dragon
- It certainly ‘aint Lord of the Rings
- Simple gameplay
- Flawed graphics
- Rubbish camera


by: Crazypunk