So, as mentioned above, you are Orta, a mysterious white-haired girl who's destiny it is to save the world, her background story is hazy, but you initially find her chained up in a prison of the Empire with seemingly no hope of escape. Luckily, a huge dragon turns up just as Orta looks like she's done for, and the first level involves your escape from the compound. This is the beginning of 10 fast-paced episodes of aerial battling, each with various branching routes and huge boss battles at the climaxes. You'll make your way through rocky canyons, valleys and snowfields, and nearer the end of the game there are some locations I couldn't even begin to describe. PDO seems to suffer from the same lack of imagination that Half-Life and Tomb Raider did, where by the end of the game the levels are so psychedelic and just plain weird that you begin to wonder what the developers where thinking. Fortunately, in PDO's case, the obscurity of the areas fits in rather well with the plot, so I'll let it go.

   

The overall look of the game is definitely one of its strong points, every level is solid and polished, your dragon and the hundreds of enemies you encounter move brilliantly and the lasers and explosions look spectacular. Sega have done a great job of making Orta's dragon beautiful and majestic and the enemy dragons ('dragonmares') frighteningly ugly. The levels are linked by cut-scenes, which try and piece together the plot between the bursts of action, and these are some of the most stunning things we've seen on any format. Vast, sprawling landscapes, giant airships and superbly modelled characters and creatures help to distract you from the relatively shallow and badly narrated storyline.

Your dragon (it doesn't actually have a name) has 3 attack types; Base Wing: - which is the standard, well-balanced form and the sensible choice for beginners. Heavy Wing: - which is bigger and more powerful, but less manoeuvrable, and Glide Wing: - which is very agile but also relatively weak and vulnerable. You can also improve the individual forms by collecting 'gene bases' which level them up, and if you're planning on playing PDO on the higher difficulty settings you'll need to master each attack type and learn to know when, where and how to use them. Sega were also nice enough to include a pretty in-depth tutorial for each attack type if all that sounded a bit too confusing…

The dragon is very responsive, movement is swift and instant and the control system works perfectly. The left analogue stick moves your sight, the right and left triggers rotate your view through 90°, your weapons are used by either tapping or holding down 'A' and you can perform a 'berserk attack' by pressing the white button. During boss battles you can also accelerate and decelerate to move to the side or in front of the enemy, and sometimes this is the only way to avoid attacks or find weak spots.

   

Aswell as the main game PDO also boasts a huge amount of unlockable extras that you're rewarded with for completing levels. The 'Pandora's Box' is split into 5 sections, which vary from anything to game information and statistics to sub-scenarios and extra levels. These are an excellent addition and certainly increase the game's lifespan, especially the extra scenarios, which let you play as different characters in the same locations as the main game and tell the story from a different perspective.

Panzer Dragoon Orta is an excellent action shooter, there are literally hundreds of unlockable extras and the main game will keep you occupied for weeks. The graphics are simply awesome, there's always something going on on-screen yet there's never even a hint of slowdown. This is one of the few games that really looks like it's giving the Xbox a workout. If you were a fan of its predecessors, or just want something to feast your eyes on then PDO is more than worth your £40, the only problems I have with it are the general lack of freedom on the levels and slightly repetitive gameplay. Sega have done a brilliant job of updating the series for the Xbox, the game is polished and beautiful, and dragons are very, very cool.