Product Description

Free from his imprisonment, the Dark Master unleashes his wrath upon the world, determined to bring forth a new age of darkness.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1465 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: ACTIVISION
• Released on: 2008-11-21
• Rating: To Be Announced
• Platform: PlayStation2
• Dimensions: .26 pounds

Manufacturer's Description

TAKE FLIGHT AND FULFIL YOUR DESTINY.

Free from his imprisonment, the Dark Master unleashes his wrath upon the world, determined to bring forth a new age of darkness. As evil spreads over the world like a plague, Spyro must discover abilities beyond that of the elements and unlock the true power of the purple dragon within him if he is to stop the Dark Master and fulfi l his destiny.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant
I've been a fan of spyro ever since the first one on the psone and have liked the legend of spyro trilogy, though found the gamplay of walking down a path then being ambushed by enemies every 5 minutes to be a bit boring and too repetitive, though i enjoyed the storyline. i also think that the 2nd title in the trilogy-the eternal night- to be the weakest game. however, i was amazed at how much better dawn of the dragon is. the graphics are beautiful on the ps2 and a major improvement from the previous two. gameplay is no longer just making your way through the level down a long path and is more based on fulfilling objectives and solving puzzles. yes there is still fighting but is not as monotonous as the previous two. there are also collectibles now that you need all of for 100% such as armour, and health crystals. you can also switch between playing as spyro or cynder anytime or play co-op 2 player together, and can fly anytime.
the storyline also ends very well.
no, this game is still not in the same league as the original insomniac spyro trilogy on ps1, but for anyone who was disappointed with the eternal night, you may be pleasantly suprised with this one.

Purple Power
I bought this game primarily for my five-year-old son but don't let that put you off - he is a PS2 expert (I know, he should be reading a book, but I love the games as well and we always play together). Have got all the other Spyro games and this is one of the best. Previous game (Eternal Night) was a bit heavy on killing and a bit light on problem solving but this redresses the balance. There are still lots of enemies but also longer, more involved quests. The Two Player option is a major innovation, it is an important part of the gameplay instead of just being an afterthought like in most two-player games, although you can manage perfectly well just as one player as it is easy to swap between the two. Storyline is well thought-out, the graphics are wonderful and gameplay is smooth. Criticisms are that the game relies heavily on cut-scenes and the melee and combo moves aren't as satisfying - you can't do the tail thump of previous games (my favourite) and it is harder to land quickly, you find yourself floating about thrashing thin air while the enemies are sniggering away on the ground. May be my imagination but it also seems a bit shorter than the other games (completed in a fortnight, not playing every day). But a really enjoyable game, excellent end to the trilogy.

Tries to be something more, but in the end, it fails to recapture the spark
Dawn of the Dragon continues on from The Eternal Night; Spyro and Cynder have been frozen in a block of ice for several years, kept prisoner by Malefor's (The Dark Master's) minions. When they are freed by Hunter, they learn that Malefor is close to bringing back the Destroyer and ending the world. Spyro and Cynder set forth to find him and save their home.
It wasn't so obvious in the first outing, but by the 3rd game the plot pretty much reeks of Lord of the Rings; from the `all evil lord' trying to destroy the world in an area that looks like Mount Doom and 2 heroes who must rely on each other to face the darkness that face them. This would be fine if we were dealing with an epic Lord of the Rings MMORPG but we're not, we're dealing with a petit purple dragon with a gold bug as a companion...not quite the same thing. I was also disappointed at Hunter's inclusion; I thought the idea of having a favourite character from the old Spyro series would be a great idea but instead he resembled nothing of his older counterpart and doesn't play much of a part in the game anyway! He was a waste of fan anticipation and the animator's time.

The 3rd Legend of Spyro game continues to use Hollywood actors to voice its colourful cast of characters; Elijah Wood and Gary Oldman return to voice Spyro and Ignitus respectively. Plus Wayne Brady, Christina Ricci, Blair Underwood and Mark Hamhill are in the mix too. All actors perform their roles well and don't have any misdirection that The Eternal Night suffered from. The score borrows several pieces from earlier in the series but on the whole it still sounds like a Lord of the Rings rip-off. Sound effects are surprisingly dull in sound which is bad as we had plenty of cut scenes with almost mute punches and explosions.

The graphics engine has improved over the first two Legend of Spyro games, but still doesn't show the full capabilities of the PS2 console - which to me is now considered a sin since it's the end of its cycle and it's been done by smaller companies since. Colour palette and lighting is poor; the game seems to be a mixture of either being too bright or too dark. This poses a problem on most of the platform parts of the game as half the time I couldn't see the wall or ledge I had to climb on to progress in the level! It is pretty embarrassing to wander around a level for 10 minutes to have a walkthrough point out a vine you've been walking past all that time.

The game is basically an action platformer - so you'll get plenty of jumping and beating random enemies. Unlike previous games where the platform aspects on the game were rather linear and relied solely on jumping and gliding, Dawn of the Dragon incorporates flying into the mix with non-linear levels...most of the time. Instead of having one certain pathway, you'll now get levels where you can explore a cavern or whole field at your own pace. Despite the freedom to explore with the use of flying; it's not executed very well. The biggest problem it the `false ceiling' in most open levels; meaning on one side of the level you can fly as high and touch the skies, but on the opposite side of the same level you can barely get your feet off the ground. This is most implanted to make the player climb to certain hidden extras instead of taking the easy route and flying - which is understandable but it ruins the whole point of flying if the game is restricted about it.

To add to the platforming side of the game, Spyro and Cynder can now perform several climbing and acrobat moves together. You can now climb on vines, run along walls and more. All of them are easy to perform and I had no problems control wise but they seem to break their own rules for the latter half of the game on what's climbable and not. There was one particular section where you have to perform a `wall run' along a slap of black rock - even though all the previous wall running sections have been bright brown and had very visible lines to show you can run on it! I spent ages stuck at that bit because the programmers couldn't be bothered to give indication that it was climbable.

Combat is pretty much the same as the previous 2 instalments; you use the square and triangle button to performance hand to hand combat, with the circle button to perform varies breath attacks. Hand to hand combat is the same, boring, repetitive button-bashing as it was in the past 2 titles - nothing new has been added. Spyro uses the same elemental breaths at before (fire, ice, earth and lightning) but with Cynder now a playable character, you can try out 4 new ones (fear, poison, shadow and wind). I personally didn't find the elemental breaths as fun to play with as the previous games; not all of the full effects of each breath are explained, so there's various things about them that I didn't learn until the last level of the game. Plus they aren't as animated as before; for example in the previous 2 games when Spyro used his ice breath, the enemy would turn into a giant snowball - you could then push the snowball off the edge of a cliff - making it a fun and creative way to end a battle. You get none of that in this game, this is probably done to fit with the darker tone of this title, but that just takes away the small glimmer of fun I had in previous games!

Now for the 2 player co-operative play, a first for the Spyro series. If you have a friend to play with you I beg you to encourage them to join you, because the AI sucks! Playing alone you control one dragon at a time, although you can switch between the 2 whenever you like, this doesn't save the AI of the second dragon from being completely unhelpful. During puzzles the other dragon would just be a sitting duck or fly around randomly; so a nuisance if you're doing a puzzle that requires you to switch between the two a lot. If you're engaging in hand to hand combat with the enemy; the AI will follow suit, but if you use your elemental breaths or special attacks - your partner does absolutely nothing! So please bring a friend if you plan to play this game to save hair pulling.

Previous entries in the Legend of Spyro series have had some minor RPG elements; in Dawn of the Dragon though they crank up the RPG gauge a fair amount, and it reflects in the combat. Like before Spyro and Cynder can `upgrade' their breath powers via the pause menu, after gaining a set amount of experience from either enemies or blue gems, they can then be invested into the four elements and increase each breath power by 3 levels each. The set up is exactly the same as before with a few minor yet frustrating changes - one being the controls. Unlike the previous games where you could simply hold the X button down until it increases to the level you want, this time instead you have to press X for each 100 points you want to invest in the particular element. So when you have over 50,000 points to use for a level up, you'll get cramps very quickly in your thumb!

Exploring levels and finding hidden items is common in RPGs and it was first introduced in The Eternal Night, it's expanded to its highest potential in this game. You can now find health and magic gems that increase your respective bars. Unlike The Eternal Night were most hidden items weren't worth the hassle or were kept over pits of certain death; items in this game are worth the challenge of finding them (mostly because you cannot die by falling in this game) and all items are creatively hid, so worth an explore if you have an RPG gamer within you.
Two additional new RPG elements is equipment for our dragon heroes and optional bosses. Scattered throughout the game are 18 pieces of armour with 9 pieces for each dragon. Each piece of armour gives a stat boost (e.g. increased attack) but if you manage to collect and equip a whole set, you then get a double boost off effects (like added poison attack). Sadly this side of the equipment element is not fully explained in game, most of it I had to figure out myself.
The hidden bosses are a new addition too, and an interesting one at that! You have at least one `uber boss' per level that are out of the way (therefore you don't bump into them accidently if you just want to play the main game) and pretty tricky to dispose of. Despite not taking full advantage of the uber bosses myself (due to being too far gone in disappointment when I tried to challenge one); I personally found the bosses to be a worthwhile addition, although they may be too tough for the typical audience of this game (7 year olds), they're decent for the older gaming crowd.

If you've played the previous 2 games, whether you enjoyed them or not, you might as well give this a spin as it won't take you very long to complete. If you've never touched a Spyro game, track down the 3 original games on the PS1 as they'll be far more fulfilling and fun to play than this trilogy.