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This past year there have been many updates, sequels, remakes of your favorite franchises. We saw Midway bring back Spy Hunter and Defender. Sega brought back Toe Jam and Earl and Shinobi. Nintendo released the next Metroid games, Prime and Fusion as well as updates to Star Fox 64 and Mario 64, Star Fox Adventures and Mario Sunshine. We saw Tecmo bring back the incredible Rygar as well as Konami bring back Contra. What a year, eh? With most of these updates making an impact in consumers, Ubi Soft has decided to bring back Dragon's Lair. Never heard of it, we don't blame you since the original came out in the early 80's. This isn't so much of a sequel as it is an update, though.
The days of watching pre-rendered cartoon sequences are gone. In Dragon's Lair 3D you'll be able to move around freely and explore the environments. The environments feature the same design as the originals but look a lot better. As is the recent gaming fad, the developers decided to go with a cel-shaded look in order to duplicate the original game. The result is pretty good, the characters have a 3D cartoon feel to them, and that is probably what the developers were trying to accomplish. The environments are rendered in actual 3D in order to be able to clearly differentiate between the characters and the levels. The visuals work with the game nicely, and capture some of the original's feel.
The audio works well with the game, if not a bit impact less and generic. The background music is handled by an orchestral score which adds a nice feeling to the game. The sound effects work with the game nicely and complements your on-screen actions. There is plenty of dialogue included for your listening pleasure. Dirk, for the most part, is very silent. He rarely speaks. Daphne, his assistant, is usually the one speaking. The dialogue is good and does save the game's audio score.
The game play isn't as smooth as it can be since jumping is a bit of a chore. While normally that wouldn't be so bad, you'll do plenty of jumping here, so you'll notice it. There are only two kinds of jump techniques available, a stationary and forward jump. You'll soon notice that this leads to much more anger and disillusion than it should. The fighting engine is rather simply and it is possible to run forward and randomly attack all your enemies. Doing so will probably allow you to progress the game rather easily. You can also roll and block, as you progress. A bow is at your disposal and you can view the game through a first person mode. The original game's simple game play seems to have been lost but if you really want to you can progress the game easily. There's a few buttons to hit on the keyboard so it might be good to invest in a PC Controller.
The camera system of a 3D plat former can either make or break the game. Dragon's Lair 3D has a mediocre camera system at best. It rolls around your character and tries to center on you, but it never seems to happen. You will get several headaches while playing, so take a few minutes off for each... few minutes you play. It seems that the developers' goal was to get the worst possible angle. There are some moments where the camera shines and you wish the whole game was like that, but it isn't.
Ubi Soft and Dragonstone attempted to update an original and classic game. They succeeded in some areas, but weren't able to accomplish other tasks. The graphics are rendered very nicely and the game looks "just right." The audio does its job but doesn't add much to the overall experience. If you played the original and want to experience it in a new generation, you'll want to play this regardless. You seem to notice a rushed feeling, as if the developers had to get this out by the holiday season. While the game's biggest gripes have to do with how ambitious it attempted to be, the unwilling camera system has a lot to do with it as well. If you played the original, you'll want this regardless. If you're a younger gamer, there's other games on the PC this holiday season. It isn't a waste of space, but there is plenty of other titles which you'll like more. You can also try the Xbox version which may play better. -- Jose Liz, PGNx Media
---- Dec 1, 2002
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