Like fellow PlayStation luminary Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon was abandoned by creator Insomniac in order to allow the developer to move on to greener pastures (Ratchet & Clank in this case), and suffered a massive fall in quality in subsequent games. Krome Studios got a hold of the character in recent years and started over from scratch, taking Spyro in a darker, story-heavy and action-focused direction with the Legend of Spyro trilogy. For reasons unknown, Krome Studios was left out of the final chapter, Dawn of the Dragon, with development duties handed over to French developer Etranges Libellules. The result is an unsatisfying and forgettable ending to the trilogy.

The Legend of Spyro series trades in the cutesy platformer foundation of the original series for a darker, action-oriented experience. The story so far is that Spyro is a rare purple dragon, which is only born every ten generations and will determine the fate of each era. The dark lord Malefor has broken free, courtesy of evil dragon Cynder. In the last game (The Eternal Night), it was revealed that Malefor was the original purple dragon, sealed away because his power proved limitless, and he began to drift down an evil path. After awakening from captivity in the Mountain of Malefor, Spyro and Cynder discover that three years have passed since their battle with Gaul and subsequent freezing. Since Spyro’s disappearance, Malefor has escaped the Convexity and spread his dark influence across the land. Now forcibly bound together, it’s up to Spyro and Cynder to fight back against Malefor’s forces, and to confront and defeat the dark lord once and for all.


Once you get past the clichéd fantasy goop of ancient prophecies, dark lords and chosen ones, you’ll see that Dawn of the Dragon has pretty impressive production values. It features an all star voice cast, with Elijiah Wood and Gary Oldman reprising their roles as Spyro and Ignitus, with and Christina Ricci, Wayne Brady and Mark Hamill joining the cast as Cynder, Sparx and Malefor respectively. There are also some pretty fancy CG sequences to push the story forward. With much of the game’s budget spent on Hollywood talent and glitzy movies, one shouldn’t be surprised that the game struggles from a technical perspective. Dawn of the Dragon is a colourful game with some impressive vistas and wide open spaces, but the cookie-cutter character models and simple geometry do little to stabilise the temperamental frame rate. There are some sequences that look very nice, like the attack on the castle, but the frame rate frequently drops to a snail’s pace and subsequently taints the experience. The camera is loose and unwieldy to adjust, yet must be babysat throughout the duration of the game to avoid further irritation.

Dawn of the Dragon utilises a fairly basic combat system, with strong and weak attacks that can be intermingled to produce some combos for a bit of extra damage. Grab attacks allow Spyro and Cynder to focus a bunch of rapid hits on a single enemy before throwing them away. Each character has four elemental abilities to assist in combat and puzzle solving – Spyro has fire, electricity, ice and earth attacks, while Cynder has shadow, fear, wind and poison attacks. Every element has a primary and secondary function – Cynder’s primary wind attack is a forceful gale and the secondary option will transform her into a small tornado, while Spyro’s flame attack doubles as a dashing fireball. Melee and elemental attacks can be chained together to produce massive combos, particularly when taking on larger groups of enemies.


Despite the variety of attack options available, combat never feels interesting or immersive, rapidly generating into a button mash fest. Enemies are often barely distinguishable from one another, and it requires little skill or variation in tactics to take them down. Later in the game, enemies seem to have ridiculous amounts of health, resulting in a real grind-fest. Experience points earned from defeating enemies and finding hidden crystals allow you to upgrade the elemental abilities of each character, while armour pieces found around the world will give you minor attribute boosts, with a minor bonus when you obtain a complete set.

If you believe what the back of the box has to say, Dawn of the Dragon is the first Spyro game to offer free flight. Free is something of a misnomer – sure, players can fly around the environment instead of walking or gliding, but the game has ways of restricting your movements. Players are limited with regards to their rate of ascension and descension. For example, in the second level in a clearing, you’ll see a small mountain with an experience crystal on the top. Logic would suggest that a free flight mechanic would let you settle atop the mountain and claim the experience points, but such thoughts have no place in Dawn of the Dragon – the game instead forces you back towards the ground. Other levels make you feel like the flight path is limited to a pre-defined tube; any attempt to veer outside of the tube results in the game correcting your course.


Poor fighting and flight mechanics would make Dawn of the Dragon bad enough on their own, but the game has some seriously dull level design as well. Levels are large, but empty and repetitive, so much so that finding the way to your next objective can prove difficult because everything looks so similar. Apparently Sparx is meant to serve as Spyro and Cynder’s guide through each world, but I never saw the lazy bastard lift a finger, except to complain about something during the game’s many cutscenes. There are a couple of nice set-pieces, but nothing really worthwhile. Since Spyro and Cinder are tethered together, the game requires you to use both dragons’ abilities at some stage, along with taking advantage of the tether to reach new locations. Swinging up using the tether can be really irritating, since the climbable surfaces (green vines) have a tendency to ignore your cling requests – same goes for the wall running you’ll have to do while running between them. The connection between Spyro and Cynder also provides the perfect excuse for co-operative play, so you can invite a second player to share in your boredom.

Spyro’s latest cliché-ridden adventure will take most players about 8-10 hours to beat, but most players will be wishing it was over much sooner. Completionists can drag it out a bit longer looking for complete armour sets, experience crystals and whatever other useless trinkets the game has for you to collect, but there’s no satisfying reward offered for total completion. Most Achievements can be unlocked in a single playthrough, with others requiring a slightly ridiculous in-depth search of the world, or replaying the game with a partner.


Ultimately, The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon does little to impress. Some classy production values and an all-star cast do not make up for an unimaginative plot, dull level design, a mass of technical issues and unsatisfying gameplay. As this chapter in the Spyro saga ends with a whimper instead of a bang, one can only hope Activision has better plans for the character’s future, or they should prepared to put this dragon to sleep.