| Introduction
Reign of Fire is another of those "You've
seen the MOVIE now buy the GAME!" titles, and
on the surface, the prospect of battling huge dragons
and saving the earth does seem like the perfect ingredients
for a great game. Unfortunately, however, the movie
flopped at the box-office, and so it's safe to conclude
that not many people liked it. Still, as we've seen,
a bad movie doesn't necessarily make a bad game. A good
example is Ecks vs Sever, another
movie that also flopped but still managed to make it
as one of the best FPS games to appear on the GBA. So,
can Reign of Fire claim the same, or will it go down
in flames just like the movie?
GamePlay
Reign of Fire is split up into a number of separate
missions each with their own objectives. The problem
is that not only are they all rather bland, but they're
also incredibly repetitive. They include slaying dragons,
harvesting crops and rescuing people over the various
landscapes. Some of the missions are on foot, while
others challenge you to control one of a handful of
vehicles ranging from a jeep to a fire truck, which
will come in handy for extinguishing the fires started
by the pesky dragons. You are aided by a compass that
will always indicate your next objective and pausing
the game also gives you mission details.
Now, I know this sounds a little simplistic but that
really is all there is to the gameplay aspect in Reign
of Fire. It's unfortunate because this game could have
improved ten-fold if only a handful of minor details
had been addressed. One feature that does save the game
to some extent though is the ability to play as a dragon,
which is a lot more satisfying than playing as a human.
This option, however, is available only after you've
completed all the tasks in the main game. If you can't
stand the tedium of doing that, then I suggest you search
the Internet for the password that opens up all the
levels.
Controls
While the control system isn't too bad, there are
some serious collision detection issues that really
should have been ironed out before release. These include
some rather irritating instances where your vehicle
will get wedged between rocks with nowhere to go. Once
again, this isn't too bad if it was intended, but the
fact that the vehicles gets stuck when it's not even
touching the rocks shows that it's an obvious programming
glitch. Playing as the dragons is much easier and I
must admit that they looked incredibly graceful as they
moved around the landscape. Unfortunately again, there
are only six short levels of this, so enjoy it while
you can.
Graphics
The graphics and visuals in Reign of Fire are far
below anything we've come to expect from the GBA, and
I must say that on the whole, the game feels rushed
and unfinished. The backgrounds are bland and repetitive
with little reference made to the movie even in the
limited cut screens. The animation is particularly clumsy,
with the sprites resembling early Shockwave games rather
than the fluid characters that populate other Crawfish
titles. It really is unforgivable that Reign of Fire
should look so bad, considering the wealth of visual
material that the movie itself offers.
Sound & Music
Like everything else in this game, the audio can
only be described as average. It kicks off with a soundtrack,
which quickly fades into the background and is instantly
forgettable. The majority of the sound effects follow
suit. Some in particular are badly edited, while others
are too bland for their on screen purpose. The highlights,
again, are undoubtedly the dragons as they scream and
screech across the sky, providing yet another reason
why it's far more fun to play as these winged beasts
rather than the puny humans.
Final Comments
As I said in the beginning, Reign of Fire had all
the necessary ingredients for a great game. Unfortunately,
and maybe due to a rushed deadline, the developers did
not manage to capitalize on these ingredients, and have
made instead a game that lacks any real depth or imagination.
It's also repetitive, which can be forgiven, but not
when repetition results in little reward and much frustration.
All in all, Reign of Fire is a disappointing game and
after so many years of quality titles from Crawfish
Interactive, it's a shame that this is one of the games
that they'll be remembered for.
|
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