ABOUT THE GAME

Welcome to Alagaësia - a truly rich and magical fantasy world where humans, elves and dwarves live side-by-side with dragons. Well, not quite.

At one time humans rode dragons, and were given the title of Dragon Riders. But now the dragons number few, after the evil king Galbatorix decimated their numbers. Without dragons and their riders to keep the peace in the world, Alagaësia is no longer the great land it once was.

Enter a 15-year old boy by the name of Eragon. After discovering a strange blue rock in the mountains near his home town of Carvahall, Eragon soon finds himself being chased by an evil race of beings - that are servants of the king - known as the Ra'zac. But not before the rock hatches, revealing a dragon called Saphira.

In the game, it is up to you to take on the role of Eragon, and lead him through his quest to master the ancient arts of the Dragon Riders, including fighting and magic.

Eragon is designed by veteran developer Stormfront, and shows its similarities to the studio's previous titles including the Forgotten Realm's based Demonstone. Unlike Demonstone however, where the focus is often on three characters, in Eragon your main character is that of young Eragon. There is a team component, made up of Eragon's companion's including the storyteller Brom and Eragon's dragon Saphira.

The platform lead for Eragon is the Xbox 360, and the PC game shows this heritage through the control system. Although keyboard controls are provided, the game itself recommends an Xbox 360-like controller to play the game. Default key binds cannot be configured for the keyboard, but it's a small matter of playing the first ten minutes and you'll quickly become familiar with the keys. It's nothing too alien - the normal FPS keys of W, A, S and D control movement, while I jumps and J and K perform light and heavy attacks, respectively. Holding down the SHIFT key will make Eragon pull out his bow, and holding down an attack key will make Eragon draw back his bow for an aimed shot. Quick taps will make him fire arrows from the hip.

The graphics a very slick and impressive, the textures especially crisp and sharp. A range of High Dynamic Range effects are present, including bloom and specular (but most bloom). During cinematic sequences it's easy to tell how each character is feeling, with facial animations easily conveying each characters disposition. Stormfront has done a great job of optimising the game for PC, and not just making the game a direct Xbox 360 port.

Like Demonstone and Stormfront's Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, combat in Eragon uses a moving camera focused on a central battlefield. Fighting is somewhat automated as the game will target enemies for you, regardless of whether you're using a sword or bow. It's mostly a matter of picking the right enemies to fight and making sure you execute the correct combos. In regards to combos, Eragon has a number of stunning and knockback attacks, and using the right combination of moves, such as blocking and then hitting K, the heavy attack button, Eragon can grab opponents and deal extremely damaging and often fatal attacks. Health and powerups are gained by coloured orbs dropped by enemies on the battlefield.

After each mission, you're presented with a map of Alagaësia, where you can choose where your team should proceed next.

Overall, Eragon is a solid action game, with plenty of adventure and plot mixed in. If you're a fan of Stormfront's pervious titles, then you'd do well to pick up Eragon.