The bill looked impressive starting out for Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire; best-selling fantasy author Richard A. Knaak was brought in to develop an original storyline. When going to E3 and watching the game in motion it seemed to be coming along quite nicely, if a tad bit bland. Unfortunately the developer didn’t seem to address this concern.
Dragon Blade begins with a story from a dragon, Lord Valthorian, explaining the past times of man. Plagued with war and violence, he sought to relieve this and save mankind by leaving his homeland to teach man a better life. Another dragon, Vormanax, from Valthorian’s domain was jealous of him and decided to overthrow him. Instead of take on his brother face to face, Vormanax corrupted the minds of six kings who then turned their substantial forces upon Valthorian. They manage to seal him in a sword and shatter it into six pieces. One king who was still loyal to Valthorian took a shard and fled. Time passes and Dal is introduced as a blood descendant of said king. Valthorian informs Dal that he must recover the 5 other shards as well as defeat the dragons.
Beyond the introduction, the plot seems to be an afterthought in Dragon Blade. When there is dialog, it is subtitled and at times not as easy as it could be to follow along. This is due to the fact that the only way to follow along is in context and to be paying attention completely.
With the bit of interest the story has, you’d think developer Land Ho! would take it, run with it, and create an awesome gameplay experience. You’re goal in the game is to kill enemies that spawn, collect shards that will upgrade your armor, and defeat bosses. Dal has different abilities that he’ll gain by killing each boss. With each new ability comes the key to defeating the next. Getting to the bosses can be painful, but not quite as much if you fail. Due to the way the save system was designed, there are no saves before bosses, so if you are defeated you’ll have to start the level over or half-way. It’s not that any mob or boss is particularly difficult in the game as much as the horrid camera system. Instead of gauging where enemies are coming from and timing your attacks, you’ll be fumbling around looking for them.
You’d think a game where you control your swings with a flick of the wrist is great. Unfortunately a great idea is mired by the fact that the game doesn’t always detect the swings a player performs. When it does work, it’s fun to perform moves on mobs, but occasionally when you’ll be trying to perform a combo, the game will do something completely different.
As for the look of Dragon Blade, it leaves much to be desired. The fact that Dal remains expressionless throughout the entire game even during the death scene of his loved one leaves a bad taste in the mouth. This wouldn’t be so bad if the environments had something to offer other than mediocrity. Strewn about are objects to attack but other than that there’s nothing to delight the senses between battles. The enemies themselves are nothing to write home about either, with the highlight being the boss dragons.
About the only saving grace for this game is the audio. Although it’s not spectacular, it’s none too bad either. The music and effects fit in for the most part and aren’t too much. The opening movie voice over however lacked passion from the dubber, which is unfortunate as the plot described by the dragon could have had more power given to it with a stronger performance. In the actual game, attacks had the usual sounds, but with a fiery sword, seemed to lack in sounding like fire.
Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire tries to be a great hack and slash game. With gameplay and controls being frustrating at times, it’s hard to see the value. Even with a story written by Richard A. Knaak, it can’t save this game from being truly mediocre. If you’re really wanting to give it a try, rent it first.
