Drakengard review (PlayStation 2)

The game's camera is a little awkward but works well enough when you get used to it. The way you reset the angle to the default behind-the-back perspective is to ease up on the left analog stick for a moment, whereas most games let you recenter the camera at the press of a button. What's more of an issue is that, although the game conveniently provides you with a minimap showing all enemies in the vicinity, the minimap does not orient you in any way (say, by pointing north). You'll end up frequently switching over to the full-screen map to make sure you're headed in the right direction. It's not that big of a hassle, but it's disruptive to the gameplay experience.

The plot of the game alludes to a pitched battle between the Union and the Empire, but in reality, you'll never encounter any friendly forces in battle--it's just Caim and his dragon against the world. The story does its best to convince you that the entire world hangs in the balance, and it's all terribly serious, but it's hard to take too seriously when it all boils down to you trudging around on a flat map while killing neat little clumps of enemies that are strewn about. Enemies come in a few varieties, some of which hit hard and can easily defeat you if you aren't careful. Most, though, are incredibly stupid and simply walk up to you--mounting the most halfhearted offense and defense you can imagine--while you cut a bloody swath through their ranks. Meanwhile, enemies in the aerial sequences are just weird, so you'll find that bats, strange gargoyles, flying totems, and other such things will prove to be more of a nuisance than anything else. While on dragonback, you can execute quick side-to-side strafing maneuvers to avoid enemy fire, and that's just about as far as the strategy goes. Some dragonback sequences automatically lock you onto a particular target, in which case it can be easy to become disoriented, thus causing you to literally confuse the dragon's tail for her head. However, you'll get the hang of it with practice.

Drakengard looks decent but, ultimately, not all that good. There's some occasional slowdown when too many special effects are going off all at once, but for the most part, the game runs very smoothly even when tons of bad guys are onscreen. The game is surprisingly bloody, and when killed, enemies all leave behind the same big splotch of gore before them; then it disappears. So you'll grow numb to this effect quickly. Caim's animation is pretty disappointing, considering he's the main character and all. He looks fine when swinging his weapons around, but he runs awkwardly--much like a man who's slightly hurrying to cross a street on a yellow light, rather than like the vengeful and incredibly powerful warrior he's supposed to be. Enemies are pretty simple and predictably recycle the same animations over and over. Most of the environments are very drab, completely flat, and offer nothing of interest to look at. The flying sequences may look a bit better, overall, thanks to the fairly good-looking animation of the dragon. Some of the game's spell effects look pretty good as well.

The music in Drakengard is one of the most distinctive things about the game. It's fully orchestral, but it's surprisingly dissonant. There are lots of very shrill-sounding strings on this soundtrack, which loops frequently, and it's rather bombastic. In fact, the soundtrack is the most nerve-racking and most intense aspect of the game. It almost sounds like it belongs in a psychological thriller or a horror movie. While it's not particularly pleasant on the ears, it ultimately does work very well with the game's epic theme and is certainly unique. Drakengard sports some good voice acting too, with a couple of standout performances. Most notably, there's Caim's dragon, who sounds like a stern matriarch rather than what you might have come to expect from your typical video game talking dragons. The rest of the game's audio is fine but isn't as memorable. Unfortunately, there's no ambient sound in the missions, which is disappointing since they're supposed to be in war zones, and the sounds of hacking and slashing are pretty subdued. Enemies don't scream when hit or when killed, and Caim himself--because of his pact--is mute.

To its credit, Drakengard is greater than the sum of its parts. The main cast of characters, while not terribly well developed, is interesting and rather unconventional. Though the story itself is awkwardly paced and is sometimes difficult to keep up with, it becomes one of the main motivating factors for wanting to get all the way through to the end of the game. Beyond this, multiple endings, optional missions, and all those hidden weapons might keep you busy for a while longer. The action itself in Drakengard really isn't bad; it's just very repetitive and rather simplistic. This is a shame, because if the gameplay had more to offer it would be a lot easier to recommend the game as a whole.