Following their impressive videogame treatment of ‘Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers’, Stormfront Studios is now working its own considerable magic in bringing Eragon to Xbox 360. The European setting of Leipzig, Germany, seemed the perfect place to catch another glimpse of the game due toward the end of the year.
Eragon is big news this year, with a major Hollywood movie dramatising events from book one of Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Trilogy. Stormfront has worked closely with Fox Studios to capture the look and feel of the movie, having access to set designs and discussing concepts since before shooting started. It was decided from the beginning that the game follows the plot of the movie, which of course is derived from Paolini’s wonderful books. This allows for an action-packed adventure, full of swashbuckling derring-do from hero Eragon and sidekicks Brom and Murtagh. On Xbox 360, however, we’re going to get closer to the book than even the movie, with two exclusive levels to explore and battles against ogre-like enemies, the Kull.
Of course Eragon can summon his dragon Saphira to assist in key moments, but the majority of the action involves close-quarters combat. You’ll be pleased to learn that this is handled with intelligence, and Eragon has quite an arsenal of techniques at his disposal – both physical and magical. What’s more, Eragon can combine attacks with whoever is fighting by his side, most spectacularly of all when entering Fury Mode whereby the two characters get a kind of adrenaline rush based on teamwork. We also like that another player can take control of the second character at any time, or likewise hand back the reigns to the computer.
In terms of magic, Stormfront has clearly had a lot of fun allowing Eragon to manipulate his environment via telekinesis – such as huge tree trunks to provide a bridge. Usually, though, you’re chucking mystical arrows, creating magical shields and dashing about in an enchanted blur, which can be great fun.
