Eragon: The Next Lord of the Rings? Company: VU Games Developer Stormfront Studios has done it again. The folks who converted The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers into a video game have taken the knowledge they’ve learned in the past, and applied it directly to their most recent title based on the upcoming movie, Eragon. Not only do the similarities show, but they truly come through in the style of play, the gameplay elements and the combat system as well. Although I’m not familiar with the Eragon universe, I quickly saw that their will likely be a lot of action in the feature film by the same name, because the game is non-stop from the start. As the young Eragon, you’ll set out on a journey to right the wrongs of the evil that has spread across the land. Standing in your way are the Varden, and they will continue to swarm you with hordes of enemies coming from all directions throughout the entire game. Toward then end, it almost gets to the point of being quite overwhelming. Similar to The Two Towers, Eragon places the player on a very linear path in order to reach his destiny of becoming a dragon-rider. Fortunately, you’ll have help throughout the game in Brom and Murtagh. In fact, I have to admit that the very first part of the game was very uninspiring, to say the least. You find yourself restricted to a very small area, fighting off enemies from all directions, until you finally defeat the last one, are treated to a mini cut-scene, and enter then next small area. But if you can get past this introduction, the levels become much more vast (although still very linear in nature), and the visuals are quite jaw-dropping. Mixing might with magic, Eragon allows you to build up combo melee attacks, as well as throwing in new magic attacks that are learned along the way, until you become one with the controller (which is a great way to not overwhelm players from the start). The difficulty of the game is quite well-balanced as is, partly because of the help of a computer/human-controlled second player. However, in this preview build, I did find that the mid-way boss battle proved much more difficult than the final boss battle. Hopefully, this will be improved upon with the final release of the game. With that said, however, what went from a lackluster first impression to a complete addiction that just needed one more fix, Eragon is looking to be a great movie-tie-in for your Xbox console. -Woody, GameVortex Communications AKA Shane Wodele Related Links: Official Eragon Game Website Vivendi Univeral Games / Sierra Stormfront Studios