The Legend Of Spyro kicks off the second of three titles with Eternal Night.
The loyal Spyro fans have waited for another sequel of the newly generated series. Eternal Night for the PS2 may be for some reviewers, a not-so-great game with minor improvements. This gamer however, had the opposite experience of that. Eternal Night begins not so long after A New Beginning with Spyro triumphantly defeating Cynder, the Dark Masters finest general. Now she ends up living with our purple hero and then a few minuets of playing, leaves him because of the chaos she caused. Not long after she leaves our hero falls to a deep slumber and his dream becomes the cure to revive his powers back. The rest of the game and the spoilers are up to you. The combat system is a tad different than A New Beginning. The fire, ice, earth, and electricity elements are back, and the order mentioned is the order you receive first. Each have an improved primary and secondary attack form Spyro’s mouth and body and are useful in some of the minor in difficulty puzzles and obstacles you encounter in the game. The melee system had little improvement, but more movement in motion from each way you attack your adversaries. The Fury attack is back, and this time it guarantees a one-hit kill no matter the size the enemy your facing, excluding bosses. The air melee improved this time with a satisfying five that beats the previous three hits. A new tool this time around is the “dragon time”. This is seven seconds of time that is slowed down for you to play defense or offense with an enemy or boss, pass an obstacle or avoid dying, a common thing you’ll run into in the game.
The length of Eternal Night has increased from four to six levels, to a decent thirteen. Sadly though, the levels length varies, such as a dream level you’ll encounter four times in total are short and end quickly. The main four levels are the same as A New Beginnings, and are just cut into sections of that level instead being placed before a new level.
The difficulty has taken up a degree or two, and if your careful, you’ll die quickly. For example, when you get thrown from a hammer and then shake of the attack, the smaller enemies just stand in front of you and attack, without the damage being given. In Eternal Night, you take damage EVERY time you get hit. So instead of going Spartan on your opponents and leaving with half your health dwindled, you’ll be restarting the were you came from and re-fight them again. Of course, going Spartan on your ape and dog enemies didn’t kill this gamer. Just the bosses. The bosses are a tad harder, and are in need with key strategy and even the use of Dragon Time to win. Trial and error will be used in most battles.
The graphics and music are very nice and provide a fantasy approach to the game, making the world of Eternal Night unique and special. What’s cool about Eternal Night this time is that you’ll get to explore a pirate fleet instead of staying on ground. At least sending your adversaries into the ocean is fun and satisfying. Take that “Pirates of the Caribbean” and your so called game play! The musicians from created by A New Beginning, Rebecca “Becky” Knuelbal (spell check), are back and provide very suspenseful and worldly music that greatly match the game and its world’s and situations. There’s even one piece of music with lyrics, but I’m not gonna tell you where and when. That’s just being rude. Only few games have good or decent dialogue. Some have bad voice acting and lip syncing that’s way off or none at all. Well Eternal Night practically passes this area with flying colors. The voices of Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings) as Spyro, Billy West (Ren & Stimpy and Futurama) as Sparx, and Gary Oldman as Ignitus, are satisfying enough to think that this game was based on a movie. And darn it, it should have! Other well-known voice actors appear and fit their characters very well, such as Kevin Michael Richardson as Terrador and Gaul the main antagonist and the Ape King, and Mae Whitman (Avatar: The Last Airbender) as Cynder. If Sierra wasn’t focused on the many F.E.A.R. games being released on every console, the game could have gone further than a video game console. If you know what I mean. There are some things that make the game receive a lower score. For example, if your flying and you land on a pile of rocks that your not supposed to stand on, then you’re going to sit their still in a flying position and then be thrown randomly into or on who knows what. Another is a pesky camera that you can control. Sometimes in the important time to look down or left and right, the camera will fight to keep it in the “best” position. When I mean by best, I mean a position where you’ll get lost or get frustrated with the controller. The camera doesn’t seem to be friendly with enclosed areas like the previous title, and sometimes you get a short term of frustration as well. The combat still has the hack-and-slash method with the improvement of second and third attacks from Spyro’s arsenal. One improvement that made this player happy, was only the semi-long in-game cut scenes that contribute to the story so you get the idea of what might happens next. Other than that, Eternal Night is worthwhile, along with a few collectables to increase our magic and health, and even view art from the game and previously A New Beginning and, rumor has it, pictures of the third game (don’t blame me if I’m wrong!). This game isn’t what you call perfect, but it certainly does not qualify as a terrible or atrocious score in the future reviews of this game for the PS2. The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night is very different than the Japanese RPG’s and the boring puzzle games we see. It’s fun and I can’t wait for the final chapter for the series. It’s a rental or buy it game so give it a try. The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night gets a generous and more accurate than out of 10… 4 out of 5.