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Nearly every time a movie company tries to make a video game based off of a
movie, it comes out horrid. So, I usually stay away from those games.
However, if the movie sucks, you have a 50-50 chance of getting something cool.
Because, you either get a company that realized the movie was bad, and makes a
game that doesn't really relate to the movie, or they make one that does and it
sucks really, really bad. Reign of Fire got mixed reviews...basically a
semi-boring action movie that had plot holes galore. But since it was an action
movie, that meant you had a fairly good shot at having it be fun to go around
shooting everything.
If that's all that you're looking for, Reign of Fire, the game doesn't
disappoint. It's just that there's SO much driving around and shooting things
that it gets old rather quickly.
You start out playing as the humans, who apparently own the planet, and the
dragons are just renting it...or so the intro movie claims. You're a new grunt
working with the Kentucky Irregulars. (whom are led by Matthew McConaughey
character Van Zan.) You get all the fun jobs like protecting the convoys,
protecting the engineers, and protecting the convoys.
Controls
Controls work a lot better than I thought they would. Use the
left analog stick to aim your reticle and shoot. Trying to have you do both
independently would have doomed this game immediately, but they apparently
realized that fairly quickly, because the alternate control scheme they have
actually has you aiming with the right stick and driving with the left.
X to accelerate and O to reverse. The shoulder buttons will fire your various
weapons. Triangle is your horn. (We were laughing at our friend's revolutionary
tactic of using the "sonic attack" to stun the dragons and then shoot them with
missiles. It mainly led to the dragons engulfing his vehicle with fire...and us
laughing at him.
Throughout the game you'll drive a variety of vehicles, from the little jeep
thing you start with at the beginning, to fire trucks, and eventually tanks. Get
far enough into the game as the humans, and you'll get the ability to play the
game as the dragons, and torch Matthew McConaughey. I mean, his career's already
going down in flames, right? Might as well seal the deal. =)
Graphics
The graphics in the game are ok...I don't find them to be too
appealing. I mean, there's a bunch of burnt stuff. Whoopee. Everything's so dark
it's honestly pretty damn hard to figure out what's going on unless the dragons
are busy lighting some stuff on fire. They do a good job of making the dragons
look pretty imposing as they swoop down on you and try and torch your vehicles,
but that feeling wears off as you encounter the same enemies over and over,
stage after stage. Add to that the fact that a single heat-seeking missile will
take on of the normal dragons down, and they're not quite as impressive anymore.
 Sound
Sound's as unimpressive as the graphics. Your vehicles sound
different, and they use the basic stock explosion sounds for your missiles,
guns, and what have you. This is all pretty much mailed in, but then again,
that's kind of the run of the mill for the entire game as I experienced it.
Gameplay
One of the biggest problems with the game is the mission's
length. They should probably be broken into halves, or into mini objectives. As
it is, it takes 6 minutes to play through a mission...if you fail, you have to
start it over from the beginning.
Seeing as how most of the missions involve you protecting an objective as the
last part...it gets fairly annoying to keep replaying a mission because your
idiot friends in the convoy (CON-VOY!) are incapable of evading fire, literally.
No matter how much you use the horn to warn them, they're still just going to
get smoked.
On top of that, the missions aren't really all that complex. Drive here, shoot.
Now drive here and shoot some more. This other place here, that would also be a
good location to shoot some things, and when you're done with that, there's some
stuff at this last nav point that could use some good shooting, too.
Overall
If you're looking for a quick fix of entertainment, I can see
you picking this up as a rental or something. Ideally you'll have some sort of
Game Shark or whatever, and you can just unlock the Dragon Mode from the
beginning, and you won't have to play through the entire game just to have some
quick fun. The game, much like the movie gets passed off as uninspired, and a
reason to have some explosions. If you're cool with that, you'll be cool with
this.
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