Dreamworks Dragons Dawn of New Riders Review for Nintendo Switch

Dungeons & Dragons & Dreamworks?

              Serving as inspiration and playing a pivotal role in countless fantasy stories, dragons have spent years as center pieces of incredible tales and acted as both friend and foe. Developed by Climax Studios and published by Outright Games, Dreamworks Dragons Dawn of New Riders inserts the player directly into the world of the How to Train Your Dragon film series. Your character awakens to surrounding flames and giant roars, shortly after meeting the protagonists of the film series, Hiccup and Toothless. By this point in the timeline, Hiccup has already taken over as village chief and their people are continuing their efforts of expanding their knowledge of other islands and establishing a map of other regions. The player is quickly thrown into danger, as the egg that character woke up next to is kidnapped. Chasing after it, the egg hatches to be Patch, a chimera of a dragon. Together, the player can take control of the main protagonist, Scribbler, and Patch to get the Scribbler’s memory back and protect the other dragons that have been harmed by poachers.

Dungeon Crawling & Dragons

              The style of this title, both gameplay and artistically, are what yield strength to it. It is a top down adventure game, pseudo dungeon crawling genre. The game features exploration of various islands and caves, sprawling dungeons as well. The player takes control of both the Scribbler and Patch as they interact with the environment to move from island to island and slay any enemies that stand in their way. Dreamworks Dragons Dawn of New Riders goes an interesting direction in terms of exploration, requiring the use of each character’s unique abilities and weapons to change things in the environment to progress. For example, using the Scribbler’s axes to cut down a tree to use as a bridge, or use Patch’s ice breath to walk over frozen water into new areas. Combat also has layers to it, as the Scribbler does most of the fighting along side support from Patch’s dragon breath. The game takes Patch’s utility even a step further, including situations where the player has to take control of Patch and operate puzzles with his dragon breath.

Dungeons & Dragons & Deficiencies

              While providing a fun and unique gateway into this story and world, the game does not come without its challenges. Often times, controls are finicky and cause the characters to move or attack in unintended ways. The AI of the other character that the player is not controlling can fault at times, causing Scribbler or Patch to get stuck behind a tree three islands back. Sometimes this leads to trouble in combat, since the other party member is taking a minute to catch up. 

              Aside from gameplay troubles, writing in the game can fall a bit flat. It stays true to the personality and spirit of the characters in the film, but is pretty heavy handed in the ideas it’s trying to convey. Staying away from subliminal messaging, the dialogue tends to be plain and direct, which does sometimes take away from the wonder of the world and its characters.

Check Out the DreamWorks Dragons Dawn of New Riders Trailer:

DreamWorks Dragons Dawn of New Riders is available for purchase now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC for a suggested retail price of $39.99.

You can keep up with all DreamWorks Dragons Dawn of New Riders at https://www.outrightgames.com/