Eragon Game Interview (con't)

FiringSquad: What can you tell us about the gameplay design of the Eragon game?

Tim Ramage: First and foremost, the Eragon license is ideal for a hack & slash, action/adventure. The hero has a sword, a bow and eventually, the ability to use magic. Then you add a dragon and it gets even more interesting.

FiringSquad: What playable characters will be available in the game?

Tim Ramage: In the single player experience, you will get to play as Eragon, and as Saphira. In the cooperative game play mode, the second player will get to play as the mentor Brom for the first half of the game, then as the wily Murtagh in the second half. During dragon flight levels, one player plays as Saphira, while the other player controls Eragon on her back.

FiringSquad: What kind of missions and locations will be featured in the Eragon game?

Tim Ramage: Most of the mission are composed of a nice variety of hack slash game play, with a bit of stealth and puzzle solving thrown in. Then, for a quarter of the game, you will play controlled flight missions with Saphira, where you’re reigning terror down from above on hapless Urgals and Soldiers…and even a couple of sub-bosses. Most of the locations that appear in the movie will be featured in the game.

FiringSquad: What can you tell us about the combat in the game, especially the dragon combat?

Tim Ramage: We built a melee combat system that is straightforward in execution…simple three button combos that are easy to learn and execute. But as the player progresses, the setups and the enemies will become more sophisticated. As a result, the player will quickly find that button mashing won’t work…and the key to defeating your enemies lies in the ability to link basic combos to more advanced combos, resulting in dynamic and rewarding power moves and grapples.
As the game advances you’ll also have to rely on your bow and combat magic (such as lighting your enemies on fire, or repelling them off of cliffs or into other enemies) in order to be successful. We want the player to utilize the entire arsenal of abilities that Eragon has as a result of his Dragon Rider legacy.

And to that end, the ultimate realization of the Dragon Rider legacy is the involvement of Saphira, the dragon. She will act as an AI ally, swooping in to take out enemies on her own; she will also act as a “smart bomb,” where the player as Eragon can call her in to take out enemies is specific areas of a level; and of course there will be levels where the player actually controls Saphira in the air, wreaking havoc and devastation on her enemies below.

FiringSquad: What other important gameplay features will Eragon have?

Tim Ramage: Drop-in cooperative multiplayer game play. At any time a second player can plug in and seamlessly take control of the ally character. Stormfront designed the game to support cooperative game play from the very beginning. As a result, the camera is optimized to support both single player and cooperative game play…with no jarring changes of camera or perspective.