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I of the Dragon is an action RPG with a couple of things in its favor. Instead of letting you play as the typical barbarian or mage, this fantasy game lets you take to the skies as a dragon. It also requires you to do some tactical thinking instead of relying solely on brute force. Beyond that, it's generic fare marred by numbing missions and repetitive combat, not to mention a wholly forgettable gameworld. I of the Dragon isn't actually a bad game, just a strikingly unimaginative one. In short bursts it can be fun, but over the long haul it becomes a real snoozer.

The game serves up a disposable story. Once upon a time, a generic fantasy world was beset by evil monsters. Humans and their dragon allies managed to destroy the wicked monsters infesting the land and banish their Sauron-style leader. After their victory, some shortsighted humans suspiciously turned on the dragons and drove them away, too. Naturally, the great evil of former times returns, and suddenly a dragon--that would be you--is needed to fight the forces of darkness.

Cutscenes fill you in on this limp tale. If you're expecting cinematic drama akin to the astounding cutscenes in Diablo II--or even something half as good--you'll be sorely disappointed. Instead you get lame in-engine scenes in which some little low-polygon guy appears (sometimes with his head cropped out of the picture) and tells you to go kill a bunch of monsters.

In fact, bare-bones monster killing is the core of I of the Dragon--kill all the monsters here, then kill all the monsters there, defend this town from monsters, then defend that town from monsters. Not exactly inspiring or imaginative. When the missions do differ, it might entail building a town, but that basically means flying to a preset site on a map and pressing a particular key. The missions that don't involve merely killing everything on a map can be unclear, since they often give you no idea where to look for the specific monster or building you need to find.

A few woefully ill-conceived missions have you playing as a human. These stink, not only because they're just plain boring, but also because the movement interface and camera were designed for airborne dragons and prove frustratingly inadequate when used for a creature stuck on the ground. You can hardly see where you're going, and evading enemies can be nearly impossible, as your character gets stuck on scenery.

Thank goodness you mostly fight as one of three different types of dragons, each of which has a different combat emphasis and a different selection of potential spells. The basics of movement and combat apply to all three. To move, you just click a spot on the landscape, and away your dragon flies. With the keyboard, you can vary its altitude and speed. However, even with the game-speed slider cranked up to the maximum 200 percent and your dragon's speed stat boosted through leveling up, your character's movement still feels slow and ponderous. Forget any dreams of soaring on the winds and performing stunning feats of aerial acrobatics. These dragons have all the grace and agility of a school bus.

As far as combat goes, you just right-click your target to attack it. The trick is in coordinating your attacks and flight pattern. You can avoid attacks more easily by soaring high above your enemies, but the farther you are from a target, the more likely it is that your ranged attacks will miss. Swooping down low makes it easier to blast your prey, but it also increases the likelihood that you'll get caught in a hail of projectiles. You can use terrain to your advantage, letting an intervening stand of trees absorb attacks from land-based monsters while you destroy the lair that generates them. Some of the terrain is destructible, though, so those trees won't hold out for long.

Your core dragon attacks include close-range breath weapons (fire, frost, and so on) that you can charge up for a lengthy, full-power blast or let loose more quickly but with less power. There are also single-shot breath-weapon attacks and a special attack that lets you dive down, snatch a monster with your talons, and then eat the squealing beast to sate your hunger. You'll need to stop and hover when you feed, so getting to safe ground first is vital.

Minimum System Requirements
System: 600MHz Intel or AMD or equivalent
RAM: 128 MB
Video Memory: 16 MB
Hard Drive Space: 1500 MB
Other: Direct3D-compatible video card (GeForce-level or higher)

Recommended System Requirements
System: 1GHz or equivalent
RAM: 256 MB
Video Memory: 32 MB
Other: Direct3D-compatible video card (GeForce2-level or higher)

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