In our present day, a
construction crew unwittingly unleashes a dragon and by the year 2024, dragons have become
the dominant species on earth. In Britain, Quinn Abercromby has become a resistance
fighter based out of a burnt-out English castle. The film is definitely a must see, but
after playing the video game at E3, I’d say it fits nicely into that category as
well. Reign of Fire is a single player action game, but it’s almost as if you
get two games in one because half of your missions are played as the hero Quinn and half
are played from the perspective of a dragon hatchling you play to adulthood. 
According to
the executive producer, there are roughly 20 levels to this game, half played in vehicles
(as Quinn) and half flying (as the dragon). Quinn levels have a variety of vehicles (think
HALOesque gameplay here), from jeeps to fire trucks (all of which take visual
damage), and radar is available. Although missions vary from rescuing survivors, to
putting out fires and general reconnaissance, the main plot goal is to make your way to
the ruins of London—the site of the sole surviving male dragon. Voice-overs and cool
weapons from the film help add atmosphere to the human segment
As a
dragon, your goal from infancy is to eradicate the human race. The executive producer said
they were still working on non-human language based ways for the dragons to communicate
when they team up, which really piqued my curiosity. The dragons get to fight crop
dusters, do fly-bys of Big Ben, get damage and mayhem bonuses, and basically get to
participate in "the desecration of central London." There are day and night
levels for both humans and dragons, and this is amazingly effective with the fire effects.
And speaking of fire effects, the game features realistic, reactive fire which is impacted
by environmental elements, spreads quickly, and leads to great explosions (fireballs and
napalm, baby!).
The
game follows the plot of the movie and also features real-time cut scenes which merge into
the gameplay sections and separate missions. Another tie to the movie is the use of music
from the film soundtrack. Reign of Fire is not yet rated, but they are expecting a Teen
rating. I’m excited to play this game in full not only because of its premise and
cool movie tie-in, but because the levels looked incredibly large, detailed, and just a
heck of a lot of fun. The idea of playing a dragon from infancy and teaming up to plot the
destruction of mankind is just too cool to resist. And on a final dragon note, there are
several games recently (some already released and some I played at E3) that feature dragon
flight and aerial fighting, and this title was one of the very few which actually met my
expectations of what dragon flight could be. Kudos to BAM! on this one--I’ll be
waiting for a full test flight in October…
