I’ve rounded up some more impressions of Crimson Dragon from E3, including the likes of IGN, STFUandPlay, TechnoBuffalo, GamesRader, and Co-Optimus.
IGN’s impressions were positive, citing the many similarities with the Panzer Dragoon series. Their article is even called “Crimson Dragon Is Definitely a Panzer Dragoon Game”.
Crimson Dragon is, straight-up and without even trying to hide it, a Panzer Dragoon game. “Spiritual successor” doesn’t seem an appropriate way to describe what is shamelessly, lovingly a Panzer Dragoon sequel in disguise. The function and feel of the on-rails dragon-flying shooter is near identical, albeit more refined for the era, to that of its greatest influence.
Tony Polanco from STFUandPlay explains that game’s difficulty is quite high (although not in a bad way); a representative told him that the final game will be even harder:
The demo took place inside of a volcano and you had to fight a bunch of huge monsters and even other dragons. You had to dodge enemy attacks in addition to crap falling from the volcano. The demo had some boss battles as well. The final boss battle was really tough. Even though I won, it was only by the skin of my teeth. I’m glad to see that the old Panzer Dragoon difficulty hasn’t been messed with too much. However, I was told that the final game will be harder so that should be pretty interesting.
However, TechnoBuffalo’s impressions suggest the opposite:
I will say, as a fan of Panzer Dragoon, this on-rail shooter absolutely feels like an aging experience. Perhaps they turned the difficulty way down for this little showcase, but Crimson Dragon almost felt like it played itself. Except for occasionally dodging really obvious obstacles, my only real task in the demo was aiming and firing. That’s it.
Unfortunately, there were more complaints about the controls. GamesRader writes that Crimson Dragon’s controls felt sluggish:
Problem is, though Kinect controls are now “optional,” the controller controls don’t really feel right. The on-rails shooting never really felt as accurate as we hoped, and aiming around the screen was slow and mildly unresponsive. Games like Sin and Punishment (and, obviously, Panzer Dragoon) are so impressive because of their tight controls, which lend themselves well to difficult gameplay, but Crimson Dragon was sluggish.
However, talk of the controls wasn’t all bad. Co-Optimus writes of the new controls more positively:
The controls felt nice, and the jump from a 360 controller to an Xbox One controller wasn’t exactly a huge change. I had a little bit of an issue with losing the reticule among the action, something the studio rep on hand said was a known issue and was being worked on. Otherwise, the dragon controlled fast and fluid. The only problem was my inability to dodge as effectively as I should have been.
From all of the impressions so far it sounds like the controls are the main feature that Grounding needs to work on. There are still months until the Xbox One launches in November which should hopefully be enough time to get the controls right.