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‘Dragon Commander’, A Flight of Fancy

‘Dragon Commander’, A Flight of Fancy

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Why are problems so much easier to solve in the shower? Something about the water and the routine makes solutions come to mind- the answers are ridiculous for no problem worth solving is done so with sweeping gestures; but in the mental cradle of the shower everything is obvious, just a hairs breadth from utopia. If only they’d listen. If only they’d hear. But as you leave the shower you realize that, for most, not all problems are a rubber stamp from a solution. But then again, most aren’t dragons.

Be the Emperor in a game that meshes features and genres together like a finger painting schizophrenic. You begin aboard your steam punk yacht zeppelin with the firm knowledge of two things: you’re a dragon, and you have a jetpack.  Before you know it you’ve been pushed to command a mixture of strangely modern weaponry in a bid for the throne. If you get bored dodging dragon seeking missiles673600_20130809_640screen008 you can return to your zeppelin for a vigorous debate on gay marriage, or quibble over morality with the ship’s demon engine.

There are many features to Dragon Commander, but somehow everything clicks. The laws you pass affects the support you receive when conquering the races, the battles the territory you own, and the territory the gold and science that pass through your claws. Even the dragon form, while a bit unwieldy, finds its place when holding down a front or bolstering a flagging line.

But in its greatest strength Dragon Commander finds weakness. Everything is half done, and there’s no real focus; a player might wish to explore a storyline further, only to be rushed off to fight a battle they don’t care about. Even after returning to the zeppelin their attention is split among so many simultaneous conversations and tangents that the original interest becomes a single distant voice in a noisy room. If they were expanded on, some of these features might rival triple “A” titles in quality, but as it stands it’s a confusing mess, a strange mixture where everything is present but nothing defined- like your plate halfway through Thanksgiving dinner.

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There are zany antics to be sure, and the humor is top notch; but, beyond the absurdity of a steam punk fantasy setting, there’s not really much more to Dragon Commander. There’s no feeling of a world outside your zeppelin- and while the laws and debates help you mentally imagine that there might be, the casualness with which the decisions are treated undermines itself. It never feels as if you’re building a world, more like unpacking one.

Though, it’s hard to fault Dragon Commander for ambition; it attempted to tie a number of clashing genres together and didn’t fall entirely on its face. It has solid writing, and where it succeeds it succeeds well. So take Dragon Commander for what it is, a high fantasy romp, and you won’t be disappointed.

[wpchatai]