In theory a very cool idea. In reality too, if you have a talented crew. Imagine flying over battles like in Lord of the Rings with monsters and knights fighting to death for victory and glory. The thrill! The suspense! Unfortunately, the developers were unable to create a challenging or compelling gameplay. From the very first missions on you get this feeling that you are wasting your time and that feeling only gets stronger when you proceed in the game. I mean, Drakengard II is simply shooting sitting ducks, the AI is that terrible. Both your enemies and allies are just, well, standing there. They do not even move except for running to places where there is nobody at all. And just when you think it doesn’t get any easier than this, you get the option to fight your enemies from the sky using fireballs, claws and whirlwinds. It is like fighting the Ancient Romans with a B2 stealth bomber. Finding and upgrading weapons, choosing different accessories and the ability to perform some magic tricks create a minimum of variation but whatever the developers might be saying; they do not add any extra value to the gameplay.

Drakengard II is a big disappointment on technical aspects too. The graphics are just horrible: plain and uninspired environments, too little variation in textures and very dodgy animations. This lack in imagination can easily be transferred to sound department as well. A synthesizer tune and some boring sound effects are rather clumsy covered with some clichéd British voice-overs. This all does not create ‘intense and epical battles’.

With your characters you cross the land and the sky searching for hordes of walking and flying enemies. You have the ability to use all kinds of weapons like different swords and spears but you can also use magic. Thanks to these magic tricks you can take down entire groups of enemies in the blink of an eye. This kind of gameplay is pretty much standard for the action genre, so what justifies this extremely low score, except the total lack of originality? The problem finds itself in the boringness of the game. Due to the uninspired environments and the extremely low AI of the enemy, you will find yourself slide into a mindless button bashing feast (in slow-motion). Trapped in a Dynasty Warriors trance – a game on which Drakengard’s gameplay is fiercely based – you will be easily annoyed by the whole atmosphere and the very childish storyline. This game has nothing to offer in its genre and I suggest looking for games like Genji, Onimusha and the Lord of the Rings series instead.