7 years ago, I picked up this game but didn't finish it. I decided this past week to reinstall and try it out again and figure out why I stopped playing in the first place... I mean, who can say "no" to a game where you can command armies and fly around as a dragon destroying your foes? Well, I found out.
What seemed to be an inspiring game about grand strategy, political intrigue, and flying around as a dragon, really is no more than a "choose your own" adventure game wrapped with a turned based board game with a very optional "RTS" and dragon component. I'll hit on a few sections to give a good look at my thoughts... starting with the worst.
First Component- [b] RTS [/b]
When moving into enemy territory that is occupied by enemy units, you have an option to auto resolve or fight it yourself. The latter allows to command units, build buildings and units, and use abilities. The maps are not all that varied and the building of a base is pretty shallow. Depending on how many forces you initially have that you moved in the first place, you can forgo the base building all together and just kill what they have. You can't do any formations and abilities have to be used one at a time. The former ends up cluttering units though this is also due to the funneled nature of the map design. Some abilities are interesting, but some are just unbalanced and can make fights be a push over. The resource "collection" isn't all that intuitive either making for a bland experience. Basically, don't think this is anywhere near the total war series of strategy during their RTS battles. But at least the explosions are nice. Of course, after a certain amount of time, you can use a dragon form which initially is fun... but...
Second Component- [b] Being a dragon [/b]
One of the bigger draws of the game is being able to assist your forces as a dragon and use various powers to heal/buff your forces and destroy/debuff enemies. What starts off as a neat idea shows how little there was put into being able to command armies in this form and how unfun it is actually to use the dragon. It is awkward as you try to both destroy units and try to tell your forces to move forward or attack. But you end up having to pretty much select everything and "go here" which goes back to the mindless zerg of units bunched up. Flying as a dragon isn't all that interesting and your kit, even with all the abilities available, is limited. You'll blow some things up, maybe buff some units, and either move forward or cancel the form early to command your units better. However, this could have been anything. They could have replaced the dragon with a steampunk contraption and it would have done the same thing. You don't really feel that you are this dragon circling and commanding troops proper. Your attacks can only fire for so long until you overheat. No melee abilities or equipping yourself with missiles (we got a jackpack, why not guns too?). Between the lack of commanding in this form and the awkward combat when using the dragon, I think it goes to show that these sort of hybrid RTS with the ability to drop down in battles really don't work all that well.
Third Component- [b] Politics and characters [/b]
While these two things may seem separate ,they are so closely tied together. You have the council which you must decide on various issues from freedoms, to fishing regulations, to deciding on controlling how much necromancy is allowed. Every couple of turns you'll get something new to look at. Each one will have some sort of impact on your game play. You may get more gold per turn or you may decrease your luck. Perhaps you'll get some cards to play on the turn-based portion of the game. Some of these things are interesting and will change how popular with each faction. But it stops there. There no real lasting repercussion in a story sense and there isn't a summary at the end of the game based on your decisions (example, I did a playthrough of supporting having a president... but the endgame cutscene proclaimed me as emperor to rule over the land). This leads to your generals which is just another council in itself. They feel like just more politicians than actual generals to help or comment in battle. What's more annoying is that you may say something on a day that makes them furious to no end, but turn around with a different decision later on and they seem just dandy with you all of a sudden. These sudden turns just don't make the characters feel natural. While they are a good assortment of colorful characters and have good voice acting, the execution is just not inspiring. Your queen has some branching paths especially for the undead queen, but even most of it just comes out as one or two outcomes. Some decisions affect the game, but very little overall.
Fourth Component- [b] Turn Based Board Game [/b]
The highlight is the turn based board game aspect of the game. You build buildings that give you more money in a region, generate cards, or the ability to produce units. The cards will do things like buff units for a specific battle, generate extra gold, discount units for a turn, etc. There is a decent amount of strategy involved here and one can appreciate the charm in this board game like part of the game. Really, it is the strongest component of the game. However, the AI aren't all that smart in moving its units around or staging large invasions making for an easy time.
[b] Conclusion [/b]
If you like choose your own adventure games with a decent board game to go with it, you may find this game to be somewhat enjoyable... Just know the former isn't as impactful as it should be. Anything outside of that, and you are going to be disappointed. Dong some research, it is clear this game had a lot of cut content and was gutted to make way for Original Sin. Even so, if the developers had spent time on the turn based board game component and expanding the characters and politics, it would have been a better game. The RTS and Dragon components just feel like they were shoved in. Too many genres in one basket, you could say.
Regardless, I hope the studio will visit this in the future someday. There are too few games where one plays as a dragon... and even fewer that are even worth playing. Maybe there is a future for Dragon Commander to be more an action or open world RPG where it would fit to become a dragon and assist the armies that your generals command. One can only hope.
