The Handler Of Dragons Early Access Preview - Stick With The Dragons

The Handler of Dragons Early Access means well, but it needs to transition from Apprentice to Master. Yet another game that appeared from nowhere (not to the creators of the game!), it was pretty shocking to see that this is the work of a solo developer.

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Now, I don’t know anything about programming and assets unless it’s website related, so if everything seen in the game is the work of Jerzy Caliński (published by Golden Eggs Studio), then “We’re not worthy”. There’s undoubtedly folk out there that will say that it looks dated, or they don’t like this, that or the other, but I thought it was impressive from my side of the fence. Bear in mind I have everything, other than a couple of parameters I don’t like, set at ultra.

This is a third-person adventure that incorporates many of the good qualities of our favourite RPGs, action RPGs, fantasy tales and dragons. Lots of dragons. Ambitious is a fair term to use, and considering how good the game looks, it still has a way to go for it to be special. But… it’s oozing with potential.

The Handler Of Dragons Early Access

The same could be said for another title I looked at a while ago, but the voice acting and glitching put me off. In my time with The Handler of Dragons Early Access, there was no issue with glitching, but I did encounter some pretty atrocious voice acting. Some of it is so stripped of character, I feel like Skynet might be a reality.

The intro sequence sounded the part – perhaps the key voice actor was saved for this, but black text on a tapestry-like sequence looked ugly. This is the same with some UI, using some gaudy colours and text that overlap. It’s an assault on the eyeballs.

But this can all be finetuned in time. The intro is done and dusted, the UI liveable – but the voice acting… When we meet our hero, George, he’s tasked with finding his son. In a field right next to him. His wife ‘nags’ him to look for their child as there are wolves nearby, to which George replies, “I will look for him. To make you happy”. Great parenting, George. Take a cookie.

She’s An Old Dragon

Ignoring the expressionless wife, two wolves spawn in front of me, teleporting all over the place. After a bit of an axe interlude, his sociopath son thanks him with a tone that sounds like a serial killer. Could I have not left him to the wolves? Next up, another phoned-in voice piece from some shifty wizard and the introduction to our first dragon. Let’s sum this up: the voice acting throughout (and poor hero poses) are dreadful. But there’s hope. I hope.

While George can look pretty minuscule compared to the hollow, somewhat barren locations, The Handler of Dragons Early Access is a nice looking game. It reminds me of Enclave back on the original Xbox – if you’re familiar, but with much sharper textures and animation (thankfully!).

As Georgy-boy can speak to the dragons, you’ll understandably encounter them quite a bit, and they look pretty cool. There’s an Eragon feel to it as they give you fetch quests and what-not; each dragon is tied to an individual scale that can control them. At the time of playing, I was unable to ride a dragon, but it was on the cards at some point.

To Scale

While those scenes are a bit empty, when you encounter enemies, they look the part, and there’s some nice variety. George can do them in with a melee weapon early on, but also equipable magic. It’s all relatively standard, and once you work out the clunky UI and hotkeys, it’s quite enjoyable. If you feel a bit downbeat with the gameplay, the music knocks it out of the park. It’s a little too epic in scenes of monotony, but there’s a good deal of feel-good pieces that lift the mood.

As stated on The Handler of Dragons Early Access page, the game is 100% playable, and the main plot is finished, but the voice acting does let it down, as does some of the unnecessary wandering around with little do. The emphasis again goes on two factors here: it’s in Early Access, so it will need a few things ironed out, and… AND this is the work of a solo dev.

Some of the scenes in the game had the same scope, at least potential, like WoW, so there’ll be an audience for this game (it’s single-player, not an MMO); it’s just whether you can tolerate the indifference by the NPCs (and dragon curious George).

Find out for yourself – The Handler of Dragons is in Early Access now and a bit of a steal, based on its very fair asking price.