While ostensibly this could then mean that motivated players can go after high scores and more casual players can relax and just go with the flow, I seemed to get good scores no matter how well or badly I did in classic mode. If I stopped caring about scores, then I had to deal with how repetitive playing through the same levels felt. That's the case even when you're playing through completely different levels: early on, you play through a lake level. Later, you play through a lava level. The boss at the end of the level? It was the same giant eel thing. Except, you know, a different element. Big whoop. Never mind that the lava level felt like a reskin of the water/lake level, or that enemies often reappear across different locales. Too much feels recycled in Crimson Dragon.

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The way the missions themselves go down isn't particularly interesting after you've played through a level once, too. There are four types of major objectives: kill as many things as you can, collect as many beacons (this game's version of coins scattered about a level), take no damage in a section, and survive for X number of seconds/minutes. Sometimes, these objectives will switch up a bit, too—you might have to collect beacons while also shooting down enemies, for instance—but for the most part, you'll only be doing one at a time. Despite revisiting levels to achieve slightly different goals every time, missions/levels still feel samey. The objective of killing everything in a level is much like the objective of avoiding damage in that level, because I'm still killing and dodging as much as I can in both situations. Collecting all the beacons is much like surviving for a certain amount of time: I want to stay alive in both scenarios, and I'm still flying through the same section again.

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I think I would have been fine with all of that had the dragon raising sections been fleshed out. Your dragon can gain experience and levels, but this feels meaningless given the difficulty of the game. You can feed your dragon, but all this means is choosing something on a menu...you don't get to see or hear your dragon eat anything. You just watch an experience bar go up, I guess. I still maintain that having a dragon roost is exciting, but the potential seems squandered in Crimson Dragon. Despite spending eight hours with my beast, I don't feel like I got close to my dragon, or like I bonded with my dragon much at all. That's kind of jarring when you consider that the game's fiction often touches on the bond between rider and dragon. Really, the only reason I stuck with a particular dragon is because I'd already taught it a few different abilities—why start over with a different dragon? I certainly didn't want to spend time replaying missions to level a new dragon, either.

The best part of the game is being able to enlist the help of 'wingmen,' which basically means going through a level with another dragon—and the dragons all belong to other players. Starting out, for example, I rode with the dragon belonging to Ben Kuchera, from Penny Arcade Report. With that dragon's help, I breezed through levels even more easily than I would have on my own. It's a feature that makes you feel like Crimson Dragon's world is bigger than what you get to experience. Neat!

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I should note that hiring other wingmen costs credits—and you gain credits as you complete objectives in levels. Credits also allow you to purchase other stuff in the game's store, too. The store contains revival crystals which let you continue a level without starting over when you die, ampoules, which are attribute boosting items you can equip before a level, and jewels which help you upgrade your dragon. And as you might've guessed, you can in fact spend real-world cash to get some of this stuff, too. I spent no money, though—heck, I barely used the store at all. I stuck with the same dragon for most of the game. You can buy revival gems once you actually die, and jewels can only be acquired via actual money. Eh.

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If I haven't really mentioned the Kinect controls thus far, it's because I opted to not use them for most of the game. You can navigate the menu through voice commands, though the Kinect doesn't seem to always understand what you're saying. And while you can tilt to the left or right to make your dragon barrel roll in that direction, I found that either the Kinect didn't always pick the motion up, or it would happen too slowly—causing my dragon to take damage. And if it did pick the motion up, it would only happen if the motion was kind of exaggerated—which could often throw me off my groove while playing. I suspect that most people who try Crimson Dragon won't be using the Kinect much.

Riding a dragon isn't something I've experienced until recently—I should be excited that I finally got to do it in Crimson Dragon, but instead I mostly felt boredom while playing.