Berk's Grapevine

Early Look: Dawn of New Riders!



If you're a lucky fan living outside the United States, you may already have downloaded DreamWorks Dragons: Dawn of New Riders by Outright Games and developed by Climax Studios. If not, then here's an early look at the new dragons game released alongside The Hidden World! Check out more about Dawn of New Riders on its Steam Page and on Outright Games' website!

Dawn of New Riders, which we first heard about in October features two new character: the scholar Scribbler and his future dragon companion, Patch. Amusingly, both are named accidentally by Hiccup. Scribbler who magically pops up on a new island called Havenholme without any memory of how or why. Havenholme, an Edge-like outpost constructed by Hiccup and the others, is in ruins after being attacked. Playing as Scribbler, we start by investigating the destruction on Havenholme. As well as raise and bond with Patch, a "chimeradragon" with a unique set of powers.

Check out the first part of our exploration of Havenholme, where we meet Scribbler and get to know a little bit about Patch! Thanks to Outright Games for sharing a copy of the game with us!



Here's the description of the game shared by Outright Games:

A new heroic dragon and rider are taking to the skies and only you can help them defeat the evil villains who destroyed a dragon sanctuary created by Hiccup, Toothless, and his dragon riders. When the island of Havenholme is found in ruins, mysterious survivors emerge as unlikely future heroes. Scribbler is a scholar who cannot remember his past while Patch is a unique breed of dragon, a “chimeragon,” with new, unexpected powers they discover along the way. Together they must explore new islands, battle fierce enemies and recover the memories that reveal Patch’s true origin in this fun and fiery new action adventure.

One especially fun part of the gameplay is being able to switch between Patch and Scribbler to accomplish different in-game tasks as a human-dragon team. This includes using Patch's "elemental abilities" by freezing a sheet of ice across a river for Scribbler to cross, or by carefully positioning the pair to step on switches on the ground to open doors for each other.



Sometimes, however, the inactive character gets distracted with some other task, like throwing ice at enemies. So you have to be careful in keeping control of your dragon! And sometimes, it's possible to accidentally get separated from your dragon. Which may or may not be intentional, which makes it even more fun to try to make it happen. See if you can separate Scribbler from Patch and play through an entire scene with only the dragon character!

(My experiments suggest that only Scribbler can take damage from enemies, but Scribbler is also the only one who is able to open crates and collect goods. Patch, on the other hand, is too small to be struck by arrows or attacked... use this knowledge wisely!)


Escaping dungeons is important enough to have a dedicated button: Y.

Hiccup, Astrid, Toothless, and Stormfly also play minor roles in this game, which suggests that Dawn of New Riders is set sometime between Dragon 2 and The Hidden World. Hiccup and Toothless tend to swoop in when things are going well, and leave you helpless when things are getting tricky and you could most use their help. Astrid, on the other hand, is a reliable source of tonics if you can offer up herbs or ore.



Spoiler alert: Although you meet Patch when he is just an egg and bond with him while he's only a baby dragon, he doesn't stay small forever! He grows very quickly (just like your love for him).


Probably the cutest part of the entire game.

Is Dawn of New Riders available for you yet? If you want a behind-the-scenes look at Patch, Scribbler, and the other characters and locations developed for the game, check out Richard Hamilton on Twitter! In addition to writing the Dragons graphic novels and working on the TV show, he also helped with the game and has some interesting comments on developing its characters!

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