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Drakan
- Order of the Flame
- ORDER it Online
Published By: Psygnosis
Reviewed
By Strider
8/13/99
Article
Discussion Forum
"The sacred pact 'twixt Dragon and Rider forgotten, dormant
in time. Yet fear not, for when the darkness is once
again made flesh, The Order will ride again, delivering
righteous fire from the sky..." From the Sayings of Rimril,
Fourth Archmage of the Order.
Fear
not
"Drakan:
Order of the Flame" is the highly anticipated 3rd person
Action/Adventure slated for release August 20 of this year.
After playing the demo
of Drakan, I can tell you that any hype you may have heard is
well deserved. If you haven't heard any hype, let me start some
here and now. Put simply, Drakan is an incredible and unique
game. What makes Drakan deserved of so much praise? I'm glad
you asked.
The Order
Through
the magic of an artifact known as the Dragonstone, the bravest
and most noble of men and women would join their life essence
to that of a single dragon, linking the two forever as one.
Those bonded formed a loose alliance known as the Order of the
Flame. As in the times of old, your character, Rynn, bonds with
the dragon Arokh (Both of these characters can be seen in the
picture above). You will guide Rynn and Arokh together through
vast vistas encompassing caves, mountain peaks, river valleys
and more, all of which can be entered and explored.
The
story starts when Rynn awakens to find her village ransacked
by marauding Wartocks and her younger brother kidnapped. She
vows revenge, searching the mountains for a trace of her captive
sibling. Here, she meets up with Arokh, an ancient dragon whose
heroism fills countless legends that echo through the corridors
of time. Reluctantly, Arokh and Rynn become partners, and stumble
across a secret neither one of them bargained for. The forces
of evil that stalk the land have a single source, one that Arokh
has battled centuries before. If Rynn is to rescue her brother,
she must pit her courage and her steel directly against beings
with the power and the will to tear the land of Drakan apart.
Ride
Again
Did
I mention you get to ride dragons? In the open spaces of the
game, you'll be able to ride on the back of Arokh. In the demo
of Drakan, Arokh was armed with fireballs (I was expecting to
see only a steady stream of flames). In the full version of
the game, you'll be able to increase Arokh's abilities by finding
runes of ice blasts, poisonous gas, lightning, flame throwing,
and lava blasts. I found a "hidden" lightning rune
on the demo game. It's located on a peak right next to the burned
out house on the southwest corner of the map. It is a simple
matter to control Arokh in the skies, and to summon him to your
location when you are on the ground. One of the more interesting
in-flight movements is banking. When Arokh picks up enough speed,
he stretches his wings out and begins to glide in the direction
you are pointing. It makes you feel as if you are truly gliding
on the back of a dragon.
More
on Gameplay
Rynn's
quest takes her from the wild mountains of her homeland into
dank mines, tropical archipelagoes, and even into other dimensions
of reality. The player controls Rynn in these hostile environments,
guiding her as she explores the vast outdoor expanses and investigates
the caves and ruins that conceal the secrets she seeks. Combat
is frequent in this dangerous land, and the player uses a simple
and intuitive interface to wield an amazing assortment of weapons
against a cast of unique enemies, ranging from agile and deadly
Goblins to massive War Giants over 40 feet tall!
The
Skies of Drakan are no less dangerous, but the combat easily
transitions to aerial mayhem with a seamlessly integrated interface
that handles both ground and air movement. Acrobatics are as
important as firepower, and Rynn can flip past enemies to land
a lethal blow with the same ease that Arokh barrel-rolls to
dodge an incoming ballista bolt. The player will need every
ounce of Rynn and Arokh's maneuverability, since the enemies
are guided by sophisticated AI that pulls no punches. Combat
leaps from the screen with special effects so real you can feel
the heat when Arokh spews flame.
But
Rynn and Arokh won't succeed with mere brawn - they're also
going to need the player's brain. The environment of Drakan
is incredibly interactive, and the player will need to understand
the surroundings to help Rynn solve the puzzles and negotiate
the traps that stand between her and her kidnapped brother.
Magic, acrobatics, and plain old smarts will be needed to vault
Rynn past the obstacles and into her final showdown with the
forces of evil.
Multiplayer
Drakan
will offer three different types of multiplayer games:
-
Dragon
Duel - Deathmatch atop a firebreathing dragon
-
Melee
Deathmatch - Ground only fragfest
-
Master
of the Dragon - Players fight over a single dragon hidden
in the map. When a player takes the dragon, other players
must take'em down, then they can claim the dragon for themselves.
As
reported earlier
by womengamers.com, over 500 servers have been registered to
host Drakan. Players will also be able to use Mplayer.com.
The demo version of Drakan did not include support for multiplayer
action, so who knows how well that aspect of the game will turn
out. I can say without a doubt that the single player part of
the game will be more than enough reason to go out and buy the
game.
Tomb
Raiders?
To
dispel any doubts you might be having, Drakan is not Tomb Raiders
+ Dragons. Indeed, Drakan outshines Tomb Raiders in many aspects.
For one, the interface, character actions/movements, and controls
to Drakan are so seamless they don't in any way hinder you on
your adventure. Let's take Tomb Raiders idiotic inventory control
as an example. Rember having to push escape, then left or right
arrow to scroll through? In Drakan simply hit 'I', Rynn spins
around to face you (very nice touch), and you get an inventory
list loosely reminiscent of Diablo and other RPG's. I like the
fact that 1) you don't leave the game screen 2) inventory selection
is simple point and click. One click pops up a description of
the item, a double click puts the inventory item in your hand.
It's a good thing the interface is so well done, because you'll
have at your disposal over 50 weapons and magical items spread
throughout various stages of the game. The main point here is,
the interface is logical and unobtrusive. The same can be said
for the character movement controls, but I won't ramble more
on this.
In
Tomb Raiders, simply point your gun at your enemy, and sqeeze
the trigger. The game automatically locks and tracks the target
for you, so all you really need to be able to do is press the
fire button and jump around. Snooze! Because Drakan consists
of many hand-to-hand combat weapons (swords, maces, axes, etc),
combat is not a trivial thing. You must learn to slash in combinations
with jump, crouch, strafe, and roll. Some of the harder foes
have shields, that they use well, so you'll have to learn various
moves to take them out without getting yourself smote first.
The combat action is far closer to a fighting game like Soul
Blade then the mindless shooting in Tomb Raiders (Don't let
me mislead you here, there are not near as many combos and fighting
moves as you would find in Soul Blade).
Parting
remarks
The
engine in Drakan was designed and created in-house by Surreal
software. The demo suffered from strange appearances of the
wire frames that bitmapped textures are wrapped around. I hope
(and believe) this was a glitch with the demo, and that these
wire frames will not be visible in the released game. Note:
I played the demo using a Vodoo II card, so I was using hardware
driven 3d. Other than that, the graphics are gorgeous, immersive,
and well detailed. It also seams like Psygnosis is trying to
make a play at replacing the Lara Croft phenomenon with Rynn,
as the following pictures
posted on the Drakan website might lead you to believe.
Here
are some in-game screenshots:
Hand to Hand Combat
Aerial Fighting
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