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Drakan: Order of the Flame
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Graphics & Sound:
Flawless transitions from cinematic scenes to actual gameplay are Drakan’s forte, folks. Perhaps some of the smoothest textures and skins produced to date allow for actual gameplay scenes of our heroine to make up the cinematic interludes between gameplay; fluid animation of characters’ hair, and intricate detail from the scales of your mighty dragon down to the skin lines on the bottom of an ogre’s foot (for those of you who have ever wondered what the underside of an ogre’s foot might actually look like). Impressive real-time lighting effects make for a pleasurable view of a troll running by after your friendly dragon sets him ablaze.
The sound continues to stride above and beyond with a well-orchestrated soundtrack and great voiceovers and sound effects. I especially love it when you whistle and your dragon comes to your rescue, yelling to you to move as he unleashes hell from within his depths. |
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Gameplay:
You control a single female hero, Rynn, who at certain points in your adventure is allowed to mount a mighty dragon, Arokh. Together, you must attempt to put an end to the hordes that haunt your villages. All action occurs in a third person perspective in which you may unsheathe your mighty sword and hack and slash your way through to your final objective. You can duck, dodge, roll, and even call your dragon for help when things get a little too hot for you to handle alone. You may mount your dragon and fly off to do battle from above, or simply admire the gorgeously rendered skylines.
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Difficulty:
The battle system of Drakan adds much to its difficulty level. Enemies refuse to stay still and let you hammer away at them. Trolls will attack you in packs, sneak up on you from behind, lead you into an ambush, and defend against your sword play. For those of you who are not extremely familiar with flight simulation, flying on your dragon can take a little getting used to. However, the overall difficulty is not quite as high as say a Lara Croft adventure. Yet, there’s still just enough difficulty to keep you from losing interest in your quest.
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Game Mechanics:
Very similar to many modern third person games such as Tomb Raider, Shadow Man, and extremely close to Die By the Sword. Simple controls allow for smooth gameplay (i.e. You press forward, you go forward. You press back, you go back). However, Drakan adds a new twist with a transition from moving on the ground to mounting your dragon and taking off towards the wild blue yonder. In this mode of play, the game handles similar to a simple flight simulator. Pressing your controller up and down act as elevators, while left and right motions allow for steering.
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-Sabumnim, GameVortex Communications AKA Larry Callier |
Minimum System Requirements:
P166, 32MB Ram, 320MB hard drive, 4MB D3D compatible accelerator required, Direct Sound compatible sound card, 4X CD, DirectX 6.1, keyboard, mouse
Recommended System Requirements:
PII 233, 32MB Ram, 400MB hard drive, 8MB D3D compatible accelerator required, Direct Sound 3D compatible (A3d or EAX), 8X CD, DirectX 6.1, force feedback joystick, IPX, TCT IP-8 players multiplayer support
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Test System:
AMD K6 400, 128MB Ram, 44X CD, TNT 2 video accelerator |
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