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Noooooo!
Think you know what soul crushing boredom and depression feels like? Stuck in a rut? Sick to the back teeth of the same old humdrum things cropping up again and again? Then you must be a regular reader of the kind of pulp fantasy novels that flood the sci fi and fantasy market - novels that supposedly offer fantasy escapism, but are, in fact, infinitely more dull than the dullest, most monotonous real life events could ever be. Let's face it, if you're after imagination and excitement, then the nineteenth book in the 'Elfstones of Granananax' series, with its hideous clichéd evil baddie threatening the world and cardboard characters questing after the mighty sword of Xythxx, isn't going to provide it.
And neither is the plot ofDrakan, the new dragon riding, dungeon exploring, blast and slash 'em up fromPsygnosis. You play Rynn, a sword wielding heroine who is happily wandering through the forest with her brother when they're ambushed by Warthoks, orcs by any other name, who kidnap her sibling, burn her village, and leave her with the task of waking a nearby sleeping dragon and then trekking all over the country in search of various mystical objects and crystals to defeat the broodingly nasty baddie at the end of the game. Ahh... there's nothing like a convoluted fantasy plot to send you into a fit of yawning boredom.
Flame grilled
Fortunately, despite this rather mundane plot,Drakanis a pretty decent game, all the more so for the original touches that stop it from being just anotherTomb Raiderclone. Not only do you get to play as Rynn when she's wandering around on foot, you also get to hop on the back of Arok, the dragon whom you awaken after the first couple of levels in the game, and fly around on him, belching fire at all your foes.
"So what?" you may well be thinking. "This sounds just like aTomb Raiderclone with shoot-em-up levels slotted in between them." Well, you'd be wrong, because the dragon and tomb raiding sections are so seamlessly blended that there's no real sense of discontinuity. This is mainly because you can hop on and off Arok at any time, heading off to explore caves or pick up objects, returning to him to fly high over the landscape and burn things mercilessly. But don't get too cocky, because not only are there places your dragon pal can't go, but there are plenty of airborne hazards to send you plummeting to the ground.
Drakanis not a game you'll complete on your first sitting - especially if you're a dab hand with virtual guns but couldn't swing a sword to save your life. There are no BFG's in this game - it's hacking, slashing and toasting all the way. So anyQuake-aholics who've never been enticed towards the idea of wearing tights and swinging swords should just leave the room right now.
Level up
Your quest for the Mystic Sword of Xiixyaxxan (or whatever) takes you through a variety of well designed levels, split into several maps, with about four or so levels accessible from each map. These levels include spooky caverns, chambers, tombs, mines (completed with radioactively contaminated workers), and all manner of other ye olde fantasy locations, accessed by flying your dragon inside or hopping of and going in on foot. And unsurprisingly, these levels are filled with all manner of monsters, pits, precipices and other hazards.
The sneaky thing is that the levels are laid out in such a way that you can't just fly your dragon straight in, blast everyone inside to bits and fly straight out again - nor can you dismount and just hack, slash and leap your way through the level. Instead, you usually have to fly in on your dragon, blow away a few baddies and then dismount, do a bit more hacking slashing and jumping, in order to open a large door so that you can go back and fly your dragon further into the caves. Then, you can use your dragon to fly over the yawning chasm that's blocking your way, do a bit more blasting, then hop off again in order to open another door, and so on.
This pattern of flying and walking prevents the levels from becoming boring, and in particular it's rather gratifying, after you've had several axe-wielding wartoks trying to remove your head from your body, to then be able to hop on your dragon and toast those selfsame vicious pig-faced gits. InDrakan, revenge is a dish best served at the kind of temperatures you usually only get on the surface of the sun.
Wonderarmour
Said revenge is extracted in a manner of ways, depending upon whether you are indeed on foot or riding your dragon. On dragonback, you can fly around all over the shop, throwing fireballs and later poison balls (a power which is bestowed upon Arokh in a ludicrously showy graphics sequence) and other powers, providing you can take out the flying black dragons and medieval style sam sites that raise their heads more frequently as you progress through the game.
On foot, Rynn has a variety of items at her disposal, which can be utilised to help you see off the ever-so-evil baddies in the game. Naturally, this includes an array of lethal weaponry such as swords and clubs which can be used to give your foes a good drubbing. Each weapon has its own strengths and weaknesses - bigger swords and clubs do a lot of damage, but have a slower swing time than small swords so you get less hits in. Most of Rynn's weapons are melee based so having a decent hand-to-hand weapon is a must, though you do get to use a bow and arrows from time to time. The catch is that all weapons except Rynn's basic sword slowly degrade over time, disappearing when they are too worn to be of use, and given that there's no easy way to repair them, it's probably not too good an idea to get too attached to that +20 damage Sword of Many Kickings.
The armour that you can find scattered around the world of Drakan also degrades with use, but while it lasts, it's very handy for preventing you from being sliced and diced in an unpleasant matter. Actually, that's not entirely true - each suit of armour, while providing protection for most of Rynn's body, is low cut enough to expose a portion of her rather ample chest. This seems to be rather a serious design flaw! After all, the chief baddy would merely have to brief his troops to aim for said region with the aid of some form of projection equipment (a la the Death Star's fatal exhaust port mess-up). Stick a sword or chuck a few arrows down her cleavage, and (providing said items didn't get lost in there), no more sword-wielding chick! Still, the risk of having Rynn come a cropper is a small price to pay for helping raise the game's profile amongst the more testosterone crazed gamers out there.
Dragon Ninja
This weaponry comes in very handy indeed - the nastier the weapon the better, because while none of the enemies are very bright, they usually have some defensive capabilities. The wartok's randomly pull their shields out and try and to block you, and the flying baddies tend to zoom in and out systematically at you. The one weakness all of the land based have is that they're usually slow to clock the fact that you're behind them, so you can run around behind them, whack them in the back, which does double damage, then run around them again, whack them there again, and watch them bleed. If you creep along, you can also sometimes stab them in the back before they're aware you're there, though this doesn't happen too often -Drakanis more likeTomb RaiderthanThief, and the emphasis is on fighting, not stealth. If all else fails, you could try calling on your flying comrade for assistance. The catch is that since most of the hand to hand fighting takes inside places you can't reach by dragon, you have to run back out towards the entrance of each area, like a big chicken. Make it to the area where your dragon chum is, and he'll obligingly toast any enemies who come into range. You should be careful not to take too many enemies to him at once since he and Rynn share the same energy meter - if he takes damage, you do too - it must be some wierd psychic link thing.
Walking in the Air
Once you've finished slaughtering all the baddies in one area and done whatever you need to do - usually flip some switch or other, you either move onto the next inside area to do more Tomb Raider style stuff, or head back outside and take off on your dragon. Usually, when you get back onto Arokh, you'll find that some flying baddies have mysteriously appeared to make things difficult for you. Actual in air combat is pretty simple - this isn't a dragon management or detailed draconic flight sim - it's just a case of flying around, getting up close to the flying baddies, and sending them burning to the ground. There are the odd power-ups you can pick up to replenish your dragon's energy mid flight, and it's extremely important to take out all sam sites and airborne enemies before you land because Rynn won't stand a chance against them if they're not gone.
Dungeons and Dragons
Rynn has a fair few fancy moves at her disposal, all of which are executed by various keyboard combinations, such as back, forward and then slash to do a 360 degree spin and slash. Fortunately, these moves aren't as hard to pull off as those in hardcore fighting games likeStreet Fighter IIbut it does boost your chances of survival if you can manage to master them. Surprisingly, all moves can be done with all weapons, so you don't need to worry about learning different moves for each weapon.
Unfortunately, the baddies you bump into are just as well armed as you, if not more so in some cases, since their numbers include mini-dragons, small and large Wartoks, really really big giant Wartoks who can smash you against the wall with one punch, demonic knights, and other nasties. None of them are too bright, but they do have a nasty habit of showing up in numbers, so a fair bit of fancy fighting is required in order to dispatch them while avoiding their attacks.
If it's intelligent competition you're after, then you can have a go atDrakan'smultiplayer mode, in which you can fight up to seven other players on dragon-back, on foot, or switching between the two. I say intelligent, since that term can be applied to roughly 60% of people who use the Internet. Unfortunately, not too many of those 60% seem to be too interested in playingDrakan, as the low number of multiplayerDrakangames on the servers depicts. I usedGamespy(not included withDrakan) to check how many games there were in progress at several times during the game and found a total of only two rather slow games. It's a pity too, sinceDrakanhas the potential to be a good multiplayer game, especially if you've got one player on a dragon, chasing after another who is frantically trying to find a cave to duck into to avoid the mounted menace - potentially very tense indeed.
Toasty!
Even if the multiplayer game arena is a bit sparsely populated,Drakan'ssingle player game offers enough to keep you busy for a week or two. The inside bits may not be quite as gripping as those inTomb Raider 1but the mixture of slashing, platform-hopping and dragon flying ensures that the game never gets boring. Plus, while several role playing gamers and one or two GDR staffers would probably lynch me if I calledDrakanan RPG, it does have several RPG elements. These include the odd optional sub-quest and the ability to mix and match weapons and makes it a more involving than games likeTomb Raider XXII: Lara shoots some more animalsand their ilk. The plot may not be up to much, but the rest ofDrakanis, and, providing you don't mind dropping any guns that you may have become attached to and picking up a sword, thenDrakanhas enough original features, groovy graphics, and consistently entertaining gameplay to make it worth checking out.
Review By GamesDomain
