49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good game, very good for Pern Fans, August 19, 2001
This review is from: Dragon Riders: Chronicles of Pern (CD-ROM)
I grew up visting the world of Pern. I have enjoyed the stories and the characters. It was logical, then, that I would be interested in this product.
So far I have enjoyed playing. First I can't understand the people who are complaining about system requirements. The packaging makes it very clear that a 3D acceleration card is needed and the processor speed. The game runs fine on my system at the highest graphic detail settings (I have a 1.1gig AMD and 128mb ram).
On to the game. It is very task oriented so far. These tasks are actually fun since they start giving you the opportunity to feel what a day might be like for a dragonrider. The graphics are decent, but you would buy and enjoy this program for the storyline. There are nice surprises like finding fire lizard eggs during your tasks and hatching new fire lizards. You start off with a green one who is essential for interacting with other characters. I now have a blue and bronze or gold one in addition to my green and I can switch between them. As far as I can tell, there is no difference in gameplay but it is fun.
There is some combat that is necessary and that was entertaining once I got the hang of it. As a side note, there was a nice feature in that it autosaved right before my first bout with combat when I couldn't get my character to fight so when I died, I could go right back to where I was. The key to fighting is when the computer says you are in range of an opponent, you must keep the space bar pressed down to go into combat mode. The instructions told me this, but I had to do it a couple of times to do it right.
There are bugs that will crash the game, so beware. In my 8 hours of playing this has happened to me 3 times. Each time it was because I had moved my character in such a way that it prevented another NPC character from moving, thus creating a loop. When this happened I just powered down and resumed playing and the game autosaved to right before the power down. Also there is no way to change camera angles, which I hate. There are times you simply can not see your character and moving him back into your sight is problmatic.
Clearly, this game does not, for me, deserve 5 stars even though I am a huge Pern fan. It simply doesn't have the game play wows or graphic wows to get 5 stars. That being said, it is also clearly, to me, something most Pern fans who like RPG type games would enjoy playing and is certainly worth the modest price. It is just plain enjoyable to be in Pern, and enough detail has been done to graphics and storyline to justify the purchase. And yes you do ride Zenth. There are also many scrolls where you can read about Pern. This was old news for me, of course.
The main task of Ubisoft was will someone get a sense of being part of Pern and a dragonrider when playing. They were not making a game to be state of the art with graphics, or gameplay, or music. And they succeed in this main task. So it is not really correct to overly critcize them for the other things. The bugs are annoying but they are just that, annoyances, nothing more. Lastly, I would suggest people look closer at the packging when buying software. It is clearly stated in at least 2 places with emphasis ! on the package that you need a 3D accelerator. If you bought online and did not know then that is the fault of your online retalier not ubisoft.
Bottomline? Pern fans, buy this and enjoy this. Others, if your looking for a good, decent RPG/Adventure buy this, if your looking for state of the art, do not buy it. And please those of you new to Pern read the books, and parents out there looking to get there kids into fantasy and scifi, do not forget the Harper Hall trilogy, they make great bedtime reading.
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20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
It's the Dragonriders of Pern...sort of, August 17, 2001
This review is from: Dragon Riders: Chronicles of Pern (CD-ROM)
The long awaited video game based on Anne McCaffrey's awesome Pern series is a mixed bag to say the least. On the one hand it provides a great interpretation of life on Pern. You get to interact with all manner of people, be they Rider, Holder, or craftsman. The game is set in the Seventh Pass so don't expect to see any of the characters from the books make appearances. The story is pretty good and the game follows a find item and take it here type of gameplay. If you're familiar with "Resident Evil" you know what I'm talking about. Unfortunately, the game has its flaws. For one, you can't really "ride" your dragon. The dragon acts as more of a glorified transport from area to area. So no Thread fighting. And combat is simplistic and tedious. (tap forward for light attack; hold for heavy). It doesn't really add to the game. In short, if you're a Pern fan its worth a look. But if your looking for a solid video game experience, look elsewhere.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Enjoyable, September 4, 2001
This review is from: Dragon Riders: Chronicles of Pern (CD-ROM)
Well, I have followed the development of this game for nearly 5 years with much anticipation. It was inevitable that my expectations would be too high so I have allowed for this in my rating.
It ran just fine on a P2-300 celeron processor but I do have a heap of ram (296Mb) and a cheapo 3d accelorator video card.
Gameplay Problems:
Very occasional freeze-ups (perhaps 2 per completed game)
Occasionally the camera fails to properly track D'kor
Inconsistency between audio and text dialogue
Names of some NPC's just don't match up (Forn in the smithhall unaccountably referred to as Klor by all other NPC's?)
Unable to truncate or skip quite long cinematic sequences when travelling between areas (likewise with npc dialogue)
Too much time waiting for areas to load and unload :(
Pernese Consistency Issues.
Dragons are supposes to be 6 fingered, in the game are five fingered.
The 'Temple' on Ierne Island might raise hackles with McCaffrey diehards
The Smithcraft Hall erroneously called 'Mastersmith Hall'
The dragons look a little deep chested to me ;)
Gameplay Good points:
Great storyline!
Great visual setting
Great musical accompaniment
Easy fighting system to get to grips with
Impressive cinematics, particulary after the first 'chapter'
Relatively cheap price!
Reasonable length (20 hours of elapsed gamplay my first time through)
Enough little sidequests unfinished to make me want to play again to achieve the maximum status
Pernese Consistency Bonuses:
Great eyecandy for pern lovers!
The dragons are /huge/ as they should be.
Mostly rates excellent for consistency with one or two small exceptions (some of which were obviously necessary to make this a good rpg plot).
Have I mentioned great eyecandy for pern lovers?
The feel of the game is a pretty good approximation of the Pern books IMO, the visuals and audio are just right.
The storyline is of a high enough quality that Ms McCaffrey would likely approve IMO
If you play any online pern rpg's this game will revitalise your concepts of Pern :)
Biggest regret about this game? Just that it isn't an online world ;)
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