Drakan: Ancients Gates

by Surreal Software

Product Features

• Drakan: The Ancients' Gates is an action-adventure PlayStation 2 game with RPG elements by Surreal Software
• It is the sequel to the 1999 PC game Drakan: Order of the Flame.
• The gameplay of Drakan: The Ancients' Gates is fairly identical to its predecessor. It consists of two parts - in the air and on the ground.
• While in the air, the duo is superior to any kind of non-aerial foe but to defeat flying enemies takes a great deal of maneuvering and aiming.
• On (and under) the ground, Rynn has to fight alone unless Arokh can find a way to follow her, which usually isn't the case since the only places where they cannot fly are narrow dungeons

Product Details

• ASIN: B00005UNWC
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches ; 5.6 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,003 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

In the ancient, decaying world of Drakan, the immortal Spirit Dragons are being held captive. Rynn, a brave female warrior, and Arohk, a fearless dragon, are called upon to save these spiritual leaders, as well as the last remnants of mankind. Embarking on an enchanted journey through eight vast, foreign environments, Rynn and Arohk use magical spells, resourcefulness, and more than 50 powerful weapons in their quest to save civilization. With an immersive story line, stunning graphics, and intense battles, Drakan: The Ancients' Gates places you within a world of magical creatures, mysterious lands, and courageous conquests.

You will journey across five vast worlds, each a free-roaming, 3-D environment, including an arctic tundra, swamplands, and a forgotten, decaying city. You will use more than 50 hand-to-hand weapons and five dragon weapons and cast 12 devastating spells as you battle your way to save humanity. Overcome obstacles and adversaries to gain skills as a fighter, archer, or mage. Tasks you will face range from logic puzzles to air-to-ground combat, all providing enormous depth of gameplay.

Amazon.co.uk

The premise of Drakan: The Ancients' Gates is nothing new to gamers: it follows the clichéd fantasy exploits of a girl and her dragon sent on a deadly quest. Sound familiar? Thankfully, the success of such games doesn't always depend purely on the story line--the actual execution and gameplay can make even the most jaded gamer overlook the poor scripting and predictability.

Drakan first appeared on the PC a few years ago and boasted fantastic graphics, huge atmospheric worlds to explore, and a gameplay dynamic that removed basic linear progression by allowing you to fly anywhere on your dragon companion. Those mountains in the distance were not beyond the gaming area--you could actually fly to them and explore them individually. Sadly, the game was underappreciated and faded in the myriad of third-person adventures that flooded the market at the time due to the continuing success of the Tomb Raider franchise.

This PS2 version is not a remake, nor is it a straight sequel. The Ancients' Gates offers up a brand-new quest, and Drakan newcomers are eased into the action as the finer points of combat and dragon riding are taught to the player in the initial training level. It soon becomes apparent that the game lacks some of the creativity and strategy of the PC original, as it's now a much more linear hack-'n'-slash romp. Enemies charge head first at you, betraying a rather simplistic AI. As you progress you collect a number of skill points that you then assign to perfecting various new skills.

Despite its more linear nature, the levels are vast, and it's quite easy to get sidetracked on your missions. Graphically, the landscapes are extremely atmospheric and range from the usual fare of caves and towns to more unique swamps and icy tundra. A nice feature of the PS2 version allows players to cast spells by tracing out specific shapes with the analog stick. Particle and lighting effects look fantastic when casting spells and add a unique slant to combat when you tire of swinging increasingly bigger swords.

Drakan: The Ancients' Gates is an enjoyable if not groundbreaking adventure, and seems to lend itself fairly well to the console market, despite the long load times. Fans of the original will likely see this as a much more shallow experience, but newcomers will find much to keep them occupied as they explore the vast lands in each of the colossal levels. --Chris Ryan

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Gear up and take wing..., November 11, 2002

By 

-- "--" (Gondor, IN) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Drakan: Ancients Gates (Video Game)

Drakan: The Order of the Flame was a surprisingly solid, enjoyable,and underrated PC title when it was released several years ago. Despite this, it contained some very harmful flaws. For starters, the plotline never lived up to its full potential, and the climax went off like a damp squib and left in its wake a certain sourness that detracted from all the glorious hacking and slashing that came before it. On top of this, the game's dungeon locales became repetitive very quickly due to their unceasing sameness (despite the beautiful graphics engine).

Now, there is Drakan: The Ancients' Gates, the Playstation 2 sequel (and one of the reasons I myself picked up the PS2 console). It addresses some of its predecessor's issues, with varying degrees of success.

The Pros:
· Though Drakan: The Order of the Flame is now an aging PC game, the graphics are still very impressive. Drakan: The Ancients' Gates has improved upon these already pleasing visuals, and the results are stunning. The outdoor environments are the most stunning I've ever witnessed in a game of this type, and the indoor sections of the game aren't half bad either (the first couple of times you see them, anyways).
· Combat is a crucial element of The Ancients' Gates, and, fortunately, it's pretty fun. Hacking through the game's various beasties is quite enjoyable, although your capacity to sever limbs and inflict hideous gaping wounds has been removed in this second installment.
· Although Drakan owes much to Tomb Raider with its sexy heroine, it adds Arokh the dragon into the mix to keep things fresh. Taking flight is one of the game's best features, and dragon vs. dragon dogfights can be pretty intense.
· The game employs some RPG elements that were missing in The Order of the Flame. Being able to specialize in melee or magic is a nice choice, and adds a fair amount to the game.
· Drakan enjoys some very good production values. The musical score is rousing and memorable, and the voice actors are all pretty good. A new actor has taken on the character of Rynn, and in the process injected some life into the character that was lacking before.

The Cons:
· Like its predecessor, The Ancients' Gates still suffers from repetitive dungeon crawls. The caverns, sewers, and keeps are all rendered in an immensely believable fashion, but, in the end, they all begin to look the same once you've been playing for a few hours.
· The game's storyline never truly hits its stride, and the ending, while not as crippling as the first game's (which was so bad, in fact, that it darkened the overall gaming experience), is still pretty lackluster.
· The game's combat isn't as involving as the first game's merely because it has chosen to tone down the level of violence. It depends upon your own personal outlook whether this is a good or bad thing, but given how satisfactory it was to dismember an orc in part 1, I find it disappointing.
· Be warned, there are some very dangerous bugs lurking about in the world of Drakan, and I'm not referring to the game's hordes of giant spiders. If you're not the kind of gamer who saves his or her game in more than one slot and you're looking to start Drakan, you had better change your ways or suffer the consequences. You see, if you dismount your dragon and venture too far into another land on foot, you may lose your dragon forever - and since Arokh is required to finish the game, this is a very bad thing.

All in all, though, The Ancients' Gates is one of the best medieval fantasy hack-and-slashers you will find for the PS2 (if not the best). I can only hope that a third installment comes along and further improves upon this charming formula.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THIS GAME IS A MUST-HAVE!, January 3, 2002

By 

"stu11393" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drakan: Ancients Gates (Video Game)

I played this game a lot at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) in LA, and let me tell you, the final game is SOO much fun to play! I loved the controls, they take a minute to get used to, but once you get the hang of it you can do cool flying maneuvers with the dragon. You can swoop down over enemies and torch them with your fire breath attack. The dragon also has other very cool breath attacks! Controlling Rynn (the girl) is very fun too, and is very consistent with how the dragon is controlled. It is obvious that the developers put a lot of thought into how the controls were laid out, and although they might not be the same as other games, they are a perfect fit for the mixed air and ground style game-play.

This game has a lot of RPG elements, you can build Rynn's skills in 3 areas: magic, weapon combat, or archery. I loved this aspect because you gain experience much like Diablo and can collect gold and treasure that you can spend in stores throughout the game. I loved the way this played as the game progressed, and talking with the friendly characters is very fun because the dialog is extremely witty and funny.

The story and dialog is extremely well written, much better than the first Drakan game on the PC. You get quests and sub-quests from the friendly NPCs, and all the information you need to know is kept in Rynn's Journal, which also has a map to help you along if you get lost.

Rynn's magic is really fun to use as well, you cast spells by moving Rynn's hand in the air in various patterns to summon offensive and defensive spells. You can learn or purchase new spells with gold. The enemies are really fun to fight, no matter which skill you specialize in. Each one will have a different strategy. Magic is good for groups of enemies. Sometimes you get 10 enemies surrounding you at once! Other times hand-to-hand combat is the way to go. Some hand weapons even have magical abilities, and there are shields for defense. Sword combat is so much fun, there are many moves to choose from, much like a fighting game. Archery is more tuned to strategy, you can walk slowly and sneak up on enemies without them hearing you, or you can pick them off from a distance.

I played the demo on the recent PS2 Jampack, which was nice, but it looks like they cut some of the graphics down to reduce the size of the demo. There was also no dialog with other characters or merchants (stores), so it wasn't much like the actually game other than some sword combat and basic dragon flying.

The graphics are the best I've seen on a PS2 yet...the draw distance is amazing, you can see EVERYTHING when flying on the dragon, then swoop down and jump off the dragon and walk inside of a cave. On the ground, you can see individual blades of grass and flowers, and hundreds of trees in dense forests and valleys. This game really does look incredible, much smoother than other PS2 games I saw at E3.

That's most of what I know so far...I'll post more when I get my copy of the real thing, which I have no doubt will me even better than it was during the summer!

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DRAKAN is FUN and BEAUTIFUL, July 3, 2002

By 

Chris Kennison (Jefferson City, Mo United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Drakan: Ancients Gates (Video Game)

I'm so glad I bought this game. I just bought my play station 2 and this was the second game I bought. MADDEN 2002 and then DRAKAN!

Drakan's animation is comparable to MADDEN 2002. The artwork and animation are fantastic. The story is entertaining and fun. The humor is sharp.

Yet, the best part about DRAKAN is the equipment, spells and variations. The side adventures you can embark on and collect more money to afford better equipment. There is a set parameter to the game, but I'm sure everybody will go about it differently.

I've read other reviews that have said that fighting is uncreative and basically you just wail on the button. That isn't true. In fact, dodging and blocking are crucial. You have to pary, thrust, dodge, roll, move... etc. Fighting is very sharp and when metal meets metal... sparks fly.

Finally, there is one downfall, and only one. There is a cave in the NORTHLANDS that if you go into without AROK, you lose him forever. The proper way to proceed is to ride him into the cave.

Recommend buy. Fantastic game. I hope there's a sequel.