Drakan: Order of the Flame

by ACTIVISION

Product Details

• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0000296ZP
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: July 15, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,646 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

Lots of games give players a sidekick, but we can't think of any except Drakan that take the concept to such an extreme. In this game your cohort is a massive, winged, fire-breathing monstrosity of a dragon named Arokh that adds an entirely new dimension to what otherwise could have been a mediocre Tomb Raider clone.

You control Rynn, warrior woman and dragon rider, as she avenges the deaths of her fellow villagers and searches for her abducted brother. As with most games of this type the plot is wafer thin, but we really didn't care as we fought and flew our way through the game's lush environments. Some of the levels feel contrived, since the designers had to come up with ways to keep Rynn separated from her powerful dragon companion at times, but it's still fun. The best parts of the game are those when Rynn hops on Arokh and gains the ability to wing her way through the levels. We had great fun taking in the stunning vistas from the air and fighting with Arokh's devastating dragon-breath attacks.

On the ground the game gets a little repetitive due to the annoying waves of enemies and relatively weak puzzle design. The cutscenes also suffered from poor production values and interfered with the flow of the game. Despite the flaws, don't mistake this refreshing title for a Tomb Raider knockoff, or you'll deprive yourself of a very entertaining third-person action game. --T. Byrl Baker

Pros:

• Addition of the dragon elevates this game above similar third-person-perspective games
• Lush graphics and expansive environments

Cons:

• Levels feel too contrived at times
• Combat gets repetitive, and the cutscenes are poorly done

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very Incredible Game with Few Flaws, December 24, 1999

By 

"onyxshadow" (Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drakan: Order of the Flame (CD-ROM)

Drakan is one of my favorite games this year so far, and I have bought more than ten so far. First of all, the graphics are very nice (9/10). Although textures seem a bit blocky, they are still very well put together. Next, the music, sounds effects, and vocals are some of the best I have experienced (10/10). Also, the game have a very high fun factor (9/10), and tends to make you wonder where the hours go. Another great aspect is the replayability (9/10). This is one game that has many possibilities, and I can imagine playing it through many times before giving it up. My first real complaint is the difficulty (7/10). I am a very experienced gamer, but I found that after the first level or so, saving had to be done so frequently that it took away from the overall gameplay. Some parts were so hard, that I was tempted to save after every room or even after every jump even in easy difficulty! The other major flaw is the multiplayer (6/10). Normally, I get most of my gameplay time from multiplayer either because single player is easy or because single player gets old fast. In Drakan, it is the opposite; single player provides days on end of fun, and multiplayer is shallow and repetitive. In conclusion, Drakan is an excellent choice for anyone seeking a great game. Overall, it is one of the best buys out.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Me and my Dragon, April 2, 2000

By 

Mark Hills "Nobody gets me, I'm the wind, baby!" (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Drakan: Order of the Flame (CD-ROM)

Despite what some of the media hacks might have to say about Drakan: Order of the Flame, it is neither a Tomb Raider knock off or wannabe, because Tomb Raider simply does not have the level of atmosphere or sense of scale. This may be due to the fact that Tomb Raider is playing with a game and graphics engine that is nearly five years old, with only minor nips, tucks and improvements in its history while Drakan hit the ground running, (flying!), with a brand new game engine.

In Drakan you take on the role of Rynn, a wasp-wasted redhead with much less attitude than Lara Croft, (Why is it that most male's concept of what it means to be a strong female character means they have to be snotty, arrogant, and pushy?), and is instead embarking on an adventure to rescue her kid brother. However, this doesn't last because she soon learns of plans to unleash a dark god who once menaced the world of Drakan a millennia ago. And in so doing, Rynn must awaken Aroch, a mighty fire breathing red dragon from his centuries long slumber, (players of AD&D might kvetch over a good-aligned red dragon, but this isn't really AD&D, though it certainly draws a great deal from the game).

The levels vary from ground bound puzzle solving through eerie grimstone mines to aerial dogfights with other dragons while avoiding Greek-fire equipped ballista. At her disposal Rynn can find a never ending supply of weapons from mundane swords, maces, hammers and bows to enchanted weapons like flametongue & frotsbrand swords, magical bows and arrows, and her ultimate goal, the Runeblade, an artifact level great sword used in the last great war. And while the weapons have a finite life span, meaning they can only be used so many times before they break, the supply of weapons is vast and one needn't worry about running out of powerful magic weapons.

Graphics are second-to-none in quality, and go far beyond simply colored lighting. Surreal's graphics engine incorporates some of the nicer elements such as flowing waterfalls, fish, positional shadows based on light sources; especially in instances where Rynn is carrying a flaming sword. Parents wishing to purchase this game for younger players will be well advised that this game is excessively violent in sword combat. The game allows you to remove limbs, heads and parts of heads with frightening regularity, complete with gushing spurts of blood and squishy sound effects. It is also possible to lock out the excessive amounts of gore and password protect it.

The game suffers from a minor bugs, mostly inherent to on-line multi-player games, of which there are at least two patches available that solve most of these. There are some clipping issues, and I recall once getting trapped in a tower approaching the succubus lair and having to restart from my last save game position. I ran it at 640x480 & 800x600 on my P200 with a Creative Labs Video Blaster Voodoo 2 PCI card w/8 mb ram), with little slow down and should be fine on 233's and higher. Unlike Tomb Raider, Drakan doesn't suffer from nearly as many clipping or poor camera angle issues.

What I think I really enjoyed most about Drakan is that it provides the player with a solid and immersive world in which to play. There is a tremendous sense of freedom for movement, both on and off the dragon. I would have preferred FMV cut scenes or even live action cut scenes using the stunning model they used for Rynn in press gatherings, but the video engine scenes are satisfactory and good enough to move the story along. Drakan is a solid game and I highly recommend it for anyone who likes their fantasy light with a side order of red dragon.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding game with a few flaws, July 4, 2000

By 

Nathan (Wilmington, DE United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Drakan: Order of the Flame (CD-ROM)

Drakan is, simply put, an outstanding game. Although the story is somewhat simple -- the beautiful girl is out to rescue her brother, hooks up with the dragon, and realizes it's up to her to save the world -- the game is great fun to play.

The graphics, first of all, are amazingly smooth, and the game runs well even on a lower end system like mine. All of the characters are reasonably well modeled, and the physics engine and gore are pretty fun, although it is awkward the big chunks of hacked meat bounce around like beachballs.

The flames continue to burn on impact, and there is a whole variety of weapons, moves, and stuff to do or use. Many of the characters or levels are challenging, but not too difficult, and the enemy AI is so so. But the game has a few flaws as well.

For example a plothole -- what is Rynn doing wearing so few clothes in the middle of winter? And on the more serious side -- levels lead into each other, so you can go back and forth between, say, the end of level 2 and the beginning of level 3. I did this by accident. I went back to 2, leaving Aroch in 3, and when I returned, he wasn't anywhere, so I had to start level 2 essentially over from my save-game. It's glitches like that that are very frustrating in a game.

Still, this is an extremely smooth, enjoyable action game that should satisfy the vast majority of gamers. I recommend it.