Customer Reviews

King of Dragon Pass

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

King of Dragon Pass is a 1999 computer game published by A Sharp. Set in the fictional world of Glorantha, it depicts the lives and fortunes of one of several barbarian clans, settling the untamed lands of Dragon Pass over the course of several decades. The clans bear some similarities, such as fyrds and lawspeakers, to the Iron Age Nordic peoples.

The most distinctive features of the game are its greatest oddities. KoDP contains no animation whatsoever, instead depicting people and events with lavish hand-drawn artwork. The game's genre is somewhat unclassifiable and anachronistic -- it has elements of strategy, simulation, and role-playing, even though it offers no proper alter ego.

The player controls the seven-member clan ring leading the clan, providing leadership to the clan in all aspects of its life from rituals to diplomacy. The ring can make two macro-level decisions per each of the five seasons in the Gloranthan year. Random events are drawn from a pool of hundreds and are often influenced by previous decisions. In battle, the player determines the goals and preparations, and possibly chooses the actions of his nobles at pivotal moments.

To succeed, a player must balance the various needs of survival and prospering, as well as manage the problems presented by the setting or the clan individuals - a lack of food might be solvable by clearing more farmland, but when the forest responds by sending a talking fox to urge leaving the trees alone, a wrong choice could bring the clan hunters to war with their environment. Likewise, should a member of the clan act in a selfish and foolish manner, action needs to be taken to stabilize and defuse the situation, if necessary.

This game has lovely production standards throughout. The game box is splendidly illustrated, the game rulebook should be read and is a pleasure to own. Graphics are perfect for a strategy game. The gameplay itself is suggestive of what computer strategy games should be.

Illustrated by the multiple award-winning and internationally renown artist Charles Vess, there are reasons why this game is quietly popular.

This game excels over such fare as Warcraft and Age of Empires because it demands hard choices of ethic aesthetic (moral approach to beauty or game actions). A tribal leader must sometimes make harsh decisions and seemingly inhumane gestures in order to keep their tribe well. Characters argue and challenge authority, seemingly unimportant figures are dragged into central consideration, and there is no decision that doesn't have eventual ramifications.

One flaw with the game is that despite its claims, events repeat themselves in fairly much the same form over and over again. Also, hardships make replay unpleasant -- one loses while learning and replaying the game one begins to see the very same events one saw in the past. An easy fix could've been to layer two or three games atop this: the game of monsters and far tribes (whereby simple rules govern the needs and deeds of rarely appearing beings) and the game of spirits and gods (whereby the spirits and gods have their own objectives).

Rituals and spells, cults and even the characters could've been more diverse and individually variant given the wealth of gameplay in Runequest. Resembling that game more greatly would've helped. All in all, this game suffers from the same problem most games suffer from in the early 21st century: they all seem like limited demonstrations of what a full featured game might be.

A game like Dragon Pass *should* at least have a simple and approachable game editor unless A-Sharp was planning to make expansions (which it seems they were not) or sequels -- and the limitations in this game prohibit it from gaining even a technical fan base that modify the game and expand it independently.

Finally, it would seem to me that the game production was cut short or much material went unused. The quality of what is is gorgeous in some senses, but as a computer game flounders in the single vice of incomplete execution and frequently myopic design processes.

All the same, some computer game company should purchase the license to this game and produce their own version with updated graphics, hiring the services of Charles Vess (there are few artists in the world who can compare) and other luminaries such as Hope Larson and James Jean.

King of Dragon Pass is a computer game set in Glorantha (the world of the games HeroQuest, Hero Wars and RuneQuest). It blends interactive stories and resource management into an epic saga of conflict, magic, and community.

You have the task of colonizing a magical land. You control the future of a ragged clan which has decided to settle the empty land of Dragon Pass. Your decisions determine whether they prosper over the course of a century, and whether they will be remembered forever as a great clan.

Of course, yours isn't the only clan which has emigrated to Dragon Pass. You will have to cooperate and compete with other clans of your own people, as well as folk you know nothing about. Each has their own personality.

Your goal is to become King of Dragon Pass, uniting all these people through diplomacy, magic, and battle. (The objective for a shorter game is to forge a tribe and remain king for ten years.)

King of Dragon Pass won three Best of Glorantha 2000 awards: Best of the Best, Best Visual Art, and Best Playing Aid. It was designated as a Gloranthan Treasure in 2002.

King of Dragon Pass won the award for Best Visual Arts at the second annual Independent Games Festival, and was nominated for an Origins Award.

I played this game on Windows XP and it worked perfectly. It is an excellent game but quite challenging so requires intelligence and good aptitude. I am sure some who play it expecting mind blowing graphics (with no gameplay!) will miss the point. It is not glamorous and glitzy, just well designed and challenging so you want to play it over and over again (just like those great classics from the the past).

King of Dragon Pass is a wonderful game and a worthy classic!

This game only installs on Windows 95 or 98. It does not install on Windows XP or Vista. I did locate an old computer running Windows 95. The game is not much fun. No graphics just typed feedback. What a drag.