Drakan: The Ancients' Gates

The Good
Players should immediately like this game. It looks good, sounds good, controls well, and is of a moderate difficulty. Furthermore it is interesting and a bit mysterious. The setting should be obvious to those who have the cover art available. The game is set in a swords and sorcery medieval-like age where dragons fly over rolling hills and mountains, and simple and humble villagers try to subsist by farming their modest crops. At the center of this world is castle with a queen - and she has a problem. The evil in this world has risen up and making a push for control of the world by enslaving the humans. To the rescue is Rynn and her dragon Arokh. They are charged by the queen to unlock a number of ancient portals to free the long-sleeping Dragon Mother so she can awaken her dragon brood and once again battle with the humans to save the world. The dragons are sleeping due to some catastrophe that happened centuries before.

The game boasts some impressive visuals for 2002. There is some draw-distance, but that should be expected out of just about any PS2 game. The music is a bit sparse, but there is a great theme that comes in just at the right spots, particularly at the end of the game - the music really raised the excitement level for the last few boss fights. The game controls like a third-person adventure game controls. Pushing up on the analog stick moves Rynn forward and pushing the analog stick left or right rotates her in that direction. Rynn can also mount her dragon, Arokh. He moves like Rynn does, but pressing the Y or X button will move him up and down, respectively. Controlling the dragon felt a bit like Zone of the Enders, but simplified. The dragon can attack land or air targets - this was allot of fun. Hovering above a group of enemies and torching them using the flame attack never got old. (The even scream and try to run away, hahahah!) Or if I was feeling a more noble mood I would land and take the enemies on sword to sword, or ax, or bow, or whatever they had.

What was most appealing about this adventure was the feeling that I was actually on an adventure. Moving about a huge world, travelling to different places, flying around on my dragon, all of this sounds simple, but this is what makes Drakan what it is. Simply put: fun.

The Bad
I think the primary complaint I have heard about this game is the overlong load times. There is no doubt about it, the load times are long. I estimate they are over a minute long. This may seem at first something quite terrible, however, the game does not load that often. Rynn can freely roam any area, enter just about any house or cave, and the game will only pause for a moment or two while it loads some information. I have played the game for over half-an-hour without encountering any loading.

Loading aside, there are some serious problems with this game, and all these problems go back to one source: rushed development. Firstly, the game was a bit on the short side. I was expecting a long, 40-hour experience, but I put in just a bit over 20 hours. (There is no in-game chronometer, I am just estimating). By first impressions there are a number of side-quests, and there are.... in the beginning of the game. Once you unlock the second or third portal the side quests all but stop. There is seemingly a large weapon selection. But by halfway through the game, you will have an idea of what few weapons you have left to get. And like the side-quests, the dialogue at the beginning of the game is quite good and quite frequent, but as you continue playing, it becomes less and less common. And don't expect to level-up like in an RPG. My melee skill was at level 8 and my bow skill was at level 4 when I beat the game, (I never leveled up my magic as it was not very helpful). I am not very into levelling-up my characters, but I would have liked a bit more in the way of rewards for killing the masses of enemies I was required to kill. Lastly, the combat a bit too oversimplified. You mash the square button to unleash a three hit combo, over, and over, and over, and over.... etc. By pressing the D-Pad in a direction while pressing the attack button, you can use a special attack, but Rynn can't move while doing this. You have to wait until the enemies come close enough then hit them with the attack. Very strange.

The Bottom Line
Flaws aside this game still receives a high rating. Why? Because this is a very fun game. I had tons of fun and will definitely revisit this title in the future. Perhaps it is because the game is a bit on the simple side, isn't very stressful, and doesn't require me to have a perfect memory of exactly what I did and where I was going the last time I played it, that makes it so much fun. Because there is a lack of loading screens I felt that this big huge world of Drakan was all connected. I didn't mind the load screens nearly as much as others and I think that the game benefited by taking this unorthodox path. I highly recommend this game to casual gamers and those who need a break from the overcomplicated and often times quite stressful games.

The Good
Excellent gameplay. A storyline-guided adventure; interacting with game characters gives you hints and quests to help you on the way to game completion. Opponent difficulty increases throughout the game; improved armour and weapons become available as needed. So Rynn, the main character, is a bit of a Lara Croft clone... So what? Everyone likes Lara Croft anyway. And.. There's nothing like flying on a dragon, shooting spells from your hands or weapons, or taking on a monster ten times your size.

The Bad
NOTHING!

The Bottom Line
Sexy, lively, well-paced adventure with wonderful graphics, a great landscape and a good sense of humour. It's almost as much fun to watch someone play this game as it is to play it yourself.

The Good
Gameplay:

While simplistic, the game play is interesting enough to warrant some interest. There are two modes.

One is with Arok, where you will explore the land to discover what opposition you will find. Many opposing dragons will appear and attack, and you must be quick and smart enough to evade their attacks, while best using your own. This can be interesting enough, but feels somewhat limited in scope, as moving around can be quite cumbersome, without quick response.

Second is when Rynn is alone, and then you are playing a third person RPG. You have three paths to follow, or spread out your points on all three paths: Magician, Archer, and Warrior. Each must use their own skill to take advantage of, as a warrior must learn to dodge and parry, a magician must learn to stay away from the enemy and use magic to protect oneself, and an archer must stay some distance away from enemies and use landscape items, such as explosive barrels to advantage.

By about mid-way, the game gets into a rhythm of talking to people to get quests, exploring the land, and defeating bosses. The NPCs start out rather interesting and you wish you could have known them more, including your own PCs. Too bad it gets derailed later in the game as the rush to finish becomes apparent.

Graphics: The landscapes are serviceable and even have some surprises. The dragon motions are fluid and impressive. The backdrops feel real enough and add to atmosphere. Interiors are properly set and add to the tense feeling, especially the dark catacombs.

Sound: Voice acting is rather good. I never once winced when I heard the villains speak their evil voice. Smaller NPCs are convincing and don't feel like poor acting done on a dime.

The Bad
Gameplay: The worst sin of this game is the feel of not being finished. When you go after the enemy desert lords, the game just doesn't have the same feel. It is just fighting a few unconnected battles with some bosses and it never once feels as if this is a great and powerful enemy ready to crush you, as if felt early in the game. And the ending is absolutely disappointing, tacked on at the last minute. You won't feel very rewarded for all the effort it takes to open all the gates.

Meanwhile, the NPCs you meet early in the game seem to have no role in the end game, no wrap up of how they are. This includes your own player characters, as you get no more information about them as you had when you started, despite some early promise of depth. This leaves all the characters feeling two-dimensional.

The areas of the game also aren't very consistent with size. Some are vast areas that have much to explore. Others are so short; you will only be there for a few moments. This can lead to some areas wanting more, while others becoming repetitive as you kill the same number of enemies.

Bosses are all about cheap tricks. Very few are outright good fights with a lot of challenge. Most disappointing are Arok's fights that are just dodging and blast battles with little strategy involved. And there were promises of many such battles early in the game, but they never materialized. Maybe all the better.

Sound: Very repetitive pieces are the mainstay of the game. They give some atmosphere to the game with sound sets that fit the background, but then they repeat them so much throughout each area, they actually become annoying. Only the main song stays with you, and that is overused as well.

Story: It’s another, find all the pieces of some great puzzle, an over used device. Plus, the story has little point, with small promises here and there or some twists, none that really happen matter. And, without character development, who really cares.

The Bottom Line
Drakan it an action role-playing game that has a lot of promise. It feels as though it is wide open, but this is shown for a trick of mapping and become more blatantly linear as you progress. It feels as if the characters are going to burst out with new realizations and interesting insights, but none ever develop. It appears as if there is some grand enemy waiting to over run the land, but they seem to forget to bring their troops and their grand scheme is a cheap trick.

If you enjoy hack and slash, you might enjoy some of the game play, but don't expect much more, as they brought the promise, but not the fulfillment.

The Good
The Ancients Gates is such a great game. I love the fantasy element. All the dragons and mystical lands, You just don't see films like that nowadays, so games are the next best thing. This is my 5th favorite game of all time, if you play the game, you'll see why.

The Bad
What's weird about the game is every time you pass through from one area to another you have to save the game. That is pretty annoying. Also when the characters speak, the mouths on the faces only move up and down even when they are making an "Ooooo" noise.

The Bottom Line
Drakan: The Ancients gates is so much of a good game I wouldn't be surprised is they make it into a movie one day.