Drakan
| Drakan: Order of the Flame | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Studio | Surreal software | ||
| Publisher |
Psygnosis GT Interactive |
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| Erstveröffent- lichung |
October 1, 1999 | ||
| platform | Windows | ||
| Game engine | Riot engine | ||
| genre | Action adventure | ||
| Game mode | Single player , multiplayer | ||
| control | Keyboard , mouse | ||
| medium | CD-ROM | ||
| language | German English | ||
| Age rating |
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Drakan: Order of the Flame is an action adventure game from the American developer Surreal Software . It was on 1 October 1999 for Windows - PC released. It was later also included with some graphics cards from the GeForce 256 series, advertising that it was a special version from Drakan optimized for the GeForce graphics card chip. In 2002 the sequel Drakan: The Ancients' Gates was released .
action
The player character is Rynn, a red-haired warrior who is on the way to their village with her younger brother Delon when they are suddenly attacked by Warthoks. Delon and almost all of the other residents are kidnapped or killed, and Rynn is left unconscious. After she has come to, the dying village elder instructs her to visit a certain cave in order to ally with the red dragon Arokh, who has been resting there for centuries. The two unite their souls according to the ancient tradition of the Order of the Flame and set out to free Rynn's younger brother. On their journey they learn that the evil wizard Navaros is the driving force behind the raids. Even before his long rest period, Arokh fought against him, defeated him and destroyed his body, but now Navaros threatens to use Delon's body as an avatar for his return.
Game principle and technology
Drakan is an action adventure with linearly structured 3D levels , through which the player controls his main character Rynn and her dragon Arokh from a third person view . The main part of the game are action-packed battles in real time. Fighting takes place on foot with swords, bows and other weapons as well as on Arokh's back, with the player taking control as soon as Rynn gets on his back. Arokh can fly freely and learns various elementary attacks in the course of the game, on the ground he can also defend himself with bites. Another central element are easy puzzles - often switch puzzles and the like - and sections that require precise jumps and the avoidance of traps.
In the supplied multiplayer mode , up to eight players can play against each other via LAN or the Internet. There are a total of three modes to choose from, two deathmatch variants with air and ground combat as well as a special variant of the King of the Hill mode called Master of the Dragon . In the latter case, there is a dragon in the center of the map that attacks all players when they approach. Only by finding an object of control can a player gain control of the dragon until he has been defeated by his fellow players.
Production notes
Drakan was Surreal's first project. At the beginning, the newly founded game studio concentrated mainly on developing its own technical tools and the Riot engine used for the game. With the help of this flexibly designed technical framework, publishers should then be presented with various game ideas. Virgin Interactive finally took up the concept of a strategy game with dragons in the summer of 1996 and had Surreal develop an arcade-like, shooter-oriented third-person game with a dragon as the main character. In early 1997, Virgin Interactive gave up the project again and sold the rights to Psygnosis. Surreal then changed the game concept one more time with the approval of the new rights holder. Since the developers wanted to focus more on role-playing games and the interaction and equipment options were limited with a dragon as the main character, a human main character was added with Rynn. This concept was eventually implemented with a budget of $ 2.5 million.
Rynn was embodied in various photos and trade fairs by a model who was presented under the name Myrna Blankenstein . Her real name has not been disclosed.
In order to achieve a low age rating, the German retail version was defused by removing the blood. In addition, no parts of the opponent's body can be severed in combat. In the foreign versions, the level of violence can be changed in three stages.
A level editor was also released for the game, which many players used to create their own multiplayer maps. These were then offered for download free of charge on various websites.
The game ends with a classic cliffhanger , promising a sequel that never appeared in this form. Sony announced a successor exclusively for the PlayStation 2 game console in 2000 . It was released as Drakan: The Ancients' Gates in January 2002 exclusively for PlayStation 2.
In 1999 Carlsen Verlag published a comic book of the same name by the author asp with an illustration by Timo Wuerz . It is before the computer game.
reception
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Drakan: Order of the Flame received mostly positive reviews. The GameRankings review database aggregates 28 reviews to an average of 81%. GameSpot praised the visual presentation and scope of the game as well as the level design, but criticized the shallow story and small technical inadequacies.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Stuart Denman: Postmortem: Surreal Software's Drakan: Order of the Flame ( English ) In: Gamasutra . UBM plc. April 18, 2000. Retrieved March 1, 2012.
- ↑ Schnittberichte.com : Drakan . Retrieved October 9, 2011.
- ↑ TimoWuerz.com: Drakan ( Memento from August 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b Gamespot.com: Drakan: Order of the Flame Review. Accessed January 1, 2020 .
- ↑ a b GameRankings.com: Drakan: Order of the Flame. Retrieved November 13, 2019 .
- ↑ http://www.pcgames.de/Drakan-Orden-der-Flammen-PC-211483/Tests/Drakan-Orden-der-Flammen-im-Klassik-Test-621170/
- ↑ http://pc.ign.com/articles/153/153832p1.html