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16 of 16 found the following review helpful:
 Gear up and take wing...Nov 11, 2002
By --
"--"
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.
15 of 15 found the following review helpful:
 THIS GAME IS A MUST-HAVE!Jan 03, 2002
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!
14 of 16 found the following review helpful:
DRAKAN is FUN and BEAUTIFULJul 04, 2002
By Chris Kennison
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.
11 of 13 found the following review helpful:
GOT TO BUY THIS GAMEJan 09, 2002
By Fred
I had never heard of Drakan before E3 but I think it is one of the most underated games on the console. Playing the demo, which was similar to what I played at E3 reconfirmed how good this game really is. This is the best fantasy game for the PS2! This first thing that really impressed me were the controls. They are very tight. I really liked the fact that you could use pretty much the same controls on both Rynn and Arokh. The second is the skill system. You can tweak the skills which allow Rynn to access new powers. This is really cool as it adds an RPG element. The third thing that impressed me was the incredible environments. It was breath taking to be able to run around the ground then get on the dragon and see it from the sky. After exploring the outdoors for about an hour you can then go into a cave with out any loading...COOL. The fourth and best part is Arokh. Being able to fly a fire breathing dragon is just SO cool. I really hope this game gets the credit it deserves it is hand down one of the best games on the PS 2. GO OUT AND BUY IT!!!!
8 of 9 found the following review helpful:
If you loved the first tomb raider......Jul 24, 2002
And you like light RPGs, this is a great game. I bought this game on a lark when I was bored and had some free time, and was really surprised how good it was. The good.. 1. Great controls, one of the best control schemes to come along in awhile, and a real problem in a lot of games for some reason
2. Nice sense of open ended exploration
3. Decent story line, some nice side quests, one long ongoing one that ends up giving you the best weapon in the game
4. Great looking/playing.
5. Some of the dialog is actually funny, and most of it is pretty good. Certainly way above average for this type of game
6. Great combination/balance of the fighting. Fights happen real time, there are no cut scenes/turn based fights ala Final Fantasty etc, but manages not to get terribly redundant. Good balance between fighting/exploring. Monsters stay dead once you kill them, forever, you can even go back to an old level and they are still all cleared
7. 3 different skill paths to choose......well, not really once you know the game, but on the surface you can be either BOW/MAGIC/SWORD, and in reality a combination of 2 or all 3 of these. They all have their plus sides. My advice, play thru the game once without reading any hint guides, then replay and build your *real* character. The bad
1. Character *developement* could have been more in depth. You get one skill point to spend every level, max level you can reach is 12, and the monsters don't respawn, so there is no real way to *power level* beyond where the game wants you to be....both good and bad in that respect. Really my only gripe with this game, it ends up feeling a tad bit shallow on the character developement aspects. The UGLY
1. Possible to lose your sidekick. If you go thru a *zone* on foot, where you could have taken your sidekick, it's possible to lose him. It's also possible to lose him out in the open within a level, but that just ammounts to backtracking to a spot you can pick him back up. Not game breaking, but can be very annoying. All in all, a surprisingly good game. The positives far outwiegh the negatives for me in this game. Worth buying for the replay value, but certainly could be done in a long rental.
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