Drakan: Order of the Flame

"A fun game, though not without its flaws"

Drakan: Order of the Flame is a 3rd player action game with a medieval setting. You play as Rynn, a woman in her twenties who returns to her town to find it burning and attacked by Wartoks, orc-like things who slaughtered your village and captured your brother. Later on, Rynn teams up with Arohk, a red dragon with the ability to breathe fire.

Gameplay/Controls: 9/10 for Rynn, 3/10 for Arohk the dragon
I found this to be playable enough. Controlling Rynn is easy. There is the now typical run forward, run backward, strafe left/right combination, jump, and crouch. You will often be required to crouch to hit enemies or jump on top of barrels. Rynn only has a few attacks, which will be covered in Combat. Controlling the dragon is annoying as hell though. I found it very difficult to both dodge fire and acid balls and return fire at the same time. The black dragons that attack your dragon are deadly accurate, agile, and will give you a major headache.

Story: 4/10
This was pretty boring, but acceptable. The characters don't have much of a personality, and the plot is unimaginative. Often you have no idea why you are doing things. The only part where the characters are defines is where Rynn meets the dragon Arohk, which part I won't spoil. The game doesn't have a gold or money system, which means the only weapons you'll be able to use are the ones that you find. And every weapon and armor (with a few exceptions) has a set durability, and they can't be repaired. Wasted that Sword of Flame on hitting a wall? Sorry, but you're not getting it back, unless you find another one.

Combat: 9/10
This is the most fun part of the game, because the developers kept things simple and sweet. There are only three attacks, from what I can tell: a normal one that hits enemies in front of you, a thrust which can take out an enemy from a bit farther away, and a kind of retreating slash. There is also a block that doesn't work very well. The thrust and retreat are difficult to pull off when you need them until you get the hang of it though. A frustrating thing in the beginning of the game is that every enemy in the first area is shorter than you, meaning you need to crouch to hit them. It would have been useful if the enemies were tall enough so that every hit didn't go over their heads. There are many weapons you can find, like swords, bows, maces, and axes. Each has their own attack power, range, and speed. Ranged weapons have no crosshair, so it will take a bit of practice to hit enemies, but it's basically point and shoot.

Graphics/Sound: 7/10
For a 5 year old game, the graphics are decent. The characters' mouths don't move or anything, but I can live with that. The pixels are visible on the terrain if you get up close. I did like the sound though. It sounded symphonic and majestic.

Replayability: 2/10
I don't think I'd ever play this more than once, although a New Game+ feature might have been nice.

Overall Score: 7/10
Good for a try if you can find it anywhere, and like the whole action/adventure genre.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/23/05