Dragon Riders: Chronicles of Pern

"DragonRiders succeeds because it doesn't turn Pern into something it's not."

Dragonriders: Chronicles of Pern

Dragonriders succeeds because it doesn't turn Pern into something it's not. With most licensed games they'll take it and make it almost all about action with your favorite characters in a manner that was often never before thought of in the license it came from. The Pern series of books was always mostly cerebral with character interaction and motivation taking center stage above all else... and this game truly reflects that. Action takes a backseat to everything else, and one almost gets the feeling that it was put in only because it was expected.

Dragonriders also has the distinct honor of being the first straight novel-to-game translation that I can remember. Most licenses must have a movie either released or announced before it's considered for a video game. I must commend the developers for not only taking the risk in doing this, but also taking such pains to duplicate Anne McCaffrey's absolutely stunning world of Pern with such attention to detail. Everything is probably how you pictured it when reading the books. However, that' not to say it doesn't have its flaws.

The plot is one that will feel familiar to any Pern fan. The former Weyrwoman has died under mysterious circumstances and her gold dragon, Morath, is growing more frail by the day, risking death before her children even hatch. Now it's up to you as D'kor, rider of bronze Zenth, to find ten Weyrwoman candidates to impress the soon-to-be newborn gold dragon in the hatching grounds. This is actually only part of it as a disease is also ravaging Pern. There are some small things and locations put in that might seem out of place to someone unfamiliar with Pern, but they'll bring a small smile to a fan's lips.

The graphics are kind of a mixed quality. The dragons naturally look very good what little you see of them (they mostly act as transportation) but the people are kind of un-detailed and look kind of muddy compared to other Dreamcast games. What it lacks in sharpness though, it makes up for in variety. Rarely will you see the same face on more than one character, everyone has their own personality, name, and nearly everyone is even uniquely voiced. You really begin to know the characters after awhile. The locations look kind of sparse in some places, but they look like you'd expect in the world of Pern.

The music too is right on target with what you'd expect from Pern, quite a feat considering that there's no audio at all in books. It doesn't really work to enhance anything though, events and such can often go by without any music. It seems to start and stop almost at random no matter what's happening onscreen. The voice acting is quite good in some parts, and not-so-good in others. It's not the best in the world, but it really helps to immerse you into the game more than simply reading everything would.

The combat in the game is simplistic and again, it's like it's only there as a formality. Hold a button to draw your weapon, forward to slash, side to side to strafe, back to block, and you have it mastered. It's really kind of unimportant. Slightly more interesting is the status system in place. Your character is split into three attributes ''Strength'' ''Knowledge'' ''Reputation''. Strength is your characters physical prowess and is mostly used to shove obstacles out of the way. It can only be improves through combat and actions that require great strength. Knowledge is gained by talking to people and learning new things about the world and even different characters in particular. Reputation finally, is gained by helping others in mini-quests and is used to make other trust you more, opening up more mini-quests.

Now this game revolves around travelling around Pern, carrying things and news and running errands to help others... but there's one thing in the game that keeps the game from being nearly perfect in most gameplay and fun respects... loading times. The game has horrendous loading times only the most patient gamer or the biggest Pern fan will be able to cope with. Every location requires approximately fifteen to thirty seconds to load. Now consider that Fort Weyr alone is made up of like ten locations, and you can see the time spent staring at the screen building and building as you run back and forth on errands.

Dragonriders: Chronicles of Pern is a game I would recommend to any fan of Anne McCaffrey's book series, but it's not one for the impatient gamer. The 20 dollar price point is practically a steal for how well they managed to mimic the books, but sadly the loading times will probably keep it from getting the audience it should have had.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/02/02, Updated 09/02/02