Dragon Riders: Chronicles of Pern

"Dragon Riders of Pern spreads its wings, only to fail to go between....."

What a surprise! The first game based on the wonderful Dragon Riders of Pern series! The series has great detail of characters and the telepathic dragons. It is a world of the Holder(leaders), Craftfolk, Holdfolk, Harpers(teachers and musicfolk), Healers, and DragonRiderfolk and others. All the elements in the books are here, mostly. One element that is missing is well, being able to control dragon flight. Also the game lacks between the icy realm dragons have to go through that is the space between this and that to teleport. In the books most fighting is done by knifes only and the game has this aspect, altough the combat is horrid. The game could have been so much more, and fails to give the books justice.
Heres how it all ends up:

Gamplay 7:
The strong point of games like this, you basically run errands to help ailing folk. This setup would have been better maintained if the errands came with some info from the book to help people that have no read any of Anne's work. It starts to fail when you learn the game does not let you control your dragon in flight. This point is moot to some, but the being able to fly, land, and go between would have made the game much more enjoyable. Still the game is fun for fans of the books and the game is really cheap now so go pick it up if you want to.

Story 6:
The great dragonrider women has died and so goes the biggest gold dragon queen in death, or not.....
In the books dragons go between forever when their rider dies but not here.....
The eggs would fail without their mother queen to tend them.
A oversight........
Anyway its the standard deal of saving the world of Pern from this deadly virius and get the girl, or not......

Graphics 5:
The graphics of Dragon Riders is poor but the enrivonment is rich. The people seem to be in a flux and the game seems to not focus on their faces, but the dragons are beatuiful. Knifes look like you think they would, but some of the details from the book such as the Healer Hall's numbweed harvesting is apsent.

Sound 5:
The music is pretty good, Irish like. The sound effects are pretty bland and only the dragons sound good to me. The music can be grating at times but stick with it, it does get somewhat better later.....

Game Art 6:
This is a special section I use for a game's art. Dragon Rider's art is pretty good with some of the Anne touch. The dragons are good with detailed wings and shining mulityfasated eyes. Some of the enviornment art is a bit on the dry side and needs improvement.

Replyability 3:
Not much side quests, nothing special if you finish the game, and no online function or downloads hurts Dragon Riders alot....

Conclusion:
Dragon Riders is a good stab at Anne's work but it never really got off the ground. So much could have been but it seems another game is not to be. So sad, a game like this needs a sequel while some other games DO NOT. I hope some where down the line a company thinks about the untapped potential of Anne's work.....
See you in the skies til then.......

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 04/11/03, Updated 04/11/03