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dsj49's Drakan: The Ancient's Gates (PS2)
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| [March 30, 2011 12:53:30 AM]
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Drakan: The Ancients' Gates
Drakan is an 3rd person action adventure game with a few RPG elements. It was developed by Surreal Software and published in 2002 for the Playstation 2.
Story:
Drakan: The Ancients' Gates is a sequel to Drakan: Order of the Flame but the story is not dependent upon the first game. You Play as Rynn, a dragon rider who is bonded to her Dragon Arokh who is a Dragon of the Elder Breed, which turns out to be very important. To Summarize Rynn and Arokh are summoned to the City of Surdana where they find out an evil race of demons know as the Desert Lords are gathering monsters from around the world and enslaving humans cities. They only way to fight back is to awaken the rest of the Elder Breed, who have the power to save them. They are told the only way to do so is to Activate several Gates that are scattered around the world. Arokh alone posses the ability to reactivate these gates so the task falls to you the only Dragon Rider.
World:
The World of Drakan is very large, and filled with places of interest and things to do. The Game is basically broken into several zones that each have a main quest and several minor quests. Each zone has a different theme, such as Forrest, Coast, Arctic, and Desert, this variation of scenery helps keep things fresh and gives a sense of progression. You begin only being able to travel in one zone, but as you progress through the game you are given opportunities to travel to new zones and once there you then must find and unlock a Gate in that zone which allows you to travel back to the zones you have previously been, by traveling through the gates. You do most of you large scale travel with the help of your Dragon Arokh who will go anywhere he can fit, but as he is quite large this leaves you to explore all those dungeons, caves and Buildings on your own. In general the world is very pretty for a game of its time, and the environment are generally interesting to traverse.
Dialogue:
The game is fully voice acted and you can talk to everyone you meet. Overall it is acted and written fairly well. Most of the dialogue is actually worth listening to and there is a definite humor is some. I found that I especially loved the back and forward between Rynn and Arokh.
Controls:
The controls are well thought out and map well to a console controller. I did find the movement to be a little stiff, this is due to the lack of sensitivity setting options that I am used to modern games. Instead of newer games where you press the stick in one direction and that is the direction you run, Drakan uses the scheme: press up move your character forward and Pressing left or right turns Rynn at a set rate left or right. This probably sounds worse than it is as the camera stays behind Rynn so movement end up working like most games Its just turning is a little to slow. The game does allow you to change the control scheme to duel shock but there is still no sensitivity so it didn't really help me. However even with this issue I was able to get used to the controls fairly quickly.
Combat:
There are basically two kinds of combat in Drakan, ground combat and aerial combat. More of the Game takes place on the ground so ground combat is more complex. For ground combat basically you can have a one weapon and optionally a shield. You are able to perform a 3 hit combo with melee weapons as well as 8 different special attacks. Each special attack has a different range and a different swing, you learned to chose which special to use based on the enemy you are fighting and the position you and the enemy are in. This special attack can have a variety of effect such as staggering your opponent, knocking them down, and even disarming them. To perform a special attack you press a combination of up to 2 buttons on the direction pad followed by the attack button. This allows you to very quickly choose the best special attack and execute it in combat. This system felt great to me, it was like mixing a simple fighting game into an action game. It added the tension of making you be careful not to mess up a special attack under stress. It was also a great way to map more attacks then would fit on a normal console controller. In addition to the melee option Rynn is very maneuverable, she is able to dodge attacks by rolling or Flipping out of the way, which is very important as her health does not recover over time. In addition to dodging Rynn is able to parry or block (if she has a sheild equiped) incoming attacks, this however requires timing as you can not simply hold down a block button.
Arial combat is actually done well in Drakan. The controls to fly Arokh feel pretty good and he is responsive. Basically Arokh can fight other flying enemies and enemies on the ground. He starts with fire breath but you can find other breath weapon types. Each breath weapon type has two attacks which generally fall under the categories of ranged and close quarters. Arokh is able to make may breath attacks quickly but each attack takes energy. The energy bar regenerates fairly quickly but it is slow enough that it is better to only attack when you are sure you can hit. In order to dodge incoming attacks you can try to dodge by quickly flying up or diving down. I found that i tended to strafe enemies while zig zaging up and down to avoid incoming fire.
Gear:
In Drakan you have a fairly small inventory that contains all the weapons, armor and items you are using as well as what you are carrying. The inventory is slot based so larger items take up more space. Due to the size of the inventory you cannot just carry everything you ever find with you, choices of what is useful have to be made and everything else should be dropped or sold. In addition to limited space your weapons and armor all have durability, where each hit you deal (or take for armor) reduces the durability of the item by one and when the item has no durability left it cannot be used. Items that are broken in this way can be repaired but when this is done the total durability of the item is cut in half. This imposes a natural limit on how long you can use any particular item and forces you to change your gear as you find new things.
Leveling:
This game has a very simple leveling mechanic, when you gain enough experience you gain a level which gives one skill point. You may spend a skill point in one of three categories: Melee, Archery, or Magic. You can not every reset your skills. And based on your skill you are able to use different and better items and magics.
Overall:
Basically I remember loving this game as a kid when I first played it, and now when I come back to it so many years and game later I find I still find the game quite enjoyable. I even like the combat so much that I wish other newer games were like it. It has its flaws but Drakan has aged very well.
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dsj49's Drakan: The Ancient's Gates (PS2)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Tuesday 29 March, 2011
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