Drakkhen


Title		Drakkhen
Game Type	RPG
Company		Infogames
Released	1990
Players         1
HD Installable  Yes (With Patch)
Compatibility   All (With Patch)
Submission	Nick Scott (HP_Lovecraft@hotmail.com)

Review
I first saw Drakkhen on a friends PC, and was impressed. It is a 3D RPG,
with impressive graphics and sound. The AMIGA version is NOT a port, and
contains a few enhancements over the PC version (such as it gets dark at
night, and better sound and smoother scrolling).

The premise is your typical Dungeons and Dragons RPG, with wizards,
dragons, and priests. You kill people and monsters for points, and money
that you can use towards getting better armour, weapons and spells. As with
all D&D games, there is a convenient store that sells all these items.
The game itself consists of travelling around, talking to people, going to
castles to get keys and other magical items, so you can find certain
people, and ultimately collect the "gems of the dragon rulers" hidden
throughout the island to win.

To be honest, this is one of the best games I've ever played on the Amiga.
The 3D engine is superb. You will see a castle in the distance. As you
walk closer, it will get bigger! Along with the trees, and everything
else. The 3D scrolling is fast, smooth and realistic. The audio is great
as well. Very subtle, with faint sounds of animals in the distance. It
also alerts you if a dragon might be heading your way. The landscape is
fairly varied. You have the desert to the north, and the icy world to the
south. The area is fairly large, and the game does NOT include a map, but
was included in the official users guide (The first thing people usually
do is walk around and hand draw one).

Gameplay is fairly easy. It is a 1-player game, but you control 4
different characters: A Fighter, Priest, Magician and Scout. The game
continues if one dies, but you need all 4 to complete the game because it
one has his/her own specialties needed for specific parts of the game.
Controlling the 4 characters is awkward at first. The game is primarily
mouse-driven, so you use the "walk over there" method by clicking where
you want them to go. After a while, it gets pretty easy, but still rather
annoying giving the large amount of walking the characters do.

The hardest part of the game is figuring out "what to do". The game starts
with the vague premise that you were taken from your home, and placed on
"Drahhken". You need to find the 8 gems to escape. You need to talk to
the locals to find out who has these gems, but everything they tell you is
vague and cryptic. Its cute at first, but it gets a bit annoying since you
don't know what the heck they are talking about half the time.
The game is also a bit sneaky. Some castles can only be entered when the
sun is at certain positions. Or, sometimes the front door is locked, and
you need to use a hidden door. You also need to do things in certain
order, otherwise you can't complete the game.

The game also has a few small bugs, and occasionally crashes. Plus, there
are some small quirks like players can be trapped if they transport to the
wrong spot, and if you don't complete the tasks properly, the game keeps
going, so its hard to tell when your on the right track. All this makes
it challenging, but not impossible. Easily the best RPG games for the
Amiga.






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