By far and away Drakan’s engine is not only up to date but just managing to break free and move into the next generation of engines as well. With features like ‘Detail Texturing’ (Only used in Unreal by Epic [3Dfx and D3D (v225)]), ‘Scripted Sequences’, ‘Realtime Physics Engine’ and ‘Realtime Lighting (shadows)’, Drakan certainly has everything going for it. 16Bit textures are taken to the very limit and add to that a decent 3D Accelerator that doesn’t band the image, a TNT/TNT2 for example and you have a sleek moving game that looks as good as it plays. Every new world you play in set’s a different scene and sometimes landscape for you to cover in your quest, which involves completing various mission objectives such as collecting a key from there and then going to that hut to get a book using the key etc.

All the monsters and yourself in the game have extremely high polygon counts as they curve smoothly and aren’t jagged. The graphics submerge you in this mythical world in such a way that you will never want to stop playing. Overall I saw no faults with the graphics or gameplay, sometimes annoying the way you bounced of cliff edges but that’s all.

Good, very good actually, a deep orchestral track of the likes you tend to hear in modern medieval movies about kings and nights comes into play. The sounds of groans and words from NPC’s and your Dragon always bellow out in super high quality, swords clash and chink while water fills the ears with a smooth swift flowing sound. EAX, A3D and DS3D are all supported to give you that authentic 3DSound/Surround Sound and it’s used perfectly to highlight the atmosphere yet further. I didn’t spot one place where a sound was out of place, miss aligned or simply not right, everything was perfect which only added to the atmosphere.

Far and away one of the best games to come out for this genre in a long time and well worth every cent you spend on it. The game will last you a good long while due to level sizes and keeps you entertained and interested all the time. Graphics, Gameplay and Sound are all almost flawless in their use and I personally can say little more than that. Only falling down on the annoying radical movements you get if you try to walk up a steep cliff and of course the buggy multiplayer which will be fixed. Personally if you could have 8 players in a multiplayer game and bigger more realistic maps then it would be perfect, but stops just short on that count. What are you doing reading this? GO AND BUY IT!

by Mark Jackson

Rating (out of 10):
Graphics - 9.5
Sound - 9.5
Gameplay - 9.5
Originality - 9
Overall - 9.5 (95%)

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