Draconus

Game: Draconus

Platform: Dreamcast

Studio: Crave

Rating: 6/10

Draconus: Cult of the Wyrm is a magical walk through the curious lands where ogres and sword-toting skeletons lurk, adding to medieval fun.

The weight of the world is on your shoulders to bring order out of chaos. It’s your choice as to whether you want to tear up the land as either the warrior Cynric or the sorceress Aeowyn.

Look:

The landscapes are good, pretty blocky, but good. The monsters are fine, but much better in the animated sequences during the navigation, though you’ll find that during battle the characters look shambled and more disfigured, especially when they are in areas that clip off body parts or find them showing through a wall.

The most impressive aspect perhaps is the sky level scenes, such as the Elven village. They live among the trees. It’s here that you see some of the best graphics in the game.

Feel:

The first thing I found was that my character had an awkward walk. Then there are the battles. While fighting, you notice that as the sword is swung, the head twirls almost completely around. Bizarre. Even though that has nothing to do with the feel of the game, you only have to take on a few baddies to find that it’s hard to keep your hero under control. I found myself bouncing all over the place trying to attack even the most cement-like creatures. The handful of different moves and spells makes up for the difficulties, but I just couldn’t quite get the sword fighting down to a point where I wasn’t absorbing as much damage as my foe. Not to mention if you get two or three coming at you at once, then you have no idea what is going on behind you.

Some of the more important monsters are also the scariest. You might look to do better on defense than me. That is, if you plan on making it out alive.

Hear:

Aeowyn is unbelievably sarcastic. Is that Janeane Garofalo doing her voice? Jeez. But it’s actually quite entertaining to see her mouthing off to the monsters, warriors, and magicians. She spares no feelings. The narration is perfectly eerie for the mood.

Finally:

Draconus could come down to a whole lot of button mashing, but there is more to it than that. Once you get a few moves down, you’ll want to learn more. Pick up some magic and you’re even more of a handful. If anything, it’s worth renting!

+ bboy