Game Name: Drakan - The Ancients' Gates
Platform: PlayStation 2 (PS2)
Developer: Surreal Software
Year: 2002
Genre: 3D action-adventure game
Rated: Mature - Contain animated violence, blood and gore
Mode: Single-player
Multi-Player Support: None
Media: DVD-ROM

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R a t i n g :

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Drakan - The Ancients' Gates is a 3D adventure game released on the PlayStation 2. It is the sequel to the 1999 PC game Drakan - Order of the Flame but while Order of the Flame was released exclusively on PC, The Ancients' Gates was released only on the PS2. The game mostly uses the same 3rd-person view and style found in its predecessor, but with a greater focus on action and adventure while keeping the puzzle-solving and platform jumping to a minimum.

It would be difficult to not compare the two games directly. The game improves on the following points:

• Rynn can now grab ledges, it doesn't work perfectly but it is useful and it does open new possibilities when jumping platforms or when trying to get to places difficult to reach.
• Rynn can now cast spells (that need to be purchased first) and her mana is self-regenerating, so playing as a more sorceress-like character is feasible.
• Weapons and armors are repairable at different locations (i.e. blacksmith stores) across the different worlds so you can now hold on to special weapons a bit longer. However, the process of repairing the weapon costs 10% of its original durability even if you fix it from 249/300 or from 1/300 (for example); the weapon durability will drop to 270 on the first repair, then to 240 and so on.
• Side quests are a nice addition even though the original game has it charms with Rynn never looking back.
• The game now has civilization with various NPCs to interact with.

• While the concept of money is a nice addition to the game and can be useful (such as being able to pay for repair and purchase new items), it somewhat defeats the purpose of exploring and questing since barrels and treasure chests nearly always contain money instead of interesting loot. Moreover, almost everything needs to be purchased; there are one scale armor in a chest quite late in the game when at that point Rynn is already wearing a magic ornate armor. In short, Rynn just needs to be high level enough and more advanced items becomes available for sale. Even the Mournbringer sword needs to be purchased after gathering special items all across the world instead of this being a reward for gathering these items in the first place. Same with the end-game Armor of the Order; it's not a unique relic from the past founds in some ancient ruins or obtained as a reward, just ask your local blacksmith for one.
• Each time Rynn gains a level, you can put a point in either melee, archery or magic skill and she has 12 points to spend before reaching maximum level. In itself, this is fine as Rynn gets stronger over the course of the game. However, weapons (such as swords, maces, etc.), bows and magic all have minimum points requirement before you can even use them. Personally, I don't especially like or dislike this, but I feel that it somewhat limits the versatility of the character and it is difficult to commit points while not being sure if spending them elsewhere won't be more useful down the road.
• Bows don't need arrows anymore. Instead, all bows behave like the magical bow from Order of the Flame; the bow's durability (that is usually about 200 or 300) means that it can shoots that many arrows before being depleted. Arrows are thus rather weak and you end up carrying tons of them in the space used by a single bow.
• It is difficult to aim with a gamepad and this is more a problem of the game being on a console rather than on PC. Since you don't have a mouse and that gamepads are usually terrible at precise movements, the game introduces the concept of auto-focus/aim. This alleviates a problem with the controller but Rynn and Arokh will shoot directly where the enemy is instead of where the enemy likely will be. So you keep shooting and cross your fingers than some of your projectiles will hit the mark instead of trying to predict the enemy's movements like in the previous game.
• There are some anachronisms such as in the Andrellian Isles where NPCs look like World War I irregular soldiers who seems to lack everything except cigarettes. Drakan is a fantasy medieval world with sword and magic (pipe smoking wizards would be fine) but the searchlight-looking towers and the artillery strikes with catapults somewhat break immersion and feel unnecessary modern.
• Since the game is on PS2, you don't have the flexibility of hotkeys. You have to roll through weapons and bring the menu every time you want to cast a spell. You can cast spells using specific movements with the gamepad but it's difficult to perform correctly and the risk of failure is high so it is usually simpler and safer to bring the inventory menu, select the spell, cast/charge it and then return to the game. Meanwhile, Rynn is just standing there and the enemies are either closing-in or are beating her up. Also, since there isn't a hotkey for the map; an optional minimap in a corner of the screen would have been useful.