Drakan casts you as Rynn, who’s bonded with an ancient dragon named Arokh, and burdened with finding a way to open the four dragon gates in order to save the world. The phrase “Tomb Raider with a dragon” applies here: You’ll switch between exploring caverns on foot and performing aerial acrobatics with Arokh. While Drakan II handles the tomb-raiding controls better than Tomb Raider, what you’ll find in the game’s horrendously monotonous dungeons rivals watching paint dry in terms of excitement. The game looks nice with some crazy/beautiful aerial dragon battles, and the sounds of combat nicely bring you into the scene. The Fun Factor improves any time Arokh is onscreen, but that doesn’t excuse the endless trudging through similar dungeon after similar dungeon; you can expect many a side quest to go unfinished. Toss in little failures like idiotic A.I. and a limited number of human models (townspeople, for the most part, look alike), and you have a straight-to-rental game that will provide a couple hours of enjoyment, but that’s about it.
