textfiles/games/REVIEWS/risedrag.rev

 RISE OF THE DRAGON

 RISE OF THE DRAGON from Dynamix (now part of the Sierra family) is a graphics
adventure mystery set in the future. In the introduction, a young woman is
passed some drugs in an alleyway. She gets more than she bargained for, and is
poisoned. Not only does she suffer a frightfully painful death, but her body
undergoes a horrible mutation. If it wasn't obvious before, this should confirm
that you haven't bought Sierra's MIXED-UP MOTHER GOOSE! (This review is based on
the IBM-PC version.)

 The introductory scenes really raised my hopes. The voices of the characters
produced through my Soundblaster were terrific! Alas, this was only in the
introduction. In the remainder of the game, text appeared as messages, not
digitized speech.

 The date is July 31, 2053 and the location is Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the
future has not been kind to L.A.: The city is a hotbed of pollution, crime, and
drugs. Millions are sick and starving, and a mysterious ancient evil figure
named Bahumat has appeared to take advantage of the situation.

 The game begins at 12:00 noon in the dirty, dingy apartment of William "Blade"
Hunter. Blade, your alter ego, is an ex-policeman who now makes his living as a
Private Investigator. It seems his unorthodox methods were not fully appreciated
by his former employers. (He reminded me a lot Clint Eastwood in the "Dirty
Harry" role.)

 Mayor Vencenzi has placed a vidphone call to Blade to ask for his assistance in
finding the murderer of his daughter (the young woman in the alleyway). He wants
Blade to handle the case quietly to avoid political implications, and reveals
that his daughter has not been the first to be poisoned with this new mysterious
drug. The mayor provides Blade with his first lead, a man named "the Jake," who
frequents a sin palace called the Pleasure Dome. You, in the persona of Blade
Hunter, are now off to foil the evil designs of Bahumat.

 There is _no_ typing in this game: It's all point-and-click via either a mouse
(recommended), joystick, or keyboard. Dynamix is very proud of their interface,
through which you cause things to physically happen on the screen. For instance,
when the cursor arrow is near an object, it normally changes shape to indicate
that something can be done with the object. You can turn the tap water on or
off, pick up things, place them in Blade's inventory, use things from the
inventory, etc., all without typing a single command. This to me is a _huge_
improvement. I hate typing command after command, trying to get the stupid
parser to understand what I want to do!

 Since I played with the 256-color version of the game, I was especially
interested in what the scenes would look like. I wasn't disappointed. The
slipcover claims there are over 85 scenes and locations, most with randomly
generated animations (many of these seem to be rather large rats scurrying
around). Most of the scenes are hand-painted; the somber colors -- coordinated
with excellent sound effects and music -- were especially effective. I have a
Soundblaster, but the game also supports the Roland MT-32, Roland LAPC-1, and
AdLib cards.

 My biggest enjoyment came from interaction with the characters. When you're
able to talk with a character, the cursor changes shape to a small text
"balloon." You may then start a conversation. The dialog continues until Blade
has to make a decision regarding his answer. Not only do the characters' replies
change, depending upon which choice Blade makes, but so do their actions --
then, and in the future. Apart from the absence of four-letter words, the
characters do talk much as you'd expect.

 I loved the sense of humor in the game. In one scene, when Blade is kissing his
girlfriend, Karyn, and marveling at how fortunate he is to have such a wonderful
girl, she is wishing he hadn't ordered the onions-and-liver special for supper!
In another scene, there's a bum sprawled against a fence, drinking from a bottle
wrapped in a paper bag. If you LOOK at him, you're told he is a "former
programmer." In many places, the dialog is hysterically funny.

 Time is a key factor in this game. Blade must find a way to prevent Bahumat
from carrying out his plans within three days, or the game is over. There are
many ways to fail, some of which are more entertaining than others. In my first
start, Blade took Karyn out for dinner and wound up spending the night with her.
Unfortunately Blade doesn't wake up until 12:00 noon, so I "wasted" an entire
evening of work. That, coupled with getting thrown in jail, is a sure method for
running out of time. Being eaten by rats in a sewer is also a _real_ downer!

 There are actually two stories underway in the game. The first is the one that
Blade is aware of: As he interacts with characters and gains more information,
he is able to do more things. The second story is the one only you know about.
Cinematic cutaways keep you periodically informed of what the bad guys are
doing, which is a very effective method for apprising you of Blade's progress
(or lack thereof).

 The major events in RISE OF THE DRAGON are quite linear. There are several
actions that Blade must take in a pre-defined order. The interesting part of the
game is that Blade has many different paths to these major events. I know that
there are at least four separate endings to this game (not including simply
getting killed!); the same holds true for many other sections of the game.

 It's actually unfortunate that many players will simply complete the game
without investigating the alternate choices, thus making RISE OF THE DRAGON even
shorter than was intended. If this is the case, many of the scenes and dialog
will be completely missed. I'm about to replay the game to see what would happen
if Blade tried some different actions.

 Time pressure was a key factor that prevented me from doing more investigation.
When I first played the game, I ran into problems by wasting time. Watching the
clock ticking away in the upper corner of the screen tends to force you to keep
Blade moving. I also don't like saving the game at every branch, since I feel
that takes away much of the enjoyment. Blade lived (or died) by the decisions
made.

 Perhaps in future Blade mysteries, Dynamix will find a way to make the choices
more attractive. In LORD OF THE RINGS, alternate paths are folded into the game
as mini-quests. You can chose to pursue or skip them without affecting the main
story. Although there is a time factor involved, it isn't as pressing as in RISE
OF THE DRAGON.

 I like solving puzzles. There are several that seemed to offer a reasonable
level of difficulty, but I personally would've preferred some tougher tests. At
least the ones in this game weren't so obtuse that you have to buy a clue book
to get the answers! Straightforward logic, reasoning, and observation will get
you through. Dynamix has made a solid effort to ensure that the game can always
be finished, and most puzzles have multiple solutions.

 By the way, there are two separate arcade action sequences in RISE OF THE
DRAGON. Those of you who hate arcade sequences, don't fret! You're told that
you're about to begin an arcade sequence, and asked if you want to save the game
(I suggest you do). You then start to play via either the keyboard or joystick.
(It's a lot easier with the joystick.) If you get killed, you are given the
option of restarting the sequence. After the third failure, you are have the
option of just winning the arcade and advancing to the next portion of the game!

 There is a master menu that can be used to save or restore the game at any
point (except in the middle of an arcade). The menu also provides the ability to
set the arcade difficulty level, toggle sound or music effects, select input
devices, etc. In short, the game is highly configurable!

 As far as major complaints go, I have only one: The game is too short! I was
having such a good time that I wanted more. A dedicated, experienced gamer
(especially with appropriate saves) would be able to finish this game extremely
quickly, but as previously mentioned, there are multiple paths to go back and
investigate.

 A word of warning: On the slipcover is a notice that the game contains adult
subject matter and strong language. It's recommended for mature players.

 RISE OF THE DRAGON is very large. The VGA version I played came on seven 5-1/4"
1.2Mb diskettes -- over 8Mb of data! I required 3-1/2" diskettes, and although
there's an included card you can send in for alternate media, I hate waiting and
not being able to play, so I solved the problem by finding another machine that
had both 1.2Mb and 1.44Mb disk drives. Fortunately, the game isn't
copy-protected at all (cheers for an enlightened publisher!); I was able to
simply copy the diskettes to 3-1/2" media for my home machine. I played the game
on a 256-color VGA 386/16 system; a 16-color EGA version is also available.

 If you are looking for a relatively short, fun adventure game that you'll be
sure to finish, I highly recommend RISE OF THE DRAGON. Dynamix has indicated
that they may publish a series of "Blade Hunter" adventures; I certainly hope
they do!

 RISE OF THE DRAGON is published by Dynamix and distributed by Sierra On-Line.