Drakkhen Download (1989 Role playing Game)

In Drakkhen, one of the most important tasks is creation of your band of four adventurers. There are eight possible classes, four male and four female. With the amount of magic in the game, it is very important to overload your four characters with those who can cast and learn spells rather than a troop of all physical fighters, especially later in the game. With 200 magical spells available, it's not wise to count on just weaponry to carry you through the adventure as you'll lose a lot of potential warring strength. Drakkhen features a surprisingly large world with an impressive 150 distinctly unique monsters inhabiting it and you'll need magic to prevail.

The character creation aspect is fairly well structured with five attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence and Education). The latter two attributes are extremely important areas for all magic casters. During the creation process, the computer rolls dice and awards specific values to the five attributes for each character created. If not satisfied with the spread of the values, you have an option to "re-roll" the dice two more times and are then forced to take the last roll's values. This isn't so bad if the first or second character gets bad numbers -- just start the game over. But this process can get tedious if you're holding out for all four characters getting great numbers.

Unfortunately, Drakkhen doesn't look very good in anything less than VGA 256-color. The cursor, which changes shape to indicate various actions, can be somewhat difficult to differentiate at certain times, especially the hand icons such as greet and activate or take and threaten. More importantly, the absolutely rigid linear aspect of the game feels too restrictive at times to allow a feeling of freedom in adventuring. Another annoying aspect is saving games which can only be done when outside.. When in a castle, for example, all four of your characters must be in the same room with an exit door in order to leave. And saving often is a mandatory requirement unless you like just like starting over. This situation is exacerbated by the real possibility of doing a foul deed in the game and then saving, only to realize later that you can't go back and fix what you did wrong thus leaving no option but to start over. The rest of the game is fairly standard adventuring fare with emphasis on upgrading clothing, weaponry and fighting. It's almost imperative that you create maps of the castles and talk to nearly every creature/character you come in contact with, otherwise you may easily miss critical clues or information. It's all too easy to encounter a character while in fight mode thus ensuring an immediate confrontation rather than information exchange.

Drakkhen isn't a bad game for the novice or intermediate player although veteran role players will find the game too restrictive and linear to assure real enjoyment. In this case, it may be best to let dead dragon's lie and move onto other more interesting game worlds.

Graphics: Plain and uninspiring.

Sound: Plain and uninspiring.

Enjoyment: Gameplay too restrictive and linear. Having to start over because you accidentally missed a clue or character which you can't go back and reconstruct or resurrect is a real possibility.

Replay Value: The game is so linear there won't be anything new to learn or experience via a replay. Only possible replay value is using different class characters.

ANHAK DRAKKHEN AGHNAHIR HURTHD!

The prophecy has been fulfilled. The world shall be ruled by the dragons. On an island far away, their lords prepare for the conquest of the lands. There is only one hope for mankind. The emperor sends out four heroes -- warriors and magicians -- to solve the puzzle of tears and prevent the invasion of the Drakkhen.

Drakkhen is a role-playing game with several ingenious features for its time. The eye-catcher is a mix of fast 3D landscapes and 2D interiors. The player's party will travel overland on a flat terrain made up of vectors, on which 2D objects are zoomed (The same type of engine was later used in Eternam). The player will encounter monsters and fight them in real-time combat, and discover the palaces of the dragon lords. Indoors, the player has to find a way through the maze of chambers, solving puzzles and defeating the minions of the Drakkhen. Party members are depicted in four status windows on the left side of the screen, thus allowing to see their current status and equipment at once.

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

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