Graphics

Picturesque

Surreal did a bang up job on the RIOT engine, which is what powers the stunning graphics in Drakan. In the outdoor scenes with and without Arokh, the terrain and landscape look simply majestic. Depending on how far out you set the fog level, you'll be able to see into the distance quite a way, although it is a little bit cheesy how the Wartok cannons fire at you before you can see them (even at 100% visible distance). The indoor scenes, while a little bit dark for my taste, did a lot to convey a certain mood and a slightly frightening aspect to the game. It's obvious that Surreal spent a lot of time working on the visuals; Drakan is nothing short of stunning at 32 bit color, running on a TNT2 or a G400. The attention to detail is evident as well, with falling bodies or gibs splashing down into water and shot arrows remaining stuck in monsters even after they're dead.

The binding process

Gotta shoot those cannons

1 800 Hot Gibs

The visual eye candy doesn't just stop with the scenery - the models in Drakan are exquisitely detailed. Everyone from Rynn to Arokh, to the NPCs and the enemies are all drawn and rendered with great care. Comparing these models, with, say, the ones from System Shock 2, and it's like night and day. They're a bit blocky, but definitely well detailed. Turning up the gore level, you're treated to some more visual fun. As in most 3D games, doing grievous damage to an enemy will result in them being "gibbed," or turned into a bloody pile of chunkage. These look pretty blocky, but it's neat to be able to kick them around the level because they're interactive objects.

Doing a side flip

Look, shadows!

Once you pop, you can't stop

My only major complaint about Drakan's graphics is the animation. While the actual animation cycles look fine, the developers neglected to include any kind of interpolation between animations. That is to say, one animation doesn't blend into another. This kind of technology is becoming widespread already, and it's disappointing not to see it implemented in Drakan, especially because it's a third person action game. With Rynn on the screen at all times, it's distracting to see the distinct "popping" in the animation, which puts a damper on the otherwise great graphics. One other big annoyance is that none of the humans' mouths move while they're "talking" in the cut scenes. The faces don't change expression either. This is a real oversight, because it detracts in a big way from otherwise good cut scene movies.

Update: 3:42PM 9/9/99
We received the following bit from Surreal's Tom Vykruta just now, regarding the animation:

We've had an animation transition system since the beginning of time.. and yes, we do use it. If we didn't you would really notice popping. We make the transition times as small as possible in order to speed up gameplay - waiting for a long transition to play everytime you transition from walking to running would piss you off, and believe me, we've experimented :)

Well I guess I stand corrected - maybe I'm just ultra sensitive to popping. - CB