Previous Next

In this fourth Dungeons And Dragons arcade adventure/RPG, the heroes are journeying southward through the land in a bid to recover the great sword Wyrmslayer, and free the slaves held in the fortress of Pax Tharkas. Looking at the screenshots, you'd be forgiven for thinking Dragons Of Flame to be an arcade game, indeed it does proceed along those lines, only with more depth.

The opening stage is the journey. Most of the land has now been overrun by the Draconians, whose forces consist of just about every semi-intelligent fantasy creature. It's impossible to avoid getting into a scrape. Also, you get the opportunity to recruit computer-played characters who are found wandering around in the confusion. Some play a major part in the game and need to be protected, whilst villagers and peasants will provide you with information and are totally expendable.

Finding the way inside the fortress is the first big problem, and requires you to recruit an Elf called Gilthanus. Once found, the party enters the catacombs beneath the fortress and the game takes on a different appearance: instead of the overhead view the party is represented by the lead character who is shown side on, in much the same style as Heroes Of The Lance. Whilst adding more atmosphere to the game, this also makes it harder to judge exactly how many Draconians are attacking.

Moving the party is accomplished with the joystick, with a separate menu containing commands like open, close, shut, take, give and drop. All commands are utilitarian but don't add much scope for manipulating objects.

Although it's a good game, Dragons Of Flame lacks a real Dungeons And Dragons feel. A true D&D game should consist of more role-playing, characters that develop as the game progresses and multiple scenarios. Instead, what you get are characters that are already set, one over scenario and a sparse amount of commands.

On the positive side anybody who likes Heroes Of The Lance is guaranteed to love this. It manages to generate a healthy atmosphere and is in keeping with the D&D theme. Personally I'd like to see a cross between this and Pools Of Radiance, the first computer D&D game from SSI. Maybe the next one, eh?