Draconus offers you a B movie storyline for starters. You chose one of two characters, a warrior named Cynric, or a sorceress named Aeowyn. You then are wisped away to a graphically beautiful world to gather 3 fragments of good to kill the evil X'Calith. Along the way you must find items, keys, and other sorted items over 15 levels to help you move forward in your adventure. You'll meet over 25 enemies, including goblins, skeletons, and lizard men. At the end of each level is a boss you must defeat. One of the tougher bosses is the Minotaur. (See Sword of Berserk for a similar boss.) The boss character will give you secrets and clues on how to obtain the various items to find and defeat the black dragon. Sound familiar? Well, besides the clever character names, it should. Pardon me now as I yawn.

Not that the game doesn't have some bright spots, but don't expect many. One of the dazzling features happens to be the graphics. Brilliant lighting effects, smooth landscape textures, and interesting character designs flourish though out. It's a shame, the frame rate and camera ruins the experience. The frame rate gets so bad at times; it looks as though your "mighty warrior" is skipping his way through the land like a fairy! The game is far more received when you play as the sorceress in my book. The backdrops are done exceptionally well, but marred with extensive amounts of fog in the far background. I just pretend that the area is murky and live with it. The camera jerks its way around, similar to the Tomb Raider series, leaving you in question of where you really are at times. If the game was tweaked for a few more months, Crave could've had another Legacy of Kain on their hands. Oh well, what are you going to do?

The game excels in the audio department. Voice acting, while not bad, is silly at times, but at least it's there. The score, when used, is wonderful. Unfortunately the music only appears in certain spots. Sound effects capture everything needed to give the feeling of a magical adventure, such as spell sounds, thunder and zings, clanging of swords on shields, and the usual grunts and groans from your fallen foes. Even the ambient sounds are done well. While in the woods, you'll hear branches break under your feet, and crickets and other creatures of the night make their presence as well. The audio, ladies and gents, is the game's high spot. Now, we go on to the bad.

Game play is where the game falls into the dank pit of despair. While you are offered save points, skill improvements after each level, and the ability able to mark a safe point between saves, this game just doesn't play well at all. Awkward controls disappoint from the get go. You must learn combos in order to survive; the dreadful factor is the chance you take trying to do such moves. First off, there isn't any enemy lock on of any kind. You may be swiping at 3 foes ahead of you, but are unable, yes, unable to turn directly around! You are offered a control scheme that eliminates swift 180 degree turns. Why? Geez, how hard is it to do enemy collision detection in a game, really? This makes the overall experience frustrating, and very hateful when reaching difficult upper levels.

Finally we come to presentation. The average story will keep you interested one time through, but no more. No surprises or shock factor is hinted at, so you just go through the motions, as if you know the story already. The game does offer multiple paths to take, but it's a matter of which version will bore you more. You are guided throughout the game with a weak and useless map, which does no better than a compass. (Which you also have.) You're also treated with a horrible, circular inventory screen that appears on the bottom left when the D pad is pushed. Another good point is very short load times, which brings me to my next topic. Where are the cut scenes? Why must I read along with the narrator, while stills are shown on the side? I guess CG wasn't an option, so they could cut back on production costs. Instead I get pointless scenes done in the gamesengine. Unlike Berserk, the characters just stand there as text is displayed at the bottom and voice acting is added. Even the addition of even 1st generation CG would have made the story more compelling. The final result we are given, leaves the game flat and dull.

All I can say is expect to find this in the $9.99 used pile at your local EB along side Soul Fighter. Dreamcast owners deserve better than this. Does it deserve an F? No, as it does have little sparks here and there. I just figure as long as this took to get released, a better game should have been the result. I'll stick with Kain, or better yet Berserk.