Miner Village by Trail

 

Review machine: AMD K6-2/450, 196Mb, Matrox G400 MAX @ 1024,768 Reviewed 25/09/00 Download (UK) (Russia)
Brief description:

Miner village is a medium to large sized level that is OK for touching up on your combat skills.

Main review

This level is the author’s first level for Drakan (I think), and whilst it’s a bit basic, its still a good first attempt. So if your one of those people who goes straight to the end to see what the score is, don’t disregard the level as poor because its worth playing. Obviously it isn’t as good as say Dragonmech and the score reflects this, but enough of that, on to the review.

Miner village has no story or plot as such but the basic idea of the level is pretty straightforward; work your way through the level killing everything in your path.

You start the level in the village where you can find some health pickups and a sword, then as you move through the level, you come across buildings and structures, some of which have a gate which is opened by a lever found somewhere nearby. Its important to explore these areas as they contain items to help you progress through the level.

Eventually you will come to a maze which is a new and novel idea then you fill find open arenas that contain a variety of enemies. Item and enemy placement was reasonably OK, there were plenty of weapons and health pickups to get you through to the end and the enemies got harder as you progressed which was a sensible idea. I did find the succubi a bit overwhelming though and I’d consider myself as an average Drakan player.

The frame rate throughout the level is about 25fps on a Matrox G400. It does say 9fps in the screenshot but I took it before I upgraded so most of you should have no problems running the level.

Level layout itself is a bit basic; it’s all flat with no hills or anything. The placement of houses and trees were good though and stone walls separated all the various arenas. It’s very linear but it’s supposed to be an arena style game rather than being realistic as such.

Overall, this is a fairly basic level that’s good for practice and if you want a change from the normal SP Drakan style gameplay then this is for you. Story, plot and atmosphere are non existent but it’s a good, fun hack and slash em up that’s worthy of your level collection.

 

Rating; Architecture / landscape: 5  Texturing: 7   Item / enemy placement: 6.5

Atmosphere: 1 Coolness / new ideas / enhancements: 6 bugs: none

Total: 51%