A Farewell to Dragons
Preview
Russian fantasy at its best
by Spoondan
previewed on PC
Something new
I am willing to bet that most of you have never heard of Not a Time for Dragons. The game comes from the hands of Russian developer Arise, has been produced by KranX Productions and will be published by 1C. You will be hard pressed to find this intriguing Strategy-RPG on store shelves. That is a real shame but understandable as very little info has made it to this part of the world and a Western publisher has yet to be found. As it stands, the game may have to bank on a cult following. We are happy to do our share of spreading the word.
The plot of the game recreates events of the book by famous Russian fantasy novelists, Sergey Luk'yanenko and Nik Perumov. Fans of their books (and there are many outside of Russia) will be instantly familiar with some of the key scenes in the game.
Three worlds
Russian fantasy is very similar to the fantasy stories in the West and thus very accessible. The story takes place in three different worlds. The World of the Innate is a world filled with magic while technology prevails in the Reverse World. In the world set between these two, aptly called the Middle World, both technology and magic have equal powers.
The story starts when the Middle World is under threat of being invaded by the World of the Innate. Of course a hero arrives to save the day. Victor comes from the Reverse World and is believed to be the Slayer of the Dragon, the only one who can help the magicians in the Middle World save their land and their hides. As is the case in many fantasy stories, Victor doesn't know what his destiny is and completely relies on his guide Tell. However, he must first go through a hobble gauntlet of tasks before he is worthy to achieve his destiny. Being from the reverse world, Victor has lost touch with the magic inside of him and his first task is obviously to get his mojo back.
Comparisons
The game play in Not a Time for Dragons is created following the style of the many of the most legendary games. From the looks of it, it seems that KranX borrowed quite a few ideas from Blizzard in the sense that the game looks like a better graphical version of Diablo II or Warcraft III. Now, these are some of the finest games ever created and many Blizzard fans around this neck of the woods are craving for more of that action. The game has a wide range of combat styles, including the classic magic and swordplay ones. These are combined with classic RPG-elements such as skill trees, upgrading armor and weaponry and questing.
The graphics look quite nice and if the frame rate can keep up to speed you can expect this to be a very pretty game to play. The visual effects are achieved through the SkyFallen engine technology, which was initially created for the game Blood Magic (if anyone remembers playing that one). For those that haven’t played Blood Magic, the engine provided advanced dynamic lighting effects, quality shadows and multiple next-generation visual effects, so no Mickey Mouse stuff here.
The little game that could…
In many ways, this game is no different than the countless other titles out there that are looking to recreate the Lord of the Rings in video game form. A group of heroes get together to fight off the ultimate evil and you get to control their every move. This is not necessarily a bad thing. The market for stories and games such as this is huge and with people looking for a fresh look on an old franchise, Not a Time for Dragons has the potential to be the 2008 Toyota Camry of Strategy RPG’s.
But Not a Time for Dragons looks very promising indeed. The game offers strong visuals and blends together some of the best Strategy-RPG’s of the last decade. It has a unique quality and dismissing it as a cheesy rip off would be far too easy. A lot of work went into this game and every once in a while, hard work pays off.
The game has already been released in ‘The Motherland’ but hopefully it will soon be our time to enjoy it as well. While you won’t be able to find it at your local EB or Gamestop store anytime soon, you may come across it at some point. When you do, give it a try.
