Dragon's Lair 3D Preview

The game that will induce nostalgia in all older players reminding them of their Amigas will get its 21st century remake. The original Dragon's Lair was made for arcade machines in mid 1983 and did rather well. The game was quite a refreshment at the time and it brought fortune (?) to its creators Don Bluth and Rick Dyer.

This was in fact one of the first fantasy games about a brave knight, beautiful princess and the dragon. This story has been used countless times over the last fifteen years, but there still can be only one Dragon's Lair.

For those of you who don't know, the heroes of this game are Dirk the Daring, a somewhat stupid, yet nevertheless courageous knight and his eternal love Daphne whom he has to save from captivity. Daphne has been perfectly designed and has a new dress, while Dirk remained exactly the same as in the original - the silent frowning knight who mumbles something now and then. Daphne used to attract the attention of players a lot before Lara Croft and her cone-shaped hooters. Oh, and there's of course, Singe the Dragon, a plump green dragon keen on spitting fire all over the place.

The game will take place in the same location and rooms from the original game. There are a couple of differences, though. All the rooms are in full 3D now, so you can explore them to full extent, and the developers claim that the game has exactly five times as more rooms that the original Dragon's Lair had.

The original Dragon's Lair was unique for its animation - it had high quality animation and realistic character movement. The designers decided to preserve the cartoonish look and use it in 3D surroundings. This means that all the characters from the original Dragon's Lair like Dirk the Daring will have to consist out of hosts of polygons and the game engine will apply a filter known as "Toon shading" to all objects in-game. Dragon's Lair 3D terrains will be covered in detailed textures that will further enhance the atmosphere. Some locations in Dragon's Lair 3D have been directly taken from the original game. The designers said they wanted to create surroundings that would look familiar to the old gamers and still bring modern design and new gameplay value.

Don Bluth is working together with the 3D artists from the Dragonstone Software on animations cut-scenes and 3D models. They are rummaging through the old archives and digging up original artwork in order to truly convey the atmosphere of the old game.

Dirk the Daring will rely on your reflexes to save his hide. The developers want to make a good action game rather than a puzzle game. This, of course, doesn't mean that you will be able to hack'n'slash through all levels; you will be required to solve a couple of puzzles, but they should be properly balanced in order not to ruin the gameplay balance.

The arsenal will consist out of your faithful sword and a crossbow, each of them with several uses. The way you will use your weapons will mostly depend on the enemies and the power-ups you pick up. One sip of a magic potion will turn your sword into a far more powerful weapon. Dirk is capable of performing an assortment of combat moves, jumping, climbing, rolling, and crouching.

There won't be too much violence in the game, but the 27 different adversaries will certainly be available for hacking and slashing. You will only be able to defeat some opponents by luring them into traps.

The game will be split into several modes in order to please a wider range of players, both the older players of the original game and the younger action-adventure players. Basically, the game will contain two separate games: "Classic" and "Adventure". Both modes will be accessible from the very beginning. Both modes resemble the old game and use the new Dragonstone Software's 3D engine and a third-person-view. The interesting thing about the classic mode is that the players will only be able to use five basic controls from the original game to move the otherwise pre-scripted Dirk the Daring, and hence, have the same experience as if they were playing the original game. This means that you only assume the control at a crucial moment, and then you can choose one of the five actions, which will be followed by the scripted animation showing if Dirk succeeded in what he wanted to do. In the Adventure mode, you'll constantly be on the move and will have to save your position frequently. The Adventure mode will also feature the "Unfair" mode, which is far more challenging and extremely difficult. Dragon's Lair 3D will contain 15 levels with a large number of possibilities, tricks and weird scenes where your life will depend on your reflexes. The game is supposed to be very hard altogether, so you will be able to save your game at any time.

All this sounds promising and the new game should recapture the glory of the original game. The visual design should be this project's main trump, but the gameplay concept doesn't fall far behind.