Rating: 
Summary: At last!
Review: After a four year development cycle, the long awaited Dragonriders game is at last on its way. This is a third person view, character driven adventure game set on the world of Pern, a distant future feudal planetary settlement, with long forgotten roots to Earth dating back some three thousand years.Search Amazon for Pern and McCaffrey for further information on the novels upon which this game is based.
Rating:
Summary: Welcome to Pern!
Review: Gamers and McCaffrey fans rejoice! This is the game we've been waiting for. This game is a wonderful look at Pern and the society therein. Action gamers take notice..you dont exactly hop on your dragon and begin to fight. Two hours in and I'm still in the weyr..talking to people, figuring out puzzles..this game will take you a long time to finish, and you'll love it.
The graphics are a mix of cartoon to wonderment. The main characters though are even more blocky than those in the DS:9 Fallen video game (game play is much the same too).
The world is populated with over 170 characters to talk to, barter with, and one is even sweet on the hero...laughed happily when I saw the innocent flirtation. This game has it all. This game leaves me with a smile on my face. Something many havent done in a long time.
At the low price of 29.99, I'd say to date, this has been my best purchase for the pc this year!
Rating:
Summary: Good game, very good for Pern Fans
Review: I grew up visting the world of Pern. I have enjoyed the stories and the characters. It was logical, then, that I would be interested in this product. So far I have enjoyed playing. First I can't understand the people who are complaining about system requirements. The packaging makes it very clear that a 3D acceleration card is needed and the processor speed. The game runs fine on my system at the highest graphic detail settings (I have a 1.1gig AMD and 128mb ram). On to the game. It is very task oriented so far. These tasks are actually fun since they start giving you the opportunity to feel what a day might be like for a dragonrider. The graphics are decent, but you would buy and enjoy this program for the storyline. There are nice surprises like finding fire lizard eggs during your tasks and hatching new fire lizards. You start off with a green one who is essential for interacting with other characters. I now have a blue and bronze or gold one in addition to my green and I can switch between them. As far as I can tell, there is no difference in gameplay but it is fun. There is some combat that is necessary and that was entertaining once I got the hang of it. As a side note, there was a nice feature in that it autosaved right before my first bout with combat when I couldn't get my character to fight so when I died, I could go right back to where I was. The key to fighting is when the computer says you are in range of an opponent, you must keep the space bar pressed down to go into combat mode. The instructions told me this, but I had to do it a couple of times to do it right. There are bugs that will crash the game, so beware. In my 8 hours of playing this has happened to me 3 times. Each time it was because I had moved my character in such a way that it prevented another NPC character from moving, thus creating a loop. When this happened I just powered down and resumed playing and the game autosaved to right before the power down. Also there is no way to change camera angles, which I hate. There are times you simply can not see your character and moving him back into your sight is problmatic. Clearly, this game does not, for me, deserve 5 stars even though I am a huge Pern fan. It simply doesn't have the game play wows or graphic wows to get 5 stars. That being said, it is also clearly, to me, something most Pern fans who like RPG type games would enjoy playing and is certainly worth the modest price. It is just plain enjoyable to be in Pern, and enough detail has been done to graphics and storyline to justify the purchase. And yes you do ride Zenth. There are also many scrolls where you can read about Pern. This was old news for me, of course. The main task of Ubisoft was will someone get a sense of being part of Pern and a dragonrider when playing. They were not making a game to be state of the art with graphics, or gameplay, or music. And they succeed in this main task. So it is not really correct to overly critcize them for the other things. The bugs are annoying but they are just that, annoyances, nothing more. Lastly, I would suggest people look closer at the packging when buying software. It is clearly stated in at least 2 places with emphasis ! on the package that you need a 3D accelerator. If you bought online and did not know then that is the fault of your online retalier not ubisoft. Bottomline? Pern fans, buy this and enjoy this. Others, if your looking for a good, decent RPG/Adventure buy this, if your looking for state of the art, do not buy it. And please those of you new to Pern read the books, and parents out there looking to get there kids into fantasy and scifi, do not forget the Harper Hall trilogy, they make great bedtime reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Not up to Pernese standards...
Review: I have to admit I think this game could have been better. Though it's a keeper for me simply for being anything about Pern, I have to say I was a bit dissapointed with this game, and surprised it was approved. As far as adventure games go it was okay, but as far as being associated to the Dragonriders of Pern series it was not up to snuff. It is all about a quest and never once was I able to fly my dragon to fight thread, which is what Pern is based on. I would like to have had the ability to do things from dragonback, and use my firelizard for sending messages and other things. There is so much potential for a great Dragonriders of Pern game, but sadly it was not grasped here.
Rating: 
Summary: Disapointment.
Review: I must say, I am very unhappy with this game. I waited for years for this game, and it was not worth the money I spent on it. Although the storyline is much improved from what is was originally, I find it very difficult to move around the game and find what needs to be found for all the little puzzles to solve. I spent a full hour playing, and all I managed to accomplish was to oil the dragon and get loaded with tons of things to do. I am most unhappy.
Rating:
Summary: Be aware of the minimum requirment for this game
Review: I pre-ordered this game for my daughter's birthday. It finally arrived and she is excited. But every thing ended in frustration. THe game requires a 3D video card that we don't have on our PC. This is not so obvious from the product description of Amazon's page. Without the right video card, the game will simply crash the PC. By the way, according to the UBI soft's web site, the game may not run on Window's 2000 or Window's NT.
Rating:
Summary: Good storyline, but poorly designed
Review: I waited for this game eagerly for a couple of years, and purchased it right when it came out. There isn't as much dragonflying as I expected. The only flying in the game exists in video clips as you go from one destination to another. The storyline, however, is quite interesting. You are a bronze rider, set out on a quest to unravel the causes of mysterious deaths. Your quest takes you all around Pern, and you meet a bunch of great characters, gathering clues along the way. There are also subplots that tie in nicely with the story. Gameplay is simple with commands that are quick and easy to use. The game centers more about character development (building strength, reputation, and knowledge) that it does in your skill of using the keyboard or mouse to fight. Fighting techniques are easy to master. There are several problems with the game, however. It can be very very slow unless you have a good processor and a large amount of RAM. (I gave up playing it until I got a 1 Ghz processor and 256 mb of RAM - it works nicely now.) The camera view on the character shifts frequently, and sometimes this becomes disorienting. The camera view also often places you behind walls, unable to see your character. (There is a freestyle camera mode which you can access by hitting 5 on your keypad, though the freestyle camera is difficult to pan with.) Some parts of the game seem unfinished - such as a door here and there that don't actually lead to anything, or a character who is speaking, but doesn't have a voice recorded for them. (Not to worry - there is text accompanying the speaking parts.) Sometimes the flying video clips become a bit tedious to watch, as they can be quite long. Too bad there isn't a way to escape the clips. If you're a big fan of Pern and have a decent computer system and are willing to spend time with this game, then get it. I do enjoy playing it, even if I have to work around some bugs here and there.
Rating:
Summary: Concider it An Alternate Universe Pern
Review: I was initially disapointed with the fact that we were following D'kor, a new character rather then an old favorite from the books. But then I thought, why use an old storyline when you can surprise your readers with a whole new one they get to discover on their own?
I was disapointed that the keyboard controls weren't easier to use - I had a heck of a time picking the pocket of the gambling cheat in Chapter 4 - mouse or game pad driven probably would have been easier.
I know that people have complained greatly about graphics and about the dragon's use and appearance. I don't believe that most fans of the book just now trying the game realize just what a difficult time UbiSoft had getting that damned dragon to work. There was absoultely no way they could have on the limited budget they were given to work with gotten a dragon that could have stepped off one of Michael Whellan's covers for Anne's books. As for the thread fighting - personally I'm glad that was omited, as the game was hard enough as it was working with the keyboard controls, I can't imagine what dodging and flaming thread would have been like.
As a first attempt I think this was great - and while tricky, not too hard for someone who's never gamed in their life. Hopefully, there will be a second game with some further intrique of D'kor's life on Pern. By the time a sequal hits the shelves, the technology should be there to give everyone what they were hoping for.
Rating:
Summary: Concider it An Alternate Universe Pern
Review: I was initially disapointed with the fact that we were following D'kor, a new character rather then an old favorite from the books. But then I thought, why use an old storyline when you can surprise your readers with a whole new one they get to discover on their own?
I was disapointed that the keyboard controls weren't easier to use - I had a heck of a time picking the pocket of the gambling cheat in Chapter 4 - mouse or game pad driven probably would have been easier.
I know that people have complained greatly about graphics and about the dragon's use and appearance. I don't believe that most fans of the book just now trying the game realize just what a difficult time UbiSoft had getting that damned dragon to work. There was absoultely no way they could have on the limited budget they were given to work with gotten a dragon that could have stepped off one of Michael Whellan's covers for Anne's books. As for the thread fighting - personally I'm glad that was omited, as the game was hard enough as it was working with the keyboard controls, I can't imagine what dodging and flaming thread would have been like.
As a first attempt I think this was great - and while tricky, not too hard for someone who's never gamed in their life. Hopefully, there will be a second game with some further intrique of D'kor's life on Pern. By the time a sequal hits the shelves, the technology should be there to give everyone what they were hoping for.
Rating: 
Summary: Major problems
Review: I was really looking forward to this game and sadly I am extremely disappointed, and thats putting it mildly. Problem 1: Installing is a nightmare, tried on two machines, wouldn't run on a Pentium II, 300 mhz, finally got it to run on Pentium 4, 1.3 mgz but you can't load from desktop(it has a lock problem). Prob 2: Video and sound are are from the early 90's,very choppy (walk into walls and can't move sort of thing.) Prob 3: I am now at the point where game won't run (1 hour into it)so basically I wait for UBI to come up with patch or toss it. (I am in cave and video just freezes.) Game is linear, story line is OK, lots of those meaningless quests that have you running up and down. UBI should be ashamed, Anne McCaffrey should be totally ticked off and you shouldn't buy. Wish I hadn't. Do you ever get to ride a dragon?
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