Unlike games that hint of flying dragons but don't deliver, Drakan not only gives you a dragon but allows you to fly wherever you want over a very detailed landscape.

Drakan is a role-playing game at heart, but it uses a third person view and this works extremely well, making for a great blend of exploration, combat, interaction and questing. You are Rynn, the lone Dragon Rider and perhaps humanity's only hope in a grim and desperate time. Centuries ago, humans and dragons lived in harmony, patrolling the lands and protecting mankind from danger, but then traitors within the ranks caused a civil war and the dragons left humanity behind to go into a long sleep. Rynn discovered the dragon Arokh and tamed him, becoming telepathically bonded as the Old Ways tell and together they fought back against the evil in the land. However, Rynn's village and all her friends and family were destroyed during the conflict and it is here that we join the adventure, with Rynn and Arokh arriving at the last fortress of good, where they meet Lady Myschala. She tells them that the Gates of the Ancients must be activated to awaken the spirit of the ancient mother dragon and bring the dragons back before demons from another world, known as the Desert Lords, wipe out the human race entirely. And so your quest begins.

Drakan features a colourful world to explore, full of interesting characters to meet along the way. There is a great attention to detail both in the scenery and the plot, all adding to the enjoyment. The graphics are excellent, although the landscapes might look a bit bland at first the way everything fits together is flawless and as you play through the game you'll realise just what an achievement it is that they managed to fit this PC game onto PS2. The animation on all of the characters and particularly Rynn is very good, there is also a good range of creatures to fight and the game has created its own mythology with Trogs, Grull and Desert Lords in the forefront, with a host of other monsters to back them up. The Desert Lords are particularly frightening when you first see them, but wait until you see their leader, Jasaad, a massive, three-faced humanoid creature, pitch black with writhing tentacles and delicate, lacy butterfly wings! Talk about freaky!

The scenery varies well and each new location is brimming with atmosphere. To begin with you'll encounter the murky Shadowmire, a massive swamp infested with Trogs and Bonegrinder's domain, an area of coastline engulfed in an unnatural and perpetual thunderstorm, making for black skies and great rain and lightning effects. The sounds all add to the atmosphere and as well as effects for spells, weapons clanking and the noises as you move around, the background noises are very effective for things like the thunder and lightning or the constant croaking and unnerving noises you hear in Shadowmire. The music also complements the game, it's an orchestral soundtrack that is often understated but always effective and the range of fantasy style music is excellent.

The characters use different faces and voices for most of the time and the dialogue is very good too, clichés and the use of modern language are hardly present. Some of them are quite amusing, particularly the blacksmith who will buy and sell weapons, he always has a word of advice when you depart, including such gems as "Be careful out there, all that blood gets slippery you know!" and "There are very few problems that can't be solved with a good, sharp axe!" The major characters, including Arokh (dragons can talk), are quite charismatic and a would-be knight you meet in the swamp is one of the funniest people you'll meet, with his blustering false bravery. Everyone you talk to speaks with a voice, there's no text-only dialogue here and that is a great feature. The cut scenes are also very well done and serve to enhance the story.

The action mostly involves you exploring vast areas without Arokh, but there are many times when you need his help to reach far away locations. By far this game's best feature and something that I don't think has been done on PS2 before, is the way the on foot action is blended seamlessly with the flying action. Most games would have provided linear sections where you hop on Arokh, blast a few baddies and get off again. But not Drakan. Here you are given complete freedom to go where you please. There is no loading or changing the scenery, you simply call Arokh and then mount him. The view scales back slightly so everything is a bit smaller and then you can take off, fly wherever you want and land. This is such a great concept as it means you can use Arokh to take out heavy enemy defences before you land and head into a cave on your own. It also means you can go anywhere, explore everywhere and land Arokh wherever there is enough open space.

You are given a range of essential and optional quests to complete, which drive your actions and direction. Completion of essential quests furthers the plot and leads to the next quests and completion of optional quests generally result in lots of money and also some satisfaction. These include collecting things for people, finding and rescuing people, killing destructive enemies and so on. Another good thing about this game is that it rewards diligence and bravery. For example, in the mana mine you can leave quite early on but exploring the whole mine reveals lots of goodies beyond the really tough point. Another time is when you're finally on your way out of Shadowmire, you come across four trogs with energy staffs, all blasting you with green lightning. The instinct is to run away but I'm loathe to leave any of those slimy, man-eating thugs alive and after killing all four, I discovered the would-be knight hanging upside down from a tree. Giving up his quest in disgust, he passes it to you (ironically his destination is only a few more steps away!) and you gain a very powerful, magical sword as a result.

The combat element is challenging and enjoyable, you have a range of swords, clubs, axes and bows at your disposal, plus shields and armour for defence. The range of moves is limited, but as well as a hack and slash combo you can use the D-pad to modify your moves and hit in any direction, meaning that you can give the Trog behind you a quick stab, stunning him for a moment whilst you finish off the one in front. You can also backflip, sidestep, side flip and strafe to keep out of reach of the enemy. A great targeting system makes it easy to hit enemies with your sword or arrows, the only thing lacking is the blocking, which seems a little ineffective some of the time. In the air, it's the same concept, you can lock onto enemy dragons and fly around them as you blast them with fireballs or a volley of flames and Arokh learns more combat techniques as the story progresses. The best fun is destroying the enemies you normally go up against when you're on foot, if you fly up to an enemy encampment, the Trogs and Grull look small beneath you and run away as you blast them and set them on fire. It's just so satisfying and the controls for Arokh are very responsive.

You can also learn a range of spells, but the more advanced ones can only be learned when you gain more experience. It takes a while, but after lots of slaughter you gain an experience point that can be put towards either your Melee, Archery or Spell skills. High melee increases the range of hand-to-hand weapons you can buy, high archery gets you better bows and high spell means you can learn the more complex spells. It's a tough decision where to allocate your hard-earned point, but whichever you choose new options will become available to you.

There are some great touches to be spotted, for instance there is a house you visit where there's a painting on the wall depicting the view you saw as you walked towards the city you're now in. Another one is in the mana mines where you meet a couple of huge beasts that are cheekily similar to the Rancor beast from The Return of the Jedi. These creatures will pick up exploding barrels and giant crystals to throw at you and if you get too close they'll grab you and fling you to your death. However, they will also grab any enemies that get too close and it is hilarious when you see one of the Grull picked up and lobbed at you, exploding into chunks of flesh as it hits the ground!

There is very little not to like about Drakan, it is well-paced and keeps your interest through unexpected plot developments and by throwing you into one crisis situation after another. The only thing I could say is that the loading and saving takes quite a long time and takes up a lot of space on the memory card. However, the levels are absolutely massive (and I mean massive) and the loading times are few and far between, in fact I am amazed that they were able to convert this to a platform without a hard drive. I take my hat off to the developers as the bodies of the enemies you kill and all the treasure that is revealed but not picked up stays in place for the entire time you're in an area. It really is a great achievement and it's so satisfying to backtrack and see the trail of bodies you've left in your wake!

Drakan: The Ancients' Gates is a riveting game that perfectly blends role-play elements into a 3D adventure game, making for a very refreshing change from the usual console fare. With lovely graphics, great sound and music, a compelling story, vivid characters, satisfying combat and a mind-blowingly enormous world to explore both on foot and on dragon, this game has it all and really should be in your collection.

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).