Rise of the Dragon

The Good
Rise of the Dragon features a cool science fiction story line that mixes in elements seen with such 1980's films as Blade Runner and Big Trouble in Little China. If you love graphic adventure gaming, set in a dark cyberpunk world, this will be a most enjoyable Sega CD game.

The Bad
First off all, for some reason, certain sexual themes from the computer game did not make it in the Sega CD version. One of the exotic dancers in the bar has been removed and the other one has been toned down. You cannot speak with the punk in the bar and the French kiss and suggested sex scene have been eliminated. It seems odd that such modifications took place, given that the game was rated MA-17. Second, the Sega CD hardware was not up to par with DOS IBM computers of the day, so the graphics looked slightly washed out, with a Matrix-like green tint. Last, but not least, you cannot avoid the few arcade sequences in the game.

The Bottom Line
Rise of the Dragon was one of the few graphic adventure games released for the Sega CD and fans of the genre, especially if they are unfamiliar with the DOS version, should enjoy it. The addition of voice actors greatly adds to the game, but the censorship is simply inexcusable for a game given a MA-17 rating, especially when everything else -- content wise -- from the DOS game seems to be uncensored.

The Good
I liked the plot for the most part. The game seemed very short, but I think the interaction between Blade and Karyn was rather well done. It had already been established that they had a prior relationship, and I liked the fact that making up to her was crucial to the game--Blade couldn't solve the mystery without her. Conversations in this game could be difficult--you had to pick the right responses in order to get the info you needed--I think this is a trademark Dynamix style, because most of the games I've played of theirs seem to require that you pick the right conversation path. The puzzles could be difficult sometimes. The graphics in this game are very nice--they look very gritty. Even though it's a 2D style it's very well done. I'm not picky about graphics, I just like to be able to see what I'm looking at. This game is also done in what reminds me of a comic book format--some cut scenes are actually composed of still shots with text instead of an actual animated sequence. My original copy of this game came with a "comic book", so I think that was intentional.

The Bad
I truly disliked the arcade sequence. My understanding of it is that you did have to play the arcade sequence in order to get the closing still shots. I didn't play the arcade sequence at all and got nothing but a black screen at the end. I'm not good at arcade sequences, which is why I play adventure games in the first place. The good thing about Dynamix is the fact that you can at least skip the arcades, but in this case apparently it was detrimental. Some of the puzzles were obscure.

The Bottom Line
Set sometime in a dark future, you play Blade Hunter as he attempts to solve the murder of a politician's daughter. Gather clues and enlist the aid of your allies as you search for her murderer.

The Good
Rise of the Dragon was Dynamix's first attempt at a purely graphical adventure, and it was largely succesful. While some people dismissed it as too easy, I found it quite immersive. Gameplay is achieved best with the mouse, where you use the pointer to examine elements of your location, manipulate objects, and throw switches. Its easy to learn, but it doesn't cheat--you have to equip your gun before you can fire it, for example, and if you leave your gun eqipped all the time, you run the risk of scaring the people you run into (because they can see your gun brandished).

The music is great, not because it reaches out and grabs you, but because it doesn't try to. The music is always underneath the scenes, and in some places, does a fantastic job of representing what the character is supposed to be feeling. A particular favorite section of mine is the very first scene where you're in your apartment; even with a simple Adlib card, the music you hear while exploring your surroundings not only does an excellent job of describing how you feel, but almost attempts to describe how your environment feels, if such a thing is possible.

The graphics are very good; each screen was illustrated traditionally on canvas and then digitized. While many of the themes are borrowed liberally from Blade Runner, some areas of the game manage to find their own vision.

The Bad
You would think that graphics digitized from original art would look really great, but some screens are not dithered as well as they could be, which is annoying if you're nitpicky about those kinds of things. (To judge for yourself, take a look at the many ROTD screenshots here on MobyGames.)

ROTD runs in realtime, which is normally a good thing; you can't just sit around poking at everything. But this can get frustrating as well--at one point you have to save your girlfriend while a timer is ticking down to zero in the background. This is unnecessarily manipulative.

Worst, though, is the inclusion of a weak action sequence thrown in at the very end of the game, which is completely inappropriate (and also very hard to win!). Thankfully, if you die too much in the endgame arcade sequence, the game offers to let you skip it to see the ending.

The Bottom Line
Rise of the Dragon is one of my all-time favorite games. If you haven't played it, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.