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Be aware of the minimum requirment for this game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: August 15, 2001
Author: Amazon User

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.

Disapointment.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 14
Date: August 19, 2001
Author: Amazon User

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.

Dont waste your money

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 7
Date: January 27, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game plays terrible! This game has fixed cameras so it is very easy to walk off camera. Then you have to guess which way to turn or walk to get back into camera site. At first I could not get this game to play on my computer but after ONLY 2 weeks of e-mails to their tec department and a new sound card I got it to play. Funny thing, My sound card worked fine on ALL of my other games.

Major problems

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 10
Date: August 16, 2001
Author: Amazon User

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?

Could/Should Be SO Much Better

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: October 06, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game was very fun in the offset, because everything is textured and colored wonderfully, and every new area is eye dazzeling. However, the game-play itself leaves MUCH to be desired. It's as if Ubi Soft released this game half done. It's extremely buggy, some parts of the story line completely disapear never to be explained, the character's voices will cut in and out during dialog, and my biggest complaint is getting stuck in the middle of the game due to a BUG!!! Also, the fighting system is a basic point and click. Click short for small attack, click longer for larger attack. Boring! This game could be so much fun if it had been finished by it's creator. Even with all of the un-fun bugs, this game still has potential if you're a huge Dragonrider fan like myself. Despite everything, I have stuck with this game for the love of Anne McCaffrey and the amazing world of the Dragonriders that she's created. It's like playing through a book in the series. However, there are lots of discrepancies here too. If you are a fan, you'll be disapointed by what appears to be the lack of the programmer's knowledge of Pern, it's culture, and it's social-political structure. Over all, I liked playing through a video novel, but the patience required may be too much to ask from some players. If you're a fan, go for it! If you're not, don't bother. :)

Ick!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 5
Date: November 30, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The only reason I bought this game and still own it is because it's Pern. Too bad it's so BAD! Terrible, terrible loading time, wierd voice acting, you don't get to fight Thread, and it's SLOW (story-wise). I almost fell asleep playing it. I know this is really harsh, but if you really want to play the game, BORROW someone else's copy. It's only worth buying if you're a Pern Fanatic.

It's the Dragonriders of Pern...sort of

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 18 / 18
Date: August 17, 2001
Author: Amazon User

The long awaited video game based on Anne McCaffrey's awesome Pern series is a mixed bag to say the least. On the one hand it provides a great interpretation of life on Pern. You get to interact with all manner of people, be they Rider, Holder, or craftsman. The game is set in the Seventh Pass so don't expect to see any of the characters from the books make appearances. The story is pretty good and the game follows a find item and take it here type of gameplay. If you're familiar with "Resident Evil" you know what I'm talking about. Unfortunately, the game has its flaws. For one, you can't really "ride" your dragon. The dragon acts as more of a glorified transport from area to area. So no Thread fighting. And combat is simplistic and tedious. (tap forward for light attack; hold for heavy). It doesn't really add to the game. In short, if you're a Pern fan its worth a look. But if your looking for a solid video game experience, look elsewhere.

Good storyline, but poorly designed

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: June 14, 2002
Author: Amazon User

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.

More Dragonriders Please.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: September 29, 2002
Author: Amazon User

The graphics and audio are excellent. I found two drawbacks:(1)controls are keyboard driven...no mouse;(2)plus having zilch capability to scan the immediate environment(panoramic camera)proved frustrating at times.
However, if you are a Dragonrider's fan, this game is well worth the extra time and effort it takes to play it.

A warning..

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 5
Date: August 15, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I've been waiting 4 years for this game and the moment it was up for sale I ordered it! But to my dismay when it got to my house I found out there are hefty system requirments...which arn't obviously listed anywhere on Amazon.com nor the creator Ubisofts page. So for those like me who don't know this game requires among other things a 3D accelorator card, 300Mhz (Pent2 or higher), and a whole lot of space...

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