Rise of the Dragon is one of the first adventure games I’ve ever played way back in the early nineties and surprisingly it has stood the test of time. Combining the pulp noir style of Raymond Chandler with the cyber-punk atmosphere of Blade Runner, Rise of the Dragon does a great job capturing the gritty mood of those thirties pulp detective novels. The graphics are pretty much on par with any other adventure game from the era, and do a convincing job of capturing the mood.
Rise of the Dragon is one of the first adventure games I’ve ever played way back in the early nineties and surprisingly it has stood the test of time. Combining the pulp noir style of Raymond Chandler with the cyber-punk atmosphere of Blade Runner, Rise of the Dragon does a great job capturing the gritty mood of those thirties pulp detective novels. The graphics are pretty much on par with any other adventure game from the era, and do a convincing job of capturing the mood. I especially liked the scene where Cheng mutates from a drug overdose; it’s creepy even by today’s standards.
From a gameplay stand point the interface takes some getting used, there can be a fair amount of pixel hunting because
unlike most Sierra adventures which give you a set of actions, such as talk, move to, and pickup, you only have the mouse pointer which changes when you hit a hot spot. This can lead to some frustration but doesn’t really interfere with the overall game play. Another complaint is that the inventory system seems to work at random, when you want to use an item in a scene sometimes you can select it and move it to where you need it and the inventory screen will disappear, other times you will select an item move it to where you want it but the inventory screen won’t disappear forcing you to drop the item and exit the inventory screen manually. These are fairly minor complaints though and shouldn’t stop anyone from checking out this amazing game.
After all these years I found myself once again enthralled with this awesome game, they just don’t make them like this anymore. Overall, if you’re a fan of Sierra style adventure games you owe it to yourself to check this one out. It’s much darker than your average King’s Quest game, which is probably why it was released under the Dynamix label, but that’s just another plus in my opinion. I got tired of chasing fairies through the forest after my third King’s Quest game and Rise of the Dragon is a refreshing departure from the fantasy worlds so often associated with adventure games. I highly recommend you download this game, once you get into it, it’s hard to put down so be prepared to spend some hours with this classic. Also if you get stuck there are several well written walkthroughs floating around the internet that should set you straight.
