Rise of the Dragon

Game developer: Dynamix, Game Arts
Game publisher: Sierra On-Line
Game release date: 1990 year
Game status: Released

Rise of the Dragon is one out of three adventure games created by Jeff Tunnel, founder of Dynamix. This game uses the same engine as Heart of China with the first person view and the point and click interface. The intro shows a young woman buying a drug which can be easily applied by simply sticking it to your body like a band aid. Unfortunately the girl gets more than she bargained for and the drug somehow horribly disfigures her and and she does not survive. Blade hunter, a former cop turned PI, gets a vidcall in the morning from the mayor of the city and it turns out the girl who died was his daughter. Being an important political figure he decides not to call in the police but instead he asks you to investigate and promises that your pension will be fully restored if you are able to catch the ones responsible. Blade hasn't got much of a choice so he accepts and with only his handgun and a picture of the disfigured remains of the girl he sets off to do his investigation. Unknown to Blade but shown in the intro is the villain who is behind this drug and his aim is to gain power and rule the world.

When you play rise of the dragon you can't help but think of the movie Blade runner and in fact the game does have a lot in common with it. The main characters name sounds a lot like the movie's title, he is also an investigator like Rick Deckard in the movie and the tech noir setting. Rise is by no means a ripoff however and the game is excellent like the other Dynamix adventure games. You start the game in your tiny apartment after just waking up and you'll notice the vidphone (videophone) has messages waiting. Besides the message from the major and some rubbish ad you also get a message from your girlfriend telling you about how you stood her up again and tells you that if you don't pick up your keys she might flush them down the toilet. After this it's up to you to decide what to do, you could go investigating right away but you can also make up with your girl and pick up your keys instead. Whichever you want to do you always have to keep in mind that there is a time limit in the game and if you don't find out what's happening you might end up dead as well. The game is completely controlled with the mouse and you can use the right mouse button to examine objects and by left clicking you can pick up or use an object. The cursor usually changes to what you can do like a text balloon to talk to people or a hand to pick something up. Some items don't show any change in the cursor however and these are usually hidden items so be thorough in your investigation or you might miss some important stuff. Clicking on your silhouette will show you inventory and some items can be used on yourself like clothes or weapons.

No PI can conduct an investigation without asking questions so in the course of the game you'll have to question a lot of people to try and get some information from them. You do this by selecting responses from a multiple choice menu not all of which produce good results so it's important that you don't push people too hard at first or you won't be able to get their cooperation. There are many tips like this contained in a booklet that came with the manual, it comes in the form of a comic book complete with reader's letters and ads.

Unlike Heart of China the graphics are digitized from hand drawn pictures instead of life actors and they give the game a more comic book look which was exactly the intention of the creators and they are excellent. The music really fits the mood well and most places will have some kind of soundtrack. There aren't much sound effects which is a shame but it doesn't really matter because of the excellent soundtracks. There are two arcade sequences in the game both of which are side scrolling shooters and like Heart of China you can skip them if you are unable to complete them but I suggest you don't because it all adds to the game.

From the length of this review you can probably tell that I like this game. It incorporates many things that I like such as the futuristic setting, the voice over private eye thing and generally the whole package. That doesn't mean that there are some faults with the game though such as the length of the game which is quite short and the dead ends can be numerous if you are unable to get cooperation from some people. However if you are able to look past these things you'll find a excellent adventure game and any adventure gamer should check this if they haven't done so already.

Game genre: Adventures
Platform/System: MS-DOS Games, Amiga Games, Mac Games, Sega Mega Drive Games