DRAKAN: ORDER OF THE FLAME

A classic action-adventure PC exclusive that still brings the heat.

-  By Robert Jones

You're Rynn, a slender and agile warrior who has, barely, survived her village being raided, sacked, and burned to the ground by the orcish forces of Navaros, a fallen evil sorcerer set on resurrection and world domination. Everyone you knew or loved in the village is dead, slaughtered by the Wartok horde. Fallen men and women lie broken within burning buildings, which stand charred and wrecked, while crop plantations lie in ashes at your feet. There is one survivor, though, your brother Delon, who has been kidnapped by Navaros' minions and whisked away to act as the vessel for Navaros' return. And, as you stumble to your feet and grab your sword, his rescue is the only thing in your mind.

Of all the PC games that I've seen come and go over the last 30 years or so, I think Drakan: Order of the Flame is one of the most undeservedly unknown and underrated. If you've even heard of it, then you're already on your way into my PC gaming good books, whereas if you've already played it and are currently nodding knowingly as you read these words, then I salute you, sir or ma'am, for you are truly a person of exceptional gaming taste.

If you haven't, though, then step this way my friend, and let me take you back in time to discover an underrated PC exclusive classic that remains, decades later, laying dormant in the sands of time.

CRUCIBLE OF FIRE

An action-adventure slasher at its heart, Drakan recalls an age in PC gaming in the late 1990s and early 2000s when, for both good and bad, the industry was still far more like the Wild West than it is today, with a free, pioneering, experimental spirit felt very much throughout the medium. Big-budget games could take wild swings at new genre ideas and gameplay mechanics, typified in titles like Peter Molyneux's Black & White (2001), Will Wright's The Sims (2000), or Shiny Entertainment's underated gem