Game 51: Rise of the Dragon - Final Rating

By Ilmari

All things come to an end

It’s time to score yet another game. I decided to compare Rise of the Dragon with both Mean Streets and Countdown, since all three are hard-boiled detective games (two of them even share the scifi theme), all of them depend heavily on dialogue, all of them contain action minigames and all of them might perhaps be better called interactive movies. We’ll see how it goes!

Puzzles and Solvability

I started Rise of the Dragon with high expectations. I had good memories of later Dynamix games, and the beginning promised a decent enough plot full of mysteries and serious detective work. The plot indeed flowed forward effortlessly and I became a little bit worried that there might not be any good puzzles to speak of. Then I got to a point where I had nothing else to do but wait - and this is almost all I had to do to get to the ending.

So, long story short - the game feels just a bit too easy. There were just two puzzles that left me scratching my head for a while (finding the right code for Chen’s safe and listening to Johnny Qwong’s phone) and I think this is not enough. Especially the inventory based puzzles were too scarce and bland to be of any interest. This is something Rise of the Dragon shares with the games of Access Software (Mean Streets got 4 and Countdown 3), and a low score on this category would seem to be in order.

Then again, there’s one redeeming quality in the puzzles - alternative solutions. Remember the receptionist I talked to just to find out she’s an old schoolmate of mine? It turns out there’s a completely different way to deal with her. I could have just grabbed my old can of euphory inducing gas and sent her to a personal trip to the seventh heaven.

You can’t get higher than this as a receptionist

And this is not just the only example. Forgot to take your ID with you and are locked out of your apartment? Don’t worry, you can also short circuit the door. Didn’t buy those roses? Well, you can always just sweet talk yourself to the heart of Karyn. Dynamix really wanted to keep their promise that you cannot deadend yourself just because you forgot some item. I think this deserves a bit higher score than Countdown therefore.

Rating: 4

Interface and Inventory

I’d like to say that the interface is simple and easy to use - left mouse click for action, right mouse click for looking and dragging an object, to the inventory icon, if you want to take it, to something on the screen, if you want to use it. And you can almost get to the end of the game with using only these commands. Yet, some of the rarer actions required rather unintuitive tricks. I struggled at the beginning for a while, just to get my clothes on, because I had no idea how to wear them - it took reading the manual to find out that right-clicking the inventory icon would open a larger inventory screen with Blade’s picture in it. And jumping in the action scenes? Well, perhaps I could have guessed it’s done with ENTER... But the biggest problem I found out after completing the game and heading out to look some walkthroughs.

One FAQ writer suggested that SEGA version of the game differed significantly from the PC version, because only in the former you could gas down the receptionist. I took this as a challenge, and after reading the manual, I was able to do the trick with my trusty PC. I still wasn’t surprised that whoever made the FAQ hadn’t stumbled on this possibility, because the sequence for using the can was so unintuitive. You first had to open up the larger inventory screen, with Blade’s portrait. Then you had to drag the can on the Blade, who would then equip it. Now pressing BACKSPACE allowed me to actually use the can… Wait, what, BACKSPACE? I thought this was a mouse controlled game… and even if you’d had to rely on keyboard, why would you want to use BACKSPACE?

Yes, it’s in the manual, but still...

I’d say that controls of a game should be either so intuitive that the player knows at once how to use them or then the game must at least force the player to use the controls, so that they become intuitive after a while. But an unintuitive control sequence that is used only once or twice is just too ridiculous (lucky it is not necessary even to use it at all). I’d otherwise had given a bit higher score for the interface - the mouse controls in general are smoother than in Countdown (2) or Mean Streets (4), and the inventory system is way better with detailed descriptions of all items. Yet, the small faults deserve a reduction of few points.

Rating: 5


Story and Setting

If you look at the story too closely it might be a bit cliched, as Laukku said, and the mixture of mutant producing drugs and ancient magicians coming back to life and turning into dragons is admittedly a bit corny. Especially compared with Countdown’s (6) intricate plot twists, Rise of the Dragon seems like a cheap B-class movie.

One thing that might raise the score of RoD is the advertised use of alternative plot lines. Unfortunately, there appears to be not that much of them. There are many optional sections in the plot - for instance, if I hadn’t given the candy bar to Jake, he wouldn’t have called me, and I should have seen another battle, only this time at the water reservoir. Still, the only really big question is whether you save Karyn at the end or not. Yes, I might have saved Karyn. Instead of running to his beloved, Blade might have checked out a storage room for a couple of wires and used them to short circuit the mutating machine, in which Karyn was trapped - after that, the Blade and Karyn would have accidentally stumbled in the room with all the criminals. Somehow this alternative feels not so emotionally strong as the ending I found, even if it ends happier.

So, there’s not that much possibility for alternative plotting and the advertisement for an infinitely replayable game was just an ad. Still, even if it is straightforward, the plot is still very effective - and seeing that creepy mayor getting punched in the face was truly a highlight of the day. If Mean Streets with its silly mutants and president Michael J. Fox got 5, then certainly Rise of the Dragon deserves it too.

Score: 5


Sound and Graphics

Graphics are a high point of the game, even if the use of dithering is obvious. It’s perhaps a matter of taste, but if I had to choose between the photorealism of Mean Streets (5) and Countdown (4) and the clearly more hand drawn style of Rise of the Dragon, I’d definitely pick the latter. The backgrounds and items are just gorgeous and the characters really have faces that reflect their personalities and emotions.

As for sounds, there definitely was plenty of it, but none of it was particularly memorable. When it comes to music, couple of place dependent themes varied and were played in repeat. In addition, there were some sound effects, like the sound of electric charge, when you touch the wrong cable. All in all, I must definitely give the game a high score to the overall category, but the blandness of the musical side prevents me from giving the same score as with Monkey Island (8).

Rating: 7


Environment and Atmosphere

Yet another strong category.While Mean Streets (6) and Countdown (6) couldn’t decide whether they wanted to play it straight or go to pure comedy, Rise of the Dragon feels much more balanced in its tone - except for few throwaway lines by Blade, it’s strictly business. This makes the whole Blade Runner imitation seem that much more convincing, although the lack of wireless communication makes the image of the future feel a bit dated.

But what I really like is the variety in the sceneries. Just look at some of the different subway stations.

I never really had a chance to introduce the different subway stations, but here’s a quick sample.

It would have been easy to make all of them look exactly same, but the developers have added small details that distinguish them from one another - the more well-to-do areas have more guards, while the station near Blade’s home has just a dead or drunk bum etc.

I noticed that Trickster complained about the emptiness of the city in Mean Streets. L.A. of Rise the Dragon has empty areas too - seemingly abandoned warehouses and water reservoirs. Still, there’s plenty of places with people coming and going or at least just standing around. My special favourite is the pleasure dome, which truly feels like a place with real live people - particularly as you can chat up with some random dudes.

The seedier parts of the city

 OK, well I shouldn’t call them dudes

Rating: 7


Dialogue and Acting

This a difficult category to score, especially as in my comparison games the scores are all over (Mean Streets got 6, but Countdown only 4, and I didn’t think they were that different in their dialogue systems). Well, at least Rise of the Dragon has less dialogue than those two games and definitely less characters to speak with. Then again, I think that this might actually be a plus for the RoD, because the few characters I talked with were more believable and rounded persons than any of the x + 1 characters in the Access Software games. This might be more due to the graphics than the actual dialogue - the hand drawn facial expressions of RoD just convey more of the personality of the characters than the photorealistic images of the other games.

One thing that I really liked was the use of dialogue trees, which required true decisions that really affected how the game would unfold. Sure, you could choose to bully people and make them angry in Mean Streets or Countdown, but you would just have to go somewhere and return and all would be forgotten. Not so in RoD. For example, try taking your flirtation with the mayor’s secretary too far and you might really make your girlfriend pissed. Such possibilities make the dialogue seem more lifelike and realistic.

A point of criticism is the use of racial stereotypes in characters. The list of Chinese people doesn’t look good: apart from a drunk and a Yoda-character, all Chinese are evil in the tradition of Fu Manchu. And as for all the Afro-Americans being of a lower social class and using very notable slang… well, we might give the producers the benefit of the doubt and call it clever social criticism.

You’ve already met Jake, the scrub-boy with a sweet tooth,
but here’s Mujalambo, the obese bartender that Blade affectionately calls a rhinoceros.

So, all in all a very mixed bag. I’ll settle for a middle road.

Score: 5


Putting things together we have (4 + 5 + 5 + 7 + 7 + 5)/0,6 = 55. I am also tempted to give the game one bonus point, just because it let the player choose whether he wanted to complete the arcade minigames. So, 56 it is!

Was Rise of the Dragon really that good? I’d definitely affirm it was. It certainly doesn’t have the magical qualities of Monkey Island or Quest for Glory 2, but it is fairly pleasant experience, which looking back was something mostly missing in games of 1990. The nearest guess was Laukku with 55! Here’s the rest of the CAP winners this time:

Cap Distribution

100 CAPs for Ilmari

• Blogger Award - 100 CAPs - For blogging his way through game for our enjoyment

23 CAPs for Laukku

• Psychic Prediction Award - 10 CAPs - For making the closest guess for the Final Rating
• Eye for the Detail Award - 5 CAPs - For noticing the dithering in the game's graphics
• Albert Barille Award - 3 CAPs - For recognising quality edutainment
• Parallel Universe Award - 5 CAPs - For showing the alternative ending

9 CAPs for Kenny McCormick

• Real Estate Agent Award - 3 CAPs - For trying to sell Fifth Element as an influence to the game
• Child Genius Award .- 6 CAPs - For more intelligent being me than 

8 CAPs for Aperama

• Fisto Award - 3 CAPs - For questioning the sensibility of chocolate bars
• Gas Meter Award - 5 CAPs - For teaching the blogger some hard facts of life

5 CAPs for Fry

• Fu Bar Award - 5 CAPs - For noticing the obvious acronym 

5 CAPs for TBD

• Genre Support Award - 5 CAPs - For linking to Adventure Gamers -awards of 2014

5 CAPs for Rowan Lipkovits

• Electricity Meter Award - 5 CAPs - For teaching the blogger some hard facts of life

4 CAPs for Laertes

• Everybody Wants Some! Award - 4 CAPs - For appreciating classick rock

4 CAPs for Andy Panthro

• Every Breath You Take Award - 4 CAPs - For an alternative take on police

That’s it for today! I am ready to pack my things and move away from the limelight. It’s time to let Aperama and TBD get in business with B.A.T. and King’s Quest V. We’ll see how well they manage...

Game 51: Rise of the Dragon - And dead are you (AKA Won!)

Written by Ilmari

Blade Hunter’ secret diary, part 5: KARYN, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Last time Karyn had been kidnapped by the Chinese mafia and I was a bit stumped, with nothing obvious left to do. I regret to inform that it turned out I just had to wait for something to happen. After another day of staying near my un-wireless vidphone, Jake finally called.

Couldn’t be me they are looking for. I’ve been in my apartment,
waiting for your call, for a couple of days.

Unfortunately, Jake didn’t really have anything to say - he just told me to meet him in the warehouse I had demolished at 8.30 PM. What I was supposed to do for another 8 hours? Eventually I just went to the warehouse and started waiting. Meantime, Deng Hwang made an ultimatum for the citizens of L.A. He wanted the mayor to resign and also demanded 500 million dollars in diamonds and platinum. If his conditions were not met, he would release his drug to water supplies.

When the time of our meeting had arrived, it became very clear that Jake had managed to get himself into some serious trouble.

No, never seen him in my life. Say, did you happen to find a candy bar, when you searched him?

Look, if I had wanted to play a shoot’em’up, I would have chosen Ikari Warriors

Yes, it was time for a minigame! I must confess that I didn’t even bother to look at the manual for the controls and so I never found out such essential things as what button made Blade jump. Thus, it was impossible to get through the tanks full of toxic waste, which melted Blade into goo. My excuse is that I was just waiting for the next screen.

Adventure game producers: this is a feature that should be included in all minigames

Having (apparently) killed all the bad guys, I could release Jake, who at once told me that Karyn was being held in Deng Hwang’s headquarters. He also gave me an ID to get through the security.

And I got this

I got easily past the front door of Deng Hwang’s with my new fake ID. In the main lobby, the way forward was closed by a laser field, but there was also a door leading to a security room. I talked a while with the receptionist, who surprisingly was revealed as an old schoolmate of Blade.

Blade used to catch up goats

I suggested I could go on a dinner and a movie with her, if she just let me in the security room. Reluctantly, she opened the door, but just if I promised to be quick, as all guards happened to be on a break, but would come back soon.

So this is the security room. I wonder what is going on in the break room?

Guards really don’t like me interrupting their break

Learning from my mistakes, I reloaded and left the break room door alone. Instead, I checked the computer. Before I could really do anything, the computer asked for a proper authorisation. There were some colored buttons, and I instantly remembered the code I had seen in the fortune cookie. It of course worked, no matter how little sense it makes. I then closed down all the security systems, lowered the laser field in the lobby and locked the guards in the break room. Time to move on!

Backdoor to a multimillion security system sold in Chinese restaurants?

The receptionist was getting a bit doubtful about letting me in and threatened to call security - Blade noted that he’d cut off the alarm and warned his past schoolmate to get the hell out of here. Going through the now defunct laser field, I found the room where they kept Karyn. I have no idea what I should have done, so the results were sad.

Can Karyn be saved? I don’t really care, since this is so dramatic

Vowing to kill Deng Hwang, Blade ran to a convention of all the bad guys and started to clear his way through Deng’s henchmen. The big boss had still a surprise up his sleeve.

He can turn into a dragon!

At this point it was expected that a new minigame would begin. I did try to make it a bit more nearer to the end this time, but I got quickly stumped and decided just to move forward.

I can deal with the bad guys, but what should I do to the pipes that shoot fire?

Apparently I had been able to kill Deng Hwang, AKA Bahumat. And then it was all over! Blade got himself out of the building, where mayor was waiting with some policemen. Blade and mayor had a friendly chat, Blade accusing mayor for conning him into a case in which Karyn got killed and mayor caring not a whit.

This was very satisfying

Sequel, sequel! No? Drat…

Considering that most of this post has just been waiting around and skipping action sequences, the ending came really fast. I am sure the Final Rating will reflect that, although I do have a positive view of the game. See you next time!

Session time: 0.5 hours

Total time: 6.5 hours

Game 51: Rise of the Dragon - Gone is my sweet!

By Ilmari

Blade Hunter’ secret diary, part 4: I am a bit worried, since I haven’t see Karyn for a while - even down the office there was someone else on her spot. Now someone is finally calling, could it be her?

At the end of the last post I had just managed to piss off the Chinese mafia by bombing their warehouse full of bad drugs, and the henchman, Jonny Qwong, had to pay for not being able to stop me. At the beginning of new morning I went to see Karyn and ask for the analysis of a drug sample I had gave her the last day. She did have a tape ready for me.

Black dot: Hi new guy, do you want to play?

Formerly black dot: What the…?

Formerly black dot: Help, I've mutated! Where’s the police, when you most need them?

I’ve from time to time tried to meet the mayor, but he has always been busy. I also tried it now, and I noticed a new dialogue option: I could now threaten mayor’s secretary and demand seeing him, because I had some info that might ruin his chances in the elections.

Well now that you mentioned it...

A heated discussion with the mayor followed, in which verbal punches were not saved:

Hero - bureaucratic twit, 1 - 0.

Hero - bureaucratic twit, 1 - 1.

Hero - bureaucratic twit, 2 - 1.

Mayor was finally convinced that something major was going on, when I showed him the tape that I’d just received from Karyn. He told to me to get to the bottom of the drug operation with Chinese mafia and with utmost clarity explained that I was not welcome to his office before the case was closed. A bit unsatisfied with the results I left the office. The debate with the mayor didn’t seem to have moved the plot forward, so with nothing else to do, I decided to meet Jake. This meeting was also a bit underwhelming.

Jake, I thought we were friends! I gave you some chocolate even!

Jake said just that we would have to meet somewhere more safe and that he would give me a call. As all the cellphones have somehow disappeared in this dystopian future, that meant I had to go to my apartment and actually wait for the phone call. While there, I noted I had missed something very crucial.

So I’ve been walking around with empty gun all this time?

Well, Jake didn’t call, but something else happened.

Who is this guy? He doesn’t look like Snake at all.

After this plot twist, Deng Hwang called me and told that I shouldn’t interfere with his plans, if I wanted Karyn to stay alive. Plot was going fast forward and I was still confused what to do next. I’ve waited till next day and nothing appears to happen. Jake hasn’t called, mayor hasn’t done anything, no new threats from Chinese Mafia, nothing to do in all the places I’ve found. I am a bit confused what to do next and Ï’ve resorted to mere aimless wandering around the game world. Should I just wait? Or am I missing something crucial?

Well, at least this happened...

Session time: 1.5 hours

Total time: 6 hours

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There’s a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!

Game 51: Rise of the Dragon - Wire is Blue

Written by Ilmari

Blade Hunter’s secret diary, part 3: I feel like I am getting so close with Karyn after our night together. It’s good that my case requires me going and asking her for information. It’s so nice to bask in her radiance frequently!

The game is going like a blaze and I seem to be progressing quite nicely! I am just hoping I haven’t lost an crucial item… But now I am getting ahead of myself. A brief recap of the plot thus far: some bad drugs killed mayor's daughter, Chandra, who had a best friend called Jake, who knew Chandra had been hanging with a guy called Chen, who was then turned into slimy goo by a guy with an eye patch. An eventful first day, I'd say!

Last time I had just returned to home from my nightly adventure with Blade's girlfriend, Karyn. I decided to head down to her office right away, since she had said she might help me in analysing stuff - and I had plenty of stuff I had got the previous night from Chen’s apartment. I started by giving Karyn the drug patch, which she promised to give to lab boys to investigate. The analysis wouldn’t be ready until tomorrow, so that didn't provide me anything new to do yet. I also gave her the paper I had found in Chen’s safe. Karyn didn’t recognise the symbols, but suspected it was some archaic dialect of Mandarin Chinese. She also suggested visiting some Chinese scholar and I knew right away who to call!

Bearded, underpaid fellow, who has no idea of references to modern world-- yes, clearly a scholar!

My Chinese friend in the warehouse complex could translate the paper, which told that Rise of Dragon was soon about to happen and target was Hollywood water reservoir. The paper also contained a reference to Bahumat, who according to the scholar was an evil magician living in year 3000 BC. Bahumat could turn himself into a dragon and he tried to rule the world. Bahumat was killed by a white magician Gin-Su or Knife (I can see where this is heading…), who banished Bahumat to netherworld for 5000 years, but got himself killed in the process. The old Chinese knew also a prophecy of the return of Bahumat:

“In the Age of Decay,
Marking the Dawn of Darkness
The Dragon will arise
His evil will become an addiction in the soul of mankind, and death shall be a blessing to those he has touched.
Many will fear him
Many will fall before him
One will sacrifice all to destroy him.”

The Chinese scholar gave me also a talisman, a book of ancient wisdom and a fortune cookie. A more practical gift was a Kevlar vest, which I immediately put on.

Great song, but I fail to see the relevance

I bet this is some kind of code

I now had one more place to visit on my map, the Hollywood Reservoir. Unfortunately, there appeared to be nothing to do there.

But Mr. Tarantino said there would be some dogs here!

With nothing else to do, I went to visit Jake again. He was pleased that Chen was dead and told me that Chen had had some connection with Chinese mafia, who was working in some warehouse right under the nose of City Hall. I tried to show him the evidence I’d collected, but nothing useful came out. He did take one of my chocolate bars for safe keeping. I hope this act of charity will not come and haunt me in the future.

I then wandered around aimlessly for a while and even saw the next “Meanwhile” -sequence, which was nothing special, just another reminder of the imminent deadline. I then noted that I hadn’t shown one item to Karyn: Chen’s ID. Cursing myself for not doing such an obvious thing, I went immediately to Karyn, who could easily pull out some info on Chen’s known accomplices.

I knew eye patch meant no good

Bingo! Now I’ve got the address of Johnny Qwong, the henchman

I went straightaway to Qwong’s house. It was a huge villa, guarded by armed patrols walking on the roof. I couldn’t get in, but I could go down the sewer, although the local bum tried to warn me.

Rats? Great, I can start grinding!

The only thing I could access in the sewers was a locked box.

What’s that on the box? A treasure map?

Oh for Pete’s sake! I guess I should have studied electronics!

The lock went out with one of my explosives and I was not too happy to find out a mess of wires waiting me.

Yes, a minigame! Just what I was expecting!

I knew that this is where my wire tester was going to be handy. I had to tap into Johnny Qwong’s phone line and listen to his Vid Phone conversations (wireless technology must have been forgotten by then). The manual had pretty good instructions. I had to make three connections: red wire to positive, blue to negative and yellow to ground. My first attempts were not successful.

I guess I should leave changing the light bulb to more capable hands

It went on like this for almost an hour and I was already planning on rants of how bad puzzles developers could think of. I had noted that I could connect the wires, whenever both the meters were pointing on green area, and when the pointers went back to red, I was fried. My first idea had been that I had to be quick enough - the wire tester had three wires, and I thought I had to plug them all in before the pointers returned to red zone.

Then I finally managed to connect one of the wires, without getting fried when the red zone was reached. I knew at once that no electrocution would happen, if I just had plugged the wires to right places. After that it was just simple to test for the correct position of each wire, and beating the minigame became incredibly easy.

It’s good that Blade knows, when this contraption is ready, because I sure don’t

Getting back to Blade’s apartment, I took a look at what Mr. Qwong had been chatting with his buddies. He had received one call from “voice of Bahumat”, who now revealed his name: Deng Hwang. Qwong was told to stop all further delays in the production schedule and to check progress in the warehouse. I then remembered Jake telling me about Chinese mafia having a warehouse near City Hall, where I traveled now.

I don’t know if I had been too lazy before or if the warehouse doesn’t exist before the plot progresses forward, but I found the place quite easily. Only thing I could do there was to get a close up of --- well, I don’t know what it is!

Any suggestion what these might be?

I tried using one of my explosives with it and the results were far more satisfying than I expected.

If his career as a detective doesn’t work, Blade could become a demolition man

Getting back to the main map, I noticed a new place: Deng Hwang’s corporation headquarters. This proved to be another dead end.

But I was just going to sell these fine leather jackets!

I then returned home to see if Johnny Qwong had been notified of the explosion. Indeed, the news had reached even Deng Hwang, who reprimanded Qwong for failing to do anything to prevent the damage. He also asked Qwong to visit him in the headquarters. Soon I watched a cut scene.

He sure doesn’t like mistakes

Nice to know they care for me

The ingame clock was getting late, so Blade went to sleep. I am also stopping at this point. The plot appears to be moving forward almost by itself, with more and more dead people every day. One thing I am getting a bit worried is, whether there won’t be more challenging puzzles. Until now, the wire tester has been the only true brain teaser and otherwise everything has been so obvious..

Session time: 2.5 hours

Total time: 4.5 hours

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There’s a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please...try not to spoil any part of the game for me...unless I really obviously need the help...or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I've not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!