Request: Any beta builds/prototypes there may be of either Drakan games

Does anybody have these? Or anything pertaining to them at all?
Pretty much, I'm asking for builds of Drakan: Order of the Flame and/or The Ancients' Gates that predate any demos or retail releases.
Beta stuff. Prototypes. Whatever the term is.

What I am most interested in is beta stuff of The Ancients' Gates. Here are some videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_8zVkReI7g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_8zVkReI7g

Lots of stuff in there that's not in the final game; stuff that looks amazing, I think.

And here are videos of beta Order of the Flame:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pLUFKBVwbs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZckNsLMHs8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yH4MfwPWFaw

Really, I'm just curious if anyone could possibly have the builds featured in these videos?
And if so, would you be willing to share? Do you have a price? Just curious.

 

Heh, interesting. I've never seen those Drakan 2 E3 demos before.
Actually they look pretty much identical to Order of the Flame, but with some different animations and a different Rynn (Main hero) model.
In fact, those demos even show existing maps from the original game, too.

I highly doubt anyone here has any real demos, but it sure would be nice to get some more info, screenshots or videos.

Edit:

I looked online for some evidence, and my suspicions turned out to be correct.
Basically it seems Darkan 2 started out as a PC title, and it was being developed before the original was even released.

Here's some nice read about the development of The Ancients' Gates:
http://www.paranoidproductions.com/miscwritings/drakan2postmortem.html

Also, there are some somewhat interesing screenshots from the first PC version of Drakan 2.
Here's one of my favourites:

 

Thanks for the post!
It's a shame that any and all protos of Drakan may be lost to time, but you never know... I hope to one day get in contact with the developers, chat with them about the series, and as far as early builds are concerned, see if I can work something out with them. Hopefully.

And yeah, I read that article a while ago (it was such a good read!), and I was practically drooling over their editor for TAG.
It seems like an enhanced and updated version of the one released for OotF, and I'd love to get my hands on it one day (which will hopefully be possible at some point) and get crackin' on mods for the PS2 game.

And oh man, those old screenshots... I always thought they looked amazing, and I definitely wouldn't mind TAG going to retail in that state.
Hell, I bet somebody could make a mod of OotF that recreates the sequel in the old engine. That'd rock.

But yeah, thanks again for the post. Always nice to interact with fellow Drakan fans (I assume you are, at least), seeing as we're low in numbers.

 

If you want to get in touch with Drakan fans, you should probably check out http://www.arokhslair.net/ and their forums.
And speaking about TAG being recreated on the old engine, there's a forum on Arokhs lair about a mod that was kind of like that - http://www.arokhslair.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=21&sid=5562e1bc2a5a80c25df11220d687c8cb

As far as I know, it's abandoned now, but it should be a nice read.

Anyway, as for me being a fan of Drakan... I wouldn't say I'm a big fan, because I feel it's mostly just nostalgia and tehnical stuff. I do like OotF and I even recently replayed it, but I haven't played TAG yet... I'll do that once I get a copy.

Though, as much I have respect for the series (At least the first game), nobody can deny that it's a broken piece of software with horrible story telling and unbalanced gameplay. That probably sounds really harsh, but to me and many others the game still has a lot of charm and some really nice ideas put into it. To be honest, one of my favourite parts about Drakan is the decapitation tech and the atmosphere (Yes, that, of course, includes the soundtrack).

 

I honestly disagree.
The gameplay seemed perfectly fine (I'll even go as far to say it was very fun) to me, and the story telling was alright.

And I'd consider (TAG, at least) very far from broken.
"Broken" implies the game cannot be completed, unless some kind of fix is applied (for the first game, this is required now, yes), but that is not even the case with TAG.
I can make it from start to finish with zero issues, honestly.

Though, if I were to guess, you were specifically talking about the first game?
It seems like it, and if you were, the mentioning of the series being that threw me off a bit.

Regardless, thanks for the links!

 

Note, I'm mostly talking about the first game, as I haven't played TAG yet, but I have watched full playthroughs of it and analyzed it myself.

The gameplay is nice, once you understand how things work, but there are many problems here, like broken collision detection.
It was fun, yes, but to a certain extent - once you realise how slowly Rynn runs in large locations where you can't ride Arokh later on in the game, you start thinking you should be doing other things with your time, and when you learn how to properly bunnyhop, you realise that you're starting to master the game. But mastering it doesn't exactly make it easier, it just makes it more boring to play.

OotF is also very unbalanced. Ever noticed how you have to shoot quite a bit of fireballs with Arokh to kill any larger enemy, but how your firebreath is literally the most powerful weapon in the entire game that can (I'm not even joking here) kill the last boss in less than 10 seconds? Also, the firebreath isn't even a finite weapon, it regenerates. Also, bow arrows are extremely overpowered as well, as you can easily take down any dragon with just a couple of them. There's more examples, but these are pretty major points that actually completely destroy most of the combat sections of the game.

As for the storytelling. The plot itself may not be as bad, but it's the execution that isn't right. Rynn is constantly being told to do chores for others in order to get what she wants, and often these missions have completely nothing to do with the main story and are a complete filler.


Look, I'm not trying to say the Drakan games are terrible or anything, but as a game designer myself I just can't agree with anyone saying that Drakan has perfectly fine gameplay, where it is clearly broken and unfinished in many different ways, such as the balance issues I explained earlier.

I still do like Drakan myself and I replay it now and then, but I can't overlook its problems. In fact, often when I play I even try to avoid using the most powerful weapons, just to actually enjoy the combat, which isn't half bad itself.

 

Yeah, I figured, since a lot of the issues you're bringing up are not in the sequel.

I know the first game has a lot of issues, trust me.
I was just getting on the defensive because I thought you were talking about both games, lol.
I saw a bunch of issues TAG doesn't have and thought, "Hrm, that's not right..."

Sorry about that.

 

There was a Drakan 3 in development by Surreal for the PS3 for a year or so before Surreal was purchased by WB and closed down. Photos were released on Beta Archive but I cannot seem to find them anymore sadly. The third game was to take place directly after "Drakan 2: The Ancient Gates".

Also, I seem to recall Sony Pictures purchasing rights to do a CGI animated film based on the second game, but nothing ever came of it.
Additionally, Surreal planned a PC port of Drakan The Ancients Gates but nothing was ever released.

 

Alright, so I player Drakan: The Ancients' Gates.

It was both a nice experience and unfortunately a large disappointment, mostly because of wasted potential.
The problem with TAG isn't exactly the fact that it may or may not be badly written (It kinda is) or because it's technically broken (It crashed on me a couple of times), but because of holes in its design.

Having played both games, I immediately faced problems and odd design choices that were not present in the first game, along with bugs and glitches that were not fixed from the previous installment. However, I was pleasantly surprised realising the quality of the cutscenes and writing has indeed improved, as many of the animations now have actual character and the characters themselves feel a lot more alive.

The controls were..... odd. They function and do their job, but they could've been much better. aside from minor oddness in the button layout, the functionality of some things is just... weird. Like how the left analog stick is used for tank controls (Unless you enter targeting mode, in which case moving the stick left and right lets you strafe) and the second analog stick lets you look 45 degrees left and right, even though they could've easily made it so you can constantly strafe with the left stick and turn with the right one. I think one of the more odd things about the controls is the use of the d-pad, as you can only perform combo attacks by pressing the correct directions on it, even though it could've been far easier to use the left analog stick for that.

Then there's unfixed bugs and removed features from Order of the Flame. Knowing the game is built on top of the old one, it just feels so weird how they removed such useful features as picking up shot arrows, moving items in the inventory and some combo attacks, like the skullsplitter jump attack from the first game, and, of course, then theres graphical stuff, such as the somewhat complex (for the time) decapitation engine from the first game.

Speaking of decapitation, it's not like the game wasn't graphic enough, the entire thing starts out in a field full of dead bodies, some of which are even hanged, and there are lots of blood particles when you hit an enemy. It's also weird how they still couldn't fix a lot of problems regarding character collisions, as the character often immediately stopped when colliding with walls or steep slopes and how weird the "sliding" from steep slopes is... like you can't do anything, you can't even turn mid-air after you jump off from them - It's like they didn't even touch that part of the code. It's also weird knowing they actually got some (maybe) middlware physics engine put into the game to handle bits and pieces when you brake stuff with your weapons.

Well, I guess I could go on and on about this, but since you're such a huge fan of the game, I guess I'll start with the things I really liked (I'm not trying to ruin your day or anything...). As as I said, the combat is... weird, but once you get used to it, it's actually much better executed than in the first game, and ends up being quite satisfying. The hitboxes are large and some enemies can get knocked on the ground if you do a more powerful attack. It's also worth noting that they used a lot of sound effects from the original game, notably the sounds things make when you hit them with a sword - this does enchance a lot of things, and I really liked that. I also liked how you can grab ledges now. Note, it's all very simple and you can't even move left or right when you grab a ledge, but.. still, a useful feature! Another thing to note is how the game has more rpg elements now. The first one was going there but now You can even buy things and talk to random npc's. There are a lot of other things that I don't think I have to talk about in detail, but don't worry, I'll probably play through the game.... though mostly because of my nostalgic feelings for Drakan:OOTF.

Phew... That was... a lot of text. Though, I don't think I can beat Anthaemia, haha.