DragonStrike (DOS)

I’m very excited to play this DOS game where I can play as dragon rider! It’s Westwood Associates’ DragonStrike (1990).

That’s awesome title screen. Apparently, this game is official game of Advanced Dungeon & Dragons franchise (and apparently also game for Amiga console). I didn’t know about that before. Meanwhile young Werdito only interested in the premise of the game where he can ride a dragon like combat airplane simulator game that my (late) father excel at. I don’t think I ever played any plane simulator game unless this one. Even so, young me given up with the game because I didn’t know the control at the time. This time, I have the manual from random corner of internet. I notice that numpad keys are necessary for the control which my laptop can’t provide. Luckily, I bought USB keyboard 3 years ago. So, I’m ready for this game. 

As for the main menu. It looks bland, simple, and boring. But hey! We’re here to ride dragon so let’s just hit new game immediately.

 

Unfortunately, I can’t insert name on the dragon rider that I played as. Let’s just assume that I play as Sir Izenger, the whimsical dragon knight who like to daydream. No wonder that the game starts me daydreaming until my dragon spot white dragon scouts and off we go.        

 

Good God! That’s lots of evil army deployment. I assume this world map is overall levels that I have to beat, just like in Tank Force but with more jumbled arrangement and also with dragon icons.   

 

There they are. Those 2 flying sprites yonder are white dragon, I tell you. Not doves like in Eragon. The control so far is: numpad keys to move the dragon’s flight. Numpad “5” key is specifically to center the dragon’s flight. “A” key to speed up while “S” key to speed down. A for accelerate and S for slower, I see. For some reason to launch dragon’s breath, I have to press space bar instead of Ins (0) key like in manual. But this will do.

 

I managed to hit the first dragon with dragon’s breath and last one with my lance. Mission accomplished! By finishing the very first mission, I earn rank of “Defender of Crown”! I think the reward is too much from defeating 2 dragons that don’t fight back, but I take the fancy rank.

 

It’s good time to save the game. I notice that the save slots are already filled meaning this game that I got from some website is played by uploader or someone else. Why the save slot is called occupational hazard, by the way?

 

Next mission: I have to defeat 2 wyverns that harassing allied ships. I just notice the ships after I have slain all the wyverns. If I noticed the ships sooner, I tempted to destroy them and see what would happen.   

 

Unlike those dragon scouts, these wyverns fight back! My dragon gets stung as enemy flies pass him. 

 

Now, I got clawed. If only this wyvern would be so kindly stay put so my dragon could roast him easily, this mission would be finished soon. Making enemy within dead center of the screen is not easy task and my dragon can’t aim other direction than the center. Eventually I defeated the last wyvern by virtue of luck.

 

That’s some “sick” mission screen. Apparently, wild black dragon has devastated allies within this keep. Smartly (or foolishly), I challenge the black dragon on 1 on 1 duel because he will flee when outnumbered by our platoon.

 

Before I challenge the black dragon in honorable duel, I check the pause menu. Turns out I can redefine keyboard control. That explains why the button to launch dragon’s breath is space bar because the previous owner redefined the control! Although space bar for firing dragon’s breath is very intuitive, I decide to reset the keyboard mapping and see how it turns out.

 

Bah! I miss the dragon’s breath. Would you be so kindly fly into my lance, my good opponent? I can change my lance’s aim however the buttons to do so are so bad. Get this. The buttons to change my lance’s aim are: “T”,“Y”,”U”, ”G”,”B” ,”J”,”N“,”M” keys and “H” key to center the aim. They’re quite equivalent with numpad keys’ position but they’re not intuitive. I mean good luck use those alphabet keys accordingly when you need to adjust your aim lance in the heat of the battle. It’s more complicated than using “W”,”A”,”S”, and “D” keys for movement in modern video game which I get used to it pretty easily.

 

Then my rank become Knight of Crown which I assume is higher than Defender of Crown although I have no idea why.

Also, I get offer to join Order of the Sword but I choose to keep in Order of The Crown. Although I get to ride silver dragon (that presumably stronger than my current dragon) if I join Order of the Sword. Lord Gunthar tells me that the new order has more perilous quest. Better safe than sorry.

 

Next mission takes place in valley with narrow passage. That doesn’t sound fun because I want to fly freely like before.

 

Indicator says “Fly lower” but if I do that, I will get hit by cliffside so I do the opposite.

 

So, it’s instant game over if I fly too high. Maybe there’s no collision damage in this game?

 

Nope. Collision is lethal. If I fly too high, game is over. If I fly too low, I’m dead. This mission is so freaking hard! 

I find that if I steer my dragon east, I go to place will less cliffside. But the problem is I don’t know where I have to go. Usually there’s arrow to indicate where’s my objective but it doesn’t appear for this mission for some reason. I fly toward vast horizon but the dragon automatically turns around. You can’t find this feature at retro plane simulator, right?

 

I’m very bored flying at vast clearing with nothing to do so I demonstrate this 2nd dragon breath. It’s slow and doesn’t travel far. Maybe it’s meant to be close-range weapon.

I don’t make progress in this mission. Looking at narration I’m meant to go to east but where’s the objective? Where’s the arrow marker? After 2 or 3 auto-turn around, I decide to end here. However, I replay the game and choose to join Order of the Sword next. Just for you, reader.

 

I don’t know why this time The wyverns put lots of fight. Turns out, I can fall from my dragon ride. With Advanced D&D world with dragon and magic yet there’s no parachute for dragon riders. Heavy_scram2012_falling01.wav 

 

Seriously! Why these wyverns are really mean now? I keep dying fighting them. At least we can see various game over screen. That’s some nasty face.

Somehow my lance misses and wyvern bite either me or my dragon ride. It’s hard to tell which one of us that get bitten without looking at the health indicator every so often.

 

Now my lance hit the spot. Take that, bastard! Soldier_DominationPyro06.wav

 

Eventually, I join Order of the Sword but I have to donate an item. Donating arrow maker certainly bad idea. I really need that important pointer. I have 3 healing ointments but healing item is crucial. In the end, I choose the newly acquired magic cape that boost dragon rider’s defense capability. I forget to tell you about the healing ointments. Pressing “1” number key to use healing on the rider and pressing “2” to use healing on dragon. Pressing “?” key to see how many healing ointments in your inventory. I think you get 1 healing ointment after finishing a mission.

 

So, I get new dragon to ride and he’s silver. Pretty fancy, I must say. My first mission as new member of Order of The Sword is to recover some artifact which will prove me as legit member of Order of The Sword.

So we start at open sea. This time the indicator warns me about low altitude so flying high doesn’t lead to game over. Good.

 

My dragon’s breath misses his target but I don’t realize that my dragon manages to claw my enemy. Apparently, you have to fly high in order to make your dragon claw enemy. Conversely, it’s bad idea to engage enemy at lower altitude because that what makes me fall back then.  

 

Soldier_paincrticialdeath03.wav. It seems I get hit by enemy’s breath and all it takes is 1 hit to kill me. This is not good.  

 

Soldier_sf12_falling01.wav. I fall again and I can’t blame anyone but myself for being unskilled at this game.

 

Apparently, the silver dragon catches me in time! So, aside of having bigger health. The new dragon can save me from my fall but I assume only for once.

After several game over…

This enemy dragon is too tough and fast. He like to circle me around. I have to play the game smarter. There’s way to see other angle other than front with F1 to F4 keys which is not so intuitive. So, I remap the switch view to arrow keys. Up arrow key for front view. Left arrow key for left view. Right arrow key for right view. Down arrow key for back view. When you switch to back view, you can see the dragon’s adorable tail like this. With this feature, I can see where my enemy whereabouts and eventually I can defeat him.

 

But there are 2 more enemies! I manage to hit them with the close-range breath. It looks like it does nothing. But turn out enemies that get by the dragon breath type 2, will drop down and then crash! Apparently, it’s meant to make enemy suffocated and fall to their death instead of direct projectile attack like the dragon breath type 1.

 

Ah shoot! There’s another enemy dragon and he launches deadly breath at me from blind side.

 

Tough luck! I’m dead. So far. My enemies are 2 dragon scouts that don’t fight back, 2 wyverns, and a black dragon. But when there are 4 dragons that fight back, they’re too much for me. Where’s my wingman? Instead, there’s ship convoy that does absolutely nothing. Perhaps they help me on my quest to retrieve the artifact. But I want them to be useful in gameplay and not just in plot. God damn it! I do have unlimited continue. But everytime I restart this mission, I start at the open ocean and it takes like 20 minutes to get to the first encounter. Sorry. But I have to quit here.

 

Westwood Associates’ DragonStrike (1990) is alternative combat plane simulator. The idea is solid, interesting, and unique however the gameplay lacks of polish. It’s hard to defeat agile enemy without homing missile or any fast-firing weapon like machine gun or laser. In this game you only have straight projectile attack and a lance that you can aim. However engaging enemy in melee is very risky. Sometime my lance feels accurate but the other time I get either bitten or stung. I know the game says I shouldn’t engage enemy from lower altitude but the lance can’t aim lower than your position conversely it can’t aim high very flexible. I wish there’s feature to switch between lance and bow that can hit enemy fast with flexible aim but with weaker attack power than the dragon breath. Heck! Why not make the lance can shoot fire like Gunlance in Monster Hunter or Fire Lance in Deathtrap Dungeon? It seems all it takes is 1 successful hit from either my lance or dragon breath to take down an enemy but I’m as fragile as them. The healing system kind of stingy. You don’t get full heal upon finishing mission except changing into new dragon ride. Then there’s so much what the healing ointment can do. There should be shop feature to make the gameplay better and more interesting. I don’t like that there’s no mission objective list on pause menu. It’s so God damn important! Speaking of mission objective. I’m tired with fighting dragon (or wyvern). Can we have other objective like destroy vital ground structure or something? Or maybe it exists but on mission that I haven’t reached yet. The radar on bottom left corner is not so useful. It only shows you enemy’s position as nigh-visible dot. The altitude bar on right of HUD also barely useful because the ground level always flat low. While in the actual field, the terrain varied in height. Changing to new dragon is neat feature. Not only more powerful than the first dragon but also offer you safety from fall albeit for once. There’s no fuel. Instead, there’s power bar. I think the way it works like this: If you accelerate dragon to maximum speed for too long, the power bar begins to drop drastically and eventually the dragon will fly at minimum speed to regain power. Seems solid idea but it becomes tedious when you need to fly in relatively long distance like in that quest for artifact. The graphic is simple and good. I like to point out how contrast the difference between player’s dragon with enemy’s dragon. The former is in pixel form while the latter is in crude polygon form. There’s so little music to be had in this game. For example: music at the start of the mission that last for a minute or so and music after finishing mission. They’re not memorable but fairly good.

DragonStrike (1990) has amazing premise and all but unfortunately, it’s hard and tedious to play. I prefer Eragon on PSP for better dragon riding action. At least in that game, the rider has bow and magic spell whereas in DS the rider only has enormous lance that cumbersome to use. Plus there's nary any fire even though there's lots of dragon breath in this game. From what i see the dragon breath is thunder, smoke, ice, or poison. The game is quite a letdown, I must say.

Speaking of letdown, sorry to disappoint you for making article late for numerous times. This time, my reason is earning achievements in RetroAchievement. I hope you understand.