Dragonriders: Chronicles of Pern
Dragonriders: Chronicles of Pern is an adventure game published by Ubi Soft in 2001.
| Dragonriders: Chronicles of Pern | |
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| Developer(s) | Ubi Studios UK |
| Publisher(s) | Ubi Soft |
| Designer(s) | Oliver Sykes |
| Platform(s) | Dreamcast, Windows |
| Release | Dreamcast PC
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| Genre(s) | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
The game takes place on the fictional planet Pern created by science fiction writer Anne McCaffrey for her Dragonriders of Pern series of novels. The story, divided into four chapters, follows the dragonrider D'kor who, with the help of his dragon Zenth, searches for girls to be candidates for Impressing a new young gold dragon. Various side-plots are developed throughout the game including a bit of intrigue involving an epidemic sickness that is somewhat reminiscent of the storyline in McCaffrey's novel Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern. The game contains over 120 locations on three continents. The player interacts and speaks with over 170 characters.
Critical reception
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The game received "generally unfavorable reviews" on both platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[9][10] The initial version also caused performance problems for users with Pentium 4 processors until a patch was released.[11]
Several sites reviewed the PC version more positively, particularly praising the story. Games Domain called it "An absolute must for fans of the series – it's as engrossing and complex as the best of Anne McCaffrey's novels, and as a stand-alone story, it's fun and well worth it."[12] Quandary said, "It's an absorbing adventure-cum-interactive story with a lot of people to converse with, a lot of good deeds to do, and an arch baddie to expose."[13] The Dreamcast version was better received than the PC version, with GameSpot saying, "Dragonriders is hardly a terrible game, but it has its share of issues and won't appeal to a large group of gamers."[2]
References
- Todd, Brett (October 29, 2001). "DragonRiders: Chronicles of Pern". Computer Games Magazine. theGlobe.com. Archived from the original on August 12, 2004. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
- Shoemaker, Brad (September 4, 2001). "Dragonriders: Chronicles of Pern Review (DC)". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
- Dulin, Ron (September 5, 2001). "Dragonriders: Chronicles of Pern Review (PC)". GameSpot. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
- Bub, Andrew S. (October 2, 2001). "Dragonriders: Chronicles of Pern (PC)". GameSpy. IGN Entertainment. Archived from the original on October 3, 2001. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
- Chau, Anthony (September 4, 2001). "Dragon Riders - Chronicles of Pern (DC)". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
- Sulic, Ivan (October 1, 2001). "Dragon Riders - Chronicles of Pern (PC)". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
- Preston, Jim (December 2001). "Dragon Riders: Chronicles of Pern". PC Gamer. Vol. 8 no. 12. Future US. Archived from the original on March 15, 2006. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
- "PC Review: Dragonriders: Chronicles of Pern". PC Zone. Future plc. 2001.
- "Dragon Riders: Chronicles of Pern for Dreamcast Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved November 30, 2018.
- "Dragonriders: Chronicles of Pern for PC Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
- IGN staff (September 14, 2001). "Dragonriders Gets a Little Padding". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
- Hildrew, Steve (August 2001). "DragonRiders: Chronicles of Pern (PC)". Games Domain. Yahoo!. Archived from the original on January 10, 2004. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
- Young, Rosemary (September 2001). "DragonRiders: Chronicles of Pern (PC)". Quandary. Archived from the original on June 22, 2008. Retrieved November 20, 2014.