A Farewell To Dragons

If You're Going to base a game on a book, it's probably a good idea to make sure you don't bugger up the script. If you're going to base a game on a book by a respected author and make this your main selling point, it's definitely a good idea to ensure you don't bugger up the script.

1C proudly boast that A Farewell to Dragons is based on books by the respected Russian authors Nick Perumov and Sergey Lukyanenko. But it's doubtful that these celebrated scribes will be proud to be connected to this magnificently mundane adaptation of their fantasy novels.

Dull-Ablo

The English translation of the game's script turns a potentially interesting story into an utterly baffling, and unintentionally hilarious, word log-jam.

The game's protagonist, Victor -a conscientious doctor who surprises himself by turning out to be an expert warrior - awakes in his home to find a 13 year-old girl named Telle lying unconscious on his kitchen floor. Despite not knowing what she's doing there, who she is, or where she lives, he decides to return the girl to her home. During this futile journey the pair are somehow transported to a fantastical realm which is populated by all the boars and bandits you could possibly be indifferent about killing.

The monumental awfulness of the script doesn't really hit home until you reach the game's first generically named fantasy settlement, whereupon you're met by a woman standing beside the smouldering wreck of a building. When asked what happened to the occupants, she replies: "Everyone inside must have died! What a nuisance!" Yeah, how inconsiderate of them.

The game itself is relatively playable, aside from the camera control, which feels a little like trying to guide an inebriated Boris Johnson across Total WipeOut's course. A far bigger issue is that A Farewell to Dragons does nothing to differentiate itself from the truly incalculable number of isometric RPGs out there. You wander around picking up uninteresting fetch quests and battling stereotypical fantasy enemies, levelling up a standard batch of abilities and magical powers. Apparently the effectiveness of elemental magic depends on the time of day, but this intriguing idea is nullified by the ability to rest at any time you like.

In a way the catastrophic writing is something of a blessing, as it's the only thing that makes A Farewell to Dragons vaguely interesting. Although, and don't wet yourself with excitement, but there are trains. Trains in a fantasy world. How mind-blowing.