I played Drakkhen as a kid on my 80286 DOS computer and remember it being brutal in the beginning, but once I understood how the game wanted me to play, it got significantly easier. After purchasing on GOG and giving it another go, I can honestly say that this game probably won't hold the interest of modern OR classic RPG fans. First of all, the text is almost unreadable. Back when it was played on CRT screens, I think the fuzziness helped with the readability of the fonts. I've tried various filters but nothing seems to improve it. I had also forgotten that the combat is automated. You can instruct your party to cast spells, but it's really a pain in the butt. You basically live or die by your stats, so good luck rolling during character creation when you can't even read the numbers because of the crappy font. While I have gone back and enjoyed a lot of classic RPGS like the Ultima, Wizardry and Might & Magic series, a game like this no longer resonates with me. Back in the day, I most likely finished it because I spent 50 bucks on it and was determined to get my money's worth. Nowadays, there are so many options that I really can't recommend this expect to the most hardcore DOS RPG gamers. If you are determined to give this game a try, be sure to thoroughly read the manual PDF. Otherwise, you will be completely lost. One other thing: I was eventually able to get the game to work with Roland MT-32 emulation, which significantly improves the music, but it took a lot of fiddling around. The AdLib/Soundblaster music honestly just sounds terrible and I would rather play in silence than listen to it.
I bought the Ultimate Edition recently (base game + DLC) so I wasn't around during the terrible launch and subsequent updates. I read enough to know that a lot of improvements were made and the game was in a completely playable state. After playing for a few hours, I kind of regretted my purchase. I'm not a huge fan of FPS games (I know, I know, why would I buy an FPS if I don't like them?) Well, I enjoyed other shooter/RPG games I played in the past like the Mass Effect series so I decided to give this a try. I'm glad I soldiered through and kept playing because the game has really grown on me. I find the characters to be well-written and realistic, the story and missions to be engaging, and Night City to be a lot of fun to explore. There are only a couple of things that knock it down from a 5 to a 4 for me. First, I find Keanu Reeves to be irritating and the weakest among the voice cast, which is a shame because he has the most dialogue apart from the player him or herself. And second, I really would have loved a third person mode (apart from driving.) I know there is at least 1 mod that can accomplish this, but it doesn't work very well as the designers clearly had no plans for the game to be played outside of first person. But overall, this game is pretty cool and gets my thumbs up.
