Drakan: The Ancients' Gates, a higgen gem
Even today, I still think Drakan: The Ancients' Gates is one of the most underrated fantasy games ever made.
Back when it was released more than 20 years ago, Drakan gave us something that genuinely felt magical: a warrior and her dragon fighting side by side in a huge world full of ruins, swamps, forgotten temples, flying battles, creepy monsters, hidden caves, and that strange lonely atmosphere only early PS2 games seemed able to create.
Rynn and Arokh weren’t just "player and mount". They felt connected. The moment you called Arokh, jumped on his back, and took off into the sky was unforgettable. Even today, very few games capture that feeling of freedom and adventure the same way.
What I loved most was how the game mixed everything together:
sword combat
archery
magic
exploration
dungeon crawling
dragon aerial battles
It felt like a massive adventure where the world actually wanted you to explore it.
A lot of people online still call it a “hidden gem” and say it was “way before its time.” Others mention how memorable the enemy designs, atmosphere, humor, and dragon combat were. Some players even replay it regularly more than 20 years later.
Even critics back then praised the variety of gameplay, the exploration, the side quests, and the fantasy atmosphere. GameSpot described it as an entertaining action-adventure with strong exploration and memorable environments, while many players still praise the world, the soundtrack, and the feeling of flying over the landscape on Arokh.
And honestly… there was something special about the mood of the game.
The lonely villages. The foggy swamps. The giant forgotten ruins. The strange creatures. The feeling that you were traveling through an ancient dying world.
It had this melancholic fantasy vibe that stuck in my memory forever.
Modern games may have bigger budgets and prettier graphics, but very few give me the same sense of adventure Drakan did.
I would absolutely love to see this series revived someday. Be it with a remake or with a sequel (there are still many aspects of the plot that can be explored).
On another note, after playing it after all this time, I felt a few points could have been much better.
For example, the balance of sword, archery and magic is not very good. The number of enemies that exist in the whole game doesn't allow you to expand much. Either you specialize on a single one and use like one of two experience levels on the other two areas, or you balance all three and end up not being able to use good weapons. The amount of money you get also doesn't seem useful. You end up grabbing a lot of free weapons along the way that are actually very good. So there is almost no need to buy. You finish the game rich and with no place to spend the money.
Although side quests tend to be very tiring in games nowadays, in Drakan there could be a little more, and maybe give you more important stuff. There are just a few side quests, and all of them seem useless (rewarded gold too).
On a more specific point, the inventory could also have a tweak. You get too little space for all you can grab and buy, and most of those weapons are not even usable until o reach a high level.
That being said, it is definitely one of the games that most marked me (maybe because it was the first game I bought for the PS2, also), and from time to time I feel a strong urge to play it!