So, I'm waiting for Drakan: The Ancient's Gates (I have been waiting since the original Drakan on PC, released in 99), and what do I see? Dragon Rage. Now let me explain a little something - in Drakan, you play a beautiful young woman who teams up with a regal dragon name Arokh. A large portion of gameplay allowed you climb up on Arokh and perform arial combat using Arokh's flight and weapons. In Dragon Rage - you take it one step farther - you ARE the dragon! 

Dragon Rage was released with relatively little fanfare: Most game store employees didn't even know what I was talking about when I asked them about the game. You take the role of Cael Cyndar, the main hope for the magical creatures of Zeen. The cruel Orcs have taken these prisoners in order to acquire more Zeenium. The dragons suffer the burden most of all - for one of the elusive element is available in only two ways - the destruction of the eggs of dragons, or the destruction of the dragons themselves. It is up to you to wreak your powerful revenge on your sadistic Orc captors and to free your species.

Dragon Rage places the player behind Cael Cyndar as he breathes death upon his enemies, collects jewels, and does some nifty tricks like mid-air barrel rolls. The very beginning of the game includes a tutorial which will walk you through each of Cael's abilities - forcing you to pass these trials before allowing you to pass into the true missions. Learn things like frying orcs, tearing farm animals limb from limb to regain life, and "darting" your way across canyons. Basically, this is the way the rest of the game progresses as well, although you'll be on your own after that with no voices to guide your moves.

Most of the time, Cael will rely on different breath weapons (fire, air, etc...) to destroy his enemies, as well as special "dragon magic" attacks that will destroy more enemies, while consuming mana. However, from time to time you will have to swipe up and eat your enemies, the Orcs, to reclaim the mana you've used. Conversely, life is reclaimed by grabbing yourself a pig or a cow that happens to be roaming the fields. The graphical representation of your victim breaking into pieces as you savagely shake your head like a ravenous wolf is rather shocking at first, and then rather amusing.Your questing is entirely composed of destroying enemies, their edifices, and collecting jewels in order to win the game and save your race. Little of this changes throughout the game - and many may tire of the repetition quickly.

Graphically, Dragon Rage is completely and undoubtedly a bargain title. After being used to the PS2 capabilities, playing Dragon Rage gives you that same feeling of watching a "B" movie after seeing an epic flick like Gladiator on your DVD player. The graphics aren't pretty, and Cael is given significantly more attention than his realm. This is one of the first bargain titles I've run across for the PS2, however, and so the game can't be judged to regular standards. Sound falls under the same category, with the voice overs sounding more like an audio instruction manual you might listen to in your car rather than a next-gen video game.

Dragon Rage is not a bad game - it just feels painfully stunted. I can't help but feel that it was intended to be much grander in scale, but that something along the line prevented this from happening. Even being a value title - the game play becomes terribly repetitive very quickly, and does not distract from the otherwise "value-title" graphics. Even dragon lovers should rent this title first, just to make sure the novelty is enough to add this to your collection.

Graphics: 7
Graphics in Dragon Rage are obviously not what you'd expect from a PS2 title, but given that this title is being marketed as a value title - this provides some leniency in the ranking. Still and all, there isn't much variety and it doesn't help break up the monotony of the title.

Sound: 6.5
Sound is rather basic and unimpressive. Instructions, congratulations, and other noises become repetitive quickly.

Concept: 6.5
At it's core - Dragon Rage had an irresistible appeal. After all, with authors like Anne McCaffrey basing entire bestselling series on the mythical animals - it's only natural for them to pop up in gaming culture. However, what starts out as a new and promising experience leaves quickly loses it's force and becomes mundane quickly.

Overall: 6.4
Dragon Rage gives the general feeling that it was in progress to become a much larger, fuller, game and that somewhere along the line the game was force to either be released in a skeletal form, or scrapped completely. While the aerodynamics of dragon flight and combat tease you almost immediately, the game becomes repetitive quickly enough not to distract you from the plain graphics. Albeit this title is being marketed at a value price of $29.99, it's very likely that only dragon fans will thoroughly enjoy the title.