The Rise of the Dragon - Sierra/Dynamix RRP œ39.99
            (Graphic adventure for PC and Amiga)

                   Reviewed by Jay Blank

One of the nice things about buying a Sierra game is that, on
occasion, the owner receives product information, a bizarre little
magazine and offers to buy software before it hits the big time.
One of these offered the above game at an incredible discount.
'The year, 2053. The age of decay has begun in the City of Los
Angeles. The air thick with pollution, the streets are teeming
with the sick and starving. Crime is at an all time high and drug
abuse runs rampant,' was how the folks at Dynamix described this
latest adventure. (Makes you want to rush out and buy it, right?)
But living in Los Angeles for the last eight years heightened my
curiosity. All this was part of the present LA I knew and loved.
Could it get any worse? Was this a premonition of things to come?
I had to buy the game.

This was going to be some adventure. Simply loading the program
took longer than most games take to complete. (The box warns that
a hard disk is strongly recommended. I couldn't imagine the
madness of swapping six high density 3 1/2" disks, trying to play
this adventure without one!).

My hard drive was now packed with over 8 megabytes of data setting
the scene of humanity gone berserk (or a typical day in some of
Los Angeles' 'better' neighborhoods). Dark, hand-painted scenes
reminded me of the 'adult' comic books of my college days.
Obviously real 'humans' were used as inspiration. The graphics did
not provide much movement (I had the feeling that my computer was
acting in part as a complicated page-turner), but suddenly had
some 'live action' bits of video bringing the characters to
shocking reality. (Often I sat there going "Huh?", playing back a
scene I just saw, making sure my mind was indeed functioning as it
should).

The Rise of the Dragon didn't cause much strain on the old grey
matter to figure out (and only one call to the hint line to figure
out the wiring of a fuse box). It even allows those who frustrate
easily, or without a joystick or mouse (I tried to use a mouse and
gave it up for the old standby, arrow keys and the spacebar) to
bypass the few game sequences after being blown to bits a few
times. But the ease of operation and solution does not make this
game suitable for children. Everyone seems to shout out "Effin"
this or that, do drugs, live out on the street or generally be out
to 'screw' their fellow man (in all sorts of ways!). Although most
of the characters are harmless to the outcome and simply look more
menacing than the boogie man (don't worry about the gangs 'hangen'
in the subway) the player is given a choice of responding to some
of the main participants. I chose the obvious, but each appears to
lead to a different branch of the puzzle leading to the solution.

This game has at best a 'B' movie plot. It is fun but, when over,
one feels embarrassed that it gave so much satisfaction. It has
its moments but, like the movie Blade Hunter that it is based on,
don't think too much, avoid logic, and enjoy the fun it offers!