Online game "Dragon Knight"

Dragon Knight is a free-to-play role-playing game that runs on Flash. Among the projects of this format, it has become a kind of benchmark, gathered an army of fans around the world and even got a second part. All thanks to the design and clever mechanics - in the browser rarely manages to run something so beautiful and exciting. Let's find out more about why the RPG, which has existed for more than a year, is still popular.

Times have fallen on hard times in the fairy tale kingdom. Demons came from nowhere, attacked civilians, burned cities and challenged the gods themselves. In light of this despair, the gods awaken a hero who has been asleep for a thousand years, give him a weapon and send him off to seek justice against the powers of darkness. The role of the savior of the world and takes the player. Only first it is necessary to choose whom to control: the start menu offers to become a warrior or a mage, and for each of the two classes there are male and female options. The assortment of characters here, to put it bluntly, is not great, but there is a serious difference between them - both in appearance and in combat techniques.

Times have fallen on hard times in the fairy tale kingdom. Demons came from nowhere, attacked civilians, burned cities and challenged the gods themselves. In light of this despair, the gods awaken a hero who has been asleep for a thousand years, give him a weapon and send him off to seek justice against the powers of darkness. The role of the savior of the world and takes the player. Only first it is necessary to choose whom to control: the start menu offers to become a warrior or a mage, and for each of the two classes there are male and female options. The assortment of characters here, to be frank, is not great, but there is a serious difference between them - both in appearance and in combat techniques.

The battles themselves open in a separate window, where you and your opponent take turns hitting each other. The hero has a few moves in stock, but only one can be used per turn. Everything is done so that the user showed tactical ingenuity. The fact is that particularly strong attacks use up the rage scale, which is filled up by the basic strikes. That is, playing for the mage, you can start with a couple of light spells to clear the front row of enemies, and then pound on the back of a meteor shower or use the ultimative superpriemy against the demon leader. But whether to act this way or another way on the battlefield is up to everyone.

Unlike the main character, his partners have only one way to attack, and they are not allowed to control them during the battle - they just wait their turn to automatically strike. So you have to assemble the team with feeling and consideration. At first you have little choice, because the game gives only a couple of warriors in support, but gradually the number of willing to join the company is growing. And there are four places in the active squad, including the hero's. So you have to decide who is more important in the upcoming battle - the sorceress who shoots lightning and puts magic shields, the healer, the knight in solid armor or good old infantryman who will cover the hero from frontal attacks.

In addition to battles on story missions, the hero and his companions break the horns of demons in specially provided for this purpose - in the dungeon and crypt. Such battles are very useful, given the prizes for winning them. For example, for killing underground bosses you can get tiger claws needed to level up the hero. There is also a chance to get "purple" quality armor and replace the usual "blue" ones that are given for free. Later, there are other ways to get hold of valuable items, but at first the dungeons with crypts are included in the program. Only partly with the visits there will not work, because each raid consumes stamina points, so you have to wait for their recovery or refresh the force - for resources.

There are plenty of other activities on the expanse of the Magic Kingdom. You can pay a reward to test your own erudition in a quiz, search for treasure, participate in daily events, and give flowers to users. It's not just an act of altruism - you get a handful of virtual coins for the symbolic gesture. The number of activities grows with the development of the hero: the higher his level, the more doors open for him. And the more varied the game becomes.

In Dragon Knight, everything is subject to improvement, from the hero and his companions to individual items of equipment. And the characters have a dual progression scale - that is, in simple words, the level and quality. On the one hand, you get experience points for each battle, increasing the level and the basic characteristics of the hero, on the other hand, you change the quality of your ward for special resources. If he was, say, "blue", after the upgrade he becomes "green". This gives not a small, but a significant increase to the power, and at the same time opens up new opportunities. For example, the Beauty Queen - an auxiliary fighter in the squad - after such an evolution learns not only to throw lightning bolts at enemies, but also to enhance the attack of comrades-in-arms and put magical shields.

Characters also have a third criterion: stars. The Beauty Queen, for example, has one star above her from the start, which means that she has inherently low military potential. But if you hire a knight in the squad, he has two stars at once, and in the basic form he is more useful than a pumped up "one-star" sorceress. But that's not all: the game offers different ways to develop your hero and his partners. If your commander needs experience to grow, and with each new level you can manually enhance this or that hit, the other fighters spend to increase the special fruit, which you get as trophies for victories. Fruits are always scarce, so you have to think who to add strength first and who to add strength last. All of this, along with your choice of strike on the battlefield, is also part of the tactic.

Add the upgrade of the horse, on which the savior of the world rides through the locations - the horse must be periodically trained to give a bonus to the entire squad. And there will also appear and pets, and his own dragon, and summoning powerful allies through the "altar of the hero", and alchemy with the ability to create and improve objects - every aspect of the game is tied to the pumping. But there is a nuance: of the new activities added as you grow in levels, not all are available for free. For some you have to pay special currency - balleny. With them you can buy the right to participate in competitions for prizes, and sets with quality equipment. And here we have two choices: either to pay for the points real money, or join the Dragon Knight community.

As is customary in the genre, the most serious bonuses come from social activity. There are plenty of options for interacting with other users. It is best to start with joining a guild (so called here the association of players, created within Dragon Knight by the players themselves), because it gives access to earning those very ballen, because of the shortage of which singles often have to trample on the spot. But as part of a group - it's another matter. For members of the guilds are open special dungeons with valuable trophies, collective raids, trade, communication, weddings heroes and help in case of captivity. The last point is part of the interesting mechanics, which is worth talking about separately.

Dragon Knight features the usual Arena of the genre, where you challenge and duel with another user. However, here the winner not only takes the prize - after the extra battle he can also take the defeated user with him, and then put him behind bars for 24 hours. Interestingly, this custom has been observed by the developers from the real knights, who took the defeated participants in the tournament to demand a ransom from their relatives. Here you can both keep other's heroes in the special prison and release prisoners - but to do so you need to be in the same guild with them. In other words, friends not only bring benefits in the form of rewards for additional activities, but also give protection.

A similar principle is implemented even in alchemy: you can get gold in the laboratory, but to make it more, you need to recruit helpers. For helping your guild mates you earn friendship points, which are quoted in the store on a par with other types of currencies. Another feature of the game is that it allows you to create not only guilds, but also inter-server units - their members are also available unique events with rewards for victories, such as "Moos Valley", "Looking-glass" and "Ice Land".

Dragon Knight is a work of art that is cramped in browser-based format. The game has a high density of events, so that the development to level 30 passes in an hour and a half or two hours, and then some of the worries can be shifted to AFK-mode with automatic travel and battles. The game is very beautifully drawn, equipped with cute animations, offers non-boring training and at the same time gives a multifaceted user experience. The impression is that the developers have squeezed the maximum out of the available technology, without fudging at the same time. A separate advantage - the game runs not only in the browser, but also in the client publisher. This is especially relevant, given the end of Flash Player support.

February 2021