Dragon has long been one of the most popular themes for browser games. Especially in those Western cultural based ones, "dragon" is often the important element in terms of the storyline and gameplay. What is special for this time is that there is a browser game which has also used "dragon" as its theme and feature. So let's take a look at 37Games' Dragon Atlas.
The storyline of this game is based on Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). It's a game that is mainly categorized as RPG but played in a SLG way. With the core element of dragon and its combination with a Japanese style of character design, players will be experiencing a world of dragons and dungeons, which is mysterious and unknown.
Compared to those traditional genre of "completing and passing through one battle by another", which could seem a bit restricted and "having to follow", Dragon Atlas provide more choices and possibilities in terms of walking through the quest line in the map. Players can discovers some extra events by opening certain chests, manipulating some traps correctly and unlocking hidden gates with the key required. There are often some unexpected events during the adventure in game.
In terms of battle, it's more likely to be both turn-based strategic and hand control way. Each turn in battle requires players' tactical deployment of characters and skills. Apart from that, manual changing of characters' position during a fight is also necessary for victory. And players need to cast spells in the right time in order to touch off the effect of skill chain to deal more damage.
Since dragon is the key feature of the game, the cultivation of dragon as your partner in fight is also another way of playing. By doing the main quest line, we can obtain an egg and a young dragon will be born soon. After its birth, we need to cultivate it by feeding and fighting together to get your dragon more experience to improve its ability. There are several periods of evaluation of dragons, from its adolescent stage to mature period and finally it turns into an elder dragon which possesses stronger power. Dragons can learn skills when they reach certain stage. Rome wasn't built in a day. Cultivating dragons is a long process and players will see the gradual growth of it. Once your dragon grows mature enough to fight, it can be your most powerful and loyal companion in battle.
Another important to notice is that we can form our battle team by recruiting mercenaries from tavern. There are hundreds of mercenaries awaiting in tavern and we can choose whom we want to group. Of course, each character has his or her own designed appearance and what's more important is that different characters have different skills and we can combine the best match of skills we think by selecting different mercenaries.
The quest line also allows us to get some plans for crafting weapons. For plans in higher level, we need to collect honor points by defeating enemies in order to exchange with it. Weapons can be improved by reforging and enhancing. The appearance of weapons will also depend on the degree of improvement. In this case, we can design our own weapon with an unique look.
There are still some systems and ways of playing that need to be discover in the following time of playing. For now, I would say this game has quite a lot of features that catches my eyes. I will be continuing the playing and hope to share more with you. Play Dragon Atlas now! Have fun!
