The game was initially released with files missing, which has since been fixed. What you have now is a wonderful RPG where you get to play as a mighty dragon. I played this game quite a bit over the years and was very surprised to see it pop up on steam.

The I of the dragon is quite relentless in its default difficulty (5) but can be adjusted to either 1 or 10. I do not recommend putting it higher as the game was clearly not properly designed for it. The game is rather slow paced by default and turning all enemies into tanks that just take way too long to kill is not fun, only tedious.

There's 3 different Dragon classes; Necromancer, Mage and Warrior, the latter focussing on its fire breath over magic use. Each class has unique skills and specializes in different stats (which are cheaper to level up). The necromancer ends up being the middle ground class with some summoning options.

As you level up you can spend points on stats and purchase spells (for said points). Its up to the player to balance it out.

Spells in this game are quite awesome and deserve to be mentioned seperatly. There is a wide range of spells and with the ability to litterally summon mountains and giant craters you can terraform the land around you quite dramatically impacting enemy movement as well. Yes after some time the land will turn back to its original state but it takes quite a while and it looks impressive. Really makes the player feel powerful.

However, as for downsides; There are a couple of segments in the game where you are forced to play as other characters and these segments are just plain terrible. There's no way around it, they should never have made it in the game. However they happen relatively late and can be finished somewhat quick with some practice.

Overall, if you like the idea of controlling a mighty dragon that grows incredibly strong over time, get this game. Yes it's a bit dated but the game is unique enough that there really isn't a better modern alternative. This IS the best dragon RPG out there.

Once Upon a Time, when the gaming community was young, and coptures - old, game developers had the guts to try and put some new and truly unique stuff into their games, rather then just copy - paste a single successful formula for every given genre. Giving this game a try, you will learn why, and come to appreciate the fact these good old times have past.

This game used to amaze back in the day, it was the first time gamers were given a try to play an RPG that doesn't blindly follow the "knight in shiny armour killing the archdemon" cliche. The graphics rocked (in 2002), the feeling of flight on your own set of wings, and the ability to dive down and catch your rival to have a bloody snack up in the air were amusing. BUT back in the day we were used to having to relearn and remaster the controls for every new game that we played, we were used to having to deal with clunky controls and some minor inconveniences in the overall gameplay. The tradition of implementing high quality, touching stories with complex characters had not yet been settled in the industry. We loved games mainly for their gameplay and the fresh experiences they brought us.
Today most games deliver several genres in one pack, like shooters where you can fly a plane or ride a car e.t.c. The things that made this game look cool more than a decade ago are fairly trivial for the modern gamer, while the flaws look outrageous. The game has an unappealing story, the quests are boring and repetitive (go to an area kill all the monster, then go to another locations and do "the exact same thing over and over again"), the controls are oldschool (clunky + underworked = inconvenient). This game is bad by all modern game standards, but this game was developed in the times when those standards were only a work in progress.

Summary: If you are a player from back in the day, taking the low price of the game to notice, you might want to take a glance to the past with this one, it might be a useful experience. Or if you are new to gaming and want to feel how it realy was to play them "good old games" you might want to get it while on sale. In other cases take a second thought before you press the "buy" button.

While being very buggy and hard to control, it is still the game I always wanted to play.
I wished there would be a sequel with fixed bugs, better controls, customizeable dragons and other features (like landing?) but there like like no demand and therefore I doubt that there will ever be a sequel. Sadly, since it has potential.

First Question: Is this game worth buying?
Well yes, for us old people it is fun to play games with sub par graphics that are from 2004 (correct me if i am mistaken). Really don't expect this to be anything like super fancy and spyro like, don't expect graphics to which you can actually see teeth on the model. But, this is not for people who want things that have more options to being a dragon such as landing or interacting. This is more of I am going to burn and destroy every living thing I see.

Second Question: What is Gameplay like?
-You fly around.
-You make human towns because apparently women aren't pooping babies fast enough or the babies are getting eatten by Diablo...
-You never land because you are magically suspended into the air.
-You get hit by the most annoying enemies and have to use your manuverbility to actually fly around and avoid being hit. Hint: just fly up and down :)
-Somehow I get shot out of the air by a blast of fire that I have no clue where it came from O.o
-It is still challenging dispite you fly around and burn stuff. P.S: You have spells because you a bloody magical dragon.
-You have 3 classes of dragons only.
-The graphics are that of N64 and PS1.
-Also I get to eat food on the go!

Third Question: Why write this review?
I am a friggin dragon.
Also I think it deserves a review that just because it's not like modern day games doesn't mean it isn't good. For it's time it was pretty cool, but just remember that older games had a weirdness of being simpler yet fun and straightforward such as Fate, Bejeweled, Diablo 1, Warcraft 1... and so on.

Once again....
As I said I wouldnt recommend this to people who want to interact with other things or do more complex actions than casting spells, burning monsters/spawners, and flying around. This is not a complex nor intense game. It's pretty straight forward but the balance of the game is slightly off and requires you to actually think and react to overpowered mobs shooting at you. Not a perfect game but like I said it's a cheap timewaster.

Is this a good game?

Not by modern standards, no.

However, it does have several things going for it.

1. You get to play as an actual dragon. Not a dragon rider or a dragon in human form or another cop-out, a big, scaly, winged, reptilian dragon who flies around using magic and fire, frost, or poison to destroy evil (and abducting people and animals when hungry).

2. The gameplay loop is repetitive, but if you can overlook the clunkiness it's fairly satisfying. In particular, levelling up is rare enough to be rewarding yet also frequent enough to be a constant motivator throughout the game. It doesn't make the mistake many other games make where you level up 10 times in the first minute and then near the end it takes over an hour to level up once, which also means that you keep growing stronger steadily throughout the game.

3. The graphics are horribly outdated, but the developers clearly did, in my opinion, the best they could with the limited technology available at the time (which, for the record, is over 20 years ago). If you're a fan of traditional RPGs you'll probably appreciate the work done here.

And last, but certainly not least, and in fact possibly the most important part:

4. It's an actual game. Even with all the flaws it's clear to me that this is a product from before greed overtook the gaming industry. Developers sat down for this game and asked themselves what people might enjoy. Not what would get them addicted, not what would keep them coming back to spend more money, but what would actually be fun and entertaining.

Even the 4 quests where you have to play a human (which are all terrible) were clearly put in there because the developers thought they were important to the story or they would add some variation in between being a dragon. The latter of which is thoughtful but unnecessary.
_____
So overall I recommend this game not necessarily because it's good. Its age is showing with outdated graphics, clunky gameplay, a story so straightforward as to almost be bland, and a camera which is constantly trying to get you killed.

I recommend this game because it's from an era where games were meant to be fun. Even if it's only for 20 hours, because it's not a very big game. It starts out with an interesting idea ("What if you're a literal dragon going around slaying monsters and destroying lairs while protecting people") and then tries to make that idea work (flight, an abundance of spells to augment your natural weapons, a straightforward levelling system which lets you specialise your character).

Overall, my recommendation is as much a criticism of the modern gaming industry as it is an endorsement of this specific game, but I would certainly encourage people to buy it (or at least wishlist it for a sale). I'd go so far as to say that a modern version which focuses on addressing issues born from technological limitations of 20 years past would possibly serve as an even better contrast against modern greed-based designs.

This game so much deserves a remake

This game is just great. 8.5 of 10, even in 2017.
You are a real DRAGON. You have dragon magic, you are strong, you fight as a protector of humanity. Game has a huge potential to be something more. But still - dragons in this game are MUCH MUCH better, than in Skyrim. Story is simple, acting if 50/50, gameplay has a lot of grinding.
Game is not that easy, yet not hard too. It's well-balanced.
You can play as a firebreating Annoth, icebreating dragon-mage Barroth or dragon necromante Morrogth. Every dragon has his own pros and coins, diffrent stats better suit one but not the other. For example - Annoth is a warrior like, Barroth is more like tactical-assassin gameplay, while Morrogth is a necromacer - a little RTS (without ability to command, only spawn units at your side).
If you love dragons, want to play one where you can really feel like a dragon - this IS the game for you. It's the best game atm of every other games, where you can be a dragon - to play in.
About "steam crashes" I had 0. My friend too. You can find some if you use cheats or mess with game, but without this - you're safe to play. Game will work correctly.

Any devs reading this - please create a game like this, but with 2017 abilities!

The first half of 2000s was pretty much the last time we had games that both looked competitive and offered us some fresh and unique gameplay. While having things like another Assassin's Creed game, another Call of Duty game and so on on regular basis nowadays, it's hard to imagine that there were times when we used to have stuff like Sacrifice, Messiah, Evolva and Giants: Citizen Kabuto (if you're about to go to GOG to buy those after reading this, then you're a) awesome and b) old).

The I of the Dragon is another one of such games from that exact time period. Surprisingly, this one came from Russia. “Surprisingly” because it looks pretty competitive (even today it looks more than fine and have all chances to be enjoyed by the new generation of players) and doesn't feel nearly as frustrating as Sea Dogs (which is a bugged hell even today, after it was released in Steam not so long ago).

Sure, The I of the Dragon can be pretty rough. The camera is a complete disaster, about half of the time your goals are terribly explained, while some parts of the game are really, really poorly balanced. Especially those, in which they take away your strong leveled up character, give you a unit that dies from a single shot and make you walk through the map full of strong enemies that spawn with no end. Man, those parts suck ass... But all in all? It's one of those fresh and awesome games from early 2000s that you should probably try at least once.

Long story short, we have a mix between good ol' Magic Carpet and some sort of tower defense. By controlling “powerful” dragon (who dies a lot because you didn't praise the sun hard enough), we'll build towns (one town per map, so, make sure to protect and upgrade what you have), level up, destroy enemy lairs and, well, fight stuff. Some main quests are included to make your life harder. No secondary goals, though. Which sucks, since this game is heavily open-world-like (you'll need to travel from map to map, but the time will keep going on all maps and the enemies will try to attack your cities at all maps at the same exact time) and having more things to do will be pretty fun.

But it's not like the game feels lacking, or something. Quite the opposite, the main quests will give you enough challenge, while the main gameplay is addictive enough to give you enough motivation to keep going. I mean, seriously. Even though most of the time it's something like “build the town, protect the city, upgrade the town as much as you can, destroy all enemy lairs, collect the rewards, level up your dragon, kill all monsters, move to another map”, you won't feel bad about doing it again and again. Just because it's fun and there are enough different ways to achieve your goals.

There are also some juicy small details that make this game even more awesome. Like, you'll be able to eat small enemies. Heck, you'll actually need to do that. Because hunger. And if there are no enemies around? You can eat some guys from your own town. Because screw dem peasants (ah, Sir Chauncey! How are you feeling today?). You can also switch between the first and third person views, you can learn different spells, etc, etc, etc.

In other words, there'll be exploration, there'll be action, there'll be some RTS-like elements, but all in all, even though this game takes heck of a lot from Magic Carpet (there's even a funny little nod to BULLFROG's masterpiece), it's hard to fully compare it with anything. The I of the Dragon is The I of the Dragon and if you're tired of playing the same exact game again and again nowadays, you should totally look back and try it. It's totally worth it, even though you'll need to suffer through some rough edges here and there.

Steam launch bugs have been fixed to this date (no turorial dialogs, access to forbiden areas ,no audio, no text).
With that said is a fun twist to play as the dragon, but the missions get repetitive very soon (kill monsters and lairs).

• (+) Helpful Dragon. (if you like or think it’s interesting)
  
• (+) Interesting control. (Flying)
  
• (+) Colourful and nice landscapes. (View)

• (-) Repetitive missions. (It wasn’t boring me)
  
• (-) Low graphics quality. (For those who care)
  
• (-) A few of voice actors just read their text. :(

I had three game crashes in seventeen hours. It was when I had played much hours with it. About 3-4 hours. Most of the negative review say it’s a crashing game. I had played with it Windows 7 64bit.
The game doesn’t play the in-game musics. But, you can fix it with this:
Workaround/patch for background music issue

It’s a game where you as a Dragon have got a mission to save the world from the evil ‘Skarborr’ who wants to destroy the world.
So, you would be a Dragon hero, opposite than the ordinary Dragon means. (Good Dragon)
The game is nice. Neither awesome nor bad. = Nice. I enjoyed to play with it.
The control was uncomfortable for me at first because I hadn’t flown before. I managed to used to it.

I think that those who like (or don’t care) play as a Dragon, and flying, and help to save the world could enjoy this game.

There are no achievements. You can play with it without Achievement-Rate drop-down.