THE LAST DYNASTY

SIERRA ON-LINE

FORMAT: PC CD-ROM (two)
DATE: July 1995
PRICE: N/A

The Last Dynasty is probably the largest production from Sierra On-Line to this day with a budget of over two million dollars. We are far from the time when games were designed and programmed by a single person. Now an entire cast of programmers, graphists, musicians, scriptwriters and professional cinematographers are necessary to reach today's high-standards in multimedia productions.

The Last Dynasty blends action and adventure into a fabulous story throughout space that will rave you from the beginning to the end. The different phases featured in the game bring new excitement. You will discover cinematic sequences with 3D and video animations that unfold the story during the game, adventure phases where you explore a whole station and finally, combat sequences where the game transforms into a real space combat simulator that will make your heart feel alive!

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Although the game runs under the Windows environment, the graphics during the combats are fast enough to keep you interested in the game. Also, the SVGA graphics used during the whole game for the cockpit, the spaceships, the planets, etc... are very well done and definitively make the game visually stunning. One other thing that really pleased me was the video sequences that explain the historical background and the continuing suite of events you have to face. Usually, the loading time between the action and cinematic sequences is too long and you have a message on the screen asking you to be patient while you wait. In Last Dynasty, the transitions are so fast that you don't have time to realize you are not shooting anymore at the enemy vessel. But the technical merits do not stop here, there is more with the soundtrack. Instead of listening to the same track over and over during combats, it changes according the action with specific music and once more, it is done admirably.

Speaking of technical merits, I must mention the customizable cockpit in which you can change the information you want to keep an eye on at any time. Among the numerous windows available, there are speed, shield's state, number of friends or enemies in the surrounding space, life points, etc... and each one can be configured according your choice to present data under the form of percentage, graphic bars or others. Most of these windows are helpful, but if you want to improve the speed of the game, in case you do not own a powerful PC, it is possible to remove the windows you do not need. Personally, I removed the windows regarding the enemy target (speed, life and power of shield) because I did not feel like it was necessary to have this on screen.

For the map, the developers switched to a 3D representation which has the sublime advantage of allowing rotations. You can therefore look at planets, satellites, enemy or allied ships from any point of view with different zoom levels and get vital information about them. From there you can plan a battle strategy to defeat the enemies, see where you want to go next, etc...

As the adventure phase takes an entire CD, you can imagine how big the station you have to explore may be. The rooms are brilliantly rendered in high-resolution 3D graphics and the graphical interface that allows you to interact with the environment is one of the easiest I ever encountered. You can examine the rooms with the cursor to find things, take objects and of course, use them from your inventory. On the screen, you receive indications towards which direction you can go from a room. For example, an arrow to the left means there is a path in this direction, and this is the same for the up, down and right arrows.

Conclusion:

I deliberately did not talk about the scenario because it would remove all the interest of the story when you buy the game. However, the fact that it features several hours of dialogue, SVGA graphics all throughout the game, lots of video sequences, action and adventure, should convince you that The Last Dynasty is a great game. Besides, I forgot to mention many other details such as the over 20 different types of vessels including allies and enemies, the permanent help in the cockpit from your on-board computer, the exterior views, the adventure in real time, and lots more. So what do you want me to say to make you buy this game? It is a great work!

System Requirements:

486 DX-33 MHz or better (VLB or PCI recommended),
Min 8 MB memory,
MS-DOS 5.0 or later,
Hard drive required with 4Mb free,
Double speed CD-ROM drive or faster (for CD-ROM version),
SVGA graphic card,
Microsoft Mouse or 100% compatible,
MPC compliant sound cards supported.

Ratings:

Graphics : 92%
Sound : 85%
Music : 95%
Playability: 89%
Interest : 93%

Overall : 91%

Developers:

Coktel Vision
Immeuble Le Newton
Parc Tertiaire de Meudon,
25 rue Jeanne Braconnier,
92366 Meudon La Foret Cedex,
France.

Technical Support
Tel: +33-(1)-4601-4650
Fax: +33-(1)-4631-7172

Publishers:

In North America:

Sierra On-Line Inc.,
P.O. Box 53250,
Bellevue, WA 98015-3250.

Tel: (800) 757-7707, +1 (206) 649-9800

In Europe:

In UK

Sierra On-Line Ltd.,
4 Brewery Court, The Old Brewery, Theale,
Reading, Berkshire RG7 5AJ, England.

Technical Support
Tel: +44-(0)1734-303-171
Fax: +44-(0)1734-303-362
BBS: +44-(0)1734-304-227

In France

See developers.