Leathery wings rasp against the cold winter air, stretching, preparing.

“Let’s go fry some evil scum!”

Enthusiasm drips from every word as Arokh, the great red dragon, leaps up into the snowy winter sky. Rynn, a woman who wields a wicked sword and who is bonded with the legendary creature, clings to his back. The quest? To find Rynn’s brother, Delon, captured in a raid upon the village by bloodthirsty, vile monsters.

This is the basis of Drakan: Order of the Flame, a fantasy role-playing release from Sony-owned Psygnosis. It’s about time that a role-playing fantasy title featured a woman as the lead character. Psygnosis gets bonus points for that but has them immediately withdrawn for the look of the character. Imagine Pamela Lee Anderson merged with Barbie, with red hair and green eyes and you begin to get the idea. Or maybe the programmers patterned Rynn after actress Brigitte Nielsen’s forgettable “Red Sonja.” Despite the looks, Rynn has the charisma of a stick. The voice characterization is ineffectual and emotionless, producing a flaw in an otherwise sterling program. Perhaps less silicon should have been used on the body and more on the personality.

Let’s set the stage. Ages ago upon Drakan, the humans formed an alliance with dragons. Essence was united between rider and intelligent, talking beast, the souls bound in a pact where pain is shared and the death of one diminishes the other. It was known as the Order of the Flame. Unfortunately, one of the leaders of the Order betrayed the age of prosperity, seeking to rule the world himself. He destroyed his own dragon and was in the midst of conjuring terrible black magic when struck with the Rune Blade. It seemingly destroyed the bad guy, but the damage to the golden era was done. Not only was the saving blade broken in two (and lost), but all the dragons perished with the exception of one - Arokh. That magnificent beast retired from the world, was encased in crystal and spent the ages in a deep sleep.

Zoom forward to present-day Drakan. Nastiness is afoot. Foul creatures are attacking villages and the specter of the evil dragon rider, Navaros, hangs over the world like the menacing cloud of absolute night. After her village is ruthlessly attacked, and her younger brother dragged off with other prisoners, Rynn embarks on a mission to find the dragon, and then find her brother. Mini-quests abound along the way, and there is enough action to keep the fantasy gamer happy for days.

While Drakan has the same general ‘evil was once destroyed, now it is back’ storyline as so many fantasy games, what sets this program apart from the competition is the graphics. Drakan is one of the finest-looking programs of this genre on the market. The screens sparkle with vivid color, the polygonal characters are extremely well-rendered, the scene lighting and three-dimensional landscape is simply incredible.

Arokh counters Rynn’s dead-weight dialogue with lively, and gravelly, banter. And, of course, the flight scenes, complete with aerial enemies, are akin to flight sim games. Arokh dives, banks, climbs and can basically do what many planes do. It gives Drakan an added dimension that powers this game above the competition.

While the controls are straightforward for both Rynn and Arokh, it does take some time to master the multitude of Rynn’s battle moves, and the aerial bombardment faced by Arokh. If you get really good at flying Arokh, you can enter multi-player games through MPLAYER on the Internet. There are three game modes - melee deathmatch, dragon duel and master of the dragon - guaranteed to test the mettle and resourcefulness of any gamer.

The game is not high on the intellectual index. Most of the traps in the game require dexterity, not brain-power. Swinging blades and fall-away bridges test reflex ability and can be easily solved. But learn to quick save and quick load. The reload from the main menu takes a while.

Interspersed with animated sequences, Drakan’s dynamic world and gameplay are a real treat for the eyes. Though the game borrows a lot of mythology, it blends it nicely into a package that will enchant and delight.

And yes, Arokh can light up the sky, as well as errant, nasty ground dwellers who line up in his sights.

Warning: Drakan is rated for mature players due to a high level of animated blood and gore. Creatures are destroyed and dismembered in a most bloody way. This is not for the faint or sensitive of heart. You will also need a 3D accelerator card to play and enjoy the rich textures of this program.

Installation: 5 It is 320 megs for single player, 340 megs for multi-player features, so you might as well load the extra 20 megs. But this is a long, slow, unexciting install.

Gameplay: 7 Some lag and the character movement is a little jerky at times.

Graphics: 9 One of the best-looking 3D accelerated graphic programs I have seen.

Sound: 7 Appropriate ambient sounds, but lose points for the deadness of the voice-over actress reading Rynn’s lines. They are lifeless.

Concept: 8 Coupling dragons with characters and giving the game an aerial aspect is very nice and exciting for this genre.

Difficulty: 8 This is a tough game to play. The player has to have complete control of Rynn’s movements in order to succeed.

Value: 8 Tremendous graphic elements carry this game beyond the middle-of-the-road role-playing titles.

Overall: 7.3 Despite losing points for install time, this is a well-designed program and should be considered one of the better titles of the year.