We had the opportunity to ask some questions of Todd Clineschmidt, Game Designer at Surreal Software, about his new PS2 title Drakan: The Ancient Gates. Here's the lowdown on one of the most fun games we've seen in quite some time.

TODD: My name is Todd Clineschmidt and I'm a Game Designer at Surreal Software. I worked on both Drakan: Order of the Flame for the PC and our latest title, Drakan: The Ancients' Gates for the PS2.

Before joining Surreal, I worked as a game designer at Monolith Productions and worked on two of their PC titles including Shogo: Mobile Armor Division and Claw.

TODD: The Drakan series of games are fantasy-based, third-person action/adventures that star Rynn, a heroic warrior, and her dragon Arokh.

In the first game, servants of the Dark Union, under the leadership of the War Mage, Navaros, have stolen away Rynn's only family, her brother Delon. Rynn and Arokh proceed on an epic journey to find the boy, and at last defeat Navaros and his minions, but Delon has been lost.

The PlayStation 2 sequel, Drakan: The Ancients' Gates' picks up the story with Rynn and Arokh who have returned to find Rynn's former home burned and ruined. Arokh tells Rynn that he has been hearing a calling, and leaves to determine the nature of it. The two agree to meet up in Surdana, the last known stronghold of civilization, in a few days time. Upon reaching Surdana, Rynn learns that a new, even greater evil, threatens humanity.

They are similar in that the two games provide the player the ability to adventure as Rynn while on the ground, or to take to the sky by flying on the dragon. Both Drakan games allow the player to seamlessly transition between the two as they embark on their epic journey together.

They differ in that the first title, Drakan: Order of the Flame is a PC game, and it's sequel, Drakan: The Ancients' Gates is a PS2 exclusive title.

In addition, Drakan: The Ancients' Gates is much more advanced from both a gameplay and graphical standpoint.

TODD: The Ancients' Gates offers many graphical improvements. The PS2 allowed us to use many more polygons than in the original to create much more detail in our world, and our characters.

For example, the total polygon counts for an entire viewable scene in Order was less than that of Rynn alone in Drakan: The Ancients' Gates. We were able to create things graphically for the game that we could only dream of a year or two previously. We were able to do things like actually build out the details of the bricks in walls instead of using a flat surface with a brick texture mapped on it.

In addition to a much greater level of detail, the world found in Drakan: The Ancients' Gates is four to five times larger than that found in the PC title.

TODD: We've added a great number of new RPG elements to Drakan: The Ancients' Gates, for example, an economy where the player can buy and sell weapons, armor, potions, and so on.

We've also added a skill system, allowing the player to earn and then assign various skill points in melee, archery, or magic categories. This lets the player fine-tune Rynn to their liking.

Magic is a new ability for Rynn and offers a wide variety of offensive and defensive spells. The player can cast the spells in real time, using a unique hand-pattern system that we developed.

There are many NPC's that Rynn can speak with throughout the game that give quests, and offer information.

For Drakan: The Ancients' Gates, we also added a target locking system for both Rynn and Arokh, in addition to new special attack moves for Rynn while fighting in combat on the ground. We also upgraded Arokh with new breath weapons.

After Drakan: Order of the Flame came out, fans of the game sent us a lot of feedback requesting that the sequel have more optional side-quests. We've delivered with a slew of them in the new game. This is one thing that gamers have really praised Drakan: The Ancients' Gates for.

We created a real-time data cache system to allow us to stream in the data as the game is played. This provided us the ability to create the huge worlds found in Drakan. The player can literally play for hours without loading a new section, unlike many games that load very small areas very often. This simply wasn't an option for us considering that one of the game's main characters is a dragon.

TODD: The PS2 has allowed developers the ability to create excellent games that take place in compelling worlds, rich with detail. I believe the real advantage that the PS2 offers to gamers is that the overall quality of the titles found on the PS2 platform is un-equaled by any of it's competitors.

TODD: I'm active on some of the online game forums and the reaction has been amazing. The gamers on the message boards have really loved the game, far exceeding my expectation. This has been more important to me personally than the reviews printed in the magazines. When someone tells you it's their favorite PS2 game, it just means more than when a person who is paid to review games gives it high marks. Some of the console gamers who didn't play the first game have even gone out and bought Drakan: Order of the Flame after beating Drakan: The Ancients' Gates, just to learn more about the origins of the PS2 title.

TODD: Not really. Drakan: The Ancients' Gates offers something very different than the Tomb Raider series of games. Yes, both are 3rd-person action/adventure games that star a female character, but beyond that, there aren't many similarities. If Rynn were a male, I don't think many would have made the comparison to begin with. Still, this has been some people's first impression - that is, until they play the game. Interestingly, I've noticed a lot of people comparing Drakan: The Ancients' Gates to Zelda: Ocarina of Time since it's release.

TODD: I love the fact that we were able to give the new game a lot more depth than it's predecessor, and to improve the game in every aspect, whether it be gameplay, sound, dialogue, scope, graphical detail, story, replay value, and so on.

TODD: We had implemented readable books in the game. You would find a book or a journal, and then the camera would zoom into it as it opened when you wished to read it. There were stories and lore of the Drakan world, complete with pictures and sketches to view. You could actually flip the 3D pages. It was very cool. In the end, we cut them although the books would have added even more depth to the Drakan experience.

TODD: I would suggest traveling first by means of the dragon to clear out most of the easy fodder, then exploring on foot as well. A gamer recently posted to a forum explaining that he had taken the time to explore the Northern Tundra by foot after clearing out most of the enemies with Arokh's destructive power. He was very excited that he had discovered some things when traveling on foot that he had missed while traveling on the dragon's back.

TODD: There are lots of them. As you revealed in the question, many of the people, places, and things in Drakan: The Ancients' Gates are named after real people. 'Vykruta the Minstrel,' for example, is named after one of our programmers. The 'Andrellian Islands' takes its name from the designer, Andre, who built that region. In fact, most of the NPC's names come from real people.

The Giant Chicken has been a favorite to the gamers on the message boards.

Originally I had placed a 'Kodama', or Japanese tree spirit, hidden on a branch in the Shadowmire as a reference to the anime movie 'Princess Mononoke'. It's head even rotated, then clicked back as found in the film. Unfortunately, it was removed near the end the project due to potential copyright issues. However, there remains a few 'Eggs' for the keen explorer to discover.

TODD: There have been many salient events in my life that got me addicted to games. When I was young, a kid down the street had gotten Pong. This is my first memory of video games. Later, the 1980 William's classic, 'Defender' absorbed a lot of my time. I still play it to this day, over two decades later.

One year I received an Atari 2600 from Santa, complete with the classic, Warlords. This was my first console system, and the games were amazing. Asteroids, Kaboom!, River Raid, and Night Driver were some of my favorites. I could even play Defender (II) at home. What could be better?

The arcade down the street from my mother's office in downtown Seattle became my daycare of sorts during the period that Dragon's Lair was all the rage and was demanding long lines and providing many "ooohs" and "aaaahs". When I was low on quarters, I would hit the Pac-Man machine because I knew the pattern to get you all the way to the 'diamond levels' without breaking a sweat.

One night I discovered a strange game called Donkey Kong in a pizza parlor. I vividly remember being irritated to find the game had no donkey, and saving the funny looking man at the top was a real challenge - one that my only quarter had fallen to rather quickly. It's been amazing to see that cast of characters develop over the years, and become gaming icons.

Much later, PC games became my obsession. Great titles such as Ultima Underworld and Doom got to me.

TODD: I would have Arokh fly me to Aspen, drop me off at the top of a mountain in a nice wide bowl with my snowboard so I could get some fresh tracks.

TODD: Although there are no immediate plans for a sequel, I would certainly love to work on another one and visit the Drakan world again. I feel very lucky to have had the opportunity to work on the first two titles.

Thanks Todd! We hope to see Rynn and Arokh again too.