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f13.net  |  f13.net General Forums  |  Gaming  |  But is it Fun?  |  Topic: Drakensang: The Dark Eye -Radon Labs- PC 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.
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Author Topic: Drakensang: The Dark Eye -Radon Labs- PC  (Read 9606 times)
rk47
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on: March 07, 2009, 03:59:46 AM

In times where I couldn't find a decent RPG to play, Drakensang suddenly popped out of nowhere bearing the tag of '“best German RPG 2008” award. I wasn't sure what to think of it at first, but the demo gave me a good feel of the character customization and somewhat induced me to get it. So I did.

The first one hour was spent on deciding what character to make. With so many options from a Charlatan (A college dropout wizard) and a Pirate (the muscular kind, not Johnny Depp), there's so many decisions to be made even before you actually take your first step into the game (Tip: Click on expert mode on char creation.) This is really where the game really impressed me. Experience gained can be spent on skills and stats upgrade, as well as purchasing special abilities.

The next hour was spent wondering how the hell the testers could stand the snail pace of running before quitting in disgust after smashing barrels instead of opening them in plain view of the townspeople.  swamp poop I calmed down a bit and found a nice editor courtesy of this f13 thread to speed up the run and make it more enjoyable. And so I played. I harvested herbs to make potions. Skin animals for pelts to sell. It really felt like a single player MMO experience, with more quest narration and somewhat 'limited area' to explore. That's the downside of Drakensang actualy, the developers seem to be afraid of giving too much freedom. Finishing the first area, I was prompted with 'You can't return to this area once you leave, OK?'  ACK! But why? That's not good at all.

Combat was well paced, unlike Neverwinter Nights 2 which hardly give an indication when a round started and a round finished, I never had a problem telling whether my wizard finish casting a spell or was knocked down or not by glancing at his portrait. I never had the message log maximised, I did this only to check bosses immunities which frees up the screen for the nice graphics. This is a great feature that should be adopted for most RPG trying to do RT combat with pause. Most games that employ RTwP had weaksauce combat (see KOTOR , NWN) Combat was a mess, without structure and either too easy or too damn hard with AI being retarded. I'm not saying Drakensang's combat AI is engaging, but I'm getting MMORPG vibes from it. Very much. Fighters spend Endurance to do special moves, while wizards spend Astral Points. Once you've done some boss fight you can't help but wonder if you're in a real MMO raid or something when your whole party of 4 raised their sword in unison and did a /cheer over the dead boss' corpse.  DRILLING AND MANLINESS



The writing quality could've been done better, as well as the voices. They did the voices much like the classic Baldur's Gate 1, important NPCs usually only has 1-2 spoken dialogues while the huge paragraphs are not spoken. This is a good compromise, unlike games who insist on fully voiced dialogues at the cost of short sentences. (Oblivion, I'm looking at you) Voice acting quality aside, it's a translated product from germany, so I'm willing to give it a pass.

What really surprises me is the amount of content packed in this game. It started off in the wrong foot with slow run speed and lackluster setting (kill bear, come back), but gradually became something much bigger. And companions are not as deep as I would've liked, but they gave you 10 npc to form your 4some so party build and customizations are part of the fun. If you're willing to look past the un-inspired 'You are Chosen One' writing, you will find lots and lots of content to play through. It's really old school gameplay with a great modern makeover with ZERO stability issues (I've not crashed a single time).

Is it fun? Yes. I can't wait for a sequel. I don't miss MMORPG at all with Drakensang around and definitely not caring about Dragon Age at this point because
 
Quote
Hamburg/Germany, February 17th, 2009 – Hamburg/Germany based publisher dtp entertainment has today confirmed that developer Radon Labs is working on a prequel to the award winning title: The Dark Eye: Drakensang, which has won the “best German RPG 2008” award at the German Developer Awards. Drakensang: The River Of Time is going to tell a new story within the Drakensang universe. The prequel is scheduled to be released on the PC early 2010.

I've had my fun.  Ohhhhh, I see. Will you?
 


As you can see the paperdoll dress up aspect is great too with so many clothing slots to fill up, sometimes I go for looks and sacrifice armor.




« Last Edit: March 07, 2009, 04:07:32 AM by rk47 »

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Slyfeind
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Reply #1 on: March 10, 2009, 10:46:18 PM

Oh crap, looks good. I like how more games are going for open-ended sandboxness. Lame how you couldn't return to that one area. Is it like that through the whole game?

Interesting how the compass and map are on the left, while the character portraits and statuses are on the right.

"Role playing in an MMO is more like an open orchestra with no conductor, anyone of any skill level can walk in at any time, and everyone brings their own instrument and plays whatever song they want.  Then toss PvP into the mix and things REALLY get ugly!" -Count Nerfedalot
Tebonas
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Reply #2 on: March 11, 2009, 06:27:05 AM

I liked this game back in the day when I played it. But to be fair, it couldn't be much farther away from open-ended sandboxness.
Sky
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Reply #3 on: March 11, 2009, 07:25:20 AM

back in the day
Are you familiar with how this phrase works in english? Because it doesn't mean 2008.
Tebonas
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Reply #4 on: March 11, 2009, 07:50:19 AM

I'm also familiar with the usage of excess as a stylistic device.  why so serious?

Seven months is enough so that I forgot most of the plot, though.  embarassed
Slyfeind
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Reply #5 on: March 11, 2009, 05:29:34 PM

I liked this game back in the day when I played it. But to be fair, it couldn't be much farther away from open-ended sandboxness.

So it's all railroady? I'm confused.

"Role playing in an MMO is more like an open orchestra with no conductor, anyone of any skill level can walk in at any time, and everyone brings their own instrument and plays whatever song they want.  Then toss PvP into the mix and things REALLY get ugly!" -Count Nerfedalot
rk47
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Reply #6 on: March 11, 2009, 08:25:51 PM

It's really obvious how module based this game is. Each module is a quest hub you see, much like Diablo 2 Acts, except you can't return to previous Act once you've left them. With the exception of the 'capital city' which is never locked out. You will receive primary quest and collect sidequests as you go along each hub. Once you've done the primary quest, the zone will be locked, and once you leave you can never come back. That's the only annoying thing really.

Depending whether you power game by crafting or doing every sidequest in game or not, the encounters can be either hard or easy. I know on my second playthrough where I skipped most sidequests things are noticably harder with less money and exp to spend.

For a small-slightly spoiler free playthrough that explains how things work in Drakensang, check this thread out in another forum.
http://www.rpgcodex.net/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=30516

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Slyfeind
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Reply #7 on: March 11, 2009, 10:41:39 PM

Ew, ick. Weird how they did it that way. I'll still give it a try though.

"Role playing in an MMO is more like an open orchestra with no conductor, anyone of any skill level can walk in at any time, and everyone brings their own instrument and plays whatever song they want.  Then toss PvP into the mix and things REALLY get ugly!" -Count Nerfedalot
Strazos
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Reply #8 on: March 13, 2009, 07:15:14 PM

No Starforce or anything, right?

And how nicely does it run? My PC would be more towards the minimum specs, but I'd really like to give this game a shot. That second screenshot looks very awesome.

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