Drakensang: The Dark Eye

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I played the English demo several weeks ago and it was pretty decent. Anyone have any feedback on the US release version yet? Any Europeans who have had it for awhile have any thoughts on the game?

Links! or the lazy gamer goes nowhere

I've never heard of this one personally.

It's only $28 at Amazon.com, unfortunately the American publisher has decided not to give this game any press, so you are hard pressed to find so much as a review. It is also available for $30 at GamersGate and Direct2Drive.

These are the only three reviews I know of:
7.6/10 at IGN.
7/10 at PC Gamer UK.
82/100 at Games Examiner.

I've also been reading about it on forums at various RPG sites. From what I gather, it is a good, solid RPG but falls well short of being great. Entertaining and without significant flaws, but not particularly memorable for anything. Keep in mind that is the viewpoint of RPG enthusiasts, so it might be different for a more general gamer. If I was on the fence, I'd wait for a review from one of the RPG websites (GameBanshee is working on one, I think in about a week), which should go into more detail than the IGN or PC Gamer reviews.

None of this is from personal experience, my copy is still in the mail. I've also heard (not officially, but from a source I trust) that this game will be coming to Steam, though there is no ETA for when it will be avaliable.

I am still in the tutorial area and have not put too much time into the game. So far it seems to be at least on par with NWN2 for game play. As I have not experienced the story yet I cannot comment. I did spend a lot of time with the Character sheets checking out the skills and spells available to the starting classes. There are many interesting classes.

Human:
Warrior
Archer
Soldier
Battlemage
Healing Mage
Charlatan
Rogue
Burglar
Thief
Elementalist
Metamage
Alchemist
Pirate
Amazon

Elf:
Ranger
Spellweaver
Fighter

Dwarf:
Mercenary
Sapper
Prospector

I went with a Metamage with is basically a Necromancer. Here she is:
IMAGE(http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3319/3315091836_b93d16891a_b.jpg)

I will post more maybe next week once I have dig into the game some more.

Here be link to Official Site

From what I've heard it's a little dry and traditional, but is also surprisingly polished for an indie German game. I might give it a shot at some point.

Is this a lone character game or do you end up managing a party?

Tamren wrote:

Is this a lone character game or do you end up managing a party?

You create one character and you can get up to 3 npc's to join you along the way.

Given my Euro-RPG fetish, I'm morbidly curious about this one. I'll look forward to more impressions from those of you braver than I.

Arovin do you have 3 monitors running at once? I like that look.

I... what the! I just noticed that. Examining the picture closely makes me nauseous. Such a wide FOV.

I picked it up from D2D and hope to give it some time this weekend.

Ok initial, very initial impressions... For a $30.00 game - it seems a steal so far. Music is nice, graphics are well done - lots of little details. For stats and skills guys - character creation can be hours of fun. The right click description menu for almost everything is well done and detailed. For people who want to hop right in - the pre-rolled classes are very well done. The variety of character classes is pretty significant. This is a game where you have to decide what you want to be early on - the sheer depth of skills is pretty daunting and it doesnt look like one type of class is going to be good at everything. I am hoping the party based system will allow you to dabble in skills your main doesnt have. Crafting appears to be detailed as well. The game allows certain classes the ability to begin creating stuff very early on. creation even eaIn 2 hrs of playing I discovered weapon/ammo crafting, alchemy (which requires plant and animal lore) and a couple of other little items that would probably be used to build traps or gadgets by an appropriately skilled class. In addition, other skills/lore abilities can be trained by NPCs scattered about - a mercenary can give you additional combat abilities, a hunter trains traps animal lore, the priest trains plant lore etc... The skills offered were in line with the particular NPC and was a nice little realism touch. Social skills can be important because they open up dialog chains that arent normally available - I had one where a NPC gave me some items because I asked about his life and one where an NPC gave me additional info for similar reasons. After the first 90 minutes or so with my Warrior - think Chivalric Knight I decided that I was going to play around with other classes who have different starting skills. Combat is pretty standard - think pausable Neverwinter flavor with hot keys assigned special abilities. Early on I cant do all that much so it was pretty much I attack the monster attacked etc... Also you get a party add on member early on. My understanding is that the game is based off of a very popular pen and paper RPG in Germany and so far you can tell the designers put a lot of love into the game. The mini map and game map are well done and the user interface is pretty streamlined comparatively. I really like it so far.

Running Man wrote:

Arovin do you have 3 monitors running at once? I like that look.

Yes, I have a triplehead2go adapter from matrox.

kuddles wrote:

From what I've heard it's a little dry and traditional, but is also surprisingly polished for an indie German game.

Just to be clear, it's as 'indie' as Gothic is. Which means it pretty much doesn't meet the general 'indie critera' since it was funded by a local publisher, dtp.

Fair enough. I tend to lazily use the word "indie" instead of "game with far lower budget then most of it's peers".

My eye has been on this game, but I figure I have plenty on my plate right now, so I can wait until the price drops (I know, it's not that much, but I just bought NWN2 with expansion for $20, so I'm set).

I simply like the fact it's using a real (ie. non video game) rpg's rules and world, which, imho, helps make games better than if the devs had to make everything up on there own. I'm being very general here.

I would say the game is as polished if not more so then the original NWN2 release. I recall some NWN2 glaring bugs when it was first released including not being able to change resolutions with some video cards. As stated earlier - it definitely has my attention - firing it up right now.

My interest has been piqued so I will download the demo as soon as my net connection gets more reliable. The router has been sh*tting out on me recently

I just played the demo and wasn't really very impressed, I can't quite put my finger on it but something about the combat bugs me (I played the battlemage), from what I gather the game is using a PnP system with rounds and what not but I couldn't quite figure out how long the rounds are, it seems random at times. I really can't get my head around the mechanics going on under the hood; case in point both the attack spells I started with state that they are instantaneous but they take about five minute to cast. I feel like I need a Baldur's Gate sized manual to help me wrap my head around the mechanics like I did when I was learning DnD mechanics.

The demo installed stable and loaded in a snap. That gets a big plus from me after that Empire total war demo fiasco. Not to mention the Grand Ages: Rome demo that wouldn't even download off of steam.

EDIT: Started the demo as a dwarf. One thing I'm finding hard to cope with is the slow as molasses "run" speed. And it seems like the only possible way to open chests is to pick them open. Not being a thief I have to walk past them because there is no possible way for me to open them.

The demo isnt really a great showcase for all the classes. Not all chests are locked, but most are. You will have to walk by them unitl you meet up w/a party member who can open them. I also played the demo and thought it was so-so, but the game itself has been a joy. There are about 16 classes in the game and each has different strengths and weaknesses etc... Also, you dont level up all at one - you gain XP that you spend to improve your skills - you will see a number next to the current level and that is how much you have to spend to bump it up a point. Your actual level only affects how high you can boost a skill until you reach the next level etc... SLIGHT SPOILER for non-thiefs - do the Diadem quest given by the hottie Montebank in the village first and when you rescue her boyfriend he will join your party and he is a thief class with lockpick and detect traps. I started out as a burglar so I didnt have that issue. Also go to the inn/tavern in the starting village and pick up your first NPC and if you are a non-fighter class - use her to engage in melee first and them you pop in. I finally made it out of the starter village after trying to do all the quests and it has been a lot of fun.

Damn you Spy, you're killing me here. You know I can't resist the Germans and their RPGs! Well, the price is right at least.

Do you feel like opening dialogue options is paying off? I'm forever choosing between fighters and people who can actually carry a conversation.

What I noticed is that each of the classes has a "personality" type trait that can open additional dialog options. I think only the Pirate and Amazon dont have some sort of dialog influencing trait from the start, but you can explore that when you first pick a character. Actually the Warrior class (think Chivalric Knight) has one of the best opening dialog skills early on. I forget what it is called at the moment, but the first person you talk to as the game starts will have an option within his dialog tree that names it. You'll also see it during character selection.

Is there no way to speed up travel speed? Running around is painfully slow and there is no sort of rapid travel system I can find. Thats the only thing that kills the experience for me, the rest is nice and polished. There are no translation horrors either.

I havent found anything yet as far as fast travel except when you travel between specific "zones". I havent found it to be a problem - I generally explore the whole map like I would do in Baldur's Gate and follow the question marks to the quest locales.

Is there any game IGN doesn't review? Sheesh. Anyway, I thought this was poignant:

Drakensang is based on a very popular pen-and-paper game in Germany so it draws its rules from a coherent and comprehensive system. Having never played the tabletop game, I can't vouch for the authenticity of the rules, but I can say that they seem a bit more complex than the systems used in many other popular RPGs, both on and off the desktop. Maybe I'm just spoiled because I'm already so familiar with the D&D and D20 systems that it's no great leap for me to jump into Neverwinter Nights and instantly understand the relationships between the math and the game results. Drakensang may be just as intuitive and accessible to people who've played it a lot but in trying to break into the North American market, I feel that the designers need to make their system more transparent.

In all honesty except for adding points to my stats in areas I want to focus on I havent even delved into stats. Seems pretty transparent - you can bring up the log and it will show you your "rolls" etc... That being said the numbers behind the character abilities is nowhere near as recognizable as they are in NWN2. However, that hasnt impacted my sheer enjoyment of the game at all. I have just finished the next leg of the main quest and the game has endeared itself to me even more. I havent had a single crash or bug issue in the 10-15 hrs I have played the game. As a warning to those who may expect certain things from their RPGs this game has very little magic or gear so far in the early levels. It is a medieval equipment based game and beyond the magic of actual spellcasters I havent run into any magic at all and no magic swords, rings, armor etc... I suspect that it will be there eventually, but also realize that in 10-15 hrs of play my guy is only Level 3 - leveling is much different then other RPGs. The story, the combat system, and the combination of gameplay features have really drawn me in.

Some kind soul has translated a German FAQ to English, it explains the game system somewhat. It is very detailed, doesn't deal with spoilers, and looks to be a great primer for an unfamiliar system.

*SLIGHT SPOILER* Oh thats nice Tann - thanks. I was hoping that I'd be able to get through this game before Empire Total War releases, but it isnt going to happen. The game just keeps getting better. I just got my house in Ferdok and the murder quest line has expanded. Hints in the game that you can eventually buy a ship. The dungeon I am exploring is pretty cool and my one complaint is lack of variety in monsters, but the monsters seem realistic for their environment. Minor complaint in all reality.

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