Drakensang - Demo PR

Dhruin

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dtp sent us an official PR for the Drakensang demo release. Since we've already announced the demo, here's an excerpt from the release that explains the demo contents and sticks with the vague Q1 release date:
Hamburg, December 12th, 2008 – Make your trial trip to Aventuria: Today, dtp entertainment releases a free demo version of the English language version of the highly anticipated RPG Drakensang – The Dark Eye.

The demo, which is available for download at www.drakensang.com, offers first insights into the Drakensang story and gameplay. Visit Aventuria, explore the beautiful medieval scenery which will remind you of travelling through Central Europe. Take on the first quests of the game, fight the first battles and explore villages full of beautiful framework houses, dark woods and dungeons.

Three different characters are available in the demo version: Play either as Dwarf Mercenary, Andergastian Battle Mage or Silvan Elf Ranger. The full game will offer more than 25 characters.

When playing the demo version, gamers will receive special bonus items which enable them to explore the huge diversity of the game even in their first hours of playing. Other features, such as magics, special attacks or the expert mode are reserved to Drakensang’s full version.

The Dark Eye: Drakensang was originally published in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in August of 2008 and saw a shining debut in the top 1 ranking for several weeks in row. The game recently was awarded “Best German RPG 2008” at the German Developer Awards. Internationally, The Darke Eye: Drakensang will be released in several languages in quarter one, 2009.
More information.
 
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This seems to be a really great game. The voice acting is much better than I had feared, and the graphics are quite pretty. I wish that they released an English manual to go with the demo, as I am used to the AD&D rule set, or close variants; I have no idea what some of the more obscure stats on the weapons do. I had some small irksome moments with pathing (no jumping, and this is one of those games where you are defeated by a slight incline, at times), but no big issues.
 
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I was impressed, with everything but the camera (which seemed to be the root of the problems mentioned above). One thing that bugged me, why couldn't the thief open any of the locked chests? I'm assuming that it wasn't possible to get the required skill level in the demo, but who knows.
 
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Tell me that you're joking. I was just about to roll a thief, because there's nothing I hate more than an unopened chest. (sigh) Looks like it will be until 1Q 2009 before I find those rusty nails and stale baguettes.
 
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Just finished the demo and it's what I consider a typical Euro game. I enjoyed what I played and while it's certainly not groundbreaking in any way, it was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. It's not anywhere near as good as The Witcher, but it's AT LEAST on a par with Two Worlds!!
 
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I was impressed, with everything but the camera (which seemed to be the root of the problems mentioned above). One thing that bugged me, why couldn't the thief open any of the locked chests? I'm assuming that it wasn't possible to get the required skill level in the demo, but who knows.

Thievery is very realistic, with the exception of the reaction to pickpocketing. Go through the list and find out what you didn't do. Especially activate the console and look at the calculation.
My bet would be that you had no appropriate tool in a quickslot or didn't use it. A -10 bonus on a D20 lowers your chances quite a bit, especially if you need an 11 to pick the lock. ;)

Missed dice rolls on animals and plants are normal though. Some stuff is really hard to identify.
 
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Just finished the demo and it's what I consider a typical Euro game. I enjoyed what I played and while it's certainly not groundbreaking in any way, it was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. It's not anywhere near as good as The Witcher, but it's AT LEAST on a par with Two Worlds!!
I don't remember one reviewer who thought it not better than Two Worlds. The demo is the tutorial area, in which not much is happening. Only 2 boss fights and a lot of talking. That's the weakest part of the game.


I'll ask dtp about the camera. I had no relevant problems with it in ca. 80 hours. It only lost its vertical focus in certain circumstances, but that wasn't often. Maybe the patches are not in yet.
 
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My bet would be that you had no appropriate tool in a quickslot or didn't use it.

This is one of the things players had difficulties to understand first : You get a bonus only if you use that tool - from the quickslot !
 
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This is one of the things players had difficulties to understand first : You get a bonus only if you use that tool - from the quickslot !

Or maybe he tried it before he found Dranor. Dranor is a thief.
 
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I don't remember one reviewer who thought it not better than Two Worlds. The demo is the tutorial area, in which not much is happening. Only 2 boss fights and a lot of talking. That's the weakest part of the game.

Dialog is the weakest part of the game? Or the first area in general is?

Is it more of a hack n slash game? Or more balanced like Gothic series?

I agree it seems it least on par with Two Worlds (if not better), which is not a bad thing to me.
 
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Dialog is the weakest part of the game? Or the first area in general is?
I meant the demo area is weaker than the rest of the game. Things start slowly, lots of enemies are rather weak, charaters are introduced, the background story framework explained, some stuff you find requires too high a skill to identify it. Animal loot and plants are destroyed when you fail your identify dice roll - a game mechanic in line with a p&p RPG, but it can be quite frustrating if you destroy 5 plants in a row.

Is it more of a hack n slash game? Or more balanced like Gothic series?
Definitely not hack&slash. Drakensang is an old fashioned RPG, maybe loosely comparable to KotOR. And it's nothing like Gothic. A dose of Gothic is exactly what's missing, IMHO. ;) Now you have a beautiful medieval German world. Great architecture, convincing cities. But also blatant omissions in world simulation, simply because the devs decided they don't want this.
Drakensang has ca. 60% action I think. Asymmetric. Sometimes you spend hours with little action, then you spend 3 hours in a 5-level dungeon. The ending has too much action, as always.


I agree it seems it least on par with Two Worlds (if not better), which is not a bad thing to me.
I have no personal experience with Two Worlds yet.
 
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Definitely not hack&slash.

I would cut the "definitively" ;) , but all in all I'd agree that it's no hack & slay as we know it for example from Sacred 1.

But it has a lot of action for my personal taste in it.

But on the other hands there are areas which are almost completely devoid of action - like Ferdok, the main town of the game.

One of my personal criticisms is that even small side-quests too often involve action as in slaying an enemy.

In a poll in the official forums, the sneak quests are high among the quests the people liked most.

But there's the usual problem : How much is an official forum's community representative for gamers in general ?

Me, I must say that I'm biased: For my own taste, there's too much action in it, but I guess you already know me and what things are rather important to me. ;)
 
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I finished the demo yesterday, and I enjoyed it overall. I found the graphics to be quite nice when i set details to high, and the game ran fairly well on my old outdated computer.
I admit I was having a tough and somewhat frustrating time at first(kept getting slaughtered by wild boars), but then I found a character editor(cheat program that edited your characters through the saved game file)and had a much less frustrating time and had more fun. Like someone said, the reaction to pickpocketing is unrealistic. No yells for the guards, no npc's going on the offensive, etc. And it seems you can't pickpocket the inkeeper which was annoying. Also, opening up a chest right in full view of the npc who owns it should trigger a hostile reaction, or calls for the guards, but instead they just stand there like they don't care you are stealing their stuff right in front of them.
I altered my stats, to 19 in everything, and raised all my skills to 9 each(also gave myself 1000 gold ducats while I was at it too). I found I succeeded in pickpocketing most of the time, but still got caught once in awhile. I also found I still failed lockpicking once in awhile too.
I thought it was funny when you get to the last part of a certain thief related quest, and you have to enter a certain place, and there is a sign hanging in front of it saying something like, if you want to get in here, buy the full version. Not exactly those words, but something similar. Gave me a chuckle to see that.
I played the female ranger, and picked up the amazon warrior woman along the way. I picked up the guy thief character later on, but simply stripped him of his possessions and then kicked him out of the party. hehe, brings back memories of other crpg games I played in past years where I did that sort of thing in, add an npc to the party that I didn't like, strip them of possessions, then kick them out.
What was interesting, is I noticed the description of seduce skill says it could only be used on the opposite sex, but I was able to seduce a woman npc in town(I had really high stats and skills, so maybe that factored in), which was surprising, and pretty cool. ;)
Can't wait for the full english version, and hopefully several sequels to follow in coming years.
 
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All stats to 19 ? :wideeyed: The normal maximum is ca. 21 without boni - for selected stats. No wonder you call yourself The Hulk. ;)
 
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In the 3rd edition, stats of 23 are kind of "legendary" status and very, very rare.

Using that in the beginning of Drakensang - okay, it's the 4th edition this time, which mechanics I still don't uinderstand too much, because it has become too complex to me - is quite hefty, imo.
 
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