RPGWatch Feature: Two Drakensang Reviews

Dhruin

SasqWatch
Joined
August 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
We have two full Drakensang reviews online today, from Gorath and Corwin with some additional comments from other editors. Both articles ultimately form similar opinions, although Gorath played the German version and therefore experienced the original text and voiceovers. Here's an except from Gorath's view:
Drakensang takes place on the continent Aventuria; a nice and friendly mix between a carefully designed medieval and a fairy tale world - the grass is greener and the flowers are more colorful than in other contemporary RPGs. All the cliché fantasy races are at home in Aventuria. So far so unspectacular. Thank god there's more behind it. Radon Labs breaks the cliché with a couple of slightly weird characters and consequently light-hearted dialogs, written in mildly old fashioned language. The comedy elements aren't overdone though - they'll put a smile on your face every once in a while and give the atmosphere more personality.
As you can see, that's quite a contrast to the dark and serious RPGs out there. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the story - one of the PR hooks was the involvement of four original The Dark Eye authors. Sounds great – but couldn't they have come up with something more sophisticated than “The ancient evil wants to take over the world. You must stop him, oh chosen one!” ? Not terribly creative. Both the writing and the subplots are generally well made and keep the player interested, though, and this solid execution lifts Drakensang's story and writing above the average.
Read the full article here.
Here's a sample from Corwin's view:
Once an NPC becomes available to join your party you can exercise complete control over their development and deployment. Character development was, for me, one of the highlights of the game. In most rpg’s I’ve played over a great many years, a key aim was to reach a new level through the garnering of experience so your character could improve their skills and/or attributes. In the TDE system, you can upgrade or learn new skills, spells, whatever, at any time if you have sufficient experience points available. Need to boost your sword skill, or increase your strength, or agility? You can do it on the fly with each and every character as a need arises. It’s a marvellously flexible system and I loved it.
...and read this one all here.
More information.
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
11,842
Location
Sydney, Australia
Hmmm, I'd passed this one over, but these reviews have piqued my interest. I might well pick it up at some point in the future...
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
388
I'm actually replaying now, and very much enjoying it again - theh manual is less of an issue on replay (obviously) but the slow walking is worse at times when you know what to do and just want to get it done!
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
14,932
Why don't you hack the walking?

Ergo's mod is also worth looking at, plus the hotfix for the loot thing. Ergo may have already included it in his pack.

All minor though. Nothing of this is necessary.
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
7,830
I believe the last patch increased walking speed, but not sure if it's released yet for the english version
 
Joined
Sep 23, 2008
Messages
5,645
Location
Tardis
Why don't you hack the walking?

Ergo's mod is also worth looking at, plus the hotfix for the loot thing. Ergo may have already included it in his pack.

All minor though. Nothing of this is necessary.

I've always been funny about not adding that stuff.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
14,932
I believe the last patch increased walking speed, but not sure if it's released yet for the english version

The last hotfix increases the walking speed according to the overall PC's speed, or so I understood this.

Means : Users of faster PCs will be able to walk faster, too. So to say.
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
21,908
Location
Old Europe
Or maybe it was like that before the hotfix. The running speed should be identical everywhere.
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
7,830
The infos for the short paragraph about the DSA history were provided by Alrik. Thank you very much! :)
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
7,830
Comments sections are funky ... Gorath's points here, but Corwin's circles back to the article. So I guess all comments on both end up here. Keep that in mind when mentioning specifics such as 'the article says' ...
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
14,932
Great reviews, and very thorough. I found myself agreeing with pretty much every point you made.

It is intersting though that no one talked about the story. There is not even an overview. Of course the story is nothing special, but I think readers would want to know.
 
Joined
Dec 24, 2008
Messages
557
Location
London, UK
It is intersting though that no one talked about the story. There is not even an overview. Of course the story is nothing special, but I think readers would want to know.

Personally I only consider a paragraph about the story filler material. As a reader I'm absolutely not interested in it unless there's something special to say about it.
 
Joined
Aug 30, 2006
Messages
7,830
I don't know... since this is a story driven game, I think that a paragraph is in order. I am definitely a player who is motivated by story and setting. You can't just assume that people are that experienced with RPGs that it is enough to say that a story is "standard fare".
 
Joined
Dec 24, 2008
Messages
557
Location
London, UK
I don't know... since this is a story driven game, I think that a paragraph is in order. I am definitely a player who is motivated by story and setting. You can't just assume that people are that experienced with RPGs that it is enough to say that a story is "standard fare".

To each its own. I usually skip the paragraphs about the story when I read reviews of a game. Not because I don't care, but because I don't want to know.
 
Joined
Sep 23, 2008
Messages
5,645
Location
Tardis
Good & fair reviews - I have nothing to add.
 
Joined
Oct 18, 2006
Messages
19,813
Location
Germany
The infos for the short paragraph about the DSA history were provided by Alrik. Thank you very much! :)

Thank you ! :) *bows*
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
21,908
Location
Old Europe
Joined
Mar 9, 2009
Messages
495
Location
Finland
Just for clarification, it's not our usual policy to include the use of patches and fixes in our reviews. Vanilla is the normally the only way to go unless an important patch is released 'with' the game!!
 
Joined
Aug 31, 2006
Messages
12,806
Location
Australia
I'd just like to add that Drakensang is kind of an introductory game to a far bigger campaign about Dragons in particular which will be coming within the next few years.

I don't think, though, that this campaign will be on the PC as well, although one never knows.

The end result of Drakensang - as far as I know it, because I still haven't played it to the end yet - has indeed some imho quite big background consequences for Aventuria, but they are relatively difficult to describe. I do hope, however, that it is made more or less clear within the game, though.

So, when there's the notice that original TDE authors are involved, this means in the essence that something important within the world has been changed. But that is visible only for those who know the backgrounds of Aventuria well.



As a sidenote, this game is the third game in which the name of Alrik Fassbauer appears. ;)
 
Joined
Nov 5, 2006
Messages
21,908
Location
Old Europe
Back
Top Bottom