Drakensang - Review Flood 2

elikal said:

German mags review German games generally more negative. It's still our good old post WWII self-hate. Everything from Germany must be mediocre in Germans eyes. Its a pity.

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I strongly disagree with that and actually believe that the complete opposite is the case. At least for "real" German games.

A real German game to me is a game that is based on a German setting or background and where the developer did not try to mimic or even clone a successful international (US) title. Real German "made in Germany" games actually seem to receive a special German bonus most of the time (see Gothic III which -except for 4Players- got incredibly good scores for such a broken game).

Drakensang is such a real German game IMHO. It's like Gothic, The Settlers, Anno, The Guild etc.
Games like that usually do seem to get bonus points simply for being German games for a German audience and because members of the press just don't want the game to be a failure.

I do believe that Drakensag did get bonus points for being German, bonus points for being from a small, likeable developer and that most people from the German press simply wanted for Drakensang to turn into a success story. Just like the fans, they just really wanted the return of DSA (DSA = TDE = The Dark Eye) to work out and not to fail.
Kind of like the international press absolutely wanted the return of Lara Croft to work out when she did return in Tomb Raider: Legend. Sure, the game was actually kinda good, too, but it did receive some fairly inflated scores from people who just wanted Tomb Raider to have a glorious comeback.

I think that this needs to be taken into account when considering the scores for Drakensang. Of course, I don't know exactly how big the bonus (in points or %) for Drakensang is and it differs from review to review anyway but from my own experience with the game, when trying to think of a "realistic" score, I'm leaning more towards the 4Players review (in spite of being a BIG fan of the original trilogy) than the 80%+ or even higher reviews.

Honestly, all sympathies, nostalgia and emotions aside... there's not much more than an average, and at times at best mediocre, game beneath it all.

Honestly, all sympathies, nostalgia and emotions aside... there's not much more than an average, and at times at best mediocre, game beneath it all.

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I disagree, all sympathies, nostalgia and emotions aside... this is still a pretty good old school game, lots of humor, side quests, choices and consequences, hard combat, cool tactics. I am playing for 60 hours now (Level 11) and the game is getting better and better, interesting side stories, books ...
My score was 75-80% in the beginning, but now 85% (and rising). On top of that it is bug free.

OK, I'm only at around the ~20 hour mark or so so I hope you're right that it does indeed get better and better as you move on .

However, you never get a second chance to make a first impression so one has really got to wonder whose "great" idea it was to make the beginning of the game a borefest.

Or maybe I'm just getting old or something but I do value my time a lot more than I used to. Every hour passing by doing boring crap, hoping the game does get better, feels like a wasted hour these days.

Moriendor said:

Honestly, all sympathies, nostalgia and emotions aside... there's not much more than an average, and at times at best mediocre, game beneath it all.

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That's not simply a "bonus". It is a german rule set, every german who is interested in fantasy knows TDE, it's more common then D&D. So you automatically feel personally involved, more than for a World of Darkness or Shadowrun game. I'm sure it was the same for poland when the witcher came out. TDE is so much of a german ruleset that of course the emotions within the german community are much more positive than anywhere else. Most people accept some minor curtailment if it is something they've trust in. There's nothing wrong about it as long as most the people feel comfortable with it. Other countries have different afffectations. Or does anybody outside japan think of Mr. Moskeeto as a good game?

I downloaded the German demo just to get a look at the mechanics and to get a 'feel' for the game, and I'm pretty sure that it will appeal to most hardcore CRPG players when the translation is finished, just my opinion. My only complaint is the graphics are a little 'cartooney' similar to World of Warcraft, but I think it looks like a 'winner' I guess we'll see.

HiddenX said:

I disagree, all sympathies, nostalgia and emotions aside...

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Towards what? The RoA series - or towards Moe!?

Moriendor said:

OK, I'm only at around the ~20 hour mark or so so I hope you're right that it does indeed get better and better as you move on .

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Honestly... well, i certainly don´t want to discourage you and i have to stress that i´m taking this just from second hand myself (not playing yet - my nevending story since G3: have to get a new rig first):
But knowing you and considering the points of critcism from more critical voices in the official forums and some neutral reviews like the eurogamer or onlinewelten one, i´m pretty sure the game won´t find mercy under the strict regime that is your semi-professional level of expectation.
You´re just a heck of a `critical eye´.

Not that HiddenX might not be - but one can tell from the start that you´re having a fundamentally different attitude and approach to the matter.

Otherwise, i´d still like to see you tackling the hardship and wade your way through the complete game - cause i´m much interested in a well founded final verdict on it.
And not finishing it would certainly taint that effort.

(Just one request: no swear word then afterwards! )

Moriendor said:

Or maybe I'm just getting old or something...

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... though this is certainly a point to factor in here strongly.



Ragon, The Mage

Avantenor said:

'm sure it was the same for poland when the witcher came out.

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Intend to agree, although I don't know the market there.

The reverse deduction could be that this is also true for U.S.-based games - which perhaps could help explain parts of the the immense sales of U.S.-based games (not completely, of course).

Which could - further thinking - explain a little bit why non-U.S. games are not so relevant in this market (the U.S. market, that is).
They simply don't have any bonus.

Sir Markus said:

My only complaint is the graphics are a little 'cartooney' similar to World of Warcraft, but I think it looks like a 'winner' I guess we'll see.

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To me not at all. To me, everything looks quite realistically.

Although a little bit too bright sometimes.

The buildings are based more or less on real German architecture from the Renaissance and the medieval times.