Drakensang - first impressions

So as all the other rpg series didn't start perfect but promising, Drakensang may be a first step for this company (Radon Labs) to develop rpg's. They don't have the experience of Bioware, Bethesda etc. but I think it is a very good start.
I hope so. And it´s no surprise. Radon Labs has a good reputation. Their two older full price games were creative and got good reviews, and they continously get contract work from various publishers.
Radon Labs´ limitation wasn´t experience, it was money. Do you remember that summary of the speech by one of their two bosses, saying that most publishers willing to take the risk on a serious RPG demanded to get it for 1M EUR? "Impossible!". Only when a public media fund gave them another 500k they were able to get it signed. (Rumor is that the overall budget grew to 2M, but don´t forget Germany is an expensive country.) This tells me that the developers had to be extremely pragmatic, get their focus straight and find a lot of clever compromizes to keep the costs down with as low an impact on the game´s quality as possible.

The graphics engine (Nebula Device) is an open source engine mainly developed by Radon Labs, so they can also advance at this end. And as often said. I had no bugs and no crashes so far. Some little annoyances like the map sometimes takes a while to pop up while in town. It is sad, to be happy about so few bugs, since it should be standard...
Their internal Nebula version is certainly more advanced than the open source branch. Nebula is a huge advantage, not a disadvantage. It´s at least good enough, it´s stable, they use it every day for their bread & butter work, and most importantly it´s free.
 
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Having played a bit more for a while now, I came across some pretty heavy flaws in design which make this game less enjoyable than it could be. That you cannot go back to fully explored locations for example is an absolute NO GO in my opinion. Whoever thought that this was a good idea is a complete moron. If you forgot something (like some nice loot, etc.) or did not solve all the riddles in this particular region you won't be able to do it later on. At first I thought it's only the beginner area that's handeled like this, but vey obviously every single zone, except the city of Ferdok, is closed after you solved the main questline there, something you have to do if you want to progress in the game.
 
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As a 25 year Dark Eye vet from Germany I should say this: The Dark Eye has never been as "dark" as D&D Faerhun, there always has been this slight Fairy Tale thing in it,

I just wanted to stress this.

DSA (TDE) was never as dark as The Forgotten Realms (there are no Dark Elves in Aventuria ! - Well, with a weird exception, which not present on the continent of Aventuria - only at its very, very very northern border).

And yes, there has always been the "fairy tale" thing in it.

The proof for brutal murder is the current issue of the "Aventurischer Bote", the "Newspaper" of Aventuria: It tells on its front page the tale of the "Red Slaughterer", who has been ripping the hears and bowel out of several people in Ferdok, the first main town of the game. The picture lets it look like some skeleton-like demon, sort of.

I guess this murder needs to be solved - probably within the game.

Aventuria (or was the translation in English Arakania??).

Arcania was the English title, but it is not an translation.

Why they chose the different title "Realms of Arcania" is still a complete riddle to me.
 
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I just wanted to stress this.

DSA (TDE) was never as dark as The Forgotten Realms
Originally this might have been true, however when Borbarad returned to Aventuria the writers added a huge amount of "darkness" to the setting.
(there are no Dark Elves in Aventuria ! - Well, with a weird exception, which not present on the continent of Aventuria - only at its very, very very northern border).
The dark elves do exist in Aventuria, they are rare but they made it into the monster/enemy/creature book.
Arcania was the English title, but it is not an translation.
Please note that the correct spelling is Arkania. Also the German name is not a word you can translate anyway, it's a pun on "Abenteuer" (Adventure).

Why they chose the different title "Realms of Arcania" is still a complete riddle to me.
Because nobody really knows who has the rights to the Realms of Arkania trademark. It was once held by Sir-Tech, but all rights concerning the first three games including the trademark might have been transfered back to attic, who only exist on paper to uphold all it's rights (mainly the copyrights) with Jochen Hamma as it's CEO.
 
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The dark elves do exist in Aventuria, they are rare but they made it into the monster/enemy/creature book.

You obviously didn't read the "weird exception, because "dark Elves" of Aventuria are in no way whatsoever similar to "dark Elves" of other RPG settings !

And they exist ONLY in the farest northern realms and hardly *ever* travel south !

I have read the Adventure "Schwingen aus Schnee", so I think I can say that I know a few parts about them.

They can be easily bneglected for the rest of Aventuria, because they are

- so abberant
- so rare
- would never travel south without something protecting their eyes

The *real* Elves of Aventuria see in them an totally distortion of elvish life itself ... I think they even cal them "non-elves", the total opposite of them.


About the "darkness" in Aventuria: Yes, the "Schwarze Lande" do exist - but they are an territory of their own, and no sane citizen from anywhere in Aventuria would travel there - it is just too dangerous.

Of course, there are exceptions again. The Bannstrahler, for example, would try it. Plus, several armies regained a few parts of the SChwarze Lande only recently (keyword: Phraisop).

If they wanted to make a fully dark, yet even horror-themed RPG, they could choose the Schwarze Lande for it, because it is perfectly designed for horror adventures and such.
 
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Just to add, I heard a rumor that the international (read english) version will be out in Jan. 09
 
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You obviously didn't read the "weird exception, because "dark Elves" of Aventuria are in no way whatsoever similar to "dark Elves" of other RPG settings !

And they exist ONLY in the farest northern realms and hardly *ever* travel south !

I have read the Adventure "Schwingen aus Schnee", so I think I can say that I know a few parts about them.

They can be easily bneglected for the rest of Aventuria, because they are

- so abberant
- so rare
- would never travel south without something protecting their eyes

The *real* Elves of Aventuria see in them an totally distortion of elvish life itself ... I think they even cal them "non-elves", the total opposite of them.
I did read your post: "are rare" does not equal "do not exist". I just wanted to point out that there can be no exceptions for "do not exist" to be vaild .
BTW, the dark elves are not in any way effected by light (Zoo-Botanica Aventurica, zweite überarbeitete Auflage, p. 140), don't take the "in character" article from page 139 to seriously it's based upon the account of a madman (see the adventure volume Die Phileasson-Saga). The dark elves are the only elves in Myranor, where they mainly live.
Just to add, I heard a rumor that the international (read english) version will be out in Jan. 09
That rumor properly comes from the lastest English trailer that is not on the Drakensang website.
 
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Which trailer?
 
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I did read your post: "are rare" does not equal "do not exist".

You are blocking my second part out. The part with the "weird exception" and the "northern border".
 
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Which trailer?
This trailer. It's in dtp youtube channel but wasn't on www.drakensang.com last time I checked.

You are blocking my second part out. The part with the "weird exception" and the "northern border".
I repeat: I was just pointing out that there can be no exceptions for your "does not exist" statement to be true. I did read your post, I understood your post, I agree with your post. So please give it a rest already.
 
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Just out of pure interest (concerning the Dark Elves topic) and because I don't have my Zoo-Botanica here right now:

Are we talking about "Nachtalben" or something completely different?
Because if we were I would say that the were created artificially by Pardona and therefore should not really be considered real Elves in "biological" terms, more a sort of magical creature or chimera. And if we are talking about the same thing, how in the netherhells did they get to Myranor (I'm not really adept with this setting).
 
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My copy from dtp arrived today. I´ve played around with it for 2 hours, of course without doing anything substancial. ;)
The normal retail version comes with a DVD box inside a card box. In it are a DVD, a good full-color manual with the maximum number of pages (ca. 72) and a small poster with a map and a perk diagram with explanations. The DVD contains the game, the latest DSA ruleset as pdf (Basis Regelwerk 2008 Hardcover Edition; so new, Amazon doesn´t even have a picture for it!), and as gimmick some OEM software called Norton 360 (unclear if demo or full version).

Installation and CP are harmless. The intro is okay, it looks like every other RPG intro.

Performance: I played on a notebook with a smaller C2D, 2 GB and a GF8600 mobile. 1280*8xx, everything maxed. No performance issues at all.

Save/Load times:
save: 5-10 sec.
load: ?
in-game load: mostly absent; just a few seconds when you enter a dungeon.
menus, map: react immediately.

Gameplay:
Everything has been said about it. The action crowd can look elsewhere. Drakensang requires patience, it´s old fashioned, interesting and comfortable.

Bugs, stability:
No bug in 2 hours. 100% stable. Alt-Tab works.

Interface:
All standard stuff. Clean, visually pleasing implementation. Tutorial pop-ups (can be disabled), lots of tool tips. The game communicates clearly and delivers detailed explanations. Bethesda, Bioware or PB should hire Radon Labs´ interface designer. ;)

Camera:
Okay. Maybe it takes some time to get used to for somebody who doesn´t play MMOs. Not problematic though.

Newbie friendliness:
game: yes. It´s quite intuitive.
TDE RPG system: needs explanation, just like D&D.

Graphics, sound, music:
All pretty good. Fallout 3 will be more flashy. Who cares?!

German voice acting:
Good - very good. Only the first sentence in each dialog is spoken.

Writing:
Good - very good. I can see why some people don´t like it, but you can´t deny that it fits the world very well. The little medieval touch is nice, the lack of modern references even nicer. The dialogs could push the boundaries a bit more, they´re too nice for my taste. All NPCs I´ve met so far stayed in character though.

The world:
It´s a mix between a fairy tale world and the medieval Germany. Great atmosphere. Interactivity isn´t that high though. Dice roles on a lot of things, for example picking up a plant, picking a lock.

Early impression:
The 80s ratings are correct so far. Drakensang is a good game but still pretty far away from being a masterpiece like Gothic 2 Gold, at least in the first couple of hours. While the game was exactly what I expected, the amount of polish came as a huge surprise. No bugs, not many rough edges, high stability, optimized performance. It´s refreshing to play an RPG which works as designed, without being harmed by technical problems.
 
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Gorath - I fully agree with you ... and I can promise: The game gets better and better. World interactivity, for example, gets better in later dungeons.

Some camera advice: use WASD to move und the right mouse button for turning. Use the left mouse button to select party members and NOT for point and move.
Use the narrow camera in dungeons.

Gothic, The Witcher and Drakensang have one important thing in common:
When you're in the game, you can't stop playing.
The most important game criterion in my book.
 
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You guys make the waiting all that harder with your reviews...
But keep it coming anyway :)
 
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Although I haven't played that much yet (maybe 4-5 hours), I have to say I really like the writing and the atmosphere. It really fits the P&P atmosphere.
The dialogues are witty and often make you smile about the little funny undertones and the quirks of the characters you talk to.
You interact a lot with important institutions in the TDE world that many P&P enthusiasts know (the churches, the dwarven count of Ferdok, etc.).
The characters in your party, although they don't talk much to each other (until now at least), really have character and are very likable. Often they will comment on a certain situation of incident, though.
And although the main story hasn't really kicked in yet I have to say I'm really captivated by all the little details and the overall feel of it already.

I could also knitpick about some minor flaws I've noticed, but that wouldn't really be fair. Especially the interface is really nicely done, although it sometimes (rarely) doesn't give you all the information you'd (at least I'd) want.
 
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A right-click over an item does wonders ! ;)
 
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The discussions between the rather hardcore RPGamers and the "rest" are becoming more and more heated.
 
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Because nobody really knows who has the rights to the Realms of Arkania trademark. It was once held by Sir-Tech, but all rights concerning the first three games including the trademark might have been transfered back to attic, who only exist on paper to uphold all it's rights (mainly the copyrights) with Jochen Hamma as it's CEO.

I think he was asking why Sir-Tech originally called it Realms of Arkania rather than The Dark Eye.

That one is easy enough to answer: The Dark Eye or The Black Eye, whichever way you wish to translate it, is a really, really stupid name in English. This is also recognized for this game, as it is being PRd as Drakensang primarily and not as a "The Dark Eye" game.

In the Netherlands we call the game "Eye of the Master", which I always liked.
 
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I downloaded the demo but my inability to read German is severly hindering my attempts to play. I really like the graphics, especially the attention to detail, and the music lends an immersive atmosphere. I'll just wait and hope that an English demo isn't too far away.

My only complaint so far is the animation of the hero when he is running. He looks like he needs to :poo:. :lol:
 
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Depends on the hero, I think. I played an Elven heroine, and I thought her running behaviour was normal.

(The TDE system primarily speaks rather of "Heroes" instead oof "Characters". Of course you can use whatever you want, but the traditional word is "Hero", especially among P&P gamers of TDE.)
 
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