Drakensang: TDE - A Fluent Retro Review Pt. 1 (Video)

Hey 'Watchers! In this exciting video I give my thoughts, opinions and ideas about the great German-born RPG, Drakensang, in my first ever "Retro Review" here on the 'Watch!

This is part 1 of the 2 part review series. The 2nd part will be a written article and posted shortly here on the 'Watch!

Enjoy!

Hi everyone! Thank you for joining me on this epic adventure known as Drakensang!

In today's video, I give a little Fluent Review for the game, Drakensang: The Dark Eye. I talk about what I like from the game as well as outline various aspects that make the game so enjoyable, unique and cool!

If you're interested in seeing a basic overview of the game, with topics such as how the inventory works, what there is to know about the Talent system, a quick look at the stat system for the game, then look no further than this video.

Long live the German "The Dark Eye" !

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LINKS:

More information about the game - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drakensang:_The_Dark_Eye

Drakensang on Steam - http://store.steampowered.com/app/12640/

RPGWatch - http://www.rpgwatch.com

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Thanks for watching! If you like this video, please press the Like button, leave a comment and let me know what ya think, subscribe to my channel for more and share this video everywhere! Seriously, share it!

If you really want to help me along, then please take a minute to check out my Patreon page - http://www.patreon.com/fluent

Ciao!

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More information.

You're making me want to play this again.

It's like Dragon Age: Origins, only with a better vibe. Are there mods for Drakensang? I'm only just now thinking to ask this question. o.o;

^ I think that many of the Mods are in German.

The game is overlooked, so I don't see a huge modding community behind this one. Heck, I didn't even know this game existed until somewhat recently, as outside of Germany it seems to be unknown.

Great game, though. Cut from the same cloth as the classics, IMO.

There are a few Mods for DraSa 1, mostly new Classes, better and interesting Loot for some Quests; also one Mod that disables the MMO-Questmarkers and one that removes the bloom.

http://mods.jo-ge.net/dsa4/english.htm

The Mods worked great on my old Computer with Windows XP, but on my newer machine with Windows 7 appeared some unfortunate bugs with the Item-Mods
The Class-Mods worked great.

There was a big Rebalance Patch, that seemed to be good and made the game a bit faster, but I didn't install it, the Creator was often here back in the days, so you should find it in the Forums here.

For the second Part are some interesting (german) Questmods, but once again they made Problems on my newer rig
There are also more Faces, Classes and recipes for the second game, wich worked great.

Edit:
German Gamers are in for a real treat soon(tm):
Das Auge der Göttin (The Eye of the Goddess), a Quest Mod for DraSa I:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVzjI7dOKpE
It is from the Modders that made Kaltensteins Schatten and Forscher in Nöten for River of Time.

Link to their older german Questmods for DraSa 2:
http://www.dsa-drakensang.de/?go=download&cat_id=11
Unfortunatly the Mods didn't work well for me.
(Forscher in Nöten worked on my old machine, but the dialogue didn't start on the new one, the first few Quests of Kaltensteins Schatten were nice and worked, but at some point I couldn't advance the Quest anymore).
They are even planing to create another Mod for River of Time after the Release of "Das Auge der Göttin"

Aubrielle said:

You're making me want to play this again.

It's like Dragon Age: Origins, only with a better vibe. Are there mods for Drakensang? I'm only just now thinking to ask this question. o.o;

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Aubrielle, do you mean: the free ones OR the paid ones ?

Just joking !!

Nice to see this about a game which many dont notice. Thanks for the info.

You're welcome, jd. Nice chatting with you on Steam.

Thanks for the review. I always thought the Drakensang games were good, not great, but still deserved more recognition than they received. My favorite in the series was The River of Time prequel.

Fluent said:

This is part 1 of the 2 part review series. The 2nd part will be a written article and posted shortly here on the 'Watch!

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I'll post fluent's written review on Thursday, or Friday.

As we have a short impression article we must publish for Shadowrun Chronicles.

Good one Fluent! Thanks for the video.

Call me a heretic or whatever...but I never played Baldurs Gate. But Drakensang is a true gem in my book.
I also liked the deep character customisation. You had to be careful how to develop the party members. Blacksmith and alchemist is worth to have in the party, as well a good plant and animal lore and of course all other traits. I never developed the social skills of the party though, hence my own anti-social behavior.
It really felt good as you progressed trough out the game, the party was stronger and more skilled over time.
And as you said, not a open world game, but quite a vast and interesting regions to explore. The adventure really felt great. And this game is one of my favorites as well the River of Time. The writing and the story are also great. And to the game looks visually beautiful.
It would be awesome to play it again. And this winter I will enjoy it again.

You're welcome, Black Rune. Thank you for watching it.

Steam says...

An error was encountered while processing your request:
This item is currently unavailable in your region



Link to Gamersgate for others down under. Can't see the prequel tho.

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-DRAKEN/the-dark-eye-drakensang


It's on the list, so hopefully one day


-kaos

Xian said:

Thanks for the review. I always thought the Drakensang games were good, not great, but still deserved more recognition than they received. My favorite in the series was The River of Time prequel.

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You're also welcome, Xian!

I would have to disagree about the good vs. great. To me, Drakensang is great, although I have only spent some 40 hours or so with it, it definitely feels like a classic to me. I'm really enjoying the adventure, the characters, and the stat system with all those juicy Talents and abilities, just wonderful stuff.

Some things could be better, sure, but the overall package is quite deep and rich here.

I wrote a review for the game that will be published soon, stay tuned to see my final score for the game and more detailed analysis.

kaos_war_monk said:

Steam says…

An error was encountered while processing your request:
This item is currently unavailable in your region



Link to Gamersgate for others down under. Can't see the prequel tho.

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-DRAKEN/the-dark-eye-drakensang


It's on the list, so hopefully one day


-kaos

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kaos, You can buy a boxed copy for very cheap on Ebay, Amazon or the like. I purchased both an "Ultimate Edition", which includes the first game, the second game and the expansion, as well as a boxed copy of just the first game, which includes the first game and a paper manual/handbook. I bought that just for the handbook. Installed the Ultimate Edition versions on my Win 7 64-bit version and they work without so much as a hiccup. You should look into that.

kaos_war_monk said:

Steam says…

An error was encountered while processing your request:
This item is currently unavailable in your region



Link to Gamersgate for others down under. Can't see the prequel tho.

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-DRAKEN/the-dark-eye-drakensang


It's on the list, so hopefully one day

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The game always had trouble selling online, and at one point steam didn't even sell it in the US. Though you can now buy a physical Steam free copy cheaply nowadays.

Link - http://www.amazon.com/Dark-Eye-Drakensang-PC/dp/B001QT8RGS/ref=sr_1_1?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1430176470&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Dark+Eye%3A+Drakensang+-

I don't understand why it is virtually unknown. It's relatively well polished, deep, rich world, good quests, nice enough graphics. Just seems like "the forgotten game" for some reason.

The start of the game is a bit slow, too. It's certainly a slow-paced, methodical adventure but that's one of the reasons why I like it so much.

I can see a modern gamer not making it past the first hour or 2, though.

The publisher was too small and missed the boat on digital distribution. For their NA partner Drakensang was shovelware to fill the pipeline. 20$ price, no marketing. Just hit & run business.

Interesting. Sound like a game that needs a proper re-release.

Enjoyable game in my view, not great but pretty good.