Drakensang - First Impressions @ RPS

wolfing said:

Just a question, why couldn't you just buy it from the online download places? Even if they restrict by IP address, can't you use a proxy or something?

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I tend to buy my games in stores. I like to have the physical case, disc and the manual.
I sometimes buy older games over the net, but then its to get an actualy box and not download it. (Amazon, Ebay, etc.)

Foss said:

I tend to buy my games in stores. I like to have the physical case, disc and the manual.
I sometimes buy older games over the net, but then its to get an actualy box and not download it. (Amazon, Ebay, etc.)

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Same here. And in spite of several rounds of looking, I have yet to find a copy of this game in any store. Even Frys doesn't have any in stock. Not that I should be surprised -- they just took over the PC game shelves to stock even more Guitar Hero controllers.

Bedwyr said:

Finally decided, meh. Mouse button silliness aside (In my defense I'd clicked it a few times, didn't see anything happen, and went on), it's perfunctory. Lots of good elements are there, but nothing that really draws them together and makes them sing. Character animations are over-the-top. I turned down the volume on voice acting. Visual quality is good. World interactivity is limited. It's always 4pm, apparently. The RPG system is a solid one (never played Dark Eye).

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I agree with a lot of your points. The best part of this game is the RPG system, which I enjoy immensely in comparison to D&D/D20 which often feels too limited and restrictive. You can create some truly weird hybrid characters with this engine, which I'm really having a lot of fun with.

I also like the combat, though it takes some getting used to. I basically implemented the "pause after every round" setting and play it like a turn-based game. This makes it tactically more fun; however, I'm not sure the designers planned the game in this way...

<SPOILERS FOLLOW>

...which leads to my single biggest complaint: the design is far too combat-heavy for a game that is best played with "pause-n-play" combat. None of the original Realms of Arkania (Northlands) games had the swarms of enemies you encounter in this game. In fact, after playing about halfway in, I've had scores of encounters where there were so many enemies they were literally stacking on top of each other, because there wasn't room to represent them on-screen. That's bad/shoddy design.

Other bad design elements include: problems with pacing (too much walking/running around to find things and far too much back and forth), too many fedex quests used for filler (e.g., that "cleanse the vaults" quest in Moorbridge), and too many samey dungeon crawls (e.g., if I ever see another pack of wolf rats in my life again, it'll be too soon...).

These are rookie mistakes by (what I believe is) a rookie development outfit. However, even with all of those problems, they've done such a tremendous job on implementing the Dark Eye ruleset (at least from the perspective of someone who never played the P&P version), and designing a living, breathing world that I'm enjoying the game very much.

<END SPOILERS>

Note that, as with many RPGs, the demo is not indicative of the complete game. Voice work improves, character dialogues improve, and exploration and fighting improves.

Cabel Blacke said:

Note that, as with many RPGs, the demo is not indicative of the complete game. Voice work improves, character dialogues improve, and exploration and fighting improves.

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Heh, yes, that's right. The demo part is very boring. The city is much better.