Drakensang - Screens @ Worthplaying

Well... it's definitely going to be a pretty game. I just hope that it has that Das Schwarze Auge feel that the earlier "Realms of Arkania" games did.

It would be sad if they dumb it down to the point where it feels like a "Let's Copy Oblivion and make lots of money" game. I'm not putting Oblivion down... I enjoyed it for what it was... I'm just hoping for a faithful representation of the PnP RPG that Drakensang is supposed to be based off of.
 
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Oblivion has different game mechanics, so it can't be a simple clone. It's Baldur's Gate like.
 
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Oblivion has different game mechanics, so it can't be a simple clone. It's Baldur's Gate like.

That's not quite what I meant. I know that it will have different mechanics... I just meant I hope they don't "dumb" it down so they can reach "Joe Playstation" (I know it's not a playstation game as well... just making a point).

One of the things that I loved about the Arkania series was how amazingly in-depth the RPG system was for those games. By today's standards you would be considered to be a rocket scientist if you can play those original games. You had to learn the system, pay attention to everything, and really put forth effort to succeed in those games (but despite the time and patience required they were immensely fun games)... which is how I believe it should be.

Today's games lean more and more toward the "Oblivion" approach of "Let's make it as easy as we can so every moron with 60 bucks can play it". I know that's a great marketing approach, but it leaves us old RPG cronies out in the cold.

So what I'm really trying to say is that I hope they make the game match the system that it's supposedly coming from. But I'm sure that they are working diligently (especially the marketing guys) to make it as "accessible" as possible... which is not always a good thing.
 
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Unfortunately, that also seems to be unlikely.

1. There has been a ruleset revision since RoA series that introduced extensive changes to the game. It's now a point-buy-system with lots of different skills for nearly everything. In the meanwhile it becameso complex that it has to be dumped down or it would become confusing without a 150 pages manual (what is really unlikely, especially because it would have to be translated into English)

2. In fact they will try to reach Joe Playstation. The game was designed for PC, that's for sure. But that was only because they didn't get the chance to make it muliplattform from the beginning. You have to know, Germany is mainly PC market (although even this begins to change). So no publisher wanted a "typical german" RPG and that one, that wanted the game, hasn't been a certified xbox publisher at that time. dtp is know certified and of course they are now thinking about an xbox release. In fact that's the market where the money is and that's what I think they need if they want to compete in future.

I think it's more hardcore than oblivion, but not even quite as hardcore as the old RoA. It's somewhat like NWN2.
 
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I'm hoping the fact that the game is being developed in Germany will result in a more hardcore RPG type game.

I know, you're right that they are going to do what they can to sell it to as many people as possible... it's all about the money. But it's sad to see games change like they are when you've been around long enough to remember the days when a 150 page manual was considered a good thing.

As a matter of fact, just for the heck of it I spent a little time and opened some boxes from my collection.


  • Fallout 2 had a 150 page spiral bound manual... wonderful.

  • Each original Realms of Arkania game had a manual with about 100 pages... awesome.

  • Wizardry 8 had a 130 page manual... loved it.

  • The Gold box games each had a manual and a Journal book. I know it was a form of copy protection, and some people hated the journals. But I loved every time the game prompted me to read a journal entry... more plot was revealed... it was exciting... but that was years ago (1988 and after).

The list goes on and on... those manuals were part of the game for me. They added "meat" to the game... made me feel like I was really playing an RPG.
As a matter of fact, to this day the first thing I do when I get a new CRPG is not to load it onto my computer, but instead to sit down and read the manual from cover to cover.

I know it's just the ramblings of an old grognard from the early days of PC gaming... and I know that things won't go back to the way they were... but it still makes me a bit sad to see the state of computer RPGs change for what I see as the worst.

However... there are still good and sometimes great CRPGS still being made. I really liked NWN2... and if Drakensang can pull off the feel of DSA like NWN2 pulled off the feel of D&D 3.5 (which I thought was done fairly well considering its real time/with pause - gameplay) I will be very happy.
 
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I think it's more hardcore than oblivion, but not even quite as hardcore as the old RoA. It's somewhat like NWN2.

Yep thats what I am afraid of too (personally I found NWN2 very mediocre and
it is one of the few games I haven't finished, will give it another shot though).

I have to hope it is not too NWNish and has enough of its own distinctive feel
and character since this is one of the very few games on my radar for the
coming (?) months...
 
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I'm hoping the fact that the game is being developed in Germany will result in a more hardcore RPG type game.

We had quite some discussions about this matter in the official forums.

The current out-look is this that - as Avantenor already wrote - it IS designed to reach "Joe Console-Player". I even read that Drakensang WILL be ported one day towards xbox & playstation 3 ...

So, you'd better don't keep hopes p for a game like the ROA-series. There's no Micromanagement. There's no hardcore thing in it at all.

All in all it's just a "streamlined", good "middlecore-RPG" game aimed to please a greatest possible audience.

I'd say that you'd better let your hopes for any "hardcore RPG" go. No-one does this thing anymore. Because they feel that "hardcore games" would exclude too much potential customers.

It's like reading LOTR : Too much, too big, too complicated ... People wand easy stuff ...

*sigh* *sigh* *sigh*



Edit : New screens at www.Gamestar.de :
http://www.gamestar.de/news/pc/rollenspiel/1946254/das_schwarze_auge_drakensang.html
 
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Well... in "The Witcher" you basically just clicked stuff like a retard and people loved it. I'm not sure if this is really just a console problem. Since Diablo screwed up the RPG genre it just got worse and worse long before consoles were the latest hit. I guess people want it easy and fast today or they think that's what they want - who can tell. DSA looks indeed a lot like NWN2, and that's probably the best you can get nowadays. I'm looking foward to the game anyway... I just hope they'll come up with a half-way decent story.
 
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