Drakensang - Review @ IGN

They tried to create a new Baldur's Gate with modern Graphics and the interesting TDE-License - and decided to drop the role-playing due to Budget-limitations and the strategic battles because no one likes them today. What remains is a nice trip to fairy-tale land…

Originally Posted by Gorath
Not only naivety. There's also a slight comedy element and parts of the writing seem to be influenced by fairy tales.

Of course the game never gets dark. Even the villains aren't as cruel as in other games.
It's Drakensang's style. And I guess also the DSA style in general.

That's right, overall. It's just the way Aventuria is. Apart from the "Black Lands".

Originally Posted by Fenris
They tried to create a new Baldur's Gate with modern Graphics and the interesting TDE-License - and decided to drop the role-playing due to Budget-limitations and the strategic battles because no one likes them today. What remains is a nice trip to fairy-tale land…

Yes, that's right in general, too.

Baldur's Gate is their great model, the devs have said this quite often in interviews.

Only that Aventuria is a rather light world, not so much "dark and grey" like many other games.

In the ulisses forums, there is currently a strong discussion going on about Aventuria & grey hue. I got the impression as if the players are divided: Some want a more dark Aventuria, some don't. These "traditionalists" want Aventuria to rather remain lighter than it is now ( ! - you as a Drakensang player don't see much of it at all ! ), meanwhile others want Aventuria to become more dark, and are happy with the "greyness" as it has today. Some want it even more dark.

TDE started as a rather light, fairy-tale inspired world, even to the point that fairies are there, and spells did rhyme.

Over the years, Aventuria became darker, especuially with the arrival of the arch-villian Borbarad. Who created the "Black Lands". Which are rather horror-themed.

After his defeat (1998, I think) the "Black Lands" remained until now, and there has been not much progress against them.

The above mentioned "traditionalists", as I call them, want to see progress against the "Black Lands", which means they want heroes to win against the evil rulers of these areas. THey want to see the lighter parts of Aventuria kind of restored there, again.
It's partly because they argue that Heroes by definition do heroic deeds, and that means a win for the good side.
And TDE is defined as a "heroic" system. Heroes - per original definition - should do good deeds and help the people.

Now that hasn't come true. Instead, a great, great, great disaster has destroyed a huge part of the Middle Realm, and even worse, its capital.

Now, the world has become much darker, much more grey, with the amount of players who want to play grey characters (no more "heroes" by definition) seemingly increasing. at least that's the impression I get while reading the discussions.

The newer generations of players even seem to consider this "darker Aventuria" as normal, which is kind of shocking to "Traditionalists", I guess.
And now these players of grey characters don't want Aventuria to become a lighter place with Heroes doing heroic deeds for the Good Cause anymore !

Now that is the point right now: Aventuria has become a rather grey and much darker place than 10 years or so ago. Of course, from Drakensang you don't see much of that, only bits and parts. Drakensang tends to rather represend the "lighter" form of Aventuria. And that's why me and several other players expect the TDE-action-game to become much, much darker.

The "Traditionalists", by the way, are feeling more and more helpless and ignored, and turn rather away from TDE/Aventuria, because the world's not becoming lighter again. Hoeroes don't do progress against the "Black Lands". Instead, everything remains grey and dark, as it is compared to 10 years ago or so.

Therefore, some of them turn towards Myranor …

So has this otherwise true authentic and atmospheric reproduction and dedicated p&p rule set conversion to pc been watered down then - with all this vicarage tea party humour stuff, in favour of 'contemporary' gamers?

While I can enjoy 'gritty' games, I play rpg's for fun, so finding a game with a 'lighter' style is a pleasant change of pace. Our world is gritty enough for me; it's good to escape that for a few hours!!

It's difficult to say - a casual gamer will have a lot of problems with the ruleset. The Character-Building is really interesting - i.e. you don't get Hitpoints automaticaly when you level up, if you want to have more hitpoints you have to invest points in them, points that might better be spend in new spells or new special-actions i.e. so you can gimp your characters like in Diablo.

But the Fights (with a few exceptions ) are very easy and remind me a lot of World of Warcraft, and the game is horrible linear… once again for budget-reasons you can't even travel back to a previously visited region. There are some choices (help this merchant-house or that, help the witches or the inquisitors, but the maingame stays the same).

I guess the game is to low on strategie and roleplaying for the hardcore-crowd and the rules are to difficult for the casuals

Min/Maxers might get something out of it…

There aren't even Bios three Dialogue-choices (hippie-good, greedy-neutral, stupid-evil), your choices are like in WoW: Ok, I do your Quest or No, not at the moment, maybe later.

Edit:

Yet it's not a bad game - everytime when I can forget the Northland-Triologie and play the game for what it is, it's a nice little game, certainly as "good" as the rest of the mainstream-games from Bio or Bethesda…

Originally Posted by Wulf
So has this otherwise true authentic and atmospheric reproduction and dedicated p&p rule set conversion to pc been watered down then - with all this vicarage tea party humour stuff, in favour of 'contemporary' gamers?

No.

This is how Aventuria still is, to the most part.

The "Black Lands" are only ONE part among many parts of Aventuria.

And not everything is "grey" and dark.

Drakensang still shows the "true" Aventuria - the one which is rather "traditional".

How the world in Drakensang is can still be found in several parts of Aventuria - but not everywhere anymore.

If you want a more grey and gritty TDE game, then the action-game called "Demonicon" might be for you.

And the *original* TDE/Aventuria of many years ago might then not meet your taste …

For a group of players, Drakensang even had *too much* action …

Originally Posted by Corwin
While I can enjoy 'gritty' games, I play rpg's for fun, so finding a game with a 'lighter' style is a pleasant change of pace. Our world is gritty enough for me; it's good to escape that for a few hours!!

Exactly my thoughts, too.

Which is why I become sooooo bored by the majority of current games.

I sometimes think that this could be a sign of Gothic having arrived in the mainstream of gaming culture …

gamestar.de has a few bits about TDE: Demonicon, an action-RPG playing in the Black Lands. It will definitely be darker. If by "action-RPG" the developers mean Diablo style, it would be disappointing. I am not even sure if TDE and Diablo style gameplay mix well.

However, some bits I read were interesting. For example, unlike in Drakensang, NPCs will act differently based on your race and maybe class, and dialogue will offer more options while being fully voiced.

Every game coming out now touts being 'dark & gritty' …. so I appreciate the whimsy as well the interesting characters and plot.

Originally Posted by Grandor Dragon
and dialogue will offer more options while being fully voiced.

Well, if it turns out to be an action-oriented game, then I assume that there'll be less diolog lines than in Drakensang - which means there are fewer costs.

Or in other words: It might be fully voiced, but less dialog in general.

@VPeric: There exists a kind of mini-mod that increases the running speed of the characters. However, I never used it, because for me it was quite okay.

According to this article Drakensang has been sold over 100.000 times (units) in Germany until now.

Running speed discussion moved.

Originally Posted by Avantenor
cop-out. Give us the Top10.

In no Order for top 10 rpgs: The three RoA's. Darklands. Both Buck Rogers. ToEE. Both real Fall Outs. Mega-Traveler. Arcanum. Wizardry 7. Dark Sun. Avernum 5.

If we are talking about best games, and not just best rpgs I might have to replace some games above with: Bloodlines, Betrayal at Krondor, JA2, X-Com:TFTD, Daggerfall, and maybe even Privateer. And Archon will always hold a sweat place in my heart as well, and maybe Nobunaga's Ambition too.

I did not list honorable mentions or runner-ups (I have to mention the Guest for Glory series though).

Impeccable taste.

Originally Posted by Unrestigered
Impeccable taste.

I disagree. A good to very good taste, but still far from impeccable.

Originally Posted by Curunír
I disagree. A good to very good taste, but still far from impeccable.

That’s like saying you don't believe in the Calvin-Benson Cycle. Science cannot be argued with, and science always wins against savage beliefs and opinions. I guess the gods still send plagues when they're angry, huh? This is scientific fact, not some shaman witch doctor voodoo hoopla. E equals MC squared, girls enjoy largely endowed men more than the little fellers, and I have impeccable taste in crpgs. It’s just how it is, good sir.

When someone toots there own horn people tend to not listen.

Originally Posted by Unrestigered
That’s like saying you don't believe in the Calvin-Benson Cycle. Science cannot be argued with, and science always wins against savage beliefs and opinions. I guess the gods still send plagues when they're angry, huh? This is scientific fact, not some shaman witch doctor voodoo hoopla. E equals MC squared, girls enjoy largely endowed men more than the little fellers, and I have impeccable taste in crpgs. It’s just how it is, good sir.

A scientific fact is, that no "best RPGs ever" or "best computer games ever" list can be true if it omits Planescape: Torment or Deus Ex. And that is just the most prime example of your failed reasoning, the (admittedly huge) tip of the iceberg.

Or you can see it in the reverse, good taste is a lot subjective matter so when someone gives his list, it shows good taste for him. You can't deny that because you haven't made the list… and that's scientific.

It's still quite pointless and weird to highlight yourself that you have good taste, sure everybody have good taste for himself, that's just a lapalissade.

If you argue with Roqua, he wins by default, anyway.

A scientific fact is, that no "best RPGs ever" or "best computer games ever" list can be true if it omits Planescape: Torment or Deus Ex. And that is just the most prime example of your failed reasoning, the (admittedly huge) tip of the iceberg.

I don't think you truly understand the meaning of impeccable or scientific fact. Let us clear up this misunderstanding.

IMPECCABLE-adjective
faultless; flawless; irreproachable:

PS:T was an IE game. I’ll be generous and say PS:T was only 50% combat. The combat was repetitive, overly-abundant, boring, overly-abundant, un-strategic, overly-abundant, tactic-less, overly-abundant, and pure and utter crap.
A game that is 50% pure and utter crap cannot be considered faultless, flawless, or irreproachable. Science wins again. I wonder why science always wins against crazy? I know, because crazy doesn’t make sense and science does.

As to Dues Ex, I guess I should’ve included Madden 2002 and whatever FPS is hot right now. My taste is impeccable, and impeccable is far too tasteful to include twitch nonsense with a little bit of meat (Bloodlines, Privateer, and Daggerfall had a shitload of meat included with the twitch-nonsense).

Its okay, we can’t all have impeccable taste. It is my burden to bear alone. Your life is far easier having only decent taste. You should actually thank whatever gods your voodoo shaman deems appropriate for this situation you are not also cursed with impeccable taste like I.

If you argue with Roqua, he wins by default, anyway.

I’ve heard Roqua is extremely handsome, smart, strong, and well-endowed, with skin that glistens like a noble jaguar, possesing of cat-like reflexes and the speed of a mongoose, but I am just Unrestigered. I am an average man besides having impeccable taste in crpgs proven by the scientific method and multiple scientific accrediting agencies throughout the globe as a scientific fact.