Drakensang:RoT First impressions

This forum is so empty that I thought it wouldn't hurt to start a new thread.

I have played some Drakensang 2, but I am not terribly far. For those who know the game, I am currently infiltrating the fortress early in the plot.

I can confirm that this is Drakensang, only polished. The fully voiced dialogues are better written and are better at reflecting your character class. Depending on your class, the first quests are slightly different, so that it becomes easier to get into the character.

The game also makes better use of your character skills, especially in coversations. There is also more choice in how to do a quest. We are not talking about Fallout 2 levels here (Drakensang is far from it), but still an improvement.

The combat somehow feels slower than in the first game, but maybe it's just me. I wish it would speed up. On the other hand, there appears to be less filler combat and more unique encounters.

Just like in the first game, there are a lot of barrels to smash for almost worthless loot. Less than in the predecessor, but it is still annoying, especially since, as I heard, patient players can make serious money by smashing a lot of barrels.

Again, the world of Drakensang is beautiful and light. The visual design and the characters make it feel a lot like a fairy tale. Dragon Age, the Witcher and other games aim to make a fantasy world "realistic". There is a lot of politics, a lot of history, and everything is very serious. The world of Drakensang is like the early years of the pen&paper game. Pure escapism and fun.

There are 3 kinds of boxes now (not so much barrels) :

- shabby ones
- craftman's ones
- locked ones

The last ones can only be opened with the approprite skill (which must be quite high in some cases), and/or lockpicking talents.

The locked ones usually contain very good stuff. The shabby boxes usually don't (random, they seldom do), and the "middle tier boxes" can contain both useful and useless stuff.

The fights are fewer, indeed, but more unique - as wished by the community.

Me, personally, I'm currently in love with his game, so to say.

But visiting the official forums has become kind of a "spoiler fest" right now, with no-one thinking of actually using spoilers. They just post tiny bits here and there which can consist of solutions of quests. It has become like some kind of minefield.

Since the game takes place so much earlier, one is able to encounter much younger "versions" of characters from Drakensang 1.

A few things can only be interpreted correctly with having the TDE background in mind - especially when talking with Elves.

Exploring might result in a few locked boxes, by the way, which can contain very good stuff.

Social interaction is also implemented very good, imo. Putting points into social skills actually results in better outcomes now.

The variety of implemented skills is now checked much more often. Even skills that weren't much useful before.

Decisions can be made, and they can have very strong results, sometimes. Party members can offer different ways to resolve a quest, and once you chose one of them, you're stuck with it. Which imho means quite some replayability value, imho. (Don't know whether this word actually exists, but I don't quite care, because I love making up my own words and terms . )

I think that's it for now from my side.

Sounds good!

Any ETA on the English version?

Sorry, no info yet. At least I know of nothing. Maybe there's something behind the closed doors.

Grandor Dragon said:

Again, the world of Drakensang is beautiful and light.

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Without wanting to spoil anything, I'm currently in a quite dark area. Still it is fun, kind of.

I don't think this particular forum will get much traffic until the release of the English version. Meanwhile we'll allow the German beta testers to enjoy themselves!!

Ha, ha, ha.

Speaking of beta testing, the game is again in excellent shape. I have not encountered a single bug yet.

I have found very, very few. Only two or three, actually. Once, a group of my heroes got stuck between stones.

I releaded - only later I learned that as long as one is able to walk around normalle, at one point your characters are kind of "teleported" to that remaining one, if he or she is far away enough from them.

Drakensang is a very polished game - no beta testing needed anymore.

I finished the game last week - if your are a traditional role-player this is a must-buy; if you are new to the genre - just try it.

Challenging puzzles & combat + character-building + alchemy + weapon crafting + nice story + unique characters + many items + nice story.

Challenging combat indeed. Because the game is less linear than the first one and there is no auto-scaling as far as I'm aware, it is possible to accept some quests that are too much for your party. This is fine IMO, however, some quests "lock" you into an area and won't let you out until you complete it.

This can be annoying because you might find out that the quest is too challenging only at the end, which means that you either have to change the difficulty to easy or load a save from an hour back and then not start the quest.

Grandor Dragon said:

Challenging combat indeed. Because the game is less linear than the first one and there is no auto-scaling as far as I'm aware, it is possible to accept some quests that are too much for your party. This is fine IMO, however, some quests "lock" you into an area and won't let you out until you complete it.

This can be annoying because you might find out that the quest is too challenging only at the end, which means that you either have to change the difficulty to easy or load a save from an hour back and then not start the quest.

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Or try to come up with creative use of your abilities, and hope for luck, which is what many people did in Drakensang 1 with the mother of rats

In Drakensang 2, there is a "rat hunter". I used something like "charming" him - an ability that the "thief" of the group has.

I used that time window to plunder a nearby box, and run away.

Is there any date already set for the english version? The comments on these boards are making it hard to resist buying a german version, eventhough my german sucks

Or a french version...

Eventually, I should go back to finishing Drakensang 1. Somehow, I lost interest in the game somehow, somewhere midgame in a cave with so many repetitive combats.

I don't think the German would be simple for players who say that their German "sucks".

Drakensang 1 had a lot of repetitive combat. The worst part were the dungeons beneath the dwarven city. Horribly repetitive. Towards the end, the quality picks up again and there are some cool moments.

Drakensang 2 appears to have a few spawn points in which you face a lot of enemies. It appears that they are optional. Playing the main plot, I found combat to be more interesting.

Haha, and one last thing.

It was such a good decision to get rid of Speedtree and do the trees by hand. The forests do look more interesting, and more European!

Grandor Dragon said:

Drakensang 1 had a lot of repetitive combat. The worst part were the dungeons beneath the dwarven city. Horribly repetitive. Towards the end, the quality picks up again and there are some cool moments.

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Which has been changed. Fewer, and more interesting, imho.

Grandor Dragon said:

Haha, and one last thing.

It was such a good decision to get rid of Speedtree and do the trees by hand. The forests do look more interesting, and more European!

Click to expand...

Yes, indeed !

So what do you guys think, how much better is TRoT?

*How* much better ? Uh, difficult to say. At least, imho positive is that the amount of combat has been reduced. It has more … kind of "depth", to me.

I'd say, it's about 35 % of an improvement. Very roughly estimated, because I really don't know how to express it in numbers.