![]() When I'm leveling up a character, for instance, I'd like to have a clearer understanding of whether it's better to boost a skill by buying new ranks or by boosting the associated attribute and thereby gaining a bonus to all the related skills. What I don't like is the way the presentation obscures the inner workings of the game. With so many of our RPGs being simplified purely to appeal to the console crowd, I actually welcome the fact that Drakensang requires a bit of effort from the player. I'm not calling for a reduction in overall complexity. It's not always easy to tell why combats are going well. Drakensang may be just as intuitive and accessible to people who've played it a lot but in trying to break into the North American market, I feel that the designers need to make their system more transparent. Maybe I'm just spoiled because I'm already so familiar with the D&D and D20 systems that it's no great leap for me to jump into Neverwinter Nights and instantly understand the relationships between the math and the game results. ![]() Having never played the tabletop game, I can't vouch for the authenticity of the rules, but I can say that they seem a bit more complex than the systems used in many other popular RPGs, both on and off the desktop. You won't find quite as much freedom of choice as you would in, say Oblivion or Fable, but you do get a few chances here and there to pick sides or attitudes in a certain encounter.ĭrakensang is based on a very popular pen-and-paper game in Germany so it draws its rules from a coherent and comprehensive system. Whether you're simply offering a job to an old friend's servant or trying to soothe the anger of a vengeful and tortured elven spirit, there's a lot of emotional weight behind the quests and missions. The situations are believable and handled in a way that engages your interest and encourages your sympathy. On the plus side, the story itself is well written, much more so than is usually the case with translated games. When he's finally arrested for the one crime that he didn't commit, it's like, okay, I get it. How about an overconfident rogue who constantly has to talk himself out of complicated situations with women and legal authorities? That's here too. A scholarly wizard who accidentally causes a catastrophe because he's too focused on his studies? Yep, that's here. No, I don't have anything at all against haughty elves or absent-minded wizards or humorless Amazon warriors - these characters are cliches precisely because they represent concepts that are intensely compelling - but it doesn't feel as though Drakensang does anything with them that we haven't seen in countless books, movies and games already.Ībsent-minded wizards with pointy hats and long beards? We got 'em! Yes, it's unfortunate that the basic ideas are somewhat generic but the real disappointment is that they're used in a generic way. There are twists and turns along the way and even some flat out surprises but the setting itself is completely unremarkable. I won't spoil any of the 80-or-so hour experience as far as the story goes, except to say that the player begins playing detective and helping out the local law enforcement before discovering a greater destiny as the fulfillment (or possibly just errand boy) for a long-standing prophecy. And though it's a solid addition to the RPG catalog (and a bargain at a mere thirty bucks), Drakensang may leave some gamers wanting more of certain features and less of others. ![]() ![]() Having already won honors as Germany's RPG of 2008, the game has finally made its way to the States. ![]() As our beloved genre rapidly morphs into the more profitable massively multiplayer format, a number of German development studios have stepped into the market with titles such as Sacred, Gothic and the subject of today's review, Drakensang: The Dark Eye. Despite the success of games like Fallout 3 and Mass Effect, the single-player RPG is a rare species on the PC these days. ![]()
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