Drakensang: The Dark Eye - thoughts?

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As per title. Looks interesting to me, but I've seen three short opinions describing it as rather average. So I thought maybe someone here would have some more insight to offer.

 

I was a big fan of the "Dark Eye" PnP and the older North-Lands Trilogy!
I had really high hopes for DS!

Don't get me wrong, Das Schwarzte Auge (Dark Eye) is one of the best RPG platforms I have ever used. The only real contribution Germany has in terms of good RPG's.

But DrakenSang was kinda a let-down to me!
Lots of the "details" that made the original trilogy stand out was left out, and a more "streamlined" game was produced! To much Diablo IMO!

Lots of people waited for a very long time (since the mid 90's) for the next Dark Eye CRPG.

Don't get me wrong, if you are not familiar with the older Games you won't miss much! Drakensang is a well executed and good-looking game. With dozen classes; races; and stuff. And a solid plot that has lots of room for RPG-ing!

Try the Demo if you can!

 

It is a very beautiful game, even on low-performance-machines.

Yeah, content-wise it's a bit slim, but considering that it's Radon Labs first feature game, and the publisher doesn't exactly swim in money, Drakensang is a very well executed game. And it's playable out of the box, meaning there are no game-stopping bugs.


@Darion: DSA isn't a very good game. The system got better over the years, I'll give you that, but it is generally too complicated and fiddly to play.

 

Drakensang is a nice game, nice story, sweet graphics, intuitive combat system. Good buy.

 

The demo was nice. as soon as it hit the shelves in Holland I will get it. it gave me that homy bg2 feeling. Tried to get in in german here, but non of the stores had it.(that includes the internet stores.)

Which blockbuster game today is not short.

 

Amazon.de has it.

 

A release date has been posted in an article by Gamespy.
Link: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/drakensang-the-dark-eye/945564p1.html

Feb 18 is close by.

This is the last time I bought a game pre-order online. I still have not got it. (april 4)

 

I posted some of my Drakensang screenshots here, so you can get an idea of what the graphics are like.

 

April 14. D&D but not as we know it. Tricky leveling, you really must put points in a few skills. Six attibutes are enough. A shame for the flanking, and blocking tactics.

 

For those who played NWN and NWN2 combat in Drakensang will be largely familiar. You do have combat abilities roughly equivalent to feats. The stats work a little different. Defense and armor is a little more nuanced i.e. complicated. You do have skills (conversational, lore, crafting). The skill system is pretty comprehensive even though less specialised than the 3+e AD&D rules. I think that#s a good thing. One has in any way to take care to choose skill points wisely to distribute skills evenly through the party.

It is funny that after AD&D-ing so much I really appreciate this going back to my role playing roots, to find that DSA is actually a pretty good system. I feel that AD&D does go out of hand at times, especially when I think about editions on Norse, Greek or Egyptian gods and the like being added to their RPG franchise. On the other hand, 3e has halflings and eventually allowed to build the natural über-character - the halfling paladin.