The Dark Eye: Drakensang is a recently released single player RPG similar to Neverwinter Nights 2. Compared to it the game offers a long and interesting single player campaign and a complex combat system, but lacks the editor and multiplayer gameplay.
Unlike most recent RPGs of this style, Drakensang does not use the D&D rules system. Instead the game is based on the german Das Schwarze Auge (The Black Eye) rpg which is quite differently than D&D right from the beginning.
At the start of the game you create a character and compared to other RPGs the character creation is more limited. You can choose from a number of pre build characters of different origins and professions and, if you want, change the starting skills of them. The look, starting attributes, advantages and disadvantages and in the case of dwarves and amazons, the gender is fixed.
Now, before I continue to review this game, let me first explain the rules a bit to prevent any misunderstandings. DSA is point based which means that as you earn experience you can it to increase skills, attributes and weapon profiencies. Every character can learn everything, the question is just about how much points it costs. That's why it is not that bad that you don't have the complete control over you character when you create him or her.
Checks in DSA are made with a 20 sided dice, like in D&D, except that you have to roll low, instead of high. Generally in order to succeed you have to roll below the target number. This is true for skill checks and for the combat.
Every skill in Drakensang is linked to three attributes and in order to succeed in a skill check you have to roll three times and get below those attributes. When you increased the skill rank you are allowed to subtract 1 point for each rank from one of those rolls. So in order to get better in a skill you can either increase the linked attributes or increase the skill itself.
After all three checks are made the remaining skill ranks you did not spend to reduce the die rolls determine how well you do something, which is especially important for spells which are resolved in the same way.
There are some exception to this rule as for some skills no checks are made, but instead you simply need a specific amount of ranks in order to do something. How many ranks you can take is also determined by the linked attributes.
All of this calculation is of course done for you in the game, but you can see that Drakensang is a bit more complex than D&D so you have to be willing to invest a little more effort to learn the rules in order to play Drakensang than for example Neverwinter Nights 2.
The skills themselves are divided into multiple categories. There are combat related skills, like stealth and self-control, nature skills like animal knowledge, social skills like diplomacy, general knowledge skills which handle treating wounds and identifying magical items and crafting skills like crafting bows.
Many skills in the game are linked to crafting and cover the crafting itself (forging, crafting bows and alchemy) and the collection of the required material.
To craft something you have to buy/find a blueprint, learn it and then you can, at the correct workstation, build the item as long as you have the correct materials. The normal items can be build with store bought materials and in the end just save you some money compared to items you can buy, but the more powerful ones can only be build when using monster parts which first have to be harvested. And once you build one of those special items you will likely keep it for a long time. That is because in Drakensang you won't be flooded with magical items like in Neverwinter Nights, Magic in DSA is rare and you will hardly find any magical items. Instead the higher quality items, even the unmagical ones, are not too common. It will take quite some time to find things like a full plate or a good two handed sword.
Lets move on the combat system. Like with skills it requires you to roll low. Each character has, for each weapon category, a attack and a parry value. If he wants to attack someone successfully he simply has to roll below his attack value which is rather easy. The problem is that the enemy has now the chance to parry the attack by rolling below his parry value which is equally easy. If you already used parry in this round then you can only try to dodge further attacks as you can only parry once without special skills and dodging blows is a bit harder, especially when you wear heavy armour. On the other hand this armour reduces the damage you receive when you do get hit, so it is always a tradeoff between endurance and dodging.
Because of parrying and dodging, combat tends go on for a rather long time in Drakensang and very often a lucky hit is the deciding factor in bigger battles.
Now for the most important part of an rpg, the world it plays in. In Drakensang it is the continent Aventurien which has a more mediveal feeling than comparable D&D worlds. Magic is less prevalent, the deities play a much more important roles in the lives of everyone and even the names sound more mediveal. Although here I might be a bit biased. As a German myself I might be more tolerant about the names, which are also rather German inspired, than others, although I don't know how, if at all, they will be translated. But even in German the names of some spells sound silly and they are generally named in a very "Harry Potter" like manner.
You will spend most of the time in the city Ferdok which has numerous primary and secondary quests, a lot of traders and your headquarters where you can change your companions. All this has the disadvantage that the city it quite big and you sometimes have to walk for a while to reach your destination.
From time to time the main quest sends you to a other region which has its own story arch and quests. Here you have to be careful as it is not possible to go back to the city before you completed the quest of the region and after you did that and left the area there is also no coming back. So any loot or quests you leave behind will be gone forever. That can be frustrating when you took the wrong companions with you and lack a skill. While skills can be increased everywhere new skills can only be learned at trainer which might not be available in the area you are.
Speaking of companions, there are quite a lot of them from all races and professions so you shouldn't have a problem with creating your dream team. You just have to be patient as not all characters are available from the beginning or even shortly after it. Sadly they don't interact with each other much like in the Bioware/Obsidian games.
Drakensang is a very long game, so you definitely get enough for your money. I played this game for longer than what I needed for Mass Effect with all side quests and I am still not even near the end.
Also in other aspects this game does not follow the trend of the industry. Drakensang is remarkably bug free. Some people have problems with it but not many and some problems can be traced back to them trying to bypass the copy protection.
The graphics is good, not Crysis pretty, but still nice to look it and, for the graphics quality, it require only very few resources. The game runs fast, has short load times and can be played on older machines.
The sound is adequate and sometimes a bit too quiet. Whats irritating is that only the first paragraph an NPC speaks has a voiceover. The rest of the conversation is text only.
In the end Drakensang is a very good game. Like everything it has its flaws, but compared to its strengths they are negligible. The gameplay is nice, the story interesting and the world draws you in easily. You just have to be willing to learn the rules of the system which are a bit more complex than normal.
And as a small extra, the game, at least the German version I own, contains the core rulebook of the DSA pen and paper game.
Unlike most recent RPGs of this style, Drakensang does not use the D&D rules system. Instead the game is based on the german Das Schwarze Auge (The Black Eye) rpg which is quite differently than D&D right from the beginning.
At the start of the game you create a character and compared to other RPGs the character creation is more limited. You can choose from a number of pre build characters of different origins and professions and, if you want, change the starting skills of them. The look, starting attributes, advantages and disadvantages and in the case of dwarves and amazons, the gender is fixed.
Now, before I continue to review this game, let me first explain the rules a bit to prevent any misunderstandings. DSA is point based which means that as you earn experience you can it to increase skills, attributes and weapon profiencies. Every character can learn everything, the question is just about how much points it costs. That's why it is not that bad that you don't have the complete control over you character when you create him or her.
Checks in DSA are made with a 20 sided dice, like in D&D, except that you have to roll low, instead of high. Generally in order to succeed you have to roll below the target number. This is true for skill checks and for the combat.
Every skill in Drakensang is linked to three attributes and in order to succeed in a skill check you have to roll three times and get below those attributes. When you increased the skill rank you are allowed to subtract 1 point for each rank from one of those rolls. So in order to get better in a skill you can either increase the linked attributes or increase the skill itself.
After all three checks are made the remaining skill ranks you did not spend to reduce the die rolls determine how well you do something, which is especially important for spells which are resolved in the same way.
There are some exception to this rule as for some skills no checks are made, but instead you simply need a specific amount of ranks in order to do something. How many ranks you can take is also determined by the linked attributes.
All of this calculation is of course done for you in the game, but you can see that Drakensang is a bit more complex than D&D so you have to be willing to invest a little more effort to learn the rules in order to play Drakensang than for example Neverwinter Nights 2.
The skills themselves are divided into multiple categories. There are combat related skills, like stealth and self-control, nature skills like animal knowledge, social skills like diplomacy, general knowledge skills which handle treating wounds and identifying magical items and crafting skills like crafting bows.
Many skills in the game are linked to crafting and cover the crafting itself (forging, crafting bows and alchemy) and the collection of the required material.
To craft something you have to buy/find a blueprint, learn it and then you can, at the correct workstation, build the item as long as you have the correct materials. The normal items can be build with store bought materials and in the end just save you some money compared to items you can buy, but the more powerful ones can only be build when using monster parts which first have to be harvested. And once you build one of those special items you will likely keep it for a long time. That is because in Drakensang you won't be flooded with magical items like in Neverwinter Nights, Magic in DSA is rare and you will hardly find any magical items. Instead the higher quality items, even the unmagical ones, are not too common. It will take quite some time to find things like a full plate or a good two handed sword.
Lets move on the combat system. Like with skills it requires you to roll low. Each character has, for each weapon category, a attack and a parry value. If he wants to attack someone successfully he simply has to roll below his attack value which is rather easy. The problem is that the enemy has now the chance to parry the attack by rolling below his parry value which is equally easy. If you already used parry in this round then you can only try to dodge further attacks as you can only parry once without special skills and dodging blows is a bit harder, especially when you wear heavy armour. On the other hand this armour reduces the damage you receive when you do get hit, so it is always a tradeoff between endurance and dodging.
Because of parrying and dodging, combat tends go on for a rather long time in Drakensang and very often a lucky hit is the deciding factor in bigger battles.
Now for the most important part of an rpg, the world it plays in. In Drakensang it is the continent Aventurien which has a more mediveal feeling than comparable D&D worlds. Magic is less prevalent, the deities play a much more important roles in the lives of everyone and even the names sound more mediveal. Although here I might be a bit biased. As a German myself I might be more tolerant about the names, which are also rather German inspired, than others, although I don't know how, if at all, they will be translated. But even in German the names of some spells sound silly and they are generally named in a very "Harry Potter" like manner.
You will spend most of the time in the city Ferdok which has numerous primary and secondary quests, a lot of traders and your headquarters where you can change your companions. All this has the disadvantage that the city it quite big and you sometimes have to walk for a while to reach your destination.
From time to time the main quest sends you to a other region which has its own story arch and quests. Here you have to be careful as it is not possible to go back to the city before you completed the quest of the region and after you did that and left the area there is also no coming back. So any loot or quests you leave behind will be gone forever. That can be frustrating when you took the wrong companions with you and lack a skill. While skills can be increased everywhere new skills can only be learned at trainer which might not be available in the area you are.
Speaking of companions, there are quite a lot of them from all races and professions so you shouldn't have a problem with creating your dream team. You just have to be patient as not all characters are available from the beginning or even shortly after it. Sadly they don't interact with each other much like in the Bioware/Obsidian games.
Drakensang is a very long game, so you definitely get enough for your money. I played this game for longer than what I needed for Mass Effect with all side quests and I am still not even near the end.
Also in other aspects this game does not follow the trend of the industry. Drakensang is remarkably bug free. Some people have problems with it but not many and some problems can be traced back to them trying to bypass the copy protection.
The graphics is good, not Crysis pretty, but still nice to look it and, for the graphics quality, it require only very few resources. The game runs fast, has short load times and can be played on older machines.
The sound is adequate and sometimes a bit too quiet. Whats irritating is that only the first paragraph an NPC speaks has a voiceover. The rest of the conversation is text only.
In the end Drakensang is a very good game. Like everything it has its flaws, but compared to its strengths they are negligible. The gameplay is nice, the story interesting and the world draws you in easily. You just have to be willing to learn the rules of the system which are a bit more complex than normal.
And as a small extra, the game, at least the German version I own, contains the core rulebook of the DSA pen and paper game.
