The Dark Eye: Drakensang
The Dark Eye: Drakensang is a PC RPG by the German studio Radon Labs. It is the first game set in the ‘The Dark Eye’ world and is set in the city of Ferdok. Players start out with one character, but can soon recruit NPCs to aid them in battle. Control up to four characters at a time in battles which are part turn-based, and part real-time.
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Developer: Radon Labs Publisher: THQ Release Date: February 24, 2009 Platform: PC JustRPG Score:90% Pros: +Deep game world and mechanics to explore. +Nice graphic engine, colorful visuals. +Lots of gameplay content packed in. Cons: -Cliche fantasy setting and plot. -Steep learning curve. -Poor camera controls. -Awkward voice acting. |
The Dark Eye: Drakensang Overview
The Dark Eye: Drakensang is based on the pen and paper role playing game titled ‘The Dark Eye’ Though less well known than D&D, the world created by Radon Labs has lush 3D graphics, and plenty of depth. Drakensang has an interesting combat system where battles take place in a series of turns, but in real time. Players can pause the action at any time to issue orders to their party of up to four characters. There are twenty classes, several races, and eight key attributes in the rule-set which allows for a great deal of customization. Drakensang looks and plays like a traditional high-fantasy, Western RPG. But for fans of the genre, it shouldn’t be missed.
The Dark Eye: Drakensang Screenshots
The Dark Eye: Drakensang Featured Video
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8NMaK1VfTU[/youtube]
The Dark Eye: Drakensang Review
By, Robert D. Stock
The Dark Eye: Drakensang is based on the pen and paper RPG The Dark Eye. It brings players into the world of Aventuria, as an old friend sends you a letter talking about the dark times.
You start near a little town called Avestrue, where you find out that you can’t go to your friend’s house in Fardok. You need to go and get two people to recommend you as a fair person because of the events happening in Fardok. There are also others that can’t get in because of this, and they ask you to help them, and you can get a few quests. Avestrue acts as a tutorial that you will want to go through if you are new to the game and its mechanics, but you can turn the tutorial off if you want to.
There are a lot of races and professions to choose from. Certain races have certain professions to choose from, like a Tulamide can choose from a Metamage, Alchemist, or an Elementalist, and the Anvil Dwarves can choose from a Mercenary, Sapper, or a Prospector. The Middlerealmians have the most choices for professions, while an Amazon or a Thorwalian only have one. Every profession has seven attributes that are pre-customized, which can later be allocated as you gain experience and level up. Each attribute affects base values, vitality, astral energy, endurance, and resistance to magic. As you kill more enemies and do more quests, you gain adventure points, which aren’t used, but they indicate what level you are.
To gain level two you need five hundred adventure points. The higher your level the higher your spells can be, like if you have summon skeleton at level one it can be raised to level two once you gain that level. The higher the spell level the higher the cost of mana, but either the summoned unit, the damage, or the effect will be better. As you go through your adventure you will find recipes which can be used for blacksmithing, alchemy, or bowery. With blacksmithing you can make armor and weapons. In alchemy you can make potions. And in bowery you can make arrows and bows.
Certain professions have certain talents with weapons. Everyone can use all the weapons, but each profession has an expertise for a weapon in particular, like an Amazon is proficient in swords. As was said before, you choose your own race and profession at the beginning, but later as you go on, you will find other people that would like to go on the adventure with you. You can have a max of four other party members with you. Finding them can be a challenge, but some of them you will just find, like Rhulana the Amazon. She is right at the pub in Avestrue. And you can ask Dranor the Handsome to join you after you finish a few quests. Of course you can always say no to their requests to join your party. Summoned units are extra members in your party, as well as guests, and they can’t be controlled or have any of their attributes allocated, unlike normal party members.
The combat is paused turn-based, meaning when you find an enemy the game will pause, and when paused you can tell your party members what to do and who to attack. When unpaused, the game will then switch to real-time, where you can control your party as well, but it can always be paused again. During the real-time, everything will be moving and attacking. After your members use any special moves they will start using their normal attack and attack a random enemy.
Before battles, you can switch between passive and active. If your character is passive, he will seem less threatening and the enemy will be less likely to attack him. If your character is active, it means that the enemy will be more likely to attack him, and will attack more often.
Of course, there is always more to a game than can be said. I had an awesome time trying this one out and I give it a 90.
Final Grade: 90%
The Dark Eye: Drakensang Screenshots
The Dark Eye: Drakensang Videos
The Dark Eye Drakensang Promo Trailer
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8NMaK1VfTU[/youtube]