Drakensang invades Poland...

[Suchy]

...and my question is: to buy or not to buy? Or maybe not to remove it from an inventory, coz I'll get bored after one evening and just delete it?
I like number crunching, but good story and dialogues are much more important for me. I don't like non-stop combat and long dungeon crawls. I liked Star Trail, Shadows Over Riva, Baldur's Gate, Gothic and The Witcher, but loathed Diablo, IWD and NWN.
Will I like Drakensang?

 

[DraQ]

When in doubt, pirate first, ask yourself questions later.

You can always buy the game *after* you find it to your liking.

 

[Spectacle]

Drakensang is not a great game by any means, but it's decent enough. There's plenty of story and dialogue, but also plenty of combat and dungeoncrawling.

I think the story/combat ratio is about the same as in Baldur's gate, so if you liked that then Drakensang might be to your taste too.

 

[thesheeep]

Its game mechanics are too different from those earlier RoA games, so it can't really be compared to that.
IMHO, it could be compared the most with NWN, but the combat actually is a LOT better (again, IMHO).

All in all, a good game, and if your taste, it might become a very good one for you, but don't expect that
It sure has its fair share of annoying things

 

[Shannow]

http://www.gamershell.com/news_66194.html

Demo

 

[Black]

2 world wars aren't enough for them, eh?

 

[Jim Cojones]

IMHO, it could be compared the most with NWN, but the combat actually is a LOT better (again, IMHO).

Combat could be good if there would be options to disable AI control over party and to change difficulty level. So far I manage to win almost every fight without giving any orders when playing a soldier. It's different when playing an elementalist, but only little - what I have to do is summon a creature every 6 minutes and use one offensive spell all the time. What is strange, I find it almost impossible to lose all mana (or whatever it is called in the game) - regeneration is just to quick and battles are rather short.

Dialogues may be decently written and sometimes interesting stories are told in them, but they lack interaction. The only choices present are fake choices between doing the quest or saying something like "I'm very, very sorry, I'm sure it's important problem for you, but I just don't have time." - yes, the main character is always a pussy that is genetically unable to be rude, my first plan was to play an evil wizard - that was a fail!

Anyway, despite this two huge flaws, I'm having some fun with the game although I don't think I'll manage to finish it - probably I will get bored before if combat won't become much more difficult.

Other thoughts:
- crafting is interesting,
- the way game mechanics are described is a pure madness - some examples of spells effects (in Polish);
1. WD, WA, WP, WU każde -(BZ)/3, ODW, SPR, INT każde -(BZ)/3
2. Obrażenia 2K6 + BZ PO, koszt PO w PAs, min. 5 PAs.
Manual mentions about 50 such abbreviations. Unfortunately, they aren't listed alphabetically. It wouldn't be a problem if the game was using standard RPG abbreviations (maybe it's only a problem of Polish version).
- it's advertised as a "hardcore RPG". I really don't know what does it mean because even Fo3 is far better at c&c and focusing on playing a role.

BTW can anybody explain why is it available in Poland and not in English spoken countries while Polish version uses English dubbing?

 

[Claw]

Because releasing a game in another country is more an issue of getting a publisher than of translation?

 

[Suchy]

Looks like it's worth giving a try after all. Thanks for the input.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

[quote="Jim Cojones"- the way game mechanics are described is a pure madness - some examples of spells effects (in Polish);
1. WD, WA, WP, WU każde -(BZ)/3, ODW, SPR, INT każde -(BZ)/3[/quote]

Arcanum flashback!

 

[Curunír]

So, I'm curious.
What do Polish gamers think about Drakensang?
I already googled some reviews (and "translated" them with Google language tools) and they seem generally quite enthusiastic. But that's just the mainstream media I assume. How much do the Polish users of this elitist RPG board ( ) and/or Polish gamers in general like/despise it?

 

[caliban]

http://new-croissant.kielbinski.pl/forum/index.php?topic=123.0

 

[MasPingon]

...and my question is: to buy or not to buy?

I can sell you this shit, 45 zeta and it's yours. Just take it away from me

 

[Kraszu]

Reading things in Polish on the internet is so strange.

 

[drexciya]

It's not a great game but a quite decent game. I like the character system, it has a lot of potential. If you could create all characters yourself instead of one and adding more than you would have more flexibility in developing your characters.

The combat is not as easy as some people state, although it depends on which encounters you do at which level. I did some quests at a relatively low-level (or with the wrong party composition) and then things are challenging and the combat shines. The only thing that is off, is the fact that enemies can go through your line of defense and go after your weak characters.

One thing that hasn't been noted is the fact that the game is very stable compared to the average PC game. Given the state of most AAA games nowadays when it comes to this I think that this really needs to be said.

I hope that the makers of this game come up with an add-on or another game in the series. If they keep up the good things about the game and add more freedom (less linearity) and enhance the combat a bit we're looking at a good follow-up.