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The Dark Eye The Dark Eye: Demonicon
- Thread starter Infinitron
- Start date
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2011
- Messages
- 97,505
Overreaction much? I don't know about this Steven Carter guy, but sea's reviews are excellent.
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2011
- Messages
- 97,505
His reviews are also not very good from what I remember.
For example on several occasions he's criticized Jeff Vogel's games for being apples instead of oranges.
Paging sea for possible drama
They crowned Fallout 3 GOTY. Never forget.
sea
inXile Entertainment
- Joined
- May 3, 2011
- Messages
- 5,698
I wasn't involved in that. But, especially if selection of games is poor in a given year, or the games that people on staff have played are limited, at a certain point the GOTY title is basically a gigantic compromise, selected because everyone just goes "yeah, I guess so, good enough." And to be honest, there wasn't that much competition when Fallout 3 came out, with the only real notable RPG otherwise being Risen (which I'd rate above Fallout 3, but still).
My criticisms of Jeff's games have always respected what he was trying to achieve. First off, I've only "officially" reviewed Avadon 2 and Avernum: Escape from the Pit. I liked the latter despite being simplified from the original. Avadon 2 I had major problems with - specifically weak characters and story, a badly designed character system, over-abundance of filler combat, and extremely annoying, illogical quest design in the name of hand-holding and enforcing linearity.His reviews are also not very good from what I remember.
For example on several occasions he's criticized Jeff Vogel's games for being apples instead of oranges.
I respect what Jeff is trying to do with Avadon (BioWare-style RPG), but I think his execution is severely lacking. If I make a 3D platformer, a genre that inherently relies on good level design, and then mine has shitty level design, saying "oh but I meant for the level design to be shit" isn't really a very good defense, isn't it?
I originally planned to get it on the sale, but got bored and bought it anyway a few days ago.
The game tries hard to borrow from The Witcher series and Bioware rpgs, but fails at almost every aspect and mechanic aside from story, which is surprisingly fun. Being a storyfag myself I was ready to forgive the many shortcomings, but the ending managed to nullify whatever positive feelings I had for Demonicon: it is a 5 second long cg which doesn't depend on any of your previous choices and actions, forcibly railroaded, makes little sense (behold a deus ex machina 1 minute before the boss fight) and is simply annoying. So you get an insulting 5 second cg, credits and then main menu - no slides, no scenes, nothing. In comparison to this a Mass Effect 3 original ending can be considered a masterpiece. Oh well.
As for the game in general, the pros:
- Story is entertaining, characters are ok and generally make sense.
- The world of Dark Eye looks much more interesting and atmospheric than in the previous DE game Drakensang, where it felt as a boring generic fantasy. (I guess I am a grimdark'fag as well)
- All non-combat skills have uses, if only to get junk loot.
- Choices have consequences, though mostly in dialogs and cosmetic map changes.
- Comprehensive codex of the game world and plot.
The cons:
- No manual saving, can sometimes take up to 15 minutes to hit the next save trigger.
- No key remapping (enjoy shift-4 for potion).
- Combat is clunky and unbalanced, also all animations are so long it almost feels like a phase based and not real time (reminded me of The Witcher 1 combat).
- Side quests are few and are a joke, on the quality level of the infamous Dragon Age 2 "deliver a random item you find to some dude" quests.
- Very limited exploration - nothing to find but some random junk loot (weapons, armor and talismans are only rewarded for plot quests or bought in shops), and a couple of combat hints codex entries, some of which require one of the skills to get like pick locks or perception.
- Linear story progression and basically nothing to do beyond that.
- Economy is broken, you get rich fast and there is little need for money.
- Alchemy is generic and also useless since you find more potions than you generally need and even on harder difficulties it's easier just to buy them.
- Graphics are outdated, customization is limited to armors which are few.
Misq:
- The only dialog choices here are to inquire some info (sometimes requires lore or fast talk checks) and plot choices, yet the protagonist often speaks as if player is randomly alternating between calm and aggressive options. It can partially be attributed to certain plot specifics, but still feels weird. Otherwise the english voiceovers are generally on the ok scale.
The game tries hard to borrow from The Witcher series and Bioware rpgs, but fails at almost every aspect and mechanic aside from story, which is surprisingly fun. Being a storyfag myself I was ready to forgive the many shortcomings, but the ending managed to nullify whatever positive feelings I had for Demonicon: it is a 5 second long cg which doesn't depend on any of your previous choices and actions, forcibly railroaded, makes little sense (behold a deus ex machina 1 minute before the boss fight) and is simply annoying. So you get an insulting 5 second cg, credits and then main menu - no slides, no scenes, nothing. In comparison to this a Mass Effect 3 original ending can be considered a masterpiece. Oh well.
As for the game in general, the pros:
- Story is entertaining, characters are ok and generally make sense.
- The world of Dark Eye looks much more interesting and atmospheric than in the previous DE game Drakensang, where it felt as a boring generic fantasy. (I guess I am a grimdark'fag as well)
- All non-combat skills have uses, if only to get junk loot.
- Choices have consequences, though mostly in dialogs and cosmetic map changes.
- Comprehensive codex of the game world and plot.
The cons:
- No manual saving, can sometimes take up to 15 minutes to hit the next save trigger.
- No key remapping (enjoy shift-4 for potion).
- Combat is clunky and unbalanced, also all animations are so long it almost feels like a phase based and not real time (reminded me of The Witcher 1 combat).
- Side quests are few and are a joke, on the quality level of the infamous Dragon Age 2 "deliver a random item you find to some dude" quests.
- Very limited exploration - nothing to find but some random junk loot (weapons, armor and talismans are only rewarded for plot quests or bought in shops), and a couple of combat hints codex entries, some of which require one of the skills to get like pick locks or perception.
- Linear story progression and basically nothing to do beyond that.
- Economy is broken, you get rich fast and there is little need for money.
- Alchemy is generic and also useless since you find more potions than you generally need and even on harder difficulties it's easier just to buy them.
- Graphics are outdated, customization is limited to armors which are few.
Misq:
- The only dialog choices here are to inquire some info (sometimes requires lore or fast talk checks) and plot choices, yet the protagonist often speaks as if player is randomly alternating between calm and aggressive options. It can partially be attributed to certain plot specifics, but still feels weird. Otherwise the english voiceovers are generally on the ok scale.
Codex updates in the late chapters actually imply that the other one dude may be your biological father and that you'll never really know.
your necromancer "brother" locks you up, he tells you that he intentionally brought the plague to the city to get more workers, and just in a minute when you defeat him he suddenly tells you the opposite thing as if the previous dialog never happened.
flirt with your other sister and make plans to have sex later.
Ending should have been
My biggest issue with the plot
just a fight with Calandra. Killing her should close the Limbus gate. It's mentioned many times she's the strongest but you never see her do anything.
My biggest issue with the plot
How come daddy doesn't immediately recognize Azaril when she shows up in the beginning of the game? She merely put a Venetian mask in front of her face.
Heck, why did daddy not flee the Shadow Lands altogether? And give baby Calandra away to Peraine or Rahja Church or whatever instead of continuing to risk the pseudo siblings of mixing blood? Azaril would be hard pressed to find them then, let alone be able to do shit to them.
Heck, why did daddy not flee the Shadow Lands altogether? And give baby Calandra away to Peraine or Rahja Church or whatever instead of continuing to risk the pseudo siblings of mixing blood? Azaril would be hard pressed to find them then, let alone be able to do shit to them.
Chaotic_Heretic
Arcane
Yeah, I actually expected such outcome since early midgame and till the very last chapter. Well, doing something unexpected is usually a good thing when it concerns plot... unless you fail a creativity check like in this case.
This one is actually explained in one of the dialogs, kind of - "I was probably under some spell" or something like that, also used to explain why
he insisted on marriage when you already had citizenship and your blood already mixed.
Calandra did the same thing without any spells just because she is an idiot though.
Also it is annoying how you are captured and disarmed in this game 2 times by the very same guys who's asses you easily kicked just moments before those cutscenes forced the plot on the right railroad.
Calandra did the same thing without any spells just because she is an idiot though.
Also it is annoying how you are captured and disarmed in this game 2 times by the very same guys who's asses you easily kicked just moments before those cutscenes forced the plot on the right railroad.
I originally thought this to be intentional and expected
your father to be an Azaril agent on the mission to make you strong via all the trouble of growing in such harsh condition.
1-4 for punches, RMB + 1-4 for spells and Shift + 1-4 for potions.
The devs obviously never grasped that keyboards have more keys when they ported a gaypad control scheme to pc.
Finally got this one. I just had a quick peek to see what it's like -- terrible popamole combat in the first stages, derpy dialogs, wannabe grimdark atmosphere compared to the previous Dark Eye games, as expected -- but since the wife really enjoyed the first Drakensang and The River of Time, I reckon it'll grant me some marital ARPG bliss during the holidays. Hopefully the game will develop some depth down the road, rather than saying I'm "cunning" for whacking a rat in the face with a sword. Not holding my breath, though.
vonAchdorf
Arcane
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2014
- Messages
- 13,465
The game is currently available for $6 – the animations are still super ridiculous and the Codex only having 5 pages on this game doesn't exactly ring "underrated gem with an ugly duckling exterior" to me. Looks like not even incest could save this game. So should I spend 6 bucks on it or rather spend them on a CoD map pack - even if I don't even play CoD? :D
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2011
- Messages
- 97,505
The game is currently available for $6 – the animations are still super ridiculous and the Codex only having 6 pages on this game doesn't exactly ring "underrated gem with an ugly duckling exterior" to me. Looks like not even incest could save this game. So should I spend 6 bucks on it or rather spend them on a CoD map pack - even if I don't even play CoD? :D
Available where?
vonAchdorf
Arcane
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2014
- Messages
- 13,465
Explorerbc
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2012
- Messages
- 1,170
I got it from a bundle for like 3$ some time ago. It was low budget but I enjoyed it. But then again I really enjoy euro popamole rpgs in general.
Combat is a bit of a clunky clickfest + a few spells , game is pretty linear (almost no sidequests), I cannot comment on how good the implementation of the stats/skills system is.
I liked the story, it also seemed to have lots of info from the Dark Eye lore, and there was a good amount of C&C, though it doesn't affect that much the way that events unfold.
Combat is a bit of a clunky clickfest + a few spells , game is pretty linear (almost no sidequests), I cannot comment on how good the implementation of the stats/skills system is.
I liked the story, it also seemed to have lots of info from the Dark Eye lore, and there was a good amount of C&C, though it doesn't affect that much the way that events unfold.
Sykar
Arcane
Looks shit.
I personally compare this game to Mars: War Logs/Bound by Flame - the devs had a lot of right ideas and talent to make a marvel, but obviously low budget and time restrictions ruined most of it.
Still, the final product is more fun than, say, DAI.
Still, the final product is more fun than, say, DAI.
vonAchdorf
Arcane
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2014
- Messages
- 13,465
I finally could convince myself to buy the game (it's also on sale at the Humble Spring Sale right now).
My first impression is that it seems worse in Youtube videos than if you play it yourself (not talking solely about visuals but the general feeling / atmosphere). It has a B-movie style, but at least it's consistent in it (playing with a controller helps with that too, I think). The C&C so far seems to be a bit meh, but their Witcher rip-off animated "consequences" story parts looked ok. The dungeon design is "old school" so far, with levers appearing nearby the respective portcullis but often "hidden". No need to hide them or put them out of the way if they are meant to be accessible and if not, don't place them there at all and use keys. The slowmo when a hit connects is annoying, but not as bad as it looked on Youtube.
My first impression is that it seems worse in Youtube videos than if you play it yourself (not talking solely about visuals but the general feeling / atmosphere). It has a B-movie style, but at least it's consistent in it (playing with a controller helps with that too, I think). The C&C so far seems to be a bit meh, but their Witcher rip-off animated "consequences" story parts looked ok. The dungeon design is "old school" so far, with levers appearing nearby the respective portcullis but often "hidden". No need to hide them or put them out of the way if they are meant to be accessible and if not, don't place them there at all and use keys. The slowmo when a hit connects is annoying, but not as bad as it looked on Youtube.
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Damn you all. Now I'm gonna give this game another try. I might have unjustly dismissed it as shit too early, last time.
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