Bah! Drakensang sucks [rant]

[aleph]

What a disappointment. It starts mediocre and gets downhill from there. Okay, the implementation of the DSA4 rules is not bad, it is just that most of the skills are useless in the game. Social skills, like negotiate or beguile are almost never used in the conversations. All the skills for outdoor life seem cool at the beginning until you realize that you will never really need most of the stuff you can make it anyway. Combat is boring and too easy. Except from some Boss monsters you have to fight trash enemies which don't stand chance against you anyway all the time. And by the way, which idiot came up with the regenerating health and mana, and the no death thing. Makes trap completely pointless, you can just walk through with one character and heal afterward.
The only challenging fight was against that rat mother, mostly because of the stupid enemy respawn.
The dungeons all also boring as hell, just long corridors with no branches of whatever. The same with overland travel, you have only one location to travel too all the time, because old areas get looked once you finish the main quest there.
Interaction with your companions is nearly non-existent except for stuff like "Tell me about your past" and occasional banters. Dialogs leave you with the overwhelming possibility of one answer almost every time.
And talk about the main story, you are doing tasks because a dragon oracle tells you to and then you meet evil cultist who awaken dragons for whatever reason and you are supposed to stop than just because, seriously no one at Radeon Labs was able to come up with something better?
Really, the most fun part of the game was Avestreu which surprisingly is included in the demo version.The only thing that makes this game different from The Fall is that it was not a buggy mess at release but actually more or less polished.

I didn't finish the game but gave up at Tallon, but I don't expect its going to get better in the last quarter.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

You can run, aleph, but you can't hide

 

[sportforredneck]

how can u say a game sucks if you havent played it all lol

 

[aleph]

how can u say a game sucks if you havent played it all lol

how did you get the wrong idea that I have not played the game?

 

[mondblut]

...you have only one location to travel too all the time, because old areas get looked once you finish the main quest there.

god damn it. I can live with half the skills being worthless (it's a trademark Arkania feature anyway), I couldn't care less about party banter and even boring combat and dungeons are tolerable, but being buttkicked through the plot without a chance to ever choose where to go - this is unforgivable.

 

[dagorkan]

Thanks for confirming my expectations aleph

 

[Crichton]

I actually just beat the game today, I was going to make my own thread, but this one will do.

Finished at level 16-17

Party consisted of:
Dwarf Soldier w/ Healing, Lockpicking and trapfinding (axe + shield)
Forgrimm (learned alchemy) used two-handed hammer
Traldor (learned social skills) used two-handed sword
That elf guy (plant and animal knowledge + magical healing) used a spear

Cons:

-Lousy story, main antaongist is poorly developed (she teleports in every now and again to spew some bullshit, we never learn anything about her)

-Lots of meaningless fights (health/mana regenerate, most fights don't even force you to use up a bandage)

-Completely railroaded

Pros:

-Very nicely detailed areas, lots of fun to explore

-Ruleset is an improvement over D&D

-The gameplay improves as you go along, though it's never great


The obvious comparison point here is NWN2, they share a great many similarities

-Small party RTwP game where party members can be knocked out but not killed unless the whole party dies

-Collect NPCs and store them in your basecamp when you're not using them

-Wide variety of character types that make no appreciable difference story/dialogue-wise

-Lots of meaningless fights interspersed with the occasional tough one

Sadly, Drakensang isn't half the game NWN2 is. NWN2 doesn't provide good NPC reactions for all of it's supported races, but Drakensang doesn't have anything. My dwarven character made it through the entire game, including a trip to the dwarven home city without anyone realizing he was a dwarf.

Instead of largely cosmetic story choices, Drakensang has no story choices.

The combat is a relative bright spot but it has a lot of issues. Most obviously:

-Interpenetration. Maneuver is largely meaningless because enemy units can pass right through yours and vice versa, so forget about holding a narrow defile or somesuch.

-The vast majority of all encounters consist of 2-6 identical enemies, be they wolves, rats, spiders, beetles, zombies or whatever. Only the humanoid enemies show any variety. In the very final area the enemies actually have a decent mix of magic users, missile troops and melee troops.

-The AI is brain-dead. Even though you can't possibly stop them due to interpenetration issues, most monsters are happy to ignore your weaker party members. Every now and again you encounter an enemy (usually an ogre, stone golem or giant spider) that is obsessed with attacking your magic user and will cheerfully chase them around in circles while the other party members whack it's unprotected back. Enemy magicians also seem to know only one spell and the melee troops are simply awful at concentrating their attacks.

Naturally, unlike NWN2, there's no vast supply of user-made content to fix these problems either.

My recommendation: Unless you're really desperate or you really love exploring pretty fantasy terrain, wait until it comes down to US$20-25.

 

[aleph]

Ruleset is an improvement over D&D

which makes it even more atrocious that you don't really need any of the skills besides combat skills and bandaging.

The obvious comparison point here is NWN2

the story of NWN2's OC is a literary masterpiece compared to Drakensang's. Besides the OC had some good ideas even if they were poorly implemented (the trial, crossroad's keep).

-Completely railroaded

If you think about it that's exactly how the creators of PnP DSA want it to be played. So Drakensang does capture the DSA feeling quite well.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

Thanks for confirming my expectations aleph

What he said.

 

[MetalCraze]

how can u say a game sucks if you havent played it all lol

how did you get the wrong idea that I have not played the game?

You criticize a game - that means you haven't played it. Or haven't played it enough.

 

[aleph]

how can u say a game sucks if you havent played it all lol

how did you get the wrong idea that I have not played the game?

You criticize a game - that means you haven't played it. Or haven't played it enough.

Now I get it. So that means the entire codex has not played enough of oblivion? :twisted:

 

[theverybigslayer]

You criticize a game - that means you haven't played it. Or haven't played it enough.

We have to put this sentence onto the main page of the Codex instead of that silly 'Putting the role back in rpg'.

 

[Binary]

how can u say a game sucks if you havent played it all lol

how did you get the wrong idea that I have not played the game?

You criticize a game - that means you haven't played it. Or haven't played it enough.

Now I get it. So that means the entire codex has not played enough of oblivion? :twisted:

Skyway --> ownd

 

[MetalCraze]

And I was deadly serious.

 

[aleph]

And I was deadly serious.

So was I.

 

[Unradscorpion]

You criticize a game - that means you haven't played it. Or haven't played it enough.

We have to put this sentence onto the main page of the Codex instead of that silly 'Putting the role back in rpg'.

Yeah, that line is pretty cheesy, doesn't reflect the inside of the Codex.

 

[thesheeep]

The story wasn't written by Radon Labs, but by some PnP authors they hired for that. I wonder about the story, too.
Though I can't share even half of all the rants, the story really is the big letdown.

Shouldn't it be your job as a PnP author to present your players with meaningful choices all the way down? I did some PnP RoA adventures and they were not half that railroaded. The "worst" railroading in one was that the party got cursed and from there on felt the utter urge to kill the emperor, and couldn't do a thing about that. But that was still more motivating than "because the oracle tells you to".

Well, I just hope that the addon and sequel will have better thought out stories. And improve on other issues. Chances for that are pretty good.

 

[aleph]

The story wasn't written by Radon Labs, but by some PnP authors they hired for that. I wonder about the story, too.

So someone who earns his livelihood with writing PnP books, modules and stuff cannot come up with something better than this? I wonder why he has not starved yet...

 

[theverybigslayer]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mbov1iQ-kxE
Gameplay video english part1-5

 

[Wyrmlord]

how can u say a game sucks if you havent played it all lol

how did you get the wrong idea that I have not played the game?

His statement was in obvious jest, but I think he refers to the fact that you did not finish the game.

Though it's perfectly acceptable to judge a game without finishing it, obviously.

 

[RK47]

And I was deadly serious.

So was I.

uh....wow. he tried to defend you with sarcasm...but u took another meaning rofl

 

[Wyrmlord]

Give him the benefit of doubt. English might be his second language, since he is likely German.

It can't be his fault if it is.

 

[aleph]

Yes, I totally didn't get that skyway used sarcasm. I took him completely serious and didn't even think about that he might be joking or something, seriously. If I had, maybe I would have answered sarcastically myself...

 

[Warden]

Shit happens...


Fu:r Randra!

 

[made]

It's not oblibad, but after the initial euphoria of "woah it's not D&D!" you start to realize that 90% of skills and spells are pointless, the story is lame and gameplay is boring.

It's pretty meh. 6/10.