Game News THQ Snags Drakensang

[Jason]

Tags: Drakensang

According to <a href="http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=56669" target="blank">WorthPlaying</a>, THQ will be publishing the North American version of <b><a href="http://www.drakensang.de/index_en.htm" target="blank">Drakensang: The Dark Eye</a></b> in early 2009.
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<blockquote>THQ has signed Drakensang: The Dark Eye, developed by Radon Labs, bringing back epic party-based RPG gameplay in a breathtakingly detailed world, based on one of the world’s biggest pen & paper franchises.
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The Dark Eye Drakensang is a new party-based RPG game that uses advanced 3D technology and epic vistas to bring the truly realized TDE fantasy world to life. Drakensang, developed by the original TDE authors, will take gamer’s on a journey centuries back in time and dive into the mystical world of Aventuria, that previously only existed in the minds of avid TDE players. Now, thanks to the stunning vistas and tactical turn-based fights displayed in a real time environment, TDE gamers will finally be able to visually experience the landscapes, edifices, heroes, and creatures of the TDE universe.</blockquote>
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There's no news of this on the official Drakensang site or THQ's site so we'll have to take WorthPlaying's word on it for the moment.
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgwatch.com/">RPG Watch</A>

 

[Texas Red]

Like it how absolutely all interest is gone for this game.

Steel be with you, Drakensang. Steel be with you.

 

[Chefe]

The towns look nice and big. Besides that though, it looks like a cross between an Oblivion clone and a WoW clone. It still might be pretty good. THQ, however, destroyed Titan Quest with it's early and buggy release, so unless their policies have changed then this announcement is most definitely not a "good thing".

 

[thesheeep]

Well, Drakensang already is finished, so I'll just guess that THQ won't screw that up.

The game itself is quite fun IMHO (and definately looking good), but lacks depth.
And it has nothing to do with WoW or Oblivion
More with NWN...

 

[JarlFrank]

Well, Drakensang already is finished, so I'll just guess that THQ won't screw that up.

The game itself is quite fun IMHO (and definately looking good), but lacks depth.
And it has nothing to do with WoW or Oblivion
More with NWN...

Yeah, it feels a LOT like NWN2, only that it has a much much much better camera. Not that this is a difficult achievement, though.
And the towns have a nice athmosphere to them.

 

[Sarvis]

For those of us too lazy (or too busy at work) to dig through their website for info: Is it turn based?

 

[JarlFrank]

For those of us too lazy (or too busy at work) to dig through their website for info: Is it turn based?

Real time with pause.

 

[dragonfk]

No, its RTwP.

 

[Chefe]

The website doesn't really have any info. Most things are apparently "coming soon".

Real time with pause? Meh.

 

[Claw]

Real time with pause.

Well, unlike Baldur's Gate I felt that this version of RTwP feels pretty close to turnbased. The verbose message box helps.

I've never liked RTwP, but this time it was tolerable.

 

[notnats]

I read somewhere that you can only play a premade character, i.e. not create your own character, is that true? Sounded fishy to me.

 

[Texas Red]

What are the system requirements here? I have GF 6600.

 

[ricolikesrice]

...

the screen may be a bit photoshopped, dunno, but drakensang is actually a really beautiful game. not necessarily because of great technics but the area design is beautifull and absolutely trashes NWN2, oblivion, mass effect etc. ´s sterile genericness. and runs smooth even on old pcs.

the characters look a bit "comic-like" but they are miles better than what NWN2 or oblivion have to offer (really akward alien faces for example, seriously wtf is up with OEs artists).

what i really enjoy is the diversity of equipment looks compared to NWN2 which may have 1000s of different looking armor combinations but they still all more or less look the same. you can even find an easter egg paper bag "headdress" (see Dark Individuals Avatar) - the perfect codex helmet !

enough graphicswhoring, as an actual game:

-dont expect much roleplaying. (even less than Mass Effect)
-dont expect a good story (typical fantasy cliche bullshit)
-dont expect good writing (least the german writing is pretty childish)
-dont expect much choices & consequences (even less than NWN2 or ME)

what to expect:

-fun combat that is occasionally even challenging unlike NWN2 & co. shitty combat
-fun character development unlike NWN2 & co. shitty char development
-has a certain "oldschool RPG" charme, least for me
-around 50 hours of entertainment and while the replay value for roleplay reasons is quite low ..... there are at least some quests you can do differently and those combined with trying a different/char party setup made me replay it once.

Wish MotB & SoZ were expansions for drakensang - their cRPG goodness combined with a non-shitty engine, non-shitty ruleset and non-shitty combat would make an almost perfect cRPG.

hopefully the planned drakensang expansion is of MOTB/SOZ type quality.

 

[inwoker]

I doubt. You can't make motb quality story with no experience in good story game. Motb had Avellone, Sawyer, Ziets and company of people that made good games at BIS and Troika.
If you did elderscrols games, you can't make fallout, you'll make another elderscrolls.
If you made AK-47, you can't make toys for children.
If you wrote Forgotten Realms fanfics, you can't write Rat King.
etc.

 

[Shannow]

I read somewhere that you can only play a premade character, i.e. not create your own character, is that true? Sounded fishy to me.

All chars are premade and there is no appearance customisation like bigger tits, etc. In expert mode you can change the starting skills around a bit, but that has little effect in the long run. Unfortunately there are quite a few useless skills. Etiquette comes to mind...

Rico is mostly right but I disagree on the writing and the combat. There are also some nice, innovative sidequests.

 

[ricolikesrice]

i havent messed with it myself but as i understand it there are some easy tools to change the appearance of your character to one of a different class.

so basically you have 15 or so different looks for each gender and while thats not much what i really enjoy is that a Thorwaler (kind of a viking / aryan pirate / whatever) really looks like a badass with plenty of muscle compared to a mage ...... unlike NWN2 where your STR 20 barbarian looks just like your STR 8 wizard.

what i m wondering is why radon labs didnt include that themselves if its that easy to change the appearance.

 

[onemananadhisdroid]

What are the system requirements here? I have GF 6600.

Demo ran maxed out on a Geforce 8600GT, which is not really all that powerful a card either. In fact, that's what they list as the RECOMMENDED chip for the game. As for CPUs, now that's a different matter, but I didn't have any problems with an AMD 5200+ X2.

If they want this thing to sell it wouldn't be such a bad idea to re-examine the demo though. Unless the demo actually IS a good represenation of what's to expect of the game. It's pretty neat and all, but dime a dozen too. The license this is based upon won't help them any in international waters, I guess. Needs some hook. Some profile. Some personality. Some hell of a genuine reason why the kasbah anybody should pick this game up in particular. I suggest placing a big, fat Madden sticker on the box. Or something.

 

[Claw]

I doubt. You can't make motb quality story with no experience in good story game.

You doubt what? Who said the game had a great story? That said, the story wasn't written by the developers anyway, at least I've read that it was written by DSA writers.

 

[Lesifoere]

If you wrote Forgotten Realms fanfics, you can't write Rat King.
etc.

Rat King? King Rat? Which King Rat?

 

[Shannow]

I doubt.

Context?
Everybody said the main storyline was shit. Everything else (side quests etc) is ok to good, imo.

Rat King? King Rat? Which King Rat?

I only know "Doctor Rat" by William Kotzwinkle.

 

[Sir_Brennus]

I doubt.

Context?
Everybody said the main storyline was shit. Everything else (side quests etc) is ok to good, imo.

Rat King? King Rat? Which King Rat?

I only know "Doctor Rat" by William Kotzwinkle.

I think he means King Rat by J. Clavell. Shit novel if compared with Tai Pan, though.