Review The Dragon Knight Saga Does Fairly Well

[Ruprekt]

Is securom as bad as tages and starforce?

 

[AlaCarcuss]

I highly recommend getting the original Divinity 2 plus Flames of Vengeance.

Seconded. I haven't actually played DKS, but D2+FoV is definitely a good choice.

Ok, so I have the original D2 and I also picked up the complete DKS. Can I install D2 and then install FoV from the DKS DVD?

Oh hell, guess I'll just have to suck it and see.... wonder if I can keep my game saves from DKS...

 

[ortucis]

Is securom as bad as tages and starforce?

Personally I have experienced problem with game not launching only once with Starforce. Never with Securom (or any system slowdown/fuckup people complain about).

Anyways, good for Larian. They have been one of my favorite developers since Divine Divinity, good to see their transition to full 3D didn't end up like BioWare's. Also, love the music (probably done by that same Russian dude from Divine Divinity).

 

[phanboy_iv]

Is securom as bad as tages and starforce?

Personally I have experienced problem with game not launching only once with Starforce. Never with Securom (or any system slowdown/fuckup people complain about).

Anyways, good for Larian. They have been one of my favorite developers since Divine Divinity, good to see their transition to full 3D didn't end up like BioWare's. Also, love the music (probably done by that same Russian dude from Divine Divinity).

Kirill Pokrovsky, yep. He also offers downloads of all his game music for free on his site.

 

[ortucis]

Kirill Pokrovsky, yep. He also offers downloads of all his game music for free on his site.

Hehe yeah, now I remember. I visited his site back when Divine Divinity was released from a link in Larian forums, I thought it was some geocities-like fansite and Ctrl+W'ed out of there fast.


Here's the website: http://www.kirillpokrovsky.com/

Music downloads: http://www.kirillpokrovsky.com/frame-right.htm


Love it, downloading it all.

 

[BLOBERT]

BROS THEY DESERVE A LITTLE SUCCESS BASED ON THE FIRST GAME IT WAS PRETTY NIFTY I OWN THE SECOND ONE HAVENT PLAYED IT

BRO SKYWAY PLAY KOTOR2 AGAIN LOLL,OLLOL YOU NEED AN ALT IF YOU WANT TO PRETEND TO BE HARDCORE LOLLOLLOL

 

[Crooked Bee]

I highly recommend getting the original Divinity 2 plus Flames of Vengeance.

Seconded. I haven't actually played DKS, but D2+FoV is definitely a good choice.

Ok, so I have the original D2 and I also picked up the complete DKS. Can I install D2 and then install FoV from the DKS DVD?

Probably not, I'm afraid.

 

[Murk]

Kiril's music is absolutely masterful, best soundtrack in any gaming I've ever come across.

Very happy about this, looking forward to getting a physical copy of DKS but I may just end up buying a digital copy instead.

DD was an absolutely magnificent game, and I even liked BD for what it was (smug emoticon el oh el)

 

[made]

It`s kinda nice to see that even Skyway says "ok game", go Larian.

It's especially funny seeing him rage at Witcher combat every chance he gets while apparently DKS combat which has less depth and requires less attention is a-ok.

 

[Lesifoere]

I played the original Ego Draconis up to the FFFFUUUUU DRAGON COMBAT bits, at which point I gave up. Advise me, Codex, do I:

a) give the game another chance and start over (pretty sure I've lost all my saves)
b) just load up Flames of Vengeance with a new character?

 

[Shannow]

It`s kinda nice to see that even Skyway says "ok game", go Larian.

It's especially funny seeing him rage at apples every chance he gets while apparently oranges are a-ok.

Yah, really strange.

 

[made]

I played the original Ego Draconis up to the FFFFUUUUU DRAGON COMBAT bits, at which point I gave up. Advise me, Codex, do I:

a) give the game another chance and start over (pretty sure I've lost all my saves)
b) just load up Flames of Vengeance with a new character?

Start from scratch; is what I did. You can breeze through the early part and get to the battle tower in a few hours with combat being as easy as it is if you FF all dialogue.
Only played FoV for an hour or so, running back and forth in town performing menial tasks as if I was back to lvl 1 put me off.

 

[MetalCraze]

I played the original Ego Draconis up to the FFFFUUUUU DRAGON COMBAT bits, at which point I gave up.

I don't know how it was in the vanilla but apparently they made them much less grindy at least in flying fortresses in DKS by removing all anti-dragon zones and generators so you can go for bosses right away. But as I see that's about the only improvement so decide for yourself if it's enough for you.

What I liked about those bosses though is that some of them included pretty old-fashioned puzzles that required you to sit with a piece of paper and think for a bit. Especially the one with the statues.

a) give the game another chance and start over (pretty sure I've lost all my saves)

How far did you get? There is almost nothing plot-wise after you open the passage into the Hall of Echoes (which you do early in Fjords) so you won't miss much if you go for FoV right away apart from higher lvl and some fat loot.

Haven't played much of FoV myself yet though. Gave a game a break after completing ED part because it was too long (spent 1.5+ weeks)

 

[Raapys]

I highly recommend getting the original Divinity 2 plus Flames of Vengeance.

Seconded. I haven't actually played DKS, but D2+FoV is definitely a good choice.

Ok, so I have the original D2 and I also picked up the complete DKS. Can I install D2 and then install FoV from the DKS DVD?

Probably not, I'm afraid.

Why would you need to? I downloaded the complete thingy, and as far as I could tell it's *one* game, expansion included.

 

[Lesifoere]

I played the original Ego Draconis up to the FFFFUUUUU DRAGON COMBAT bits, at which point I gave up.

I don't know how it was in the vanilla but apparently they made them much less grindy at least in flying fortresses in DKS by removing all anti-dragon zones and generators so you can go for bosses right away. But as I see that's about the only improvement so decide for yourself if it's enough for you.

That's the one that made me ragequit. The fucking flying fortresses and their fucking s;jfs;kjhsfhjskhjshkl;s;h you get the idea. So maybe this might be worth starting over from scratch (esp since the early parts were p. fun).

 

[MetalCraze]

That was it? Start from scratch in DKS then. Yeah all the defences like ballista towers are still in fortresses but you can just destroy those few guarding the boss island and land right away (or land right away because they don't attack you while you are on the ground)

Unless of course you want to go for armour set parts hidden away in chests on other islands then you'll probably have to destroy ballista towers there too. But apart from that there are no crappy anti-dragon shields and generator towers.

 

[Crooked Bee]

I highly recommend getting the original Divinity 2 plus Flames of Vengeance.

Seconded. I haven't actually played DKS, but D2+FoV is definitely a good choice.

Ok, so I have the original D2 and I also picked up the complete DKS. Can I install D2 and then install FoV from the DKS DVD?

Probably not, I'm afraid.

Why would you need to? I downloaded the complete thingy, and as far as I could tell it's *one* game, expansion included.

Well, the original problem was whether DKS, as a new and (significantly?) reworked edition of the game, is 'dumbed down' or not compared to D2+FoV. Which I cannot answer since I haven't played DKS, but apparently there was some complaining on the Larian forums.

 

[DalekFlay]

Well, the original problem was whether DKS, as a new and (significantly?) reworked edition of the game, is 'dumbed down' or not compared to D2+FoV. Which I cannot answer since I haven't played DKS, but apparently there was some complaining on the Larian forums.

I would say it was half and half really, though the majority of people who praised the changes were Xbox gamers, from what I could tell. Let me put it this way though: Ego Draconis DID have a lot of grinding in the sense that blowing through the main plot was almost impossible, and the fortress sections could get annoying. For many people, even leet PC gaming gods like ourselves, it might be an improvement to make the game easier. Depends on what you want out of it I guess.

 

[CraigCWB]

Always good when a small developer fighting the good fight has some success.

Which is the only reason it got such glowing reviews in my opinion. Everything about Divinity II is derivative - and deliberately so - so it seems a bit intellectually dishonest for reviewers to be praising it for its gameplay so highly. It's simply not as good as the games it copied, and the sum of the parts of all the elements from major titles it lifted just doesn't fit together very well. The only saving grace it had (which wasn't much imo) was that the combat was challenging in the original ED. It isn't anymore. And what fun is an action RPG with stupid-easy combat?

Drakensang was a better game in every way. Including the graphics. Why does this game deserve 8/10 or 9/10? Does butthurt against the major development studios really justify that kind of bullshit reviewing?

 

[CraigCWB]

For many people, even leet PC gaming gods like ourselves, it might be an improvement to make the game easier. Depends on what you want out of it I guess.

That's not what everyone here was saying when it came to Dragon Age II, is it?

If I wanted to play games where I could beat every encounter by running in blindly and mashing the LMB I wouldn't be playing RPGs.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Is securom as bad as tages and starforce?

Not quite as bad but it can fuck up your Alcohol120% and/or Daemon Tools, depending on the version of SecuRom that it installs. Some people have issues with non-recognition of CD/DVD-drives; that SecuRom thinks the physical drive is actually a virtual drive or doesn't recognize it at all - the usual bullshit people put up with. Some few, very few, cases of complete Kernel fuck-up after SecuRom and Windows decided to go HappyhappyNuclearHolocaust together.

Not going to buy it since they went with SecuRom, I'm happy enough buying&playing games that do not try to rape my computer in the first place.

 

[GarfunkeL]

Which reminds me - has Atari published the non-DRM version of Mysteries of Westgate already?

 

[AlaCarcuss]

I highly recommend getting the original Divinity 2 plus Flames of Vengeance.

Seconded. I haven't actually played DKS, but D2+FoV is definitely a good choice.

Ok, so I have the original D2 and I also picked up the complete DKS. Can I install D2 and then install FoV from the DKS DVD?

Probably not, I'm afraid.

Why would you need to? I downloaded the complete thingy, and as far as I could tell it's *one* game, expansion included.

Because DKS has apparently made the combat in ED easier and I prefer a challenge (yeah, it's been 'streamlined'). If you go the ED + FoV route, you get all the bug fixes and graphical tweaks from FoV but retain the tougher combat - or so I've been led to believe.

Problem for me is - no, you can't just install FoV from the DKS dvd over the original ED and I can't find a torrent for just FoV (not gonna buy it again) - so I'm shit outta luck. Looks like I'll just have to stick with DKS and the watered down combat.

 

[DalekFlay]

No one bothering to crack FoV on it's own sucks...

 

[Sceptic]

Which reminds me - has Atari published the non-DRM version of Mysteries of Westgate already?

No, but they did remove the activation limit, which was good enough for me.