Before I started on this review, I went back to read my review of Drakensang: The Dark Eye. I was amazed to find how many of my major problems with the game have been at least partially resolved in this prequel. Too much walking? Quick travel points. Too much boring trash mob combats? Less frequent and more interesting combat encounters. The original had an uninteresting, cliche plot? A smaller, more interesting plot.

None of these changes are huge, but add them together and they make The River of Time a much better RPG than The Dark Eye, and The Dark Eye was already pretty solid in its own right. Granted, The River of Time still has a handful of issues that mar the experience, including the uninspired combat system and shoddy localization. But it is definitely a better game, and easy to recommend to anyone who enjoyed The Dark Eye.

Radon Labs took an interesting risk in creating a smaller scale story in which the protagonist is just one member of a group rather than "the special one". Game designers – like dungeon masters – often exert themselves in heaping praise and prophecy on the protagonist in an effort to make the player feel like they've been chosen, and this direction can easily feel trite and overdone. Still, in an age of epic-scale “you are the one from my dreams” storytelling, I find The River of Time's approach refreshing. But it is a risk and, much like its setting, won't appeal to everyone.

It took me over 30 hours to play through The River of Time's main quest and a whole slew of its side quests. That is only half the time it took me to finish The Dark Eye, yet a significant chunk of the missing half was spent in endless walking sequences and fighting trash mob upon trash mob. At $20, this game is an absolute steal for North American CRPG enthusiasts, and it most definitely deserved better treatment than from its publisher.
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