Top Ten: GameStar mag hates/loves about DRAKENSANG

[Sir_Brennus]

GameStar has a scoreless (score comes next month) review of Drakensang in their newest paper issue. The whole review isn't online, but they put a "love/hate" top ten piece on their website.

http://www.gamestar.de/specials/spiele/1946548/10_dinge_die_uns_an_drakensang_stoeren.html

and

http://www.gamestar.de/specials/spiele/1946544/10_dinge_die_wir_an_drakensang_moegen.html

Here is a quick and dirty translation:

Top Ten things Gamestar hates about Drakensang

10 Random battles while travelling on the world map.
9 Giant Rat - boring
8 Giant Spiders - boring
7 Wolves - boring
6 Gangrene - too few hints on how to heal it in the 80 pages manual
5 Voice action - very good, but only partially done. Much too read.
4 World not interactive enough - compared to Gothic 3
3 Clones - Too few character models
2 Room designs - The inside of buildings look too similar
1 Paths are too long - Quests make you travel too much and too far.

Top Ten things Gamestar loves about Drakensang

10 The mysterious guy - Archon Megalon, 'nuff said
9 The Tatzelwurm - poor not-so-much-of-a-dragon-creature
8 Rakorium - This worlds mumbling sage
7 The world - The exterior looks awesome.
6 The rule set - fully realized and explained.
5 The dialogs - wonderfully realised and dialog options increase skillbased
4 Side quests - Lots of them; can be solved in different ways; interlinked
3 Combat - RTwP can't be done better
2 The plot - the story twists and turns around
1 Dragons - looking great and are hard to fight.

Discuss!

 

[JarlFrank]

5 Voice action - very good, but only partially done. Much too read.

Yeah, because too much to read is sooo horrible!

 

[Jasede]

Sounds good? I don't know what to say. I don't trust Gamestar since ~2002. CAction: (And I don't trust them either, but they're funny.)

 

[JarlFrank]

Sounds good? I don't know what to say. I don't trust Gamestar since ~2002. CAction: (And I don't trust them either, but they're funny.)

Yes, PCAction are at least cool to read. Gamestar is just... well... too expensive for a gaming magazine, actually. Last time I checked they were way more expensive than other gaming mags, although the others usually have more content that I like.

Also, they say the ruleset has been translated into the game well. That sounds good. Then again, I have no idea if the Gamestar people actually know anything about the complexity of DSA rules or the original DSA PC games. Maybe they think it's just like D&D, only made by Germans.

 

[thesheeep]

I don't trust any printed mag, since.. well.. always.

And since I will buy the game anyway....

(You wouldn't want one of your possible future employers to go bankrupt, eh? )

 

[Trash]

Read a preview in pc gameplay (belgian mag) that sounded rather good. They however did mention that the game was a lot more easier going (read moronic) that the previous ones like star trails. For instance you can't lose party members. They might fall unconscious, but if you win the fight they stand up again. I always hate that in games.

Otherwise it sounded like a neat rpg, that will only be available in germany (and in german) for the foreseeable future. Guess it's up to you Jerries to go and find out.

 

[Sir_Brennus]

Also, they say the ruleset has been translated into the game well. That sounds good. Then again, I have no idea if the Gamestar people actually know anything about the complexity of DSA rules or the original DSA PC games. Maybe they think it's just like D&D, only made by Germans.

Es ist ganz leicht: Ein Fünftel der Summe aus Ihren Werten für Intuition, Gewandtheit und Körperkraft abzüglich der Summe aus Ihrer Ausrüstungs-Behinderung und dem Sondertalent Ausweichen 1 bis 3 ergibt Ihren Ausweichwert! Wie meinen, das ist gar nicht so leicht? Okay, mag sein. Trotzdem freut uns, dass in der auf 3D-Hochglanz getrimmten Drakensang-Hülle ein komplexer Regelkern steckt -- das gehört eben zu einem traditionellen Rollenspiel. Umso löblicher, dass Drakensang uns auch erklärt, wie welche Charakterwerte zusammenhängen.

Translation:

It is very easy: The fifth part of the sum of your level in intuition, agility and physical might, minus the sum of your armour hinderance and the extra skill "avoid 1 to 3" equals the evasion stat. What? You think that is not so easy? Okay, well may be. But were are delighted anyway that there is a complex rule system within the shiny 3D shell of Drakensang - that is actually necessary for a traditional RPG. The more to praise that Drakensang explains which characters stats are combined.

Sounds reasonably informed to me.

 

[MetalCraze]

that 10 things made me wonder - how a retard that never played games can get a job as a game reviewer in the gaming industry?

 

[JarlFrank]

Sounds good enough. I'll most probably try that game out once it's officially released.

 

[Saxon1974]

Dang, Im interested in this if only it was going to be released in English.

Im guessing it will eventually, I hope.

 

[thesheeep]

Yes it will.

Or else the english homepage wouldn't make that much sense

 

[Thor Kaufman]

GameStar was good in '98, their selfmade videos were rather funny and the rest, too. Same goes for the competition, though PC Action and PC Games were good back then, as well.

Then again, it doesn't really matter since not many good games have appeared since '98 :decline of gaming (mags):

 

[Saxon1974]

Yes it will.

Or else the english homepage wouldn't make that much sense

Cool, didn't know there was one. I will have to take a look.

Maybe by the time it gets released in English it will be less-buggy then original release. I also really hope they allow you to turn off voice dialog so you can just read it. Very few games do voice overs well so I usually turn them off.

 

[Claw]

Admittedly, one doesn't have to hate the random battles on the world map, particularly since they belong to the soul of a Dark-Eye-RPG. Moreover, you can evade them if your heroes possess a high enough talent value in sneaking. We are annoyed by the skirmishes anyway.

I'm not sure what to say. It sounds like an elaborate way of saying "We don't like Dark-Eye-RPGs."
I omitted a sentence at the end. I don't believe it matters.


Their first "valid" complaint appears to be that Gangrene is cured only by antidote and the game doesn't tell. I say this appears to be "valid" as it seems like a weird choice. I don't know the current state of "Dark Eye" but didn't it once make a distinction between wounds, diseases and poisoning?
Anyway, I can't really judge the quality of this complaint, though. Maybe the reviewer expected an automatic hint? In the old RoA games, a character with the healing skill could figure out what cure was necessary iirc, but you weren't told automatically.

 

[cardtrick]

I like this format for a review. It forces the reviewers to be at least somewhat unbiased, and waiting on the score until later frees up the reviewer to be more honest without much in the way of PR pressure.

Anyway, this actually sounds much more interesting to me than the screenshots and website had made the game seem. I wish they had gone with a different art style and less bloom, but that's pretty much beside the point . . . I think I'll definitely be following the game now that I've read this. Thanks for posting this, Sir_Brennus.

 

[Ivy Mike]

It sounds a lot better than I suspected at first. The strong selling points for me are there (dialouge, inter-locking multiple-solution quests, strong rule system, travelling system).

When's this translated version of this supposed to be released?

 

[dagorkan]

How does the combat work? Point-and-click-and-watch like NWN?

No PC death would suck ass and I already don't like the 3rd person bird's perspective.

 

[Saxon1974]

I like this format for a review. It forces the reviewers to be at least somewhat unbiased, and waiting on the score until later frees up the reviewer to be more honest without much in the way of PR pressure.

Anyway, this actually sounds much more interesting to me than the screenshots and website had made the game seem. I wish they had gone with a different art style and less bloom, but that's pretty much beside the point . . . I think I'll definitely be following the game now that I've read this. Thanks for posting this, Sir_Brennus.

I agree, it does sound better than I originally thought. Hopefully an English version comes out sometime in the next year or so.

 

[thesheeep]

Radon Labs, the developer, is over 80 guys. Take it as some sign of professionality. I don't think there will be such a long wait for an english version.

Since they also own the IP and have some (over 50% imho) say in the publishing process, it will be their decision anyway. I could probably ask their lead programmer, if I can manage to get his email
Maybe HE knows.
People in the business are usually pretty friendly to Game Design students

 

[Dementia Praecocks]

 

[thesheeep]

We're currently having our scripting tuition, by Eric Werner, a guy from Radon Labs.
I asked him and he stated that there definately WILL be an english version, though he said that the decision would mostly be dtp's (publisher).
But since Drakensang is the game Radon Labs and dtp want to use to get some international recognition...

On a side note, dtp is known for quite good German localisations, so probably this can be applied to English ones.

 

[Jasede]

sheep, we really appreciate all your information and whatnot...

But don't mention you're a game design student every single post.

 

[thesheeep]

What? I was merely explaining where I got that information.
If I hadn't done this, the question would have been raised anyway, probably.

And btw... I'm a Game Design student. I could put it into my sig so I don't always have to type it.

 

[Trash]

It seems to be an incredibly popular study with the geek sort around here at the moment. I wonder how many will actually find work in that segment though.

Still, when I was 16 I would have loved such a study.

 

[thesheeep]

It seems to be an incredibly popular study with the geek sort around here at the moment. I wonder how many will actually find work in that segment though.

According to statistics, ~70 to 80%. This is the statistic for the whole academy. Since programmers have >90% and artists ~80%, game designers would be somewhere at 60-70%.

Still, when I was 16 I would have loved such a study.

Yeah, me, too. And two years ago I realised that such a thing really exists. And IMHO, it is the best way to get into the industry. You can't have such a big thing to consist only of career changers

Hmm.. sry for derailing the thread