Duck and Cover

http://www.drakensang.com/

Has anybody tried this out yet? I'm slightly encouraged because little ADD xbox kids hate it, the gaming press gives it average reviews but laments that it's too complicated and not "modern" enough like F3 or Oblivion, so it piqued my interest.

I just want to make sure it's not some crappy Oblivion clone or something.

It looks an awful lot like Gothic 3.

It's supposed to be somewhat decent but I haven't really given it much thought since I heard it has a pretty bad translation from Europe.

POOPERSCOOPER wrote:I heard it has a pretty bad translation from Europe.

a true californian

Kashluk wrote:

POOPERSCOOPER wrote:I heard it has a pretty bad translation from Europe.

chill out Kash

:chill:

First impressions: pretty slow-paced. Silly balancing. Choosing a non-combat orientated character causes a lot more gray hair than choosing one in, say, Fallout 2 for example. Dialogue's pretty 'meh', quests vary between your average FedEx missions and truly challenging conversations (A: I hate you! B: But wouldn't you like me? *wink, social skill roll* A: Now I love you. Of course I will follow you to death!), the setting is your typical SWORDS, FLAMES UND LEDERHOSEN + DRAGONS!!1 and I have yet to see anything innovative, really. It's quite pretty and loads up fast, no crashing or other such issues (as of yet).

So is it worth it or not?

It's been OK so far. It can get a bit tedious at times since the characters "run" real slow and you need to run back and forth a lot... But it's also quite hooking.

Kashluk wrote:LEDERHOSEN + DRAGONS!!

thank you for the memories.

I downloaded it.

It's fucking WOW. I shit you not.

I was excited, dicking around making my character and stuff... then WOW to the fucking face, complete with instantly assigned goto quests.

Fuck that shit.

If you're unsure about if you like it or not, there are both an English and a German demo out for you to download.

Having played the German demo, I can truly say that I like it. It is played in the same style as Baldur's Gate, but the quests are a bit more - interesting - at least to me.

In a certain quest where you need to rescue someone, there are actually different dialogues that do not lead to the same conclusion or consequence. Skills matter too: the higher your herbal skills are, the easier you will spot plants.

There's a quest where you need to deliver something to someone. You can do this quest at leat three or four different ways.

The only annoying thing, at least to me, is that the boars in this game will attack at sight. Maybe Radon Labs took a page from Gothic 3? when they made this game...?

It is NOT a crappy Oblivion clone.....this I can tell you. The skills, spells and stats systems are somewhat complicated and putting points into a certain skill do mean something...

aries100 wrote:and putting points into a certain skill do mean something...

Well this seems kind of silly, actually. You get these blacksmithing recipes that require a said (a set number, not a varying range ie. 10-14) level of blacksmithing skill to work. And everytime you want to forge a sword (requiring 9 blacksmithy) you will succeed (as long as you have 9 pts in that skill). But the first ~10 pts in skills like Animal Lore, Plant Lore or Lockpicking don't seem to affect the chance of success at all. You are just as likely to succeed in pulling that flower from the ground with 2 pts or 8 pts in the skill - which means you always fail. Then, suddenly, after you've got 12 pts or so you start succeeding. The additional points spent in the skill don't seem to increase the success rate at all, however (it's somewhat around 75 %, from what I've experienced).