Drakensang

[Retailversion] So, finally! The devs were big fans of the sourcematerial (The Black Eye, a german Tabletop-Classic from the 80s, kinda like D&D) and crafted a beautiful game here. Its a great old-school RPG that will be worth your time and money. The game can be rough and hard at times, so keep an eye on skills, talents and classes. But if you start to figure it out, it feels rewarding. Kinda like the first Dragon Age if you will. A modern german classic. The game is set in the world of THE BLACK EYE on the continent Aventuria. Your adventure revolves around the city of Ferdok. The world is fully fleshed out, with a lot of history and lore behind it. You move via a map, so its not open world, but it does not need to be. I replayed it like 2 years ago on Win10 and it worked like a charme and i had a lot of fun. Srsly! The look maybe a bit stiff nowadays, but still charming. Sound, music, story, world... Just perfect. Still sad about the fact, that this game was so underlooked back then. Make sure to check out the sequel "The river of time".

The most long awaited game for me personaly ever since I discovered GOG back in 2012. I played the game when it first released back in 2009. It reminded me of Baldur's gate with its complex and solid RPG system and beautiful story. I bought it again on steam and now D.R.M. free on G.O.G. It was simply a naturl choice. If you love old school C.R.P.G.s like Baldur's gate 1 & 2 and aren't discouraged by slightly complex RPG mechanics this is the game for you. I hope that G.O.G. adds the sequel (actually prequel) and it's expansion to it's catalogue. It will be a certain purchase for me and a natural fit for this store.

I finished the main game and put quite a few hours into the expansion(s). I would say I have over 100 hours put into this game so the bang for your buck is there. The redundancy of the combat and running around became a chore instead of fun. The feeling of reward really wasn't there. It became more about enjoying certain aspects of the gameplay rather than the game as a whole. Those aspects are very good though. To sum this game up, it's like a generic Neverwinter Nights 2 without all the bugs. Drakensang runs far smoother and has much better controls/camera (although the nature of these kind of games all leave awkward camera angles in corners etc). However, in regards to the gameplay the combat is slower in Drakensang. The character development is unnecessarily complicated. The spells aren't that interesting. The rounds in combat take longer in Drakensang which is a real downer to me. I like the pacing of Neverwtinter 2 (and Dragon Age) where you see the results of your decisions relatively faster. The environments are really nice in this game. Nothing new or interesting to look at as far as the genre goes but what is there looks good. The backdrops look nice. Water looks particularly neat. Trees and grass sway and butterflies and other wildlife roam freely helping bring the areas to life. Basically I'll end with this. If you love rpgs with the "tactical pause" like Neverwinter, Baldur's Gate, Dragon Age, Icewind Dale etc etc this is worth a try. Although this game feels generic there are great mechanics it borrows from others games even if these mechanics aren't done as well. There seems to be talented people behind this game and it comes across to me as potential unfulfilled. It's not bad either though. It's not one of the greats but you could do a lot worse. So again, there isn't much of a story here so for the love of this kind of rpg combat, and the timesink this game is... at gog's price point, it's a good deal. Overall 7/10

This game is simply fantastic. It's a party based, real-time-with-pause, linear rpg with a very unique and lovely atmosphere. The setting is very unique and very much reminiscent of western European folklore. During the course of the game you will visit quite a number of different locations, from beautiful towns to dark swamps, mountain tops, dungeons, etc. All of which are hugely fun to explore and thanks to lightning and soundtrack offer a distinct atmosphere. Character development is deep as well with each character being able to choose from learning spells, raising attributes or learning combat or non-combat skills. The different classes play and feel different. If you're starting out, I wouldn't recommend creating a character specialized purely on social skills, though. Most of the time it gives you better rewards, but your party members will have to carry all of the late game encounters which is probably not good for your protagonists ego ;) Overall I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes Baldur's Gate, Neverwinter Nights, Dragon Age or Pillars of Eternity!