Drakensang

Way better than expected!

Looks nice enough, I liked the combat generally. The movement is slow, the levelling system is complicated and unexplained, and the journal sometimes doesn't give enough information regarding locations. There is a lot of potential here, but it doesn't quite come together. You can get a speed mod which makes the game more tolerable, but it wasn't enough to save it.

I've only played 40 minutes in the first area of the game, but I was instantly captivated by this game's setting. Drakensang gives similar vibes to Bioware's 2002 Neverwinter Nights and classic 2004 World of Warcraft (if it were single player). From the beginning, the game throws you into a compelling environment with many quests immediately available from various NPCs. NPC dialogue is interesting and most characters give you some quest to complete. The first zone feels very Disneyland-style in that it is not laid out like a realistic setting, but it is designed to entertain the visitor at every turn. The character class options for your starting character are numerous (don't overlook the little arrows that load additional character class options, there are 20-30 class options, not just the 3 you first see). Character appearance is tied to their class, but this doesn't feel like that big of an issue given how many class options there are. You will like this game if you enjoy games with traditional fantasy settings, meeting lots of NPCs, plenty of choice about where to explore, freedom to create your own character, video games similar to Tabletop Roleplaying games, single player MMO-like experiences, and if you're okay with 3D graphics that looked good in the Playstation 2 era of games.

I have played this game on and off for the better part of my childhood. Coming back to it now, it is fantastic how good it remains, the graphics, the cutscenes. Many "better" games from that period can look at it and learn a thing or two. The gameplay and mechanics are hard to understand, but if you take the time to make them click, you have a very good RPG with a solid story and characters.

Nice customization, good and well written world, nice comedy tone (at least for me) but the janky gameplay really drags down the experience, if not for that I would praise it a lot.