Realms of Arkania: Star Trail (Remake)

I'm so sorry to say this, but I can't call this good at all. I immediately bought it when I saw it on GOG even though I didn't have high expectations, simply to support this effort and signal that yes, we do want projects like this! But... I can't say the purchase is worth the money. I don't want to take a shot at the developers for whom this surely is a labor of love, but I have to be honest. Unfortunately, it's not a great remake. It hobby project by a couple guys and so dated even at release, you're hoping the remake will get a remake. If you're an oldschool RPG lover, you are used to games being clunky and a bit hard to immerse into, but this is a solid level below our standard. Let me walk you through a couple of positives before we get to the negatives: + Music is still amazing. The remakes are solid and there's the option to switch between remake and original soundtrack at any time. Nice. + The character customization is an important and great addition to the game. I used to pick my portraits in the old games to fit the combat sprites because otherwise the disconnect between the two was just too weird. This is fixed here! It's not great and you can tell minutes into the game that the NPCs are all remixed from it but still glad it's there. + You can tell that the devs love the old games and wanted to stay true to the originals - You'd expect that a remake is a better, modernized version of a game. This is not. I can't say that anything about it is better than original Sternenschweif. I implore you to get the original games from here if you haven't played them. This won't do justice. - The absolutely lifeless 3d characters and abysmal animation during intro kill enthusiasm immediately. - Bit mad at testers and friends for not advicing small and obvious improvements that could fix a lot about the game. Skin your textboxes. Get an artist to paint much more. HIDE those models. - A miracle that it's possible but combat is even WORSE than in the original.

After some load screens in English, the start menu appeared in German. After I figured out the correct menu choice to start a new game, it loaded for a few seconds then dumped me out of the game. Seems like someone should have noticed this before putting the product out for sale. Shame on you GOG

I don't speak German. On the installation screen I selected English. All the options are in German. I gave two stars, who knows maybe the game has promise. Asking for a refund.

Because it's really not fucking funny.