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 can't speak to the appeal for younger audiences but if you played these in the 90s, it is wonderful to replay them. I didn't see these issues brought up in the other reviews I looked at, so here are things I think everyone playing the gog release of KQ4-6 to know about: Manuals are required This is not an issue really, but I wanted to state it here for anyone who doesn't know to expect this. The manuals are presented on gog as pdf scans of printed materials that were included with the games in their original release. There are actually a good number of puzzles that require you to look up information in those manuals, so make sure you download the manuals and look at them so you know when you see something in the game that corresponds to them. KQ6 has computer clocking issues Be aware that there is a moment when you are meant to capture a living Hole in a wall. Even if you entice it with the right item, capturing it is nearly impossible due to how the game's animation plays on a fast modern machine. It helped me to look at a youtube video so I could see the precise moment to click, but still took lots of tries. Still an amazing game! KQ5 voices are bad I actually played the disc version of KQ5, not the CD enhanced version with voiceovers. Please let me go back to the non-voiced version! The voices are bad! If you could click to skip them it wouldn't be so horrible, but--no. No you can't. It really slows the game down. The text-only version allowed you to click through text at your own pace, and I spent time digging for the non-voiced version, but never was able to find it in this package. That said, I still got through the whole game and loved it. KQ4 is hard This might just be a skill issue with me, but I have made almost no progress in this game, or I'd have more to say.
The game counts how many times you die. At first, I felt some anxiety over this, but my anxiety was cured shortly after by the absurdity of how brutally deadly this game is. After a while, the high death count is basically a badge of honor and a point of amusement. Speaking of brutality, I don't think anyone has commented on the somewhat disturbing squishing and splatting sounds made when you die, or the concerning number of barrels that could be filled by the bloody death effects. But while many games depict blood in a disturbing way and others in a stylized "cool" way...this game I think is showing blood in a cute bubbly way. Enjoy.
A big D&D fan here, playing 5e the last 2 years. Waited for this to go on 80% off sale and grabbed it. I was a kid when these games were new, but never got the chance to play any of them. I like the charm of the old artwork. One reviewer was helpful pointing out the progression of the games, and after an hour or 2 of playing, I'm interested in playing further. The journal entries and manual text spur the imagination and are full of depth. The simplicity of the graphics just lets you visualize the world on your own terms. I decided to start by playing Gateway to the Savage Frontier (first of a two-parter--its sequel is Treasures of the Savage Frontier). FUN TIP: Find "DOSBox Configuration" and run the game at 1024x768. This allows you to have the manual+journal, a music player (game has no music), and other windows up at the same time. I decided to search up artwork to represent my characters, so now I have this art placed in the space to the side of the game window. This added a lot of fun, for me. INSERT DISK INTO DRIVE C PROMPT BUG: I discovered if you save your game during the character creation screen, you will get a prompt to insert a disk when you try to load it (which you can't do). Make sure you don't save in the character creation screen. But if you do, I found a workaround. I ran the game again and made a second save that had the same number of characters as my slot A save, but in slot B. Then I found the folder with the saves in it, and renamed all the A slot character files with the letter B. This was worth the effort for me because I spent a good amount of time creating my characters and customizing their icons.
