Drakensang: The Dark Eye

The first thing that probably crosses your mind when you first consider buying Drakensang as your newest RPG fix is - who the hell made this and what sort of RPG is it?   But after you get over the fact that Radon Labs has not made anything that would serve to inform your expectations, and that the fantasy setting is neither Dungeons and Dragons nor Middle-Earth, surprisingly little about Drakensang will seem foreign here.  Apparently, Drakensang is a German P&P equivalent of Dungeons and Dragons, and though they certainly have their own personal touches to the fantasy formula, don't expect any revelations in setting.  Elves are still ancient and live in the woods, Dwarves are still mountain-dwellers who love beer (but - get this - in this game they also like schnapps!  Sorry, didn't mean to spoil that surprising twist to anyone).  And humans are still the young upstarts who nevertheless control most of the world but spend too much time stabbing each other in the back to get around to accomplishing anything good with it. 
 
The game's format is also very familiar - you have a main character, over whom you have a fair degree of lattitude in what skills he begins with, though the game's skill system does not prevent you from training in any skill, provided you find the appropriate trainer and have the prerequisite abilities.  While the system is more complicated than other games of its type, it is still mostly straightforward and so long as you don't do anything ridiculous, it will be pretty hard to mess your character up too badly to beat the game.  You also have a set of companions with unique specialities to choose between, and your character, along with these three companions, will subsequently set out among the humans, dwarves, and elves to discover that what at first seems like a simple murder is actually a much grander scheme.   
 
I'd imagine that most readers are probably dropping their jaws at this point - to yawn, that is, rather than in shock.  And if you think this seen done before and better, you're probably right.  If compared to classic RPGs like Baldur's Gate, Drakensang is lacking in a number of ways.  These cons include: A) Cardboard cutout companions:  You could summarize each character and all the story you get about them in a sentence.  B) A lack of moral choices or consequences: At times there are some branching options in quests, but it will not affect the story in any way, and at most affects the value of the reward you get for that particular quest.  C) A story that is fairly short on twists: Bad guys look like bad guys from the moment they're introduced, and the reverse is true as well.  D) A shortage of loot - the Diablo/MMO equipment upgrade craze will not be sated by the small and fairly low-magic fare afforded by Drakensang's shops, and the main character in particular will have essentially no choice in his gear by the end of the game..   A couple other flaws mar the game, such as the unbearably slow run speed on fairly large maps, and the shortage of opportunities for most any crafting opportunity to become worthwhile.
 
It may seem that these many faults in fairly essential areas of an RPG should render a score a great deal lower than I have offered here, but ultimately, a lesser old wine in a new bottle can be pretty satisfying when it comes to games when the old bottle is pretty hard to swallow, as Baldur's Gate most undoubtedly is.  While still a game, that venerable series has not been treated well by age in any number of ways.  For those who have either replayed those games too recently, or who cannot bear to do so, a more reasonable game to set this game against would be NWN2, and in that context, things look far more favorable.  The plot, while conventional, is told with better flair than either Bioware or Obsidian managed, the graphics are better, the regions are more interesting and varied, and most importantly, the combat is made tactical and fun.  By instituting a system where the player is often confronted with even fights with steady waves of enemies, he must manage his party to provide all the essential skills prior to battle, and constantly manage their abilities and positioning throughout the fights.  (There is a great deal more to be gained by positional attacking in Drakensang than in other games of its ilk.) 
  
Ultimately, what the player gets from Drakensang is a fantasy RPG fix for those who've found the genre to have little in supply for them in recent years.  There is nothing in this game to recommend it to non-RPG fans, or those RPG fans who've had it up to here with elves and dwarves and orcs and are looking for something a little less conventional.  But when it comes to the act of actually playing the game, it does a good job of keeping the player involved instead of worrying about whether he's done enough quests to gain a level.  At a discount price, an avid RPGer like me found it a great investment for his money.  Hopefully, the upcoming prequel will build on its apparent success and correct its obvious issues, though Radon has hardly become an A-List developer in the meantime and may find resources too short to build on their RPG debut's promise.