Something went wrong. Try again later
    Follow

    Drakensang: The River of Time

    Game » consists of 1 releases. Released Jan 11, 2011

    A prequel to Radon Labs RPG Drakensang.

    What is up with this?

    Avatar image for bwast
    Bwast

    1376

    Forum Posts

    95

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 4

    User Lists: 0

    #1  Edited By Bwast

    So I've been playing Drakensang a bit and I'm really digging it. It's taking me a while to acclimatise to the Dark Eye rule set but I'm getting there. So I found out that there is this prequel. There's no release date for it on the game page and the developer's website says they hope to release it in early 2010. I can't find it anywhere. Steam? Nothing. Amazon? Nothing. Directly from the developer? Nothing. I can buy Drakensang from all of those places but not River of Time. It's not even on Amazon's European site. Did this game actually come out? Was it not released in North America? Is there even an English version? I need to know! 

    Avatar image for muttersometaxicab
    MuttersomeTaxicab

    826

    Forum Posts

    5471

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 25

    #2  Edited By MuttersomeTaxicab

    Drakensang: The River of Time came out yesterday through Impulse. My god, is it ever a pretty game. Voice acting is absolutely crazy and some of the animations a little weird. 
     
    Admittedly, I haven't played the game this is a prequel to, so I don't know how it stacks up.
    Avatar image for mzuckerm
    mzuckerm

    442

    Forum Posts

    1381

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 17

    User Lists: 4

    #3  Edited By mzuckerm
    @MuttersomeTaxicab: I'd love to hear more reactions.  I just came across this on the Impulse site, and it looked intriguing.
    Avatar image for muttersometaxicab
    MuttersomeTaxicab

    826

    Forum Posts

    5471

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 25

    #4  Edited By MuttersomeTaxicab
    @mzuckerm said:
    " @MuttersomeTaxicab: I'd love to hear more reactions.  I just came across this on the Impulse site, and it looked intriguing."


    It's been a bit of a gong show over the past few days, so I haven't spent an awful lot of time with The River of Time yet. Will post more info as I get further into it. What spurred me on to picking it up was Dave's write-up of the last Drakensang.    
     
    Read that here: 
    http://www.giantbomb.com/drakensang-the-dark-eye/61-25105/rpg-corner-drakensang-is-quite-the-surprise/35-236981/         
     
    As for my impressions, I've literally just started my game, but so far: 
     
    There's a lot of emphasis put on the atmosphere of the game. I have the settings scaled to the max, so I don't know how pretty it looks with the graphical bells and whistles turned off. The opening area is this idyllic looking cove with beams of light coming in through the foliage. I'm not usually one to be impressed by graphics, so I might be turning a blind eye to some things that would be ringing alarm-bells for those more inclined to nitpick about that stuff, but I found it pretty idyllic. The areas are a little constrained (at least so far) the same way Dragon Age handles things. Not sure if the world opens up to a more Elder Scrolls way, or if it gets all overworld map and sticks with smaller nodes a la Dragon Age.  
     
    Also, to the best of my knowledge: no jump button, but doesn't seem necessary anyways. 
     
    Combat is entirely turn-based, too. Admittedly, I haven't played NWN2, but I imagine they operate in similar ways. It's not handled in the JRPG style, let's say. Feels a little similar to Dragon Age, but it automatically pauses instead of forcing you to press the spacebar.
     
    Voice acting is bananas. So far, everyone I've talked to has had a voice reading their dialogue and it's all hilariously bad, and it's accompanied by similarly ludicrous animations. I had a guy give me a friendly wave as he told me (with great joviality) that if I didn't shut up soon, he'd show me what my insides looked like. Could be a deal-breaker for some, but I've at least been able to figure out what they wanted from me thus far.
     
    There's a huge amount of different classes in the game, and River of Time adds some new ones if anyone's played the previous Drakensang. Apparently a "Metamage" is the game's equivalent of a necromancer? According to the character creation description, I will one day be able to summon a skeleton. Either way, I'm playing as that. There seems to be some inherent race restrictions based on the classes, so my guy looks Middle Eastern in appearance. Kind of an interesting touch, especially if it pulls a Daggerfall and lets me visit different homelands. Though, that's just conjecture at the moment. There's also stuff like "Dwarven Prospector" that I'm dying to explore further, too. There's also a name randomizer, but you can type one in if you want. My guy's name came out as Ben bin Soltan. Couldn't turn it down.  

    Similarly to DnD-based games, you can pick up various party members. Still haven't done that yet, unless you count the starting mission which is: "go find some dry mushrooms." So, I imagine it's possible to pick up other classes and explore them that way.
     
     Control scheme is a little strange, or at least took some time to get the hang of. You can use WASD, but the camera isn't fixed over your shoulder, so you'd be using both the mouse and the keyboard to keep things in frame. Or, you can just right-click on the ground and keep moving the camera that way. Admittedly, I haven't fiddled with the options or anything yet, so I don't know if there's a more coherent way to move around. It takes some getting used to, but since combat is turn-based anyways, I haven't really been too concerned. 
     
    One thing I'm sorely missing (though, again, it might exist, I just haven't looked for it) was holding TAB to see every interactive thing in a room. Though, that's largely because I'm STILL playing through Dragon Age and holding TAB everywhere I go. It's not a dealbreaker, and really says more about my own shortcomings than anything else.
    Avatar image for soulglove
    Soulglove

    167

    Forum Posts

    27

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 1

    User Lists: 1

    #5  Edited By Soulglove
    @MuttersomeTaxicab: 
     
    Quick question, does it have any underwater swimming or exploration?
    Browse Boards
    Jump to Top

    ×

    Move topic to another board

    Pick a board and hit submit

  • (Or search for a more specific forum)
    • Close
    ×

    Pick a List

    Close

    This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:

    Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.

    Comment and Save

    Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.