Drinky Crow
Banned
[ah hur hur hur imagine that here's a stupid picture from some unemployed teenboy twat that reads: DRAKENSANG NEOGAF OFFICIAL THREAD!!!!!]
[imagine some pictures of fuck i dunno whatever you want the game to be in your crazy fevered little head, like i fuckin' care]
anyway, who picked up drakensang for the pc on friday? i sure did! is it good? yeah!
ah, fuck, here's a random screenshot to establish context. i have no idea how some of you have the fortitude to assemble actual official threads. there's not a single game i like enough to even google more than one screenshot for.
aaaand here's a link to the homepage: http://www.drakensang.com/
SO ANYWAY drakensang is a pc rpg in the vein of neverwinter nights, although it plays a lot more like a three-dee baldur's gate than the nwn/nwn2 titles did, plus it has the added benefit of NOT being based on dnd and its retarded spellcasting rules. it uses the "das schwarz auge" pen-and-paper rules (hence the subtitle "THE DARK EYE"), which are quite a bit less nonsensical than the dnd equivalent, although still fairly damn detailed for statfiend nerdlingers like me.
"will i like it?" you ask in a piping voice because that's all you really care about, and to that end i will spend the following three to five minutes typing out a list of pluses and minuses. if you find that unsatisfying i may deign to answer your questions, but if *i* find that unsatisfying i will either go back to playing drakensang -or- i will mock you roundly and THEN go back to playing drakensang until my daughter tries to up-end her bowl of oatmeal on me for sport again.
drakensang pluses:
+ it is very polished, largely bug-free, runs really well on middling hardware (nvidia 6800 or better, 2 gb ram, some crappy low-end core 2 duo/centrino -- JESUS CHRISTOS UPGRADE ALREADY).
+ decent-to-good real-time interface: map is largely clear, party orders and management are a breeze (you can always pause with the space bar, ala bg), and the effects of equipment are clearly communicated. you can right-click on everything.
+ das schwarz auge system lets you tweak lots and lots of stats, skills, and modifiers. you spend experience points at any time into upgrading skills. levelling up is sort of a nominal event that gives you a bit of a boost, and is more to reduce experience gains from low-level encounters than to go WHOA HEY IN ZERTHIMON'S NAME I HAVE BECOME STRONGER.
+ LOTS of cool classes to dork around with, including pirates, charlatans, and metamages. there's a good fifteen or so total, and there's a lot of skills and modifiers to mix-and-match between 'em.
+ art direction is solid overall. most character models look pretty dang good, and i like the over-expressive and almost comical character animation. spell effects are clean and can be impressive, unlike SAAAAAY oblivion. environments are well-designed, if a bit generic and brown/grey in the early hours. the first major city is lively and has a lot of folks to harrass. animu freakboys stay away: i have not seen a single loli yet. please go lock yourselves back in your smelly apartments and die alone surrounded by half-nude pvc figurines of chun-li in fetishwear.
+ there are a lot of dialogue skills and modifiers that net you xp for not fighting, although there is no real good/evil system (you are always good or snarky).
+ dungeons seem sufficiently long without being tedious, and have a few simple puzzles to keep things moving.
+ party members have (relatively) unique personalities, like to chat, and can be interacted with for quests et al. it's very baldur's gate in this fashion.
+ translation is solid if not spectacular. va work is passable, unlike most localizations of non-english european pc rpgs.
+ it is BLOODY HUGE like 60+ hour HYYYOOOOOJ. lots of unique locales so far, and not a lot of backtracking.
+ the insane schizophrenic alchemist old lady character is awesome.
+ there're a lot of awesome mustaches and hats in this game.
drakensang minuses:
- TOO MANY RATS IN THE EARLY GAME. holy bubonic plague the first major dungeon is CLEAR THE RATS FROM A BREWERY and they weren't kidding: it is all rats. SNORE.
- you GOTTA spend points on "treat wounds" and "treat poison" or this game will become save/reload hell. also, buy loads of bandages and the herb that heals poison early on, or your party will get trashed by gangrene. the skills and healing items are cheap in terms of their respective costs, but come on, radon labs! mix it up a bit.
- the plot and world are generic tolkienesque fantasy of the most mundane variety. seriously, this is like a cheetoh-stinking time-travel trip back to the days of dnd 1st edition and its tragic tolkien mimickry. even 2nd edition had more interesting lore! i know this is based on a classic german pnp rpg, but come ON jerry: tolkien himself was shootin' up your ancestors back in the trenches. the least you could do is NOT flatter him so much, and come up with something a little more original.
- the camera is pretty fidgity, and you may hafta pause from time to time just to get a good place to click to move your party and avoid some tragically lame pathfinding shenanigans. you can twiddle the controls to a more wow-like ASWD set of controls, but i haven't found that necessary yet.
- it will take a couple restarts just to get a sense for what stats/skills do what for you. i didn't mind because the starting area is small and easy, plus all the classes seem pretty intersting to muck with.
- it takes awhile to really get into the cool equipment, encounters, and abilities. like five hours awhile.
- the rest of the characters who are not an insane alchemist grandma are kinda generic and dull. dranor the mustachio'd pimp might be okay.
overall, i have totally poopsocked this fucking game -- fuck, i was up until 4am last night playing it, and i'm gonna waste today neglecting my family playing it as well. i just locked the brat in the prayer closet and sent my wife to inspa with a fistful of gift cards and NOW i am gonna nerd it the FUCK UP you sad sacks.
[imagine some pictures of fuck i dunno whatever you want the game to be in your crazy fevered little head, like i fuckin' care]
anyway, who picked up drakensang for the pc on friday? i sure did! is it good? yeah!
ah, fuck, here's a random screenshot to establish context. i have no idea how some of you have the fortitude to assemble actual official threads. there's not a single game i like enough to even google more than one screenshot for.
aaaand here's a link to the homepage: http://www.drakensang.com/
SO ANYWAY drakensang is a pc rpg in the vein of neverwinter nights, although it plays a lot more like a three-dee baldur's gate than the nwn/nwn2 titles did, plus it has the added benefit of NOT being based on dnd and its retarded spellcasting rules. it uses the "das schwarz auge" pen-and-paper rules (hence the subtitle "THE DARK EYE"), which are quite a bit less nonsensical than the dnd equivalent, although still fairly damn detailed for statfiend nerdlingers like me.
"will i like it?" you ask in a piping voice because that's all you really care about, and to that end i will spend the following three to five minutes typing out a list of pluses and minuses. if you find that unsatisfying i may deign to answer your questions, but if *i* find that unsatisfying i will either go back to playing drakensang -or- i will mock you roundly and THEN go back to playing drakensang until my daughter tries to up-end her bowl of oatmeal on me for sport again.
drakensang pluses:
+ it is very polished, largely bug-free, runs really well on middling hardware (nvidia 6800 or better, 2 gb ram, some crappy low-end core 2 duo/centrino -- JESUS CHRISTOS UPGRADE ALREADY).
+ decent-to-good real-time interface: map is largely clear, party orders and management are a breeze (you can always pause with the space bar, ala bg), and the effects of equipment are clearly communicated. you can right-click on everything.
+ das schwarz auge system lets you tweak lots and lots of stats, skills, and modifiers. you spend experience points at any time into upgrading skills. levelling up is sort of a nominal event that gives you a bit of a boost, and is more to reduce experience gains from low-level encounters than to go WHOA HEY IN ZERTHIMON'S NAME I HAVE BECOME STRONGER.
+ LOTS of cool classes to dork around with, including pirates, charlatans, and metamages. there's a good fifteen or so total, and there's a lot of skills and modifiers to mix-and-match between 'em.
+ art direction is solid overall. most character models look pretty dang good, and i like the over-expressive and almost comical character animation. spell effects are clean and can be impressive, unlike SAAAAAY oblivion. environments are well-designed, if a bit generic and brown/grey in the early hours. the first major city is lively and has a lot of folks to harrass. animu freakboys stay away: i have not seen a single loli yet. please go lock yourselves back in your smelly apartments and die alone surrounded by half-nude pvc figurines of chun-li in fetishwear.
+ there are a lot of dialogue skills and modifiers that net you xp for not fighting, although there is no real good/evil system (you are always good or snarky).
+ dungeons seem sufficiently long without being tedious, and have a few simple puzzles to keep things moving.
+ party members have (relatively) unique personalities, like to chat, and can be interacted with for quests et al. it's very baldur's gate in this fashion.
+ translation is solid if not spectacular. va work is passable, unlike most localizations of non-english european pc rpgs.
+ it is BLOODY HUGE like 60+ hour HYYYOOOOOJ. lots of unique locales so far, and not a lot of backtracking.
+ the insane schizophrenic alchemist old lady character is awesome.
+ there're a lot of awesome mustaches and hats in this game.
drakensang minuses:
- TOO MANY RATS IN THE EARLY GAME. holy bubonic plague the first major dungeon is CLEAR THE RATS FROM A BREWERY and they weren't kidding: it is all rats. SNORE.
- you GOTTA spend points on "treat wounds" and "treat poison" or this game will become save/reload hell. also, buy loads of bandages and the herb that heals poison early on, or your party will get trashed by gangrene. the skills and healing items are cheap in terms of their respective costs, but come on, radon labs! mix it up a bit.
- the plot and world are generic tolkienesque fantasy of the most mundane variety. seriously, this is like a cheetoh-stinking time-travel trip back to the days of dnd 1st edition and its tragic tolkien mimickry. even 2nd edition had more interesting lore! i know this is based on a classic german pnp rpg, but come ON jerry: tolkien himself was shootin' up your ancestors back in the trenches. the least you could do is NOT flatter him so much, and come up with something a little more original.
- the camera is pretty fidgity, and you may hafta pause from time to time just to get a good place to click to move your party and avoid some tragically lame pathfinding shenanigans. you can twiddle the controls to a more wow-like ASWD set of controls, but i haven't found that necessary yet.
- it will take a couple restarts just to get a sense for what stats/skills do what for you. i didn't mind because the starting area is small and easy, plus all the classes seem pretty intersting to muck with.
- it takes awhile to really get into the cool equipment, encounters, and abilities. like five hours awhile.
- the rest of the characters who are not an insane alchemist grandma are kinda generic and dull. dranor the mustachio'd pimp might be okay.
overall, i have totally poopsocked this fucking game -- fuck, i was up until 4am last night playing it, and i'm gonna waste today neglecting my family playing it as well. i just locked the brat in the prayer closet and sent my wife to inspa with a fistful of gift cards and NOW i am gonna nerd it the FUCK UP you sad sacks.