I wrote this entry for the school blog which I also run, so just copying + pasting + editing it here.:)
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One trend I haven’t especially liked in the last decade or so of video gaming has been the gradual dearth of role-playing games.
And by this, I mean the ‘traditional’ ones and not the action-based hybrids and Diablo-clones of which we still see a semi-steady stream of, e.g. Titan’s Quest (which was a lot of fun), and the Sacred games. The ‘traditional’ RPGs were always heavy on character development, story-telling, questing, decision-making as opposed to beating up an endless stream of mobs, acquiring the next piece of your God armor, and chalking up a few million gold pieces while at it.
There’s been a couple of such RPGs over the years though not enough of them. There was the two Neverwinter Nights games (of which a Major Project group I’m supervising is making use of the NWN2 Electron Toolset engine), Knights of the Old Republic, and what I felt was the best semi-recent RPG – The Witcher, blogged here too.
I was recently looking for another RPG to get my fix, and I found one – a not widely released and little known RPG translated from a German production, Drakensang. The game isn’t sold retail in Singapore but it’s available on Steam.
I picked up the game, and have been giving it a go for the last evening or so. It’s indeed everything I hope it was, and then some. It’s very character stat based, a lot of character customization options, and a lot of quests though some are still of the medieval courier variety.
And it’s a HUGE world. 80 hours of content. Just by taking a look at the walkthrough on Gamefaqs, you can see how long the game is. Graphically, it’s stunning too and the camera zooms back far enough in third person view so that if you’re prone to vertigo, this game’s safe.
Reviews for it have been a little mixed with reviewers knocking off points for its quirky combat system, variety of quests, and temperamental camera. However, the reviews at least all agree on the vastness of the game world and that there are so many options for character development – which are more important aspects for me in this sort of thing.
I may write a proper review for it after I’ve spent a bit more time in Drakensang – assuming that Hannah doesn’t fuss too much while I’m carrying her while playing.:)
(Pictures from Steam)
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