Drakensang: The Dark Eye Preview
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Combat has a real nostalgic feel to it. It is similar to the Infinity Engine's real-time with pause (RTwP) system. You give commands, your party carries them out, and you can pause to change or give additional commands. Once you've queued up whatever special moves and spells you want to use, you simply sit back and watch as the battle unfolds before you. Combat happens at a leisurely, easy pace which makes it feel pretty relaxed, though I should note this is partially because the demo doesn't contain a lot of challenging combat. However, while healing and mana restoration is fairly quick (a lot faster than in the pen and paper version of DSA), there are certain nasty after-effects of combat that will stick around, such as being (wounded), which will cripple the character until he's properly tended to. I can't really tell from the demo, but I believe the intention of that system is to get the player to approach combat with care and tactics.
The quest design appears to be fairly basic and straight-forward in nature. The objectives are predictable and safe - (find this item), (go there and kill the foozle), etc. Rather than providing clear instructions on where to go, the game utilizes map markers and a quest compass, much to its detriment.
I can't comment on the quality of dialogue much, other than noticing that Drakensang depends on recognizable archetypes: the powerful but confused archmage, the seductive gypsy queen, and the typical lying braggart soldier. In a setting like Aventuria, the use of such archetypes makes sense, and doesn't necessarily reflect negatively on the setting.
What the demo painfully lacks are options on how you resolve quests. Most of the demo's missions are solved by killing the opponent, though there is one thieving quest in which you have to pick a lock and one quest that is resolved by dialogue. In the dialogue quest, you advise in a dispute about an apple tree and, bizarrely enough, all four dialogue options led to the same outcome: dispute resolved, +15 experience. There is no option to simply pick one person's side or unleash some fury on the person you disagree with. None of the four dialogue options are influenced by the protagonist's skill either, whereas options in other dialogues within the demo showed tests of the skills (judgment of character), (charm), or (persuasion).
The character system is expansive, with 8 attributes, 23 non-combat skills, 10 combat skills, and a heap of available special attack/defense skills and spells. At the start of the game, you pick one of 20 classes ranging from elemental mage to pirate to dwarf sapper, then select a gender (except for amazons and dwarves) and adapt his/her stats if you wish to. However, you cannot change the look of your character. DSA 4th edition is an open-class system, which means that while your character will have an easier time with skills that come naturally to him, he can learn any of the skills available. Spells are only available to casters (mages and elves).
Overall
My impression of the demo is positive, but this small peek wasn't really much to go by. I did not get to experience much of the story nor can I really judge how dialogue, quests, and character development work out in the long-term. Assuming the localization is up to par, though, Drakensang could turn out to be a solid RPG worth checking out when it arrives next year.
