Drakensang: The Dark Eye Review

RPGamer is next up to review Drakensang: The Dark Eye, starting with “Finally, a reason to keep Europe around”, and giving it a 3.5/5.

However, you cannot change the appearance of any of the archetypes, although equipped weapons and armor will be reflected on your character. While this may seem like an oversight, it’s clear that certain limitations had to be implemented to allow for a lower hardware requirements. The game does indeed look gorgeous even on lower end systems, and a high quality texture pack is available on install to allow for some scalability. However, invisible walls and mostly decorative environments diminish the sense of immersion and highlight the limits of the engine.

Not all is dull and dreary in the world of Aventuria though. Severely clichéd quests and a storyline straight out of the RPG handbook are fleshed out by clever writing that manages to put a new coat of paint on the old stereotypes, and there are plenty of stories to go around. With an immense amount of side-quests and a tremendous storyline, Drakensang clocks in well past the forty hour mark, provided you are ready to deal with some recycled material, particularly in the last half of the game. Sadly, although there is certainly enough bulk to keep the player busy for hours on end, there is rarely any moment that breaks from the MMO-style fetch and/or kill X quests.