Greetings Drakensang players,
After finally picking up this game on ebay, I've just started to get into it over the weekend. I rather enjoyed the wholesome appeal of the original game and spent some very pleasant long hours with it.
However, so far, River of Time hasn't quite given me that same feeling. I'm trying to identify why this is the case. Perhaps I'm expecting too much of it or analysing my experiences from the first game too much. Admittedly I'm only level 4! In any case, I hope it opens up more to the player and that more companions become available. Whilst you couldn't fast travel or return to places in the first game, the areas were generally very large and quite explorable with rewards for that exploration.
A couple of things I've really liked so far:
- The more varied and thoughtful encounter design (I really liked the battle in the tollgate courtyard that required some blockading of entrances, tactical movements and thinking outside of the regular.)
- The focus of the story that was seemingly based upon my class choice. (Origins like in a way…)
- The encounter with the Trolls at the bridge east of Nadoret. At level 1, this really did feel intimidating and gave me a "must come back later" feeling.
- Fast travel has been welcome, though the first couple of areas haven't felt as open/explorable as the demo did in the first game.
Since I played a melee oriented character in the first game, I decided for this game that I would try out a Battlemage/Cleric hybrid kind of build. After playing for a few hours, I have a couple of questions:
(A) Are there more companions to meet in the game?
In Drakensang, you could eventually enlist the services of at least ten NPC's, making party configuration experiments very fun and highly enjoyable. It was one of the quasi-Baldur's Gate aspects that I really liked about the first game.
So far, I've only got access to Jaakon (If he says "Don't do that" again, I'm going to fireball his annoying goatee off) Forgrimm (who I really like from the first game) and Cano (a weaker, more foppish Dranor/Gladys replacement).
Oh and I miss Gwendela.
(B) My general impression from reviews is that there is a tendency to prefer The River of Time to the original game. I'd like to hear some Watchers/Drakensang fan' opinions on which they preferred and why (without spoilers naturally)…
(C) I'm looking for a list of the english voice cast from River of Time. Did John Taylor also voice Forgrimm in River of Time in the English version? For some reason, he sounds different…could be just me though.
That'll do for now. I'll hopefully add some more thoughts as my game progresses.
Cheers
Edit: Just a gentle warning for first time players who are reading: Some spoilers may follow as I reveal events during my game.
After finally picking up this game on ebay, I've just started to get into it over the weekend. I rather enjoyed the wholesome appeal of the original game and spent some very pleasant long hours with it.
However, so far, River of Time hasn't quite given me that same feeling. I'm trying to identify why this is the case. Perhaps I'm expecting too much of it or analysing my experiences from the first game too much. Admittedly I'm only level 4! In any case, I hope it opens up more to the player and that more companions become available. Whilst you couldn't fast travel or return to places in the first game, the areas were generally very large and quite explorable with rewards for that exploration.
A couple of things I've really liked so far:
- The more varied and thoughtful encounter design (I really liked the battle in the tollgate courtyard that required some blockading of entrances, tactical movements and thinking outside of the regular.)
- The focus of the story that was seemingly based upon my class choice. (Origins like in a way…)
- The encounter with the Trolls at the bridge east of Nadoret. At level 1, this really did feel intimidating and gave me a "must come back later" feeling.
- Fast travel has been welcome, though the first couple of areas haven't felt as open/explorable as the demo did in the first game.
Since I played a melee oriented character in the first game, I decided for this game that I would try out a Battlemage/Cleric hybrid kind of build. After playing for a few hours, I have a couple of questions:
(A) Are there more companions to meet in the game?
In Drakensang, you could eventually enlist the services of at least ten NPC's, making party configuration experiments very fun and highly enjoyable. It was one of the quasi-Baldur's Gate aspects that I really liked about the first game.
So far, I've only got access to Jaakon (If he says "Don't do that" again, I'm going to fireball his annoying goatee off) Forgrimm (who I really like from the first game) and Cano (a weaker, more foppish Dranor/Gladys replacement).
Oh and I miss Gwendela.
(B) My general impression from reviews is that there is a tendency to prefer The River of Time to the original game. I'd like to hear some Watchers/Drakensang fan' opinions on which they preferred and why (without spoilers naturally)…
(C) I'm looking for a list of the english voice cast from River of Time. Did John Taylor also voice Forgrimm in River of Time in the English version? For some reason, he sounds different…could be just me though.
That'll do for now. I'll hopefully add some more thoughts as my game progresses.
Cheers
Edit: Just a gentle warning for first time players who are reading: Some spoilers may follow as I reveal events during my game.
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