Drakensang:The Dark Eye; Complete Saga - Review

Drakensang:The Dark Eye; Complete Saga
Rating: T - Teen

Set in Medieval times, a hero is hand picked every 87 years to complete a quest to thwart the forces of evil. The main character has been summoned by an old friend for help but arrives only to discover their friend has been murdered. After they have been picked for the quest, they discover along the way that it also involves the villains who were responsible for the murder. It's an old style Role Playing game that has great graphics, page layout and character selection. I really like the fact that you can pick not only the type (thief, mage, warrior) but what gender you want for each character. And you aren't stuck with females running around in bustiers with stiletto heeled, thigh boots.

If you've never played a Role Playing game, you should really read the manual so you can save yourself some problems. You also have to be prepared to do a lot of running back and forth, usual but is really tiresome. There seems to be no way (at least that I've found) to speed that up. You should probably enlist the help of walkthroughs available on the web, especially if you get stuck. They also give you hints and tips that make the game play smoother for you. They can help you pick what characters to put together to make your battle outcome better. Some of the battles are really tough so you need to save your game frequently. If you have played this type of game, you probably may not need to consult a walk through unless you come across a really sticky problem.

Besides the inability to speed up the travel back and forth when working on quests, my biggest irritation was the camera angle going wonky. It happens in games but this one seems to be even worse. The only solution I could find was to walk into an object to make it swing down correctly. But that wasn't always available and it would really get in the way of anticipating attacks because I couldn't see what was happening ahead of the character.

The one odd thing they did was how they cut the voice work. The original introduction would be made with voices but subsequent lines were simply subtitled with the character mouthing along - with no sound. At first I found that a little disconcerting but later used it to my advantage by clicking quickly through the dialog. I could read much faster than the recorded pieces, so most of the conversations were sped up significantly.

I am enjoying the game and if you enjoy this type, I would recommend it. However, it is long, so be prepared to go at it in pieces. It isn't something you can get through in an afternoon. The original Drankansang: Dark Eye came out in 2009. This bundle pack contains all three in the series, sold exclusively at Game Stop for $29.99.


Fun Factor: OK but lots of back and forthing
Female Factor: You can play female
Player Friendly: Camera angle tends to go wonky

Reviewed by: Adison Garzon - Nov/11

  • Drakensang:The Dark Eye; Complete Saga
  • © ValueSoft /THQ
  • Platform(s): W7 Vista XP