Welcome to my triple review! This started as a reply to another topic and it snowballed from there! Hopw you all enjoy it. I hope it helps people who cant decide between Risen, Dragon Knight Saga or Two Worlds 2.


Information

What i found was that Dragon Knight Saga was a lot more... cartoony than Risen or Two Worlds 2. The Publisher forced them to rush D2 out of the door before it was ready. When that publisher went bust the devs saw a chance to basically continue on D2 from where they left off. They then released Dragon Knight Saga which is what they wanted D2 to really be.

Anywho, in DKS you will be doing massive front flips off of 200 foot cliffs and landing on the ground below with no damage (Fall damage doesnt exist because your a dragon). You will be charging into groups of enemies if your melee and ripping them to shreds. You will be leaping off of chasams only to turn into a dragon and burn everyone around you.

TW2 is a lot more... realistic and traditional. I wouldnt say its realistic as its still in that fantasy world of Orcs & Elves. But it is a lot more traditional. Combat is slower, jumping is more sluggish, running actually tires you out. The actual setting just seems more close up and realiostic than DKS

Now, Risen. Here is what Gothic 4 really is. Thing is, after Gothic 3, Piranha bytes was fired from Jowood Productions. However, Jowood still owned the Gothic franchise. SO they set another developer on Gothic 4. Problem was Piranha bytes had already started work on Gothic 4! They decided to continue it and rename it "Risen". So thats what Risen is. It is the true Gothic 4.

It is a LOT more realistic than either DKS or TW2. It is not set in a traditional fantasy world. No Orcs, No Elves, No Dwarves. It is more of a survival RPG. To regain health you can get Potions but unless you purposly get captured by the White RObes then you will find them hard to find. So you have to hunt, skin animals and then cook their flesh over a fire. You can do jobs. You can be a miner, smith, cook, hunter, woodcutter,, jewler and many more. Anywho ive written anough about Risen so on to the points!


The Graphics

DKS looks decent but, un fortunatly it never wowed me. Everything is too zoomed out and when you do zoom in it all looks...meh. Im not saying its bad, its just...decent.

Tw2 easily looks the best of the 3. My only real complain is the blur effect on the world. Everything looks so damn blurry. I love the effect i just think its way too strong! Other than that it is a damn pretty game.

Risen is somewhere between the two. It looks amazing if it had been made in...oh say, 2008. But it wasnt. Its still got great graphics and the world looks very belivable. Its not very well optimzed though so you better have a decent PC!

The World

DKS wins out here. The world is massive and chock full of side quests and easter eggs. The only complaint i have is that, befgore you become a dragon, it is very slow running to and fro.

Tw2 has an...interesting thing about it. Half of the main island is reserved for Multiplayer. Why? Dont ask me. It would have made much more sense to make a whole new island for multiplayer, away from the Single player game. Im a Single Player...player. I dont really play multiplayer games. I dont want multiplayer in my singleplayer! Other than that the savannah is very bare and if you do come acorss a monster then you better run as it will likely kill you as soon as you engange it.

Risen's world is really good. It is totally free roam. When you kill monsters they dont respawn until the next chapter. Make of that what you will, i actually liked it as i felt i had an effect on the world. There are a decent amount of secrets and caves hidden. Risen is definetly a game that rewards exploring and running away if you cant handle an enemy.


Dialogue & Story

Well DKS has a truly epic story in my opinion. The dialogue is great too. Everyone has an english accent that sounds decent enough and everyone sounds pretty much unique. I suppose you arnt given much of a choice in options though. You can never get an option to piss someone off so its not as natural as it could be.

TW2 is the same. With some american accents thrown into the mix this time as well. Personally i prefer british accents in a Fantasy RPG but the American voice acters did a very good job. The story in TW2 is...errm Not amazing, but not bad either. I havnt got too far, but it continues straight after Two Worlds 1 and thats a big mistake. TW1 is generally considered throughout the general public to be a "bad" game. Hence why not many people will play it. That will leave a lot of people, including myself, feeling confused at the start

Now, this is where Risen shines. Not so much story, i think DKS wins out in Story, but in Dialogue, Risen wins by a country mile. Everything feels natural. The voice acters are all british and are from everywhere. So we have a bit of Newcastle, a bit of Devon, a bit of London, a bit of Soctland, a bit of Wales, the list goes on and on. I love this, i think it adds a real diversity to the characters. The voice acting is very well done (apart form the main character who sounds a bit like Ewen Mcgreggor doing a british accent when he has just got up from an all night drinking session).


Combat

Now, DKS's combat is a bit cartoony. Its very stylish and it looks good to watch and do. As i said it is cartoony though. You'll jump into a group of foes, mash left click while spamming whirlwind and have done with it. You can combine though which i LOVED. For example, i could be a pure of heart melee knight with a few fire spells. Or i could be a powerful Wizard with some badass archery to back me up. The combinations are endless.

Tw2 combat is depressing. Its depressing because it COULD have been amazing. Counters, blocks, parrys, dodges everything was here. Then why the hell can you win by just mashing the left mouse button on 90% of the fights? Maybe throw in a Block Breaker or a dodge once in a while but its still just "Mash left button to win". So very sad. The magic system is very good though. However it takes a lot of reading and concentration (Perhaps thats a good thing) to be a Mage. You can create your own spells from cards. As an example i could have a frost missle by swapping out the fire part of my missile spell.

Risen's combat is...skill based. Overall i think it has the best combat of the three. You level up by going to trainers throughout the world and paying to learn skills and stats. I love this. At first i hated it but its so much more ralistic and immersive than just pressing "C" and spending some points! You still level up and when you level up you get "Learning Points" and a base increase to your stats (+1 at level 3 but +10 at level 15 for example). Learning Points are used, as well as gold, to learn new moves (How to parry, how to perform lateral blows ect.) and to increase your stats. COmbat is very skill based as in. At first you'll suck. Really badly. Then as you get a hang for it and start getting into the groove, you will be unstoppable. I like it


Summery

Well. I love all 3 RPGs. All 3 are some of the best ARPGs you can buy and you should own them all. However, if you had to buy 1 and 1 only...save up the cash and buy both DKS and Risen. I just cannot decide between those two. Tw2 is very good, but as i said, if your strapped for cash then just get either Risen, DKS or both.

can't expect a honest review since this is the official forum of
Dragon Knight Saga.!
I think it's better to put your review on gamespot or ign.

Well it is an honest review. Im not saying DKS is the best game ever, far from it. I actually prefer Risen slightly. But theres no denying DKS is an amazing RPG.

looks good to me. I was considering getting Two Worlds 2, still undecided though.

May consider it after I end divinity 2

Haha saw this exact same review from you over in the Two Worlds 2 forum just 2 mins ago, but overall I havn't played Risen, and TW2 isnt even out yet so I guess Divinity 2 DKS is the winner for me

well I didn't say you made a biased review ,I said how people think.
it's doubt anyone come here to see a game review infact if you criticize the DKS you will be kicked
yea that's the reality most of official forum uses the communist ruling system so can't expect a democratic features.but I am pretty sure people will read your review in open mind in either gamespot or ign cause they are dedicated for every games not for a specific game list (paid for a good review is another story :P). as I think honesty Two Worlds 2 is a crap cause in Single Player mode u can't play in big island ,due to developers focus on both Single and Multiplayer it's doubt u can see a good single player gameplay, I only like Dragon Age Origins and Oblivion.
still I didn't finish the Divinity 2 DKS so I can't say it's good or bad but as I can see now
it's more hack and slash and story doesn't make sense it likes a story similar to Alice in Wonderland
u play and u got it will vanish from ur mind then.
but seriously Dragon Age got a cinematic gameplay and still I remember, its story mixed with every emotions that we have u feel it likes a real world incident.
as an example in one mission in RedCliff castle u need to decide who will be sacrificed either the child or the lady it's hard to decide since the decision will kill one of them ,who likes to kill a child :P ,and the graphics are much more better than everything ,nicely optimized I have a 9500gt 1GB graphic card u know obviously I can't play games like Crysis with high settings and even THis Divinity 2 show poor framrate with high settings it likes if u put all settings high in 1360*768
then frame rate goes to 18 to 20 in outside but in Dragon Age u can nicely get 25 to 30 frame rate even in huge war with maximum settings. the first thing developers need to remember is
keep the quality of their products but sadly most of them forget that.there should be a rating system for Quality of Games like rest of products in ISO.
ISO XXXXX:1/2/3
1 -means high quality ,well optimized codes according standard
2 -mid quality,well optimized codes,out of standard (if use gotoxy() in C++ probably those products belong to here)
3 -poorly optimized ,lot of unnecessary lines and selection structures,repetitive codes.

Thing is thats not a good reviewers state of mind. You cant compare games. Are you reviewing DKS or are your eviewing Dragon Age? You should never compare. Poeple dont come to a review to read about a different game.

I have a 8800GTX and i can run DKS maxed at 60fps. A good graphics card means nothign without a good CPU to back it up.

Dragon Age was alright but the combat was painstakingly slow. Archery was also useless in it. DKs looks better than Drgaon Age in my opinion. Dragon Age was full of invisable walls.

I have a good CPU ,it's Dual Core 3.2GHz + nVidia 9500GT 1GB Graphic card
so obviously every game works fine on my system(except some games with higher settings)

it's possible to compare games in same generation that's a fact
it means without any troubles u can compare two RPG games and select most suitable game for urself
I was not comparing an action game with an adventure game cause it doesn't works.
but still u can select some features like Musics/Graphics/Story/Performance those things are universal factors.

Yes but if you wrote a review on Dragon Knight Saga and i came to read it, i dont give two shits about Dragon Age. I want to know about Dragon Knight Saga! I dont care how it stacks up, i just wantt o know what its like. Thats why i dont like comparing

huh.it's depend on the mental states of each person.

Two Worlds 2 is out everywhere except for the UK and some parts of the US.

Well I guess what I meant was its not out yet were I live, which is Australia.

Ah. Its a good game. You should try getting it from Steam or importing it.

I bought Risen, but after a while I gave up on it. I found that for to long you are a wimp, were everything can bash you to death with a soggy shoelace, it gets boring.

Well as i said, combat is skill based. At first you will suck, but as you keep playing it gets easier and funner. I would reccomend to do all the farm quests at the beggining for an easy 200 gold. When you find the sword at the end of the tutorial, dont talk to that guy outside the house. Take a left when you exit the house and keep going to reach a farm. After youve done all quests there DONT get taken to the town, go back to Jan by the house and continue as normal to the bandit camp.

You will be forced to choose between The Don's Bandits or The Order. If you wanna be a mage/ warrior-mage then you will need to side with the order. But if you want to be a swordfighter/hunter youll have to side with Don Estaban. Anyway, if you go to the town you are FORCED to choose after you have done a few missions. If you go to the bandit camp first you can do like 50 quests there and then, as part of the main story, you get taken to the town and can continue as normal.

Even if your planning on being a mage and joining the Order, id reccomend doing a few quests in the bandit camp for experiance, training and gold.

i like risen combat far more than tw2 which is already boring me. i like being able to time hits and evading attacks. tw2, imho, could have had a deeper combat if not for the no sidestep, backstep thing and, to a lesser extent, blocking reducing damage instead of risen's completely preventing damage.

also, risen's difficulty is more interesting to me as you dont easily get to 1 hit enemies after a little time. makes for better satisfaction when you finally get to that point where you stand a good chance of beating the thing which made you turn tail earlier.

Two Worlds 2 has a much deeper magic system than Risen, there's endless possibilities in spellcrafting whereas in Risen you only have Bullet, Fire & Ice crystal for offense.

I prefer melee in Two Worlds 2 as well, it may be a bit easy after a while but at least it's fluid unlike the clunky mess in Risen. And unlike melee in Divinity 2 and the first Two Worlds game at least this time it is not a complete clickfest... you need to block and use your skills.

As for graphics, Two Worlds 2 blows both Risen & Divinity 2 away. Risen has beautiful environments, but the character models are horrible.

Divinity 2 for me is best when it comes to dialogue, voice acting & overall quest design. Story is pretty weak in all three games... amusingly all three have absolutely abysmal endings.

You can't really have American accents in these type of games, it makes it feel corny, a little like a cheap B-film, it just doesn't work for me. Besides these are fantasy storys from long, long ago, when Americans were Indians.

I think what makes a good story is incredibly subjective. Is one story better than another one because it is more complicated? Less complicated? Better structured? More original?
I personally believe a story can be overcomplicated, messy, not particularly original and still absolutely fantastic. Why? I don't know. All I know is that stories are ultimately about the personal experiences audiences have with them. I can't speak for the other games but I think Divinity II has a great story with some very interesting characters in it.

Thanks for the heads up about Risen - I played the official "Gothic 4" and it was memorable only for its horrible voice acting (the screeching strains of "a stranger... here?!" will echo in my mind for a long time).

I was able to try TW2 for a short (by RPG standards) while on console, and the combat was frustrating, even more so since it looked very promising from the onset.
You have different stances, but each has its own aggravating restrictions. You constantly have to change between them, which might seem like a cool strategic thing, but in practice winds up being tiresome.
You don't move like you should when you parry, you have to hold a scepter in hand to cast spells...
On top of that, on console, it seems that you have to loot everything at once, you can't pick and chose. Or at least it was very unclear how you do it.
Inventory slots are also big and a bit annoying to navigate with a pad.

Combat had the potential to be much better than in DKS, things were in place for more varied options and better movement, but it doesn't pan out very well.

Artistically, the world looked kind of hit and miss. The color palette can be a bit of a mess and some stylistic elements are slightly overdone and tasteless. It feels less coherent than DKS.
Technically, on console, it also looks poor, especially outdoor environments which are blurry and low poly.
The load times however are pretty good, and much less of an issue than in DKS.
The game also has more convenient save/load features than DKS.

From what I played on console, I'd say that it had more potential than DKS in terms of combat and gameworld, but not everything panned out and DKS, although not without its faults, remains a safer choice.

On PC, TW2 might be more manageable depending on how the interface pans out.

Has anyone here played a game called Drakensang and if so, is it worth buying?

I'm seriously considering getting it myself but I'm waiting for the Steam Christmas sale to kick off first. I was reading a fairly decent review of it about a week ago and it sounds intriguing to say the least. I have so many RPGs to finish up though right now. If I do get it, I'll let you know what my first impressions are.

The one positive thing I remember about the review was the praise for the graphic effects. They said figuring out the underlying combat system was fairly difficult though as it's not a traditional system they were used to, but rather a German pen & paper system adapted to video game.

There are actually two Drakensang games: The Dark Eye and the most recent one called The River of Time.
For English-speaking readers, this is set in the same universe as the early 90s trilogy "Realms of Arkania".
I'm not familiar with these games, but I believe these are not action-RPGs. There is a real time aspect, but it's heavily mitigated by elements of turn-based combat, so be aware of that.

Get Drakensang if you like turn based, tactical combat in your RPGs. if you like frantic clickfests, it might not be your thing. If you didnt like DAO's combat for example, i doubt you'll like Drakensang's either

I have found Drakensang (the dark eye) for just £12, so it's not going to break the bank to give it a try. I didn't mind the combat in DAO, it was fine once you got the hang of it.

I think most of you will agree it's not easy to find something to play after you have played DKS, nothing seems to compare.
I do hope they don't take to long making Divinity III.

The Dark Eye is actually the name of the IP both games are set in (being based on the German tabletop RPG Das Schwarze Auge). The first game was just called "Drakensang" and the second one "Drakensang: River of Time". To make matters more complicated, the second game actually takes place BEFORE the first one. It's kind of a prequel.
I love the Dark Eye setting as it reminds me of the Grimm fairy tales and it has that distinctly German/Austrian medieval feel to it that is very charming in my opinion. I enjoyed the first game quite a bit, even though it's quite a hard game (at least it was to me), combat is very slow and the story wasn't very "epic" but rather... well, again, charming.
It is absolutely gorgeous though and there are a lot of sidequests. It definitely has a bit of a Baldur's Gate feel to it. I haven't played the second one yet but I hear it's even better than the first one. I used to play the tabletop game with my friends so it has a bit of a special place in my heart, I do have to say

Ahh...Two Worlds II is great!

I remember reading a little about Two Worlds II, and as I recall, the words broken, bugged, unfinished, slow and bad port over, were mentioned quite often, this put me off buying. But I have never played it so I wouldn't know for sure if it is worth playing or paying the asking price.

That has to be the first Two Worlds, the sequel is very polished and an improvement over the first game in every way.

Apart from the map being smaller than the first game and not as much content?

Drakensang The Dark Eye was very enjoyable.
It is unlike any other RPG... very unique feel and atmophere.
because it is 'different' and a little slow in the beginning...
you must give it some time... it will grow on you

Drakensang River of Time official 'English' release is set for Q1 2011.
i dabbled with beta versions...
this one is sure to be another unique experience worth the time of any RPG fan.
(just hope they have the common sense not to release it against Dragon Age II)

Two Worlds...is not comparable to Oblivion, Divinity, Risen, or Dragon Age...
not half the quality in content or aesthetics.
Both Two World I and II are 'B' quality copmared to any above.
it was a large open world that was fun to explore.
filled some RPG 'need' between better releases.

Two Worlds II... well... compared to original it is improved on many levels.
enhanced tutorial, better combat, updated graphics, etc...
it too will fill a void when i have NOTHING else to play.
however, to say it pales in comparison to DKS is a GROSS understatement.
specially the voice acting... nothing short of offensive... borderline painful
Inventory, leveling, music, story, graphics, combat... ummm... how do i put this?
let's just say all the staff at SouthPeak could benefit from a internship at Larian Studios

Risen... i enjoyed Gothic III... i enjoyed Risen just as much.
It is a FAR more polished experience than Gothic III.
Lots of good quest, decent voice acting, open character developement, graphiclly stunning, challenging, large open world,...
good RPG times

I think I will give Risen another try, maybe I was a little hasty in my judgement of this game, in the meantime I think I will order Drakensang.

I don't trust reviews from popular sites such as Gamespot, to many times have I wasted my money following their advice, to tell you the truth I don't think their reviewers would know a good game if it were to walk up and bite them on the bottom.
I much prefer to take advice from real game players that frequent forums such as this, at least they know what they are talking about.

I am not expecting to find anything as good as DKS, just something to get me through the DKS cold turkey.

Played it again after reading this post, that game is the one with the most freedom I've enjoyed so far (in ways to handle NPC and ways to solve quests).
You can easily get lost though.

Hi,

me too, when I play Risen the very first time, I give up too fast !
Now I'm at level 15 and still on chapter I !

I like DKS very much and I just take a look at TW II (so I can't say much about this game now) and I think I go enjoy them all :
DKS in first place, then Risen I think and third TW II.

Personal I don't like turn based combat. Except if I'm playing "chess"

In general I love the genre "RPG" most of all (beside adventure games and puzzle games and aducative games too) and I also love it RPG's are different to play because of the variation of (in first place!) gameplay!!
For example : I like the combatskills in Risen (with learningpoints to spend by NPC's) and I like the free to use skilltree in DKS. Two totally different styles, but I like them both, because I love to have variation from time to time.

Mostly I play 1 or 2 RPG's on the same timeperiod, but 1 RPG I give priority and that RPG I play a loooong time (months or maybe a one year playthrough (who knows?) !

I've completed it and I would rate it as "good, but not great". It does have good atmosphere (graphics, sound, environment) but the rules system is not properly explained in the manual. Many of the sidequests are entertaining but the main plot is fairly stereotypical (find the One Ring to beat the Dark Lord...oh sorry, wrong game). There are fascinating places to explore, but you often end up battling dozens of identical monsters in them.

The biggest problem with it in my view is dialogue - too often you are only given one choice, that being of a "typical hero". If you like to roleplay a mercenary or chaotic/evil character, this will annoy you disproportionately.

Combat isn't turn-based but real-time with an auto-pause option. There's a moderate level of tactics involved (fighters gain special techniques they can use at a cost in fatigue, mages can learn and improve spells at a cost in mana) but nothing that hasn't been done elsewhere. The spell selection is so-so (a few dozen) so disappointing compared to the Baldur's Gate/Neverwinter Nights series, but most can be cast at higher levels of power as your mage develops.

Character advancement is slightly different - you can spend experience (adventure points) on improving skills as soon as you earn them (no need to wait until a new level is reached) while character level limits how much each skill can be improved.

Worth a look (especially if you can get it cheap) but not quite up to The Witcher, NWN2 or Dragon Age standards. I do plan on getting the (pre)sequel if it comes out in English though.

3 games all should own

I love Risen soo much but DKS is also very good. TW2 is third but a good third!