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next-Jin
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2006
- Messages
- 7,387
I took the plunge with this game during the Steam sale and I am very glad I did. For anyone who might be interested in a deep RPG waiting on Skyrim I'd suggest this little gem. The game itself is based on the Gamebro engine (Oblivion, Fallout 3, etc.) and does look like it without the game breaking bugs Bethesda is known for. It actually plays a lot like a combination of games;
• World of Warcraft (Quest Icons, Humor, Class Playability, etc.)
• Diablo (Item drops, enemies do not respawn, etc.)
• The Witcher (mouse clicking, alchemy, etc.)
Now I give WoW a lot of flak in threads usually because I had well over 225 days played on one toon alone and played for over 3 maybe 4 years. But WoW did have traits that I simply loved about it namely the way characters played and easy quest structure/symbols. DKS takes all of those good traits and implements them well here imo.
On my PC it runs very well however I did turn off moving shadows and put them on low because these fancy shadow effects actually look much worse than when set to low in my opinion. I do this with other games as well; developers have a long way to go before they get shadows right imo.
The game can be brutal at times with ambushes and straying off into a higher level area without really knowing it and animations could be better (facial animations especially) along with voice overs although for the amount of voice over work it works.
Character development is where this game branches off a bit from other games. There are 3 primary classes’ warrior, ranger, and mage. These are self-explanatory but in reality all that really means is that you can make use of those weapons and gear more effectively because all of the talent trees are open for any class. Your warrior could summon ghosts/demons or have expert ranged defenses if you wish. It's the ultimate hybrid solution to make any type of character you really wish.
The other notable things are mind reading and dragon form. Mind reading is exactly what it sounds like and is similar to cohersion I guess without the chances. You can read anyone’s mind for a certain amount of XP and the benefits could be anything from finding out someone’s wife is cheating on them or finding out a location for someone’s treasure. It can also allow you to lower NPC prices depending on the situation.
Dragon form is almost a different game all together, your dragon form stats are different than human form and the talent tree is nowhere near as deep as human form but the game mainly takes place while in human form from my understanding.
You also have minions once you complete some quests. Minions are basically built with different body parts from downed enemies. In the earlier parts of the game the body parts are from trolls. After you kill a troll they may drop a head, legs, arms, etc. and you can use those to return to the necromancer to complete your minion.
The puzzles in this game are sometimes a pain in the ass though; they can range from platforming all the way to Uncharted like puzzles but nothing on the level like Myst or Riven. Sometimes they can be cheap like a different shade of grey on the wall or trying to find a key for a special locker and lock picking will not open which is annoying when your frustrated trying to progress further into the game.
The negatives are what you might expect from this level of game. While you can modify the world or path the game takes you a bit this is nothing like the Witcher 2. The game is not linear and has an abundance on side quests with pretty good variety. The voice acting has its faults and the lip syncing is not perfect by any means.
One that that is definitely worth mentioning is that I killed chickens at level 1 with one kick and at level 15 I can still kill chickens with one kick. Enemies do not scale with you! Also this game is out on the 360 and on the PC I really couldn't see any form of consolitis to be frank the options have many different things that can be customized including setting max fps from 30-100 and turning shadow movement on or off AA, AF, 4 levels of shadows, tree quality, grass quality, Depth of Field, etc. etc. Also has custom key binds among other things.
Overall so far I am impressed and it has filled that RPG void I had after The Witcher 1. I also purchased the Witcher 2 but started on DKS first. The DKS lasts anywhere from 60-80 hours from what I have read and that was with one play through so you could always go back with different classes.
From the little I have played I would definitely say this game is an 85/100 if only because of the lower production values. It was definitely worth the 20 dollars I paid for it and is currently at Amazon for 32 dollars digital download.
If anyone else has played either version and has more input I'd be glad to hear it or if anyone has any questions feel free to ask.
• World of Warcraft (Quest Icons, Humor, Class Playability, etc.)
• Diablo (Item drops, enemies do not respawn, etc.)
• The Witcher (mouse clicking, alchemy, etc.)
Now I give WoW a lot of flak in threads usually because I had well over 225 days played on one toon alone and played for over 3 maybe 4 years. But WoW did have traits that I simply loved about it namely the way characters played and easy quest structure/symbols. DKS takes all of those good traits and implements them well here imo.
On my PC it runs very well however I did turn off moving shadows and put them on low because these fancy shadow effects actually look much worse than when set to low in my opinion. I do this with other games as well; developers have a long way to go before they get shadows right imo.
The game can be brutal at times with ambushes and straying off into a higher level area without really knowing it and animations could be better (facial animations especially) along with voice overs although for the amount of voice over work it works.
Character development is where this game branches off a bit from other games. There are 3 primary classes’ warrior, ranger, and mage. These are self-explanatory but in reality all that really means is that you can make use of those weapons and gear more effectively because all of the talent trees are open for any class. Your warrior could summon ghosts/demons or have expert ranged defenses if you wish. It's the ultimate hybrid solution to make any type of character you really wish.
The other notable things are mind reading and dragon form. Mind reading is exactly what it sounds like and is similar to cohersion I guess without the chances. You can read anyone’s mind for a certain amount of XP and the benefits could be anything from finding out someone’s wife is cheating on them or finding out a location for someone’s treasure. It can also allow you to lower NPC prices depending on the situation.
Dragon form is almost a different game all together, your dragon form stats are different than human form and the talent tree is nowhere near as deep as human form but the game mainly takes place while in human form from my understanding.
You also have minions once you complete some quests. Minions are basically built with different body parts from downed enemies. In the earlier parts of the game the body parts are from trolls. After you kill a troll they may drop a head, legs, arms, etc. and you can use those to return to the necromancer to complete your minion.
The puzzles in this game are sometimes a pain in the ass though; they can range from platforming all the way to Uncharted like puzzles but nothing on the level like Myst or Riven. Sometimes they can be cheap like a different shade of grey on the wall or trying to find a key for a special locker and lock picking will not open which is annoying when your frustrated trying to progress further into the game.
The negatives are what you might expect from this level of game. While you can modify the world or path the game takes you a bit this is nothing like the Witcher 2. The game is not linear and has an abundance on side quests with pretty good variety. The voice acting has its faults and the lip syncing is not perfect by any means.
One that that is definitely worth mentioning is that I killed chickens at level 1 with one kick and at level 15 I can still kill chickens with one kick. Enemies do not scale with you! Also this game is out on the 360 and on the PC I really couldn't see any form of consolitis to be frank the options have many different things that can be customized including setting max fps from 30-100 and turning shadow movement on or off AA, AF, 4 levels of shadows, tree quality, grass quality, Depth of Field, etc. etc. Also has custom key binds among other things.
Overall so far I am impressed and it has filled that RPG void I had after The Witcher 1. I also purchased the Witcher 2 but started on DKS first. The DKS lasts anywhere from 60-80 hours from what I have read and that was with one play through so you could always go back with different classes.
From the little I have played I would definitely say this game is an 85/100 if only because of the lower production values. It was definitely worth the 20 dollars I paid for it and is currently at Amazon for 32 dollars digital download.
If anyone else has played either version and has more input I'd be glad to hear it or if anyone has any questions feel free to ask.
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