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View Full Version : A farewell to a farwell to dragons.


Pharod12
01-04-2010, 06:28 AM
Yes, I finished the game.
Yes, I downloaded the .pak file so that I could read the ending in english (sorry 1c interactive, I didn't learn russian in high school...was i supposed to?)
And Yes...the ending is bloody atrocious.

Where to begin. Well according to steam i clocked in at about 54 hours. Not bad. That pretty much sums up the entire game actually. It's really not bad. It's no dragon age mind you, and it's certainly no baldur's gate. But overall i enjoyed it. The core of the game revolved around making your party insanely powerful, and they did a good job. It's very satisfying to watch your characters progress the way they do, the skill trees are fun, and there's all kinds of ways to customize what each member does and how they do it.

So you've got swords,axes,bows etc and you've got magic...and then there are pistols,revolvers,rifles,machine guns,flamethrowers,chainsaws, grenades and MINI NUKES. Yes, you get those. In a steampunk setting. I didn't have my skill tree set up so that I could actually use them mind you, but they're in there. Basically, out of all the "tech" weapons, the rifles quickly became the obvious choice. It's a shame; they just never appear to balance very well.

As depressing as it sounds, this is probably the closest thing we're ever going to get to a spiritual successor to arcanum. It's clearly inferior to that game, but at least they made a decent effort. There are trains, airships, physicists and other scientists walking around. Its refreshing to see, and leaves me wondering why we don't see more of this stuff more often.

As you might have guessed, most of the game is spent wandering around in the middle of nowhere killing lots and lots of random things. ("Ancient Panthers"...REALLY? Ohmigod look out everyone it's an ANCIENT PANTHER!!) The maps are huge, there are lots of mobs everywhere. The combat is pretty decent, but it all becomes so formulaic so quickly. New map, roam map, level up your characters, buy new stuff...onto the next area. There are some quests, and while some are interesting, and they're all xp rich, it's just not enough sadly..the game would be far more entertaining if they gave more attention to the story...and the characters...and the areas...

And the ending? Well, for a game I invested 50+ hours I expected more than a stream of dialogue followed by a short cutscene...of a page in a book. Which, and this is the truth, YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE TIME TO READ. IT GOES TO THE CREDITS BEFORE YOU EVEN REALIZE THE GAME JUST ENDED. HOLY HELL. They couldn't have ended that game faster if they tried.

I think I've talked enough. I might add more later. One last thing though. Is it worth playing? Yes. I felt it was worth it. It's a decent effort and will satisfy fans of traditional crpgs.

Thanks for reading.

vkozyrev
01-13-2010, 08:33 AM
Thanks to your comment I was able to finish the game! Yet the ending was kind of disappointing for me. I hope 1C will make enough dough to make a better sequel...

Pharod12
01-13-2010, 02:59 PM
Thanks to your comment I was able to finish the game! Yet the ending was kind of disappointing for me. I hope 1C will make enough dough to make a better sequel...

Yes, the ending is indeed hilariously bad. Also, I'm glad I could help with the endgame issue. The pak. file itself is easy the find, hardest part was finding out that there WAS a fix. Luckily the folks at rpgwatch obviously know a thing or two about fixing problems. Bravo, sirs! :)

And yes, I would certainly be excited about a sequel in the works :D

Forrest GIMP
01-14-2010, 06:14 AM
It's like this game never existed. Your post was the most informing piece of information on this game I have seen yet. No previews, reviews, guides or anything else have been released. It's like they are relying on you to buy it by accident or something.

As for me, well I would give it a shot, but I have an epic backlog of games due to the latest steam sales. I will probably buy it some time this year, definitely if it comes on sale...

Pharod12
01-15-2010, 11:47 AM
It's like this game never existed. Your post was the most informing piece of information on this game I have seen yet. No previews, reviews, guides or anything else have been released. It's like they are relying on you to buy it by accident or something.

As for me, well I would give it a shot, but I have an epic backlog of games due to the latest steam sales. I will probably buy it some time this year, definitely if it comes on sale...

1C Company owes me at least a hundred bucks for just talking about the game, because apparently very few people in the western world are even willing to mention this game, let alone give it a review. Thank you, valve, for giving this game a chance.

Websites and magazines such as gamespot, pcgamer and ign willingly help market and advertise hundreds of, frankly, TOTALLY CRAP games every year; something comes out of Russia, and it's treated like it's not FOR us. There are some amazing PC games coming out of Russia and we, as PC gamers, should be watching closely. Remember S.T.A.L.K.E.R and King's bounty (armored princess just came out recently)? These developers that are making these games are getting better and better every year.

And maybe, one day, they will make the next Planescape:Torment.

I won't miss it, or pass it off because there was nothing on gamespot.

What about you?

Forrest GIMP
01-19-2010, 10:03 AM
We are both on the same page. I love stalker, kings bounty and the eastern europeon/russian scene at the moment. They are the best thing about PC gaming right now, IMO. It's just that this game, from the pitiful crumbs of information I could gather, seemed like my type of game, but there was still no way I was going to buy it with so little information about it. I don't care if it's flawed, or somewhat buggy, but I need to know some basic things like game mechanics, story setting etc before I purchase. It's a game that I know I will buy later on this year, but not right now. I bought 50-odd games during the sale and I haven't even made a dent in those yet, but I'm sure there will be a quite patch some time...

Gvaz
02-14-2010, 05:43 PM
The game is really subpar. Its like Dungeon Siege of RPGs :\

Pharod12
03-28-2010, 04:51 AM
The game is really subpar. Its like Dungeon Siege of RPGs :\

I liked dungeon siege. :(

Tooslow
04-28-2010, 12:52 PM
FYI, Silverfall has that magic/technology mix as well. It's a competent Diablo-esque. Demo on Steam.

Gvaz
05-04-2010, 10:56 AM
Dungeon Siege was fun, but this is just subpar.

Mat3
06-19-2010, 11:34 PM
So you've got swords,axes,bows etc and you've got magic...and then there are pistols,revolvers,rifles,machine guns, flamethrowers,chainsaws, grenades and MINI NUKES. Yes, you get those. In a steampunk setting. I didn't have my skill tree set up so that I could actually use them mind you, but they're in there. Basically, out of all the "tech" weapons, the rifles quickly became the obvious choice. It's a shame; they just never appear to balance very well.


Personal taste only, but putting guns into a medieval setting game is a major turn off for me and the main reason I won't try this game.

Lord Gremlin
07-03-2010, 04:13 PM
This game is based on a VERY popular book by Russian writers Nick Perumov and Sergei Lukyanenko. I'm Russian myself so I know that. The point of game is, they took the book's story and for the most part copied it. Game was quite successful in Russia due to a large number of Perumov's fans.
Story is poor partly because developers suggested that gamers read the book and know all characters, events and the ending (so, they don't need time to read it, duh - yep, stupid idea).
Honestly, they advertised this game a lot in Russia, and those two writers are no less popular here than Terry Pratchett or Tolkien, so as you may guess they made their dough in Russia mostly.
If you ask me, this is a game for Russian fans of Nick Perumov... And I'm not a fan of this writer BTW.

P.C. Original game's/book's name more exactly translated to English as "This isn't the time for dragons", but it appears that name was changed for English release to sound more appealing.

Sinbad
08-02-2010, 07:07 PM
I finished it today and I think it's a great game. I don't understand why people don't like it.

Steam says I played for 20 hours, but I'm certain it was over 30 hours (probably closer to 40). It took me a couple of weeks with some long sessions on weekends.

mkey
09-28-2010, 12:21 AM
Probably not the best idea to post this here :p but this game is on sale at D2D right now.

http://www.direct2drive.com/NavigationResults.aspx?dimName1=onsale&headerText=On+Sale&

Lest I forget, $6.

Paul1576
01-04-2012, 06:45 AM
Great review dude - the game is fantastic apart from the swirly magic affects that cover the enemies.

HoriceGump
02-05-2012, 05:15 AM
I think I'll buy this one when it is on sale. Hopefully soon.