No details, just a couple of small exploits - for experience at the very beginning and for money in the 3rd chapter. Well, just a strategy for passing - to run less back and forth.

Chapter 1, village
In the 1st chapter there are only 2 party members, the Amazon Rulana and the rogue Dralor. The thief at the very beginning of the 2nd chapter will run away for a long time. The first thing we need to do is gather a party - we run forward to the tavern, taking only the quest for the thieves' guild (by asking the NPC at the stone). In the tavern we grab the Amazon, take on more quests - and forward along the marker. Crossing the bridge, we receive a quest to find a magician. We run further, help the hunter along the way, take on more quests. A little further north there will be -2 gopniks and a box with very good weapons at the moment. We climb Bald Mountain and save our swindler. Now you can do whatever you want.

At the end of the 1st chapter, you can spend about 20 minutes to gain ~1,000 experience. We speak with the very first guard, pass an Etiquette check, and receive +5 experience for each conversation. If we are proud opponents of exploits, we just don’t do that.

Chapter 2, city
In Chapter 2 - again, assemble a team as quickly as possible. They ran, looked at the house of their deceased friend, returned to the barracks, and talked with the lady cap. Back towards the friend's house, but already to the tavern - behind Forgrim. Now we canter for Gladys, she is in Wagoner Home, the next location is in the other direction from the barracks. We run to the tavern, talk to everyone, they make fun of us harshly, don’t give a damn about everything, and leave. We run where we originally ran, for example to the murder scene. Gladys herself will be found, and such a match, Rulana + Folgrimm + Gladys, will become optimal before the beginning of Chapter 4.

Chapter 3, the city again
Remember that we won't actually have to fight in these first three chapters. When rescuing Dranor from the dungeon, I highly recommend not giving a damn about the quest to destroy the rats' lair - you will save a lot of nerves. If you return there after the 5th chapter, Mother Retzinski will not go anywhere. It’s just that the main problem is not in the main rat, but in the swarms that run up and trample in a crowd.

Upon completion of the chapter and receiving the reward, as well as selling all the swag by Dranor with an 18% increase, you can do another cheat - earn, say, 1,000 ducats (more simply does not make sense). We buy the recipe for Elixir of Courage from Aurelia, then use all the finances to buy ingredients. Having poured 0.5 liters of turpentine down the drain, we rush to the temple of Hesinda and there in the laboratory we make these elixirs, as many as we can, we sell them right away. The profit turns out to be not 100% - to make ~1000 out of ~150 ducats you will need 3 trips. We immediately spend this money on all sorts of rings and better uniforms. Well, if you want to live honestly, just don’t use this advice, there’s plenty of money in the game without it.

Chapter 4, swamps
First of all, we run strictly according to the plot, only Gwendala needs to be saved even more first. She's in the northeast. We don’t give the pipe to the ghost, in the tree on the right we take gloves for another +3 Charisma (in total we have a mask +3, an amulet +2 and gloves +3 = +8 Charisma), we bring down the ghost. Before reporting to Gwendala, we send Rulan to sit in the house and immediately take the girl into the party. I hope you didn't forget to grab her a bow and some leather jacket? Not far from the place of her rescue, a little to the south, you must immediately take the mandrake root.

Now, with an updated team, we run and help this crazy magician, after which we go to the necromancer. We run around his temple from the _right_ side and _from the back_ - we get the necessary information that the sheriff is still a bad person (strange, who would have thought such a thing). We bring down the narc, report to the magician, run and save the priestess - she is in the crypt next to the tree.

We return to the village, turn in all the quests that can be turned in, take 3 quests: in the tavern 1. for a treasure map and 2. take the thief with us, 3. from the priestess for the consecration of the crypts.

For treasures: 1. a grave with buttons directly opposite the magician (lowest button), there is a key to the southwestern crypt. 2. In the southwestern crypt we poke the sarcophagus on the head, we get a recipe for some very cool arrows (so they ended up in the inventory until the end of the game) and a key to some crypt.

Chapter 5, forests
Very beautiful nature, which is spoiled by vile inquisitors. Or, on the contrary, vile witches. We choose a side to our liking and walk for our own pleasure. Inquisitors can teach you hand-to-hand combat techniques, witches can teach you a couple of not very useful spells and a very useful skill with a bow. Yes, and if you chose the inquisitors before you found the toad familiar, then you won’t see the +1 Agility +1 Dexterity ring.

False Da Vanya is better off being tanked by the Persian he saggried against - just running around in circles while the rest of the party takes out the lizards. Well, then the whole crowd turns on him.

Witch Alvina, after completing her quest, teaches:
RainofArrows(200/2d) - Base Ranged 8 - extremely useful at this stage for both the ranger and Gwendal
Dodge 2(300/2d) - Agility 13 - useful for everyone who has extra AP
Helpful Paw(elven copman - already available to Gwendaly), Hawk(bow booster - the ranger already has it), Sleep of 1000 Sheeps (sleep booster - a useless spell)

In the castle, when you sneak around, remove the chain mail from the gnome - well, it helps a lot. The magician can be released last, after killing Kostyan, so as not to suffer with this sneak.

Chapter 6, castle
The whole chapter is one big fight. And robbery - empty all your inventory, haul your swag through the roof. There is only one piece of advice - don’t forget to buff regularly. Take out the ogres with wounds, just beat them while there isn’t much damage. Traps can be disarmed by a gnome - directly with the body; the default characteristics of a ranger are also sufficient. At the very beginning we find Byakka - a magnificent ax for our gnome. It hits better than any two-handed ax/hammer at the moment - even a one-handed one.

Chapter 7
A very long and very boring chapter, compared to all the others. A bunch of side quests in the city, and then also in Talon. But in Talon, finally, there is a magician who teaches fireball and two teachers - a captain in the city (Lunge & Mortal Blow) and a hunter near the lumberjacks (Master Archer). Talents - 300 AP each.

The final battle between the trading companies is the most difficult until the final battle. Servants come in such numbers that they begin to seem endless. This is not true, there will be about 30 of them, then they will run out. Therefore, under no circumstances let the magician fry you too much, try to hit him with bows and a tank, and keep Gladys on the heal. And don’t concentrate on it, take the little things and constantly move around. Cold Warrior here is simply an extremely useful spell.

The fights in Talon - with the goblins, the lizard in the cave, the mage in the cave, and even the dragon - cannot be compared at all to what you did in Ferdok, avenging Ardo.

Chapter 8
In fact, most of the chapter is a detective game, as in 2-3 chapters, there is almost no combat, it goes through very quickly. Well, finally, you can learn all the special moves to the maximum, especially Strike of Wrath (450 AP, requires 15 Courage + Offensive Combat 2 + Mighty Blow) - we study it with GPG and Folgrim. Destroys 40-60 hit points with one hit. In addition, Folgrimm can be equipped with full Dwarven armor and equipped with a powerful two-handed mallet.

Chapter 9
The chapter is clearly a combat one, but I started it, and then, inopportunely, I decided to try at the same time the second part of the toy, Drakensang: The River of Time. So I won’t describe the Main Meat (the 9-10th great battle) to you yet :) Maybe even a small review of my acquaintance with the River of Time will appear here earlier.

That's all about the Drakensangs for now. But, most likely, I’ll definitely sketch out something else, for example, a pocket rowing guide for River of Time.

• Classic imitation of classic games
• Additional tasks - pros and cons
• What to do if you get stuck?
• Who to become and what to learn?
• Ten first beginner questions

Nowadays, role-playing games are increasingly being made, in which we constantly move along the rails of the plot. Even The Witcher practically does not allow us to simply “live” in the game world. However, a few months ago they began to say that a German role-playing game would soon be released, in which you could live like in The Elder Scrolls, develop characters like in Neverwinter Nights 2, and move through the plot like in Gothic. The statement is bold and interesting, but is it possible to mix three titans of the genre in one game?

Prologue

Elves, people, gnomes - all these races have been getting along well with each other for many centuries. The terrible wars are forgotten, hatred and fear are forgotten... The peoples did not divide the world, they made it common.

In this completely calm time, when the war is going on only on the border with the orc lands, and in the cities murders are committed only by notorious thugs, our hero receives an extremely mysterious letter from a friend, which talks about ritual murders. Doesn't look like the work of the local thieves guild. The comrade is worried and asks us to urgently come to him.

From this second the game begins. We find ourselves in the middle of a country road leading to the small village of Avestru - a transit point between the center of the continent and the capital. There’s just one catch: we can go back, but we can’t go forward. The crime rate in the city has increased horribly, and only politicians and merchants can travel. There is no place for unknown wanderers here. What remains? We'll run around the village, maybe someone will give us some work, we can't just sit around. And then, lo and behold, the roads will open.

A dozen wooden huts, four shops, a central square - that’s the whole village. But there are plenty of problems here too. A magician has gotten lost in the forest nearby, the queen of jesters' necklace has been stolen (it seems to be the work of her lover), the forester is attacked by wolves, and a young hooligan dreams of joining the thieves' guild. The number of tasks makes my eyes wide open... I remember “Gothic”, where on every piece of land something was lying around - or happening. Here is a broken cart and next to it is its owner, ready to help us with the task, a little further there is a bridge with goblins, and bandits are roaming around under it.

Drakensang also tries not to make the locations huge, in the manner of Oblivion, where league after league we encountered the same monsters, plants and tailed bandits. It is difficult to get lost in this world, because it is absolutely clear that this road leads towards the city; if you turn right, you will find yourself at the mill, and if you go into the forest, we will soon stumble upon a cave of robbers.

Any terrain is explored very quickly - an excellent condition for completing tasks. We ask the “customer” where to go and what is nearby, they politely and sometimes even explain in too much detail what is required. But it would still be very nice to search for a lost magician in the forest, having only a vague idea of ​​​​where he might have wandered. Did the students tell you that the wizard likes to pick flowers and climb caves? So, we run into the clearing, and then into the nearest cave. Fun and simple! But the developers decided otherwise...

Tic Tac Toe

At first, the world around us is bright - green grass, streams... But the further we go, the darker and gloomier it becomes.

Nothing spoils the feeling of a fairy tale more than bugs crawling out of all the cracks. When in the third “Corsairs” our ship was boarded by the governor’s or when in “Mor. Utopia" had to replay the same day ten times; it became difficult to believe in the reality of what was happening. In Drakensang, as I already said, there are practically no bugs, but they are successfully replaced by task crosses on the map. We don’t rack our brains over where the lost magician went. What difference does it make whether he likes to pick flowers or drink in a tavern? We will still find it where the map points us. It is absolutely not necessary to open it completely; The arrows on the mini-map will indicate the desired direction. And there is no escape from this.

Will the game be able to give us back the feeling of a fairy tale? Let's see...

Let's move to the swamps. And what awaits us there? A riddle contained in a poem, parts of which are carved on the tombstones of dead warriors. The graves are scattered all over the map, and there is not a single mark. Only the description of the quest will help, and then the verse itself. If we can solve the riddle, we will get magnificent armor. No? It's a pity...

Personally, I still don’t understand how such tasks coexist in one game world. In the same way, it is unclear why at first we only say “yes” or “no” even in dialogues, but after a few hours we have to change the plot with both words and actions literally every fifteen minutes!

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Now our hero is passing by a tavern, and one young lady is looking at him very unfriendly. She is dressed, remarkably, in the heaviest armor and, in addition, brandishes a long saber. She doesn't look like a peasant woman. Shall we meet?

Turning off the main path

“Hello, lady,” our well-mannered hero smiles politely... and receives a whole constellation of “warm” wishes in response. Exceptionally obscene. Why all of a sudden such unexpected rudeness, did we say something wrong? No, the lady, you see, doesn’t like men at all.

If you ignore the abuse and humiliation, it turns out that the girl needs help, and the pathetic innkeeper is afraid to accompany her. All you have to do is strangle the bear with your bare hands! A fragile girl does this three times a day, and all sorts of klutzes who, through a misunderstanding, consider themselves the stronger sex... and so on in the same spirit.

Our hero is not a coward and selflessly decides to rehabilitate men in beautiful, albeit full of indignation, eyes. And for this, the warlike lady knight will join us as an ally - if we want, then until the end of the game. True, if you get tired of the evil one, you can get rid of her later. The main thing is that from this second the hero will never fight alone again.

It means we risked our lives, but he sits in a cell out of principle!

If we want to free our comrade, we need to talk to the queen of jesters.

Together with my partner, we will quickly complete all the village tasks. First, we will find the lost magician (he will give our character a written description), and then we will find the lover of other people’s necklaces. He will, after all, turn out to be the beloved of the queen of jesters, who, in order to avoid the radiant wrath, will also ask to come to us. You can no longer do other tasks; the queen will also give a character reference, and the group will be allowed into the capital.

However, additional quests in any location are not just a few extra hours of gameplay. If, for example, we do not complete tasks for the thieves guild in the village, then (already in the capital) we simply will not be able to join it. This means we won’t discover part of the world and won’t gain some skills.

Looking ahead, let's say that our new partner - the dishonest handsome man Dranor - will end up in prison. And in one of the quests we will be able to free him (and if we want, then leave him in prison forever).

The heroes go down into the dungeon, kill hordes of rats, barely pass the sewers under the dungeon and finally find themselves at his cell. But the friend does not smile at us, but only dismissively says: “Well, why did you come?” At the same time, he opens the grill so that it does not interfere with looking into the eyes. It turns out that Dranor only escapes from prison if he is guilty. This time he was framed, which means our friend will remain in prison until he is acquitted. That is, all my life.

This is where the quest from the category of “kill everyone, everyone, and free your comrade” develops into a detective story. We have to prove Dranor's innocence, communicate with witnesses and look for evidence.

Unexpected and interesting.

Fight against piracy

People are actively complaining about the game on the Internet: “I went to the cross on the map, I waited - there was no one. I ran around the whole area - again no one. The plot stands still, the world is frozen, waiting. What to do?!" And this happens at every step. But don’t wait for patches, they won’t fix this “obstruction”. Because this is not a bug, but protection against piracy, and the only chance to fix everything is to buy a licensed version of Drakensang.

As soon as the game realizes that it has been hacked, it simply blocks the player's further path. The quest that should carry us forward on the wings of the plot stops working. You can complete any additional tasks, run around the world for hours, but it is no longer possible to advance further.

Craftsmen have learned to fix “closed” quests in the game files, but Drakensang also reacts to this. After hacking, it begins to block the path constantly, and it becomes impossible to play normally.

The find is curious and, dare I say it, elegant. The developers allow players to get acquainted with the project, but are waiting for the purchase of a licensed version. However, on the Internet there is still nothing but moans about the terrible anti-piracy system... Is Starforce dearer to your heart, gentlemen, cunning people?

They should live here

Bandit "arrow". We are for those on the left. Now you shouldn’t expect quests from the right...

Remember how developed the characters were in Neverwinter Nights 2? Many players listened to their bickering with pleasure, trying to somehow calm down this noisy company. You felt like there were living people next to you. In Drakensang, unfortunately, our partners are rather boring and silent people. It’s rare that you hear even half a word from them. They sometimes say something like: “What a big crypt, there must be a lot of ghosts there” - and again withdraw into themselves, and the rest are in no hurry to keep up the conversation.

Heroes live their lives only until they join us. A belligerent Amazon can argue with the innkeeper, threaten to beat him, bark at us, but once she joins the group, that’s it, now she just fights. The womanizer and thief stops joking and pestering girls as soon as he becomes the third fighter in the team. Heroic adventures are bad for heroes...

The only thing that corrects the situation is that the main character himself is a bright and prominent personality, not at a loss for words. And if there is at least one character in the group who is skilled in communicating with people, then the main character will use additional answer options (threaten, try to persuade, seduce, etc.).

But threats or persuasion are not a panacea. First of all, you first need to guess what will work this time. Should I convince the bandits to stop robbing the crypts by appealing to better feelings, or should I threaten them with beatings? The answer is not always obvious. In the above example, I managed to “win” the dialogue by telling the robbers that ghosts would come for their souls. The scoundrels were not afraid of the beatings, but they did not dare to joke with the other world. Secondly, you should not use threats again. The enemy may stop communicating and rush into battle. After this, of course, you won’t be able to talk to him. But he could help complete the quest!

Life without tasks

Let's continue talking about partners. In Drakensang, as in Neverwinter Night 2, up to four heroes can be under our leadership. This in many ways makes the game more diverse and interesting - if, of course, we select classes adequately.

The most successful combination is a tank, a “chatterbox” hit-breaker, a healer-gatherer and some exclusively social class. Such a group will be able not only to complete all quests, but also live in the world. After all, a role-playing game is not only about moving through the plot.

We rarely fight in cities; much more often we have to go into the forests. In each location they are special, but in all of them you can find one thing - useful resources.

It's a cat. Now he will show us the way, and we will complete the quest.

Have you ever gone to the forest to pick mushrooms or hunt wild animals? What if you have to kill the wild boar not with a gun, but with a fireball? In addition, a spider the size of two people can graze near each mushroom. It's funny as hell, as the famous movie character said...

The local role-playing system allows us to be anyone - a merchant, hunter, gatherer, thief, blacksmith or alchemist, ladies' man, doctor... And if the group is suitable, you can even start your own business.

During the next task, we go into the forest, but we are not in a hurry to look for the desired monster, but look around in search of the necessary plants. We collect, then we set up ambushes for wild animals and only at the very end we complete the quest. Now you can return to the city and deal with the “swag”. If there is a robber on the team, he takes some of the unnecessary resources and runs to sell them on the market. Each merchant gives his own price, so you need to find the most generous one, and you shouldn’t forget about the discount.

Meanwhile, the gnome or alchemist selects the herbs needed for the potions, and the blacksmith grabs the sinews and animal bones. Everything that is produced with one’s own hands is quite expensive, and the robber would be happy to sell the goods and drink beer in the tavern. But potions are very useful in battle; without them, going after strong monsters is pure suicide. The blacksmith can forge strong armor and a sharp sword. You can't get these in the store, so why sell them?

But production and gathering itself is only half the battle. It is also necessary to find the necessary recipes and learn the skills. In short, there is enough to do! And, best of all, peaceful life is an important part of the game. After all, you won’t go into battle without a good saber and solid armor?

Geography of Aventuria

Aventuria is a huge continent where most of the adventures in the Dark Eye universe take place. All other territories are only occasionally mentioned in passing. But Aventuria, so to speak, is completely self-sufficient and resembles a cross between medieval Europe, ancient Greece, ancient Africa and the East.

Aventuria extends from north to south for three thousand miles, from west to east - for one and a half thousand. In this territory live gnomes, various peoples of elves and people, orcs, nomadic peoples and all sorts of monsters who do not create their own states, but only walk, growl and grin at local heroes.

The continent is separated from the rest of the world by a huge and almost insurmountable mountain range. Perhaps this is why no one has yet conquered the rest of the Dare world. Even science still doesn’t know exactly what peoples live beyond the pass. The only opportunity to look at alien lands is to equip a sea expedition.

Tango of sword and dagger

In Drakensang we see classic battles in the spirit of Neverwinter Nights. Fights take place in rounds, with characters taking turns striking. Damage depends largely on chance. At the very beginning of the game, the heroes fight rather weakly, and the battles turn into torture. Hitting the enemy once out of five is already lucky. And clearing a dungeon with characters of the second or third level is another task...

All melee fighters died untimely, but we do not lose heart. If at least one character survives the victory, all the others will be resurrected.

In the swamps, we meet such a huge number of monsters for the first time. The heroes are attacked by twenty zombies at once. You feel like you're in turn-based Diablo...

In addition, the difficulty level of battles will change very strangely throughout the game. One minute we squeak through one dungeon, then a little later we easily rush through three at once. Either we kill thirty opponents the first time, or we try to kill one thirty times. By the way, precisely because dice very often determine our fate, we can emerge victorious from almost any situation. Someday you'll get lucky.

At higher levels, fighting becomes much more interesting. Many special attacks appear, the hero’s characteristics increase, and the supply of dice increases. But here the next danger arises - group imbalance. An unsuccessful combination of classes - and you cannot defeat a strong opponent. For example, the Witch Tree does not attack magicians and archers, but kills melee fighters almost immediately. Oh, you didn’t take any shooters into the group? Well what can you do...

At the same time, they give very little experience for killing enemies. The average quest at the initial levels is 100-300 experience points, and for one enemy the characters receive only one unit. However, this is even good. In tabletop RPGs, heroes never level up by killing enemies. In the same Vampire: The Masquerade, you won’t get even a unit for killings. Which, in general, is correct...

It’s just not clear why the developers are making huge dungeons with many monsters. The battles are already protracted, and long military campaigns only make the situation worse. True, I do not at all want to say that fighting here is not interesting. At higher levels, when tactics begin to play an important role, battles become much more exciting. But at an early stage...

Through the eyes of a wanderer

The graphics cannot be called the game's strong point. Nature is depicted quite beautifully here, and the cities look good. But why are the characters drawn worse than, for example, trees? Pixels stretch like rubber, and some armor gives the impression of being smeared all over the hero.

The incredible play of light is amazing. Yes, and in real life, when you enter a dense forest, everything around turns a little green, but not that much... I remember the developers of the game “Death to Spies” did something similar. The moment of truth." Only there the change of light hurt the eyes, but in Drakensang it looks very comical. Now bright yellow light, now sickly green, now reddish...

Another thing is the interface - convenient and quite good. A large panel for skills and spells, with the ability to scroll through it; beautiful card. I would also like to note that you can control the character using WASD, and this way the character feels much better and the affinity with him becomes stronger.

Learned from the classics

There is a type of story in which the author’s individuality is not felt. All the canons of the genre are observed, the plot is built correctly, the characters are logical, the world is interesting, but... as they say, there is no soul.

Strange monster. His entire skin is one stretched multi-colored pixel.

The world of Drakensang is ruled by several gods at once. Before us is a monument to the main one of them.

Drakensang is made with soul, whatever that means, but there are very few original ideas in the game. The beginning is so standard that you even wonder how the hero ended up without amnesia?

As you progress, the game echoes Gothic more and more. And with all the parts at once. There are battles between camps, fights with orcs, joining the thieves guild, and even similar architecture. But the creators drew inspiration not only from “Gothic” - both parts of Neverwinter Nights and many other projects were not ignored. An experienced player will easily notice the similarities with the classics.

Perhaps the developers were afraid to introduce new ideas into the game, since the old ones had already proven themselves. Lack of courage and experience? Crosses on the map so that even the weakest player can move on. The confusion with difficulty is an attempt to diversify the gameplay. A linear plot, diluted with forks of choice influencing further events - the search for the ideal option.

And after all, Drakensang came out practically without bugs, verified to shine, like an excellent student’s notes. But he clearly lacked blots, mistakes, and crooked handwriting. I would like to shout to the developers: “Make mistakes, gentlemen, make mistakes, but work and create! You could have, together we saw that you were good at it, so why the hell were you afraid?!”

We have before us almost an exemplary game. But the authors, alas, are not visible in it...

Theology of Aventuria

In Aventuria, for the most part, polytheism still reigns, and the bulk of the inhabitants believe in the so-called pantheon of the Twelve, which includes a dozen demiurges of all stripes under the leadership of Prayos, the god of the sun, strength and order. It is his statue that flaunts in almost all temples and cities.

The pantheon of the Twelve is also recognized in Bornland, the Middle Kingdom, Horace and many other provinces. Peasants attach the greatest importance to religion, believing that one of the gods of the pantheon is responsible for each month of the year. So if there is a severe drought in the summer, you can safely blame the sky.

The priests of the pantheon say that the divine Dozen is kind to people, and if it were their will, the world would have long forgotten about wars. But there is another force... Nameless - that’s what the Aventurians called this god. His followers are few in number, but fanatically devoted to their deity. Those who do not worship the Nameless One fear him like the plague. Even elves who do not believe in gods at all are wary of mentions of the Thirteenth.

Epilogue

Remember what our hero needed at the beginning? Just get to the capital. No adventures, no feats - just get past the patrols. And even then, preferably legally and without unnecessary hassle. But everything changes after one piece of news - an old friend, for whom he traveled such a long way, was killed. And, according to the city guard, this is the work of the same robbers who have been operating in the city for a long time. They are mentioned in the letter...

Port fights. It seems that in any game that has a port, you can make money from street fights.

We are in the thieves guild. Finding it is quite simple, the main thing is to complete three buildings in the first location.

What to do next? The hero decides to help the guards. She has been unable to solve a series of murders for several months and, apparently, is going to wind down the investigation. So the whole city can only rely on us. But no one knows this yet.

From these seconds the game turns into a detective story. To solve the murders, we go to a troubled port area. Drunken sailors and fishermen sing songs in taverns, fist fights take place outside a residential area, and near a tall building with tightly curtained windows, the chief of security communicates with a tiny girl. No one cares about murder. The majority “saw nothing, heard nothing.” And the one who can help even a little takes money for information or demands to work for him. The dirty port will become our home, place of work and play.

But we won't stay there for long. The hero will find out that the murders are not committed by the thieves guild, but by fanatics screaming about the end of the world and the takeover of the world. Both the church and politicians are involved in crimes. They are trying to delicately remove the hero from the city. Everyone knows that he solved the murders, saved the girl’s life, they are grateful to him and even paid him, but they ask him not to interfere in the matter. So what is next...

Then the game becomes a heroic saga in which four brave men save the world. The fight against bandits in the port gives way to military campaigns against the orcs, and an unknown wanderer becomes the last hope of the people. And it’s hard to believe that it all started when we decided to help a friend...

	ADVANTAGES	FLAWS
Fun 8	tactical battles, variety of classes	boring start
Graphic arts 7	beautiful nature	character models, some cities
Sound 8	music	quests are practically not announced
Game world 8	logic, the feeling of a real fairy tale	...which is spoiled by task crosses on the map
Convenience 9	user-friendly interface, no bugs	The camera sometimes acts up, you can’t turn off the mark on the map

Heroes of Might, Magic and Lockpick

Even before the game starts, you make your most important choice. The character's class will affect almost all further actions, so you shouldn't miss. Yes, there are four characters in the group, and a bad start can always be overcome by a good team, but not all classes are available as secondary ones. Now we will try to choose the main character together. After all, no matter how good the other fighters are, the first one will still be the favorite...

Warrior. Before us is a cross between a “tank” and a hitboy. The warrior boasts very good health and unsurpassed skill in wielding a one-handed sword. He is also not afraid of two-handers.

We know little about the life of this hero. He studied military craft not only in the barracks, but also at the academy, and therefore knows how to properly communicate with different people, and thanks to his acquaintances he has access to high society. But will all this be useful in the game? Hardly. As a “talker” the warrior is completely useless; what is much more interesting is that he is a master of the blade.

Without thinking twice, I chose this particular class for my first playthrough... and, you know, I was not mistaken. The Warrior is really great for a beginner player, he lasts a long time and deals decent damage. A dream, isn't it?

It is important: In the second location, a mercenary dwarf will join us. He is also a "tank", so if you do not want to overload the group with defensive classes, it is better to leave the warrior at home...

Soldier. Unlike a warrior, a soldier did not study at the academy, and in the barracks he had no time for theoretical subjects. The hero learned to fight in war. He slept in the open air and ate in the forest. Returning from the war, he never learned to express himself elegantly and get along with people. His main skill is to cut perfectly with a two-handed sword and to navigate well outside the city walls.

However, it is still unclear to me what is so good about this class. He has less health than a warrior, he also wields a two-handed sword no better, and we don’t need minor social skills. Therefore, we will send the soldier back to the barracks for now. Let him rest after long hikes.

The ball above your head is just a lantern. For some reason, my battle mage illuminated our path much better than spat lightning...

Archer. The main shooter in the human army. He, like the soldier, did not study at the academy and participated in military campaigns all his adult life, and therefore knows firsthand about survival in the forest.

The archer is terrified of fighting enemies face to face, so in close combat he fights worse than any other class. Mages are also braver and do not hesitate to use daggers and swords if necessary. However, why does a shooter need a melee weapon? Moreover, the class has enough advantages: it knows a little how to understand and convince people, sees far and is able to sneak up.

I wouldn't recommend taking an archer at the very beginning. At the first levels, he misses much more often than he hits the target. At the same time, arrows cost money, and the damage they cause is exactly the same as that of a sword. It’s better to take a “tank”, but we’ll still be able to shoot. An elf will join us in the swamps.

Battle Mage. To learn powerful spells, you need to study long and hard, and years of imprisonment in libraries leave their mark on graduates of magic academies. The combat caster has completely forgotten how to communicate with others. He speaks poorly and understands people even worse. But he knows magnificent charms, and also has excellent self-control. The magician is able to endure even the most terrible pain. He won’t lose consciousness, won’t run away, and won’t just complain about feeling unwell.

I would recommend this class to beginners. Any spell is almost guaranteed to cause damage to the target, and at the beginning of the game the magician hits harder than all the fighters in the group combined. After all, they hit the enemy one time out of five at best.

Initially, the magician knows how to increase his own defense and the agility of his partners, and can inflict damage on the enemy with a stream of fire and a ball of light; if necessary, he will slow down the target and damage his weapon. The magic book is impressive.

It is important: at levels 4-7 it may seem as if the mage has become a completely useless class. His spells do little damage, his mana runs out quickly, and his health quickly runs out. But at level ten you will have a fireball. This is a very powerful spell that will immediately cover absolutely all the shortcomings of the class.

Mage healer. Before us is one of the most necessary classes in the game. Almost any magician can learn healing, but this one is one of the best. To heal wounds, he uses not only magic, but also medicine. Bandages in the hands of other fighters are useless trash, and the healing magicians have studied medicine from all sides. Therefore, it does not matter whether the patient is poisoned or simply cut himself - he will definitely be cured.

It is not necessary to go to the city for purchases. The doctor knows zoology, botany and alchemy and is ready to get the necessary ingredients himself. The advantages include high mana regeneration, the ability to communicate well with people, and also... the absence of minus parameters.

It is important: in the swamps (the location we find ourselves in after five or six hours of the game), we are joined by an elf who is able to heal wounds. But if you already have a healer mage in your group, make her an archer. She is much more useful in this role.

Charlatan. As we said above, a good magician studies at the academy for many years, strives to become the best, communicates little with his peers, and even more so with the opposite sex. Some people don’t like such a boring life, they start doing mischief, drinking and debauchery. The academy quickly gets rid of hooliganism, and our hero also ended up on the expulsion list. They kicked him out like a lame little kid, and thus doomed him to starvation. I had to get out.

The charlatan quit practicing magic and began studying those around him. He is an excellent expert on the human soul, understands people well and is able to manipulate them. He speaks his teeth, and then takes out all the gold from other people's wallets. A charlatan is not able to learn new spells, but he can easily find a tavern in an unfamiliar city. He fights with a sword, but also knows how to use magic. If necessary, it can blind the enemy and strike him with lightning.

Sometimes you can’t tell where the elemental is and where it’s just fire. The whole area is on fire!

Before us is a necromancer and his best friend.

Usually robbers are involved in dark deeds. They resemble a charlatan in many ways, but they do not know how to use magic. And here we have an extremely interesting and unusual hybrid. He has huge advantages in social skills, and the rogue fights well. True, he will never learn skills from the “natural” range, but he does not suffer from this at all.

Elementalist. He can do... But at first glance he can’t do anything. The only person who can learn new spells is an extremely mediocre comrade. If not for one “but” - the fire elemental. This funny creature (you can see it in the picture) easily copes with several opponents, even though it hits everyone in the area with magic, and even causes long-term fire damage. The elementalist himself, if necessary, will personally fry the enemy, or burn him with lightning...

At the initial levels, this is the strongest character. Where warriors aimlessly fan their enemies with swords, and magicians fall to their knees under a hail of blows, the elementalist walks with his head held high. I deliberately did not take new fighters into the group and walked on my own. The first location went through without any problems. Comfortable...

Necromancer. Like the elementalist, he does not shine with talents. A little self-control, a little magic, that's all. At the same time, the necromancer is completely unsuited to any profession. By God, it’s easier for him to learn to swing a sword than to mix potions or break open chests.

However, if we look at his book of magic... it will not amaze us with its variety. The necromancer can summon skeletons and deal cold damage. Trifle? But no. The skeleton is a skilled fighter, and the cold attack in the initial stages is more powerful than other spells. In addition, the spell only takes one turn to cast. The power of a necromancer is like a battle mage, only there is a skeleton running next to him. Like?

It is important: Due to its high resistance to magic, the necromancer is considered the best opponent of spellcasters. It deals huge damage itself, the skeleton helps quite well, but magic almost doesn’t take it. Comfortable.

Alchemist. Nominally, he’s an interesting character, but since the game has a healing magician and an exploration geologist, the alchemist is of little use. He knows “nature” quite well, but a little worse than his competitors. Capable of casting combat spells and healing, but his damage is ridiculous and his health replenishment does not cover the damage. Well, high levels of alchemy are not a panacea. They won’t take him to the team for this reason. True, his apron is beautiful...

Pirate. In theory, this class is one of the best “tanks” in the game. He can do absolutely nothing except one thing - hit with one-handed axes. Everything else is not for him. Among the disadvantages, I will mention very low magical resistance. One of the advantages is good health. If literally after two hours of play we didn’t meet a dwarf who is practically equal to a pirate, it would still make sense to take it. And so - alas.

Amazon. Incomprehensible class. In terms of skills, he is not very different from a pirate; instead of axes, he wields sabers. At the same time, she has less health than a warrior. I still don’t understand why the team needs Amazon...

It is important: The Amazon joins our group first, even before the debut battle with the boars. So whatever your love for the wild and fair sex, it’s better to wait fifteen minutes and don’t take her as the main character.

Forest inhabitant. Like all elves, he treats people with complete indifference. The forest dweller does not visit cities and does not communicate with rangers. He just walks through the forest, climbs trees and runs around evil animals. All of his skills in the “natural” line are well developed, and he is able to survive in the deepest forest. At the same time, the elf can extract useful ingredients from animals and plants. But, alas, I am not able to process them.

The forest dweller prefers a bow as a weapon, but he fell in love with nature so much that he found a common language with all living creatures. And if some hungry wolf bothers him too much, the elf will not take out the bow, but will put the poor fellow to sleep and pass by. Thanks to his magic, he is also able to heal wounds and sharpen perception.

It is important: I already said that an elf will join us in the swamps, so think three times before making this class your main one. On the other hand, if you really like the forest dweller, you can simply not take the second one into the group. There will be more than enough other people willing.

Magic Weaver. Again, like all elves, he knows nature very well, but all his social talents are not only zero, but literally in the minus. However, he doesn’t need to. Before us is an elven battle mage.

I note that elves have strange ideas about battles and magic. Their strongest spell, “strike with light,” is not used by human magicians; they consider it too weak. But the elf knows how to call the little animal to help. At the initial levels it is just a giant rat. A sort of elementalist, only several times worse. After all, a fire elemental can single-handedly kill five elven rats...

But the weaver is able to strengthen and heal the group. The result is a support class that can deal damage, raise group parameters, and summon animals. True, a forest dweller is still preferable.

Elven fighter. Once again we have a character who doesn't get along with people. But, unlike his fellow tribesmen, this one also does not understand nature. Maybe he can slowly collect flowers...

He prefers spears as a weapon, but is also capable of archery. True, in close combat he feels much more comfortable. Just like a forest dweller, an elven fighter can put any animal to sleep, rather than stab it in the eye with a sharp one. The elf has no need for this. Especially this one - he won’t even take the skin off a wolf.

We will spend a third of the game in the kingdom of darkness and gloom. Dungeons can get really boring sometimes...

In general, not a very successful class. Other melee fighters have other skills besides combat ones, and a fighter is definitely not suitable for the role of a “tank” - he has health like a magician.

Gnome Mercenary. One of the best "tanks" in the game. Almost identical to the pirate, with a few minor exceptions. Firstly, he has more stamina. Secondly, he is able to find precious stones in the mountains and the right people in cities. Everything else is just cosmetic differences.

I would recommend the gnome to novice players, but bad luck - it is he who will join us in the second city. So neither beginners nor experienced fighters need it. He will come himself!

Sapper. In terms of combat characteristics, this gnome is not much different from the previous one, except that he has one unit less health and is less able to handle weapons. He can also increase his mastery of two-handed axes almost to the maximum in the character editor.

But his main skills are still non-combat. The gnome is excellent at forging, picking locks, disarming traps and is able to find precious stones. In general, this class can be used as the main “tank” class. He is not much inferior to the others, but at the same time he has very useful skills. I recommend it to fans of gnomes.

Exploration geologist. Alas, this dwarf does not have such phenomenal health as the previous two, so as a “tank” he is much inferior to them. Why am I starting with this? Namely, his relatively poor health influenced his fate. The exploration geologist knows the “natural” line very well, but the forest dweller knows it a little better. And now we are faced with a choice of whom to take: a gnome, who can be neither a “tank” nor a hit-killer, or an elf, who is both a hit-killer and a healer? I think the choice is obvious. Alas...

Robber. There are three whole classes ahead of us, which differ only in one or two skills. The robber is the main deceiver in the game. He is the best at ingratiating himself with people, convincing people, and is able to easily penetrate high society. For combat he uses rapiers.

Burglar. Unlike the robber, he is excellent at picking locks and disarming traps. He also always has high discounts in the store, since the cracker is the best merchant in the game. He convinces people a little worse, and he will never get into high society. But he knows the streets of cities perfectly and has exceptional powers of observation.

Uses sabers as weapons. This skill can be developed to its maximum even at the moment of creation.

It is important: the burglar joins us in the first city, but in the second he disappears for a long time. And, in principle, there is a possibility of never meeting him again. If you want, you can make the burglar the main class.

Thief. In the last three, it is this character who is best at cleaning out wallets. He can sneak up very quietly and, if necessary, will pick the middle lock and disarm any trap. Unlike the robber, he understands human souls very poorly, and his tongue is worse than that of the other two bandits.

He uses a dagger in battle, but since he has very little health, he won’t last even two minutes against a serious enemy. This character is hardly worthy of being the main character. His specialization is, of course, useful. But even without stealing it is very easy to complete the game. It just so happened...

Ten Questions for a Newbie

Where can I find the first three heroes who join the team?

The first to come to us Amazon. It stands near the tavern in the first location. It’s hard not to notice her - she swears loudly, demands help from the innkeeper and looks very menacingly at all the men passing by. The second one will be robber. In order for him to join, he must complete the task of the queen of jesters. And the third on our team will be gnome mercenary. He can be found in the tavern after we learn about the death of a friend.

Where does the robber go and where can he be found?

He, as was said, is afraid to go past the guards through the main entrance; he will enter the castle on his own, but... he will get caught and go to prison. You can free him only after the oracle gives you the first task. After this, the queen of jesters will appear in the square near the temple. Talk to her.

I can't complete the story quest. The required NPC does not appear in place of the cross.

This is protection against piracy.

How can I become a member of the thieves guild if my character cannot open the first chest?

Even in the first location, a robber will join you, and he will break the lock.

I'm missing a healer on my team, where can I get one?

There will be two characters in the swamps who can learn healing magic - a thief and an elf. The second one is better suited as a healer of wounds.

Can a mage wear heavy armor?

Yes, but he is not able to cast magic in it.

What weapons or armor affect magical attacks?

None. The magician quite successfully casts spells naked and unarmed. Another thing is that when the mana runs out, he goes into close combat. This is where he will need armor and weapons.

Why sometimes spells are cast immediately, but sometimes you have to wait twenty seconds?

If you are not in combat, any action occurs immediately, but in battle, spells, potions, etc. require a certain number of turns. Therefore, magicians with a high level of perception are able to throw two fireballs at the enemy before the battle begins (although this is most likely a bug). The higher the battle radius, the easier it is to win.

Why do heroes sometimes die when the monster hasn’t even taken half their health?

If your fighter receives more than four wounds, in most cases he falls to the ground lifeless. Therefore, try to fully heal the group before going on the attack.

I can't kill one monster, it constantly kills the whole group.

If the enemy is walking by himself and you don't need to destroy him, just run past him. The monster can devour at least three of your fighters, but if the fourth remains alive, everyone will be near him. In the event that you need to destroy the enemy, try to drink as many useful potions as possible and upgrade your weapons and armor. Yes, and since sometimes a lot depends on luck, try again and again. Someday the enemy will be unlucky.

Skills

After our hero gets into the big world, he will constantly have to learn. In some cases, we know for sure that such a skill is necessary (botany for an alchemist, trade for a robber), but then we will have to choose more than once from non-core skills. Does our magician need self-control, and should a warrior develop street smarts?

It is important: Characteristics that increase the chance of the skill being successfully triggered are written in italics. See which of your characters has the highest characteristics - this will make it much easier to develop a non-core skill.

Body

sneak up. Courage, intuition, agility. Profile skill of robbers, thieves and burglars. It’s difficult to call it useful. Characters sneak mainly when they want to pass by a target unnoticed. But in this case, the high score of one of the group members means nothing. The skill is counted based on the loudest hero on the team. I would not recommend developing this skill. The bandits, in principle, are already good at it, but the rest do not need it.

It is important: a sneaking hero can be easily detected by NPCs with a high level of perception.

A nervous mage will not be able to cast spells when attacked by monsters. Develop self-control for spellcasters.

Self-control. Courage, body structure, physical strength. This parameter is important for all classes. Composure primarily prevents the character from getting wounded and losing consciousness (read: dying) from pain. During many battles, it is wounds that cause the greatest trouble. Heroes become weaker, hit the enemy twice as hard, and lose health four times faster. So even if your character is social, he still needs self-control; everyone fights monsters at once. In addition, this skill helps in dialogues.

It is important: self-control is very useful for magicians. If the skill is poorly developed, the enemy can easily interrupt the casting of the spell - all you have to do is hit the wizard. This is especially critical at high levels, when sorcerers have to cast a spell within four to five turns!

Perception. Wisdom, intuition, charm. It is enough if one single member of the group masters this skill. Perception helps you spot traps and ambushes, and also increases your visibility on the minimap. The second is not so important, but still convenient - you will be able to notice enemies at a greater distance. You will bypass someone, on the contrary, you will attack others en masse...

Pickpocketing. Courage, intuition, sleight of hand. Stealing is a pretty boring activity. Sometimes it helps to save some money, but you are unlikely to want to empty the pockets of all the residents of a big city. It turns out that robbers do not need to improve their ability to steal - it is already very high, and for the rest it is simply useless.

On a note: There are no serious penalties for failing to steal. The victim will scream at you and calm down. The only downside is that you won’t be able to put your hand in this pocket anymore.

Gnome Flair. Intuition, intuition, sleight of hand. Allows you to find and remove gems. They are suitable both for sale and for the production of weapons. But it’s not worth developing this skill for everyone; one character with a dwarven sense developed by three or four points is enough.

Nature

Zoology. Courage, wisdom, intuition. Many heroes who have never read smart books believe that only the skin can be removed from a killed animal. If these comrades had studied at academies, they would have known about the science of zoology, which allows one to extract a huge number of useful objects from animals. Tendons, bones, teeth - they are necessary in alchemy and bow making. And from time to time a blacksmith will need the services of a successful zoologist. So in the group it is simply necessary to keep one character who is capable of skinning the little animal after death like a stick. And the higher the skill level, the fewer mistakes the hero makes.

On a note: the amount of “utilities” extracted does not depend on the level of zoology.

Botany. . Collecting useful herbs is also necessary for professional skills, so it is best to teach a hero who knows zoology both botany (and ideally a gnome’s instincts). Then your travels through the forest will become several times more productive - it’s no longer just skinning wild boars and selling them for a copper...

Life in the Wild. Intuition, dexterity, body structure. What does a smart botanist and zoologist do after studying their favorite subjects? That's right, he experiences life in the wild. But for this it is not necessary to wander through the forest from morning to evening, memorize the places where animals gather and study the local vegetation. It is enough to find a teacher in the city and give him one ducat. The more you develop your skill, the easier it will be to find plants and animals. They will appear on the mini-map, and all you have to do is run back and forth.

Ambush. Wisdom, manual dexterity, physical strength. Allows you to set traps for both ordinary wild animals and harmful bandits. The higher the skill level, the more difficult it is for the enemy to detect the trap hidden from his eyes. The skill is so-so and is used very rarely, in addition, it requires various tools, so it is hardly worth developing it purposefully.

Knowledge

Now they won’t let us into the church - we need to advance a little in the plot. By the end of the game, the first cities become almost twice as large. In many houses, doors open before us.

Street knowledge. Wisdom, intuition, charm. Somewhat reminiscent of “life in the wild,” only instead of a dandelion and a wild boar, a merchant or a blacksmith will appear on your mini-map. This is, of course, very convenient, but a city is not a forest; finding the right person is much easier than a small blade of grass. On the other hand, Streetwise allows you to talk to some silent characters. Sometimes very useful. In any case, it’s worth getting several levels of this skill. It will help you quickly find the right traders, and therefore save a lot of time.

Treatment of poisoning.Courage, wisdom, intuition. If there is a healer in the group, he usually learns this skill. Otherwise, the “cure” will still have to be studied by someone. After all, going into battle with poisoning is crazy. The heroes are weakened and cannot fight even with half their strength. In general, a very important skill, don’t forget about it.

Treatment of wounds.Wisdom, intuition, charm.An even more useful skill, since absolutely all characters receive wounds during battle, which reduce the level of defense and attack. Heavy wounds can even kill the hero, so you just need to find a fighter who will bandage the entire group.

This is interesting: Why is charm needed during treatment? To cheer up the mortally wounded with ditties?..

Magic Research. Wisdom, intuition, intuition. Allows the hero to identify magical items. Sometimes we will receive armor, spears, swords that we cannot even pick up, and instead of a picture they just have a black outline. Such a thing must be urgently given to an experienced sorcerer with a high level of “magic research.” If you don’t have such people in your group, it’s very sad. Some good things come across. Apparently, you will have to develop the skill, and the sooner the better. The first such thing will come across in the swamp.

Society

Deception. Intuition, charm, charm. It only works if the interlocutor is of the opposite sex. The skill helps to convince NPCs of something, but not with the goal of getting a pretty elf in an ermine leotard into bed or inviting a mighty dwarf to dinner. It all comes down to additional questions and answers in dialogues. There is not much benefit from them, so it is hardly worth developing “deception”. Unless you really want to turn some beauty's head...

Aristocratism. Wisdom, intuition, charm. Allows the hero to get into high society and behave there, as they say, comme il faut. The benefits from it, which is funny, are few and I do not recommend studying it purposefully. You can play successfully without a high-society upbringing.

Trade. Courage, wisdom, charm. In Drakensang, unfortunately, it is impossible to win by reselling goods, but trading is still important, and it would be nice for one team member to have this skill. True, if you are really going to seriously engage in trading, take a robber as the main character - he is the best in this matter.

Knowledge of people (Wisdom, intuition, charm) And Belief(Courage, intuition, charm). The essence of these skills is the same - these are, if you may, the most social skills. When developing a “diplomat”, the first thing you need to do is research them. They allow you to complete many quests with just eloquence and even help get some tasks. So if you want to complete the game and learn more about it, you will have to develop it. For greater effect, you should take a robber or a charlatan into the game. They really know how to convince...

Profession

Alchemy. Courage, wisdom, sleight of hand. When you go on a long and difficult hike, you should not rely only on your own strength. The game has a huge variety of potions that can not only heal and restore strength, but also increase the accuracy of fighters, their defense and ability to evade blows. True, it is either too expensive to buy them or nowhere to buy them; it is much easier, faster and more interesting to prepare the decoction with your own hands. To do this, you will have to pick a dozen flowers, kill a hundred animals, and also find a mortar nearby. It is best, of course, for support mages to develop alchemy. It is their task to protect the group; other characters usually need to improve either social or combat skills.

The Oracle in Drakensang looks like this.

It is important: To make a potion, two bunches of various herbs and the desire to cook something there are not enough. You need to find a recipe and learn it. It is usually taken from mentors and for money. This applies to any skills in the professional branch. Without a prescription - nowhere.

Making onions. Wisdom, intuition, sleight of hand. Allows you to create ranged weapons and arrows. This skill is also designed to save your finances, and besides, an ammunition seller does not necessarily end up in the outback. And being left without arrows in some crab hole, you know, is very unpleasant! This skill is usually used by gnomes, but anyone can learn it, including a healing magician. Both effective and funny.

Forging. Manual dexterity, body structure, physical strength. If bow crafting allows... to make a bow, then forging provides the group with a melee weapon. True, this skill is not only famous for this. The blacksmith can also create various improving items: for example, blade lubricant, which will make your strikes more accurate, or an excellent master key. In a word, it’s practically alchemy, only instead of jars and bottles we have hammers.

Picking locks.. Perhaps the only specialized skill of robbers that is useful to any character. There are a lot of chests in the game, inside of which there are a lot of useful and expensive things, and it can be terribly disappointing if we are not able to do anything with the castle. Damn it, they killed the dragon, but they couldn’t defeat the chest! In addition, there are quests where you need to open locks, one of them is to get into the thieves guild. In general, the skill is extremely useful, let one of the heroes develop it at the first opportunity.

The game has quite a few cutscenes. And everything that is is on the game engine.

It is important: Didn't you manage to break open the chest? It doesn’t matter, we’ll try a hundred more times, and maybe then he’ll finally give in! The only penalty for a failed attempt is a reduction in skill level for seven seconds. The locks here do not break due to excessive zeal; by the way, there are no master keys either.

Disarming traps.Intuition, sleight of hand, sleight of hand. Ideally, the skill is useful, but in practice it is not necessary at all. Any trap is often neutralized like this: a “tank” with a lot of health is taken and sent into the trap. The suicide bomber falls lifeless, and the trap disappears. Even if the “tank” dies, it doesn’t matter. In a second he'll get up and we'll heal him.

Combining three great series into one is a truly difficult task. And the developers from RadonLabs were close to success, but they lacked experience. They were a little too clever with the complexity, didn’t correct the balance, couldn’t develop the characters’ characters... As a result, Drakensang turned out to be exciting, but didn’t reveal its full potential. Let's hope this isn't the developers' last attempt at making a role-playing game.

world? Computer role-playing game developers Drakensang: The Dark Eye We decided to start with a letter from a friend. So, the main character receives a letter - an invitation from an old friend and teacher to come to the trading city of Ferdok, where mysterious serial murders took place. Without hesitation, the main character goes to meet a friend and finds himself in a fascinating adventure:

The country of Aventuria is not going through the most peaceful times; robbers are rampant everywhere, so all roads to Ferdok are blocked and only merchants and nobles can move freely. This is how the storyline begins in an unusual way. Drakensang: The Dark Eye. Subsequent events will be full of secrets, intrigue and searches.

Drakensang is based on the German board game Das Schwarze Auge.

Generation of Ch. hero: Initially, the player selects the main character (20 classes are available to choose from) who will act as the leader of a party of adventurers, he will participate in all dialogues with characters in the fantasy world.

In the very first village, the passage through which is closed by guards, the main character meets the first people who want to join his group. As the story progresses, the characters will change; they can be replaced one by one, thus choosing an increasingly balanced group. I will note the fact that a balanced group is more important in Drakensang than the skills or equipment of an individual character.

Balance: There are situations when the fate of the entire group is decided by just one character who successfully finds himself in it. For example, an Evil Tree (boss) in the swamps knocks down warriors and only ranged attacks and magic spells reach their target with impunity, but at the same time, warriors are required to kill the tree’s guards. Thus, it is a well-thought-out balance that determines the outcome of the battle.

IN Drakensang: The Dark Eye The battle takes place in rounds, just like in the great one. Damage, damage, the chance of triggering skills and using abilities is calculated with a twenty-sided die, so each battle can take place unexpectedly. Pause the game, give instructions to all group members, you can set a chain of actions for everyone, and then everything depends on luck, the level of the group members and your organizational skills.

Observations: This cube is terribly mean :) when I killed the rat queen in Ferdok’s dungeons, the handy mothers killed all my party members except the gnome, this little guy was lucky enough to be left alone with his mother and chop 2/3 of her alone. Honestly, I had lost all hope of being able to pass this level (and there was no way back, it was blocked...) and I was about to start all over from the very beginning, when suddenly I remembered the miracles of loading/saving in the case of a cube... I had to suffer, it’s good that the rat missed the short one more often than the gnome. As a result, the level is passed, experience is gained, I no longer lead an unprepared group.

Leveling up characters: By completing tasks and defeating opponents, your hero will receive adventure points. You can use them to improve your stats, skills, or spells. To learn a new skill, you need a teacher and money.

The heroes of Aventuria are characterized by several numerical indicators. The higher the score, the higher the chances that it will successfully pass the test.

In many game situations, such as combat, these metrics will be tested using a 20-sided die.

Keep track of the wounds your hero receives during battle. They weaken it very much, so wounds need to be treated as soon as possible. This is possible, for example, using the spell “Balm of Salabunda” or the skill “Medicine, wounds”.

Those with a shield can repel an attack from a long distance, but all other fighters can only rely on their own dodges. Therefore, it is more difficult for a ranged fighter to hit those who have a shield. In this case, his ranged combat indicator worsens by 4 points.

The opponents are varied: Some opponents are very strong in defense, so they cannot be dealt with with a powerful blow or swing of a hammer. With such opponents, it is best to use dodges or targeted thrusts - or hit them from a long distance.

Combat system: Battles consist of a series of attacks (AT) and blocks (BL). If the AT check passes but the defender's BL check fails, hit points are awarded. The armor protection indicator is subtracted from these points, after which the damage points are subtracted from the vital energy indicator of the loser of the round.

Death: If one of your heroes loses all hit points or receives more than four wounds, he falls unconscious and only wakes up seriously wounded after the battle. If all your heroes are so close to death, the ruthless Boron (deity of death) will claim his spoils and you will have to load your saved game.

Quests (searches and adventures): The tasks in Drakensang are very diverse, there are linear and multi-level ones, when one task becomes surrounded by a chain of quests. If a member of your squad develops different social abilities, completing multiple tasks becomes non-linear.

In addition to the main story quest, all sorts of side quests are found everywhere. For example, passing by a guard at the gate, we notice his unusual behavior, he is shouting something and jumping up and down, we approach, ask what happened, he comes out to relieve himself and asks us to guard the city gates.

But not everything is so simple, the guard tells us about three scammers who should not be allowed into the city. As soon as he leaves, the hero begins to stop all the characters matching the description of the scammers entering the city and interrogates everyone. Thanks to special abilities, such as Knowledge of People, Local History, the hero can assess whether the suspects are telling him the truth...

There are also simply fun tasks, for example, in the city of Ferdok you can meet triplets gnomes who offer a game for money: you guess which one is which and you get coins. First, the ringleader gnome explains the rules, introduces his brothers by name, then the fun begins, the gnomes begin to run around each other, trying to confuse the player. Then the ringleader asks again, who am I? We answer correctly and receive a well-deserved reward for your attentiveness.

System requirementsDrakensang: The Dark Eye:

• Operating system Microsoft® Windows® XP SP2/Vista
• Pentium® 4 2.4 GHz processor or Athlon® XP equivalent
• 1 GB RAM
• 8.5 GB of free hard drive space
• 3D video adapter with 256 MB memory, compatible with DirectX® 9.0c (GeForce 6600 or Radeon X1300)
• DirectX® 9.0c compatible audio device
• DirectX® 9.0c

Nowadays, role-playing games are increasingly being made, in which we constantly move along the rails of the plot. Even The Witcher practically does not allow us to simply “live” in the game world. However, a few months ago, they began to say that a German role-playing game would soon be released, in which you could live like in The Elder Scrolls, develop characters like in Neverwinter Nights 2, and move through the plot like in Gothic. The statement is bold and interesting, but is it possible to mix three titans of the genre in one game?

Prologue

Elves, people, gnomes - all these races have been getting along well with each other for many centuries. The terrible wars are forgotten, hatred and fear are forgotten... The peoples did not divide the world, they made it common.

In this completely calm time, when the war is going on only on the border with the orc lands, and in the cities murders are committed only by notorious thugs, our hero receives an extremely mysterious letter from a friend, which talks about ritual murders. Doesn't look like the work of the local thieves guild. The comrade is worried and asks us to urgently come to him.

From this second the game begins. We find ourselves in the middle of a country road leading to the small village of Avestru - a transit point between the center of the continent and the capital. There's just one catch: we can go back, but we can't go forward. The crime rate in the city has increased horribly, and only politicians and merchants can travel. There is no place for unknown wanderers here. What remains? We'll run around the village, maybe someone will give us some work, we can't just sit around. And then, lo and behold, the roads will open.

A dozen wooden huts, four shops, a central square - that’s the whole village. But there are plenty of problems here too. A magician has gotten lost in the forest nearby, the queen of jesters' necklace has been stolen (it seems to be the work of her lover), the forester is attacked by wolves, and a young hooligan dreams of joining the thieves' guild. The number of tasks makes my eyes wide open... I remember “Gothic”, where on every piece of land something was lying around - or happening. Here is a broken cart and next to it is its owner, ready to help us with the task, a little further there is a bridge with goblins, and bandits are roaming around under it.

Drakensang also tries not to make the locations huge, in the manner of Oblivion, where league after league we encountered the same monsters, plants and tailed bandits. It is difficult to get lost in this world, because it is absolutely clear that this road leads towards the city; if you turn right, you will find yourself at the mill, and if you go into the forest, we will soon stumble upon a cave of robbers.

Any terrain is explored very quickly - an excellent condition for completing tasks. We ask the “customer” where to go and what is nearby, they politely and sometimes even explain in too much detail what is required. But it would still be very nice to search for a lost magician in the forest, having only a vague idea of ​​​​where he might have wandered. Did the students tell you that the wizard likes to pick flowers and climb caves? So, we run into the clearing, and then into the nearest cave. Fun and simple! But the developers decided otherwise...

Tic Tac Toe

Nothing spoils the feeling of a fairy tale more than bugs crawling out of all the cracks. When in the third “Corsairs” our ship was boarded by the governor’s or when in “Mor. Utopia" had to replay the same day ten times; it became difficult to believe in the reality of what was happening. In Drakensang, as I already said, there are practically no bugs, but they are successfully replaced by task crosses on the map. We don’t rack our brains over where the lost magician went. What difference does it make whether he likes to pick flowers or drink in a tavern? We will still find it where the map points us. It is absolutely not necessary to open it completely; The arrows on the mini-map will indicate the desired direction. And there is no escape from this.

Will the game be able to give us back the feeling of a fairy tale? Let's see...

Let's move to the swamps. And what awaits us there? A riddle contained in a poem, parts of which are carved on the tombstones of dead warriors. The graves are scattered all over the map, and there is not a single mark. Only the description of the quest will help, and then the verse itself. If we can solve the riddle, we will get magnificent armor. No? It's a pity...

Personally, I still don’t understand how such tasks coexist in one game world. In the same way, it is unclear why at first we only say “yes” or “no” even in dialogues, but after a few hours we have to change the plot with both words and actions literally every fifteen minutes!

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Now our hero is passing by a tavern, and one young lady is looking at him very unfriendly. She is dressed, remarkably, in the heaviest armor and, in addition, brandishes a long saber. She doesn't look like a peasant woman. Shall we meet?

Turning off the main path

“Hello, lady,” our well-mannered hero smiles politely... and receives a whole constellation of “warm” wishes in response. Exceptionally obscene. Why all of a sudden such unexpected rudeness, did we say something wrong? No, the lady, you see, doesn’t like men at all.

If you ignore the abuse and humiliation, it turns out that the girl needs help, and the pathetic innkeeper is afraid to accompany her. All you have to do is strangle the bear with your bare hands! A fragile girl does this three times a day, and all sorts of klutzes who, through a misunderstanding, consider themselves the stronger sex... and so on in the same spirit.

Our hero is not a coward and selflessly decides to rehabilitate men in beautiful, albeit full of indignation, eyes. And for this, the warlike lady knight will join us as a comrade - if we want, then until the end of the game. True, if you get tired of the evil one, you can get rid of her later. The main thing is that from this second the hero will never fight alone again.

Together with my partner, we will quickly complete all the village tasks. First, we will find the lost magician (he will give our character a written description), and then we will find the lover of other people’s necklaces. He will, after all, turn out to be the beloved of the queen of jesters, who, in order to avoid the radiant wrath, will also ask to come to us. You can no longer do other tasks; the queen will also give a character reference, and the group will be allowed into the capital.

However, additional quests in any location are not just a few extra hours of play. If, for example, we do not complete tasks for the thieves guild in the village, then (already in the capital) we simply will not be able to join it. This means we won’t discover part of the world and won’t gain some skills.

Looking ahead, let's say that our new partner - the dishonest handsome man Dranor - will end up in prison. And in one of the quests we will be able to free him (and if we want, then leave him in prison forever).

The heroes go down into the dungeon, kill hordes of rats, barely pass the sewers under the dungeon and finally find themselves at his cell. But the friend does not smile at us, but only dismissively says: “Well, why did you come?” At the same time, he opens the grill so that it does not interfere with looking into the eyes. It turns out that Dranor only escapes from prison if he is guilty. This time he was framed, which means our friend will remain in prison until he is acquitted. That is, all my life.

This is where the quest from the category of “kill everyone, everyone, and free your comrade” develops into a detective story. We have to prove Dranor's innocence, communicate with witnesses and look for evidence.

Unexpected and interesting.

They should live here

Remember how developed the characters were in Neverwinter Nights 2? Many players listened to their bickering with pleasure, trying to somehow calm down this noisy company. You felt like there were living people next to you. In Drakensang, unfortunately, our partners are rather boring and silent people. It’s rare that you hear even half a word from them. They sometimes say something like: “What a big crypt, there must be a lot of ghosts there” - and again withdraw into themselves, and the rest are in no hurry to keep up the conversation.

Heroes live their lives only until they join us. A belligerent Amazon can argue with the innkeeper, threaten to beat him, bark at us, but once she joins the group, that’s all, now she just fights. The womanizer and thief stops joking and pestering girls as soon as he becomes the third fighter in the team. Heroic adventures are bad for heroes...

The only thing that corrects the situation is that the main character himself is a bright and prominent personality, not at a loss for words. And if there is at least one character in the group who is skilled in communicating with people, then the main character will use additional answer options (threaten, try to persuade, seduce, etc.).

But threats or persuasion are not a panacea. First of all, you first need to guess what will work this time. Should I convince the bandits to stop robbing the crypts by appealing to better feelings, or should I threaten them with beatings? The answer is not always obvious. In the above example, I managed to “win” the dialogue by telling the robbers that ghosts would come for their souls. The scoundrels were not afraid of the beatings, but they did not dare to joke with the other world. Secondly, you should not use threats again. The enemy may stop communicating and rush into battle. After this, of course, you won’t be able to talk to him. But he could help complete the quest!

Life without tasks

Let's continue talking about partners. In Drakensang, as in Neverwinter Night 2, up to four heroes can be under our leadership. This in many ways makes the game more diverse and interesting - if, of course, we select classes adequately.

The most successful combination is a tank, a “chatterbox” hit-breaker, a healer-gatherer and some exclusively social class. Such a group will be able not only to complete all quests, but also live in the world. After all, a role-playing game is not only about moving through the plot.

We rarely fight in cities; much more often we have to go into the forests. In each location they are special, but in all of them you can find one thing - useful resources.

Have you ever gone to the forest to pick mushrooms or hunt wild animals? What if you have to kill the wild boar not with a gun, but with a fireball? In addition, a spider the size of two people can graze near each mushroom. It's funny as hell, as the famous movie character said...

The local role-playing system allows us to be anyone - a merchant, hunter, gatherer, thief, blacksmith or alchemist, ladies' man, doctor... And if the group is suitable, you can even start your own business.

During the next task, we go into the forest, but we are not in a hurry to look for the desired monster, but look around in search of the necessary plants. We collect, then we set up ambushes for wild animals and only at the very end we complete the quest. Now you can return to the city and deal with the “swag”. If there is a robber on the team, he takes some of the unnecessary resources and runs to sell them on the market. Each merchant gives his own price, so you need to find the most generous one, and you shouldn’t forget about the discount.

Meanwhile, the gnome or alchemist selects the herbs needed for the potions, and the blacksmith grabs the sinews and animal bones. Everything that is produced with one’s own hands is quite expensive, and the robber would be happy to sell the goods and drink beer in the tavern. But potions are very useful in battle; without them, going after strong monsters is pure suicide. The blacksmith can forge strong armor and a sharp sword. You can't get these in the store, so why sell them?

But production and gathering itself is only half the battle. It is also necessary to find the necessary recipes and learn the skills. In short, there is enough to do! And, best of all, peaceful life is an important part of the game. After all, you won’t go into battle without a good saber and solid armor?

Tango of sword and dagger

In Drakensang we see classic battles in the spirit of Neverwinter Nights. Fights take place in rounds, with characters taking turns striking. Damage depends largely on chance. At the very beginning of the game, the heroes fight rather weakly, and the battles turn into torture. Hitting the enemy once out of five is already luck. And clearing a dungeon with characters of the second or third level is another task...

In addition, the difficulty level of battles will change very strangely throughout the game. One minute we squeak through one dungeon, then a little later we easily rush through three at once. Either we kill thirty opponents the first time, or we try to kill one thirty times. By the way, precisely because dice very often determine our fate, we can emerge victorious from almost any situation. Someday you'll get lucky.

At higher levels, fighting becomes much more interesting. Many special attacks appear, the hero’s characteristics increase, and the supply of dice increases. But here the next danger arises - the imbalance of the group. An unsuccessful combination of classes - and you cannot defeat a strong opponent. For example, the Witch Tree does not attack magicians and archers, but kills melee fighters almost immediately. Oh, you didn’t take any shooters into the group? Well what can you do...

At the same time, they give very little experience for killing enemies. The average quest at the initial levels is 100-300 experience points, and for one enemy the characters receive only one unit. However, this is even good. In tabletop RPGs, heroes never level up by killing enemies. In the same Vampire: The Masquerade, you won’t get even a unit for killings. Which, in general, is correct...

It’s just not clear why the developers are making huge dungeons with many monsters. The battles are already protracted, and long military campaigns only make the situation worse. True, I do not at all want to say that fighting here is not interesting. At higher levels, when tactics begin to play an important role, battles become much more exciting. But at an early stage...

Through the eyes of a wanderer

The graphics cannot be called the game's strong point. Nature is depicted quite beautifully here, and the cities look good. But why are the characters drawn worse than, for example, trees? Pixels stretch like rubber, and some armor gives the impression of being smeared all over the hero.

The incredible play of light is amazing. Yes, and in real life, when you enter a dense forest, everything around turns a little green, but not that much... I remember the developers of the game “Death to Spies” did something similar. The moment of truth." Only there the change of light hurt the eyes, but in Drakensang it looks very comical. Now bright yellow light, now sickly green, now reddish...

Another thing is the interface - convenient and quite good. A large panel for skills and spells, with the ability to scroll through it; beautiful card. I would also like to note that you can control the character using WASD, and this way the character feels much better and the affinity with him becomes stronger.

Learned from the classics

There is a type of story in which the author’s individuality is not felt. All the canons of the genre are observed, the plot is built correctly, the characters are logical, the world is interesting, but... as they say, there is no soul.

Drakensang is made with soul, whatever that means, but there are very few original ideas in the game. The beginning is so standard that you even wonder how the hero ended up without amnesia?

As you progress, the game echoes Gothic more and more. And with all the parts at once. There are battles between camps, fights with orcs, joining the thieves guild, and even similar architecture. But the creators drew inspiration not only from “Gothic” - both parts of Neverwinter Nights and many other projects were not ignored. An experienced player will easily notice the similarities with the classics.

Perhaps the developers were afraid to introduce new ideas into the game, since the old ones had already proven themselves. Lack of courage and experience? Crosses on the map - so that even the weakest player can move on. The confusion with difficulty is an attempt to diversify the gameplay. A linear plot, diluted with forks of choice influencing further events - the search for the ideal option.

And after all, Drakensang came out practically without bugs, verified to shine, like an excellent student’s notes. But he clearly lacked blots, mistakes, and crooked handwriting. I would like to shout to the developers: “Make mistakes, gentlemen, make mistakes, but work and create! You could have, together we saw that you were good at it, so why the hell were you afraid?!”

We have before us almost an exemplary game. But the authors, alas, are not visible in it...

Epilogue

Remember what our hero needed at the beginning? Just get to the capital. No adventures, no feats - just get past the patrols. And even then, preferably legally and without unnecessary hassle. But everything changes after one piece of news - an old friend, for whom he traveled such a long way, was killed. And, according to the city guard, this is the work of the same robbers who have been operating in the city for a long time. They are mentioned in the letter...

What to do next? The hero decides to help the guards. She has been unable to solve a series of murders for several months and, apparently, is going to wind down the investigation. So the whole city can only rely on us. But no one knows this yet.

From these seconds the game turns into a detective story. To solve the murders, we go to a troubled port area. Drunken sailors and fishermen sing songs in taverns, fist fights take place outside a residential area, and near a tall building with tightly curtained windows, the chief of security communicates with a tiny girl. No one cares about murder. The majority “saw nothing, heard nothing.” And the one who can help even a little takes money for information or demands to work for him. The dirty port will become our home, place of work and play.

But we won't stay there for long. The hero will find out that the murders are not committed by the thieves guild, but by fanatics screaming about the end of the world and the takeover of the world. Both the church and politicians are involved in crimes. They are trying to delicately remove the hero from the city. Everyone knows that he solved the murders, saved the girl’s life, they are grateful to him and even paid him, but they ask him not to interfere in the matter. So what is next...

Then the game becomes a heroic saga in which four brave men save the world. The fight against bandits in the port gives way to military campaigns against the orcs, and an unknown wanderer becomes the last hope of the people. And it’s hard to believe that it all started when we decided to help a friend...

Fight against piracy

People are actively complaining about the game on the Internet: “I went to the cross on the map, I waited - there was no one. I ran around the whole area - again no one. The plot stands still, the world is frozen, waiting. What to do?!" And this happens at every step. But don’t wait for patches, they won’t fix this “obstruction”. Because this is not a bug, but protection against piracy, and the only chance to fix everything is to buy a licensed version of Drakensang. As soon as the game realizes that it has been hacked, it simply blocks the player's further path. The quest that should carry us forward on the wings of the plot stops working. You can complete any additional tasks, run around the world for hours, but it is no longer possible to advance further. Craftsmen have learned to fix “closed” quests in the game files, but Drakensang also reacts to this. After hacking, it begins to block the path constantly, and it becomes impossible to play normally. The find is curious and, dare I say it, elegant. The developers allow players to get acquainted with the project, but are waiting for the purchase of a licensed version. However, on the Internet there is still nothing but moans about the terrible anti-piracy system... Is Starforce dearer to your heart, gentlemen, cunning people?

Theology of Aventuria

In Aventuria, for the most part, polytheism still reigns, and the bulk of the inhabitants believe in the so-called pantheon of the Twelve, which includes a dozen demiurges of all stripes under the leadership of Prayos, the god of the sun, strength and order. It is his statue that flaunts in almost all temples and cities. The pantheon of the Twelve is also recognized in Bornland, the Middle Kingdom, Horace and many other provinces. Peasants attach the greatest importance to religion, believing that one of the gods of the pantheon is responsible for each month of the year. So if there is a severe drought in the summer, you can safely blame the sky. The priests of the pantheon say that the divine Dozen is kind to people, and if it were their will, the world would have long forgotten about wars. But there is another force... Nameless - that’s what the Aventurians called this god. His followers are few in number, but fanatically devoted to their deity. Those who do not worship the Nameless One fear him like the plague. Even elves who do not believe in gods at all are wary of mentions of the Thirteenth.

Geography of Aventuria

Aventuria is a huge continent where most of the adventures in the Dark Eye universe take place. All other territories are only occasionally mentioned in passing. But Aventuria, so to speak, is completely self-sufficient and resembles a cross between medieval Europe, ancient Greece, ancient Africa and the East. Aventuria extends from north to south for three thousand miles, from west to east - for one and a half thousand. In this territory live gnomes, various peoples of elves and people, orcs, nomadic peoples and all sorts of monsters who do not create their own states, but only walk, growl and grin at local heroes. The continent is separated from the rest of the world by a huge and almost insurmountable mountain range. Perhaps this is why no one has yet conquered the rest of the Dare world. Even science still doesn’t know exactly what peoples live beyond the pass. The only opportunity to look at alien lands is to equip a sea expedition. Warrior. Before us is a cross between a “tank” and a hitboy. The warrior boasts very good health and unsurpassed skill in wielding a one-handed sword. He is also not afraid of two-handers. We know little about the life of this hero. He studied military craft not only in the barracks, but also at the academy, and therefore knows how to properly communicate with different people, and thanks to his acquaintances he has access to high society. But will all this be useful in the game? Hardly. As a “talker” the warrior is completely useless; what is much more interesting is that he is a master of the blade. Without thinking twice, I chose this particular class for my first playthrough... and, you know, I was not mistaken. The Warrior is really great for a beginner player, he lasts a long time and deals decent damage. A dream, isn't it? It is important: In the second location, a mercenary dwarf will join us. He is also a "tank", so if you do not want to overload the group with defensive classes, it is better to leave the warrior at home... Soldier. Unlike a warrior, a soldier did not study at the academy, and in the barracks he had no time for theoretical subjects. The hero learned to fight in war. He slept in the open air and ate in the forest. Returning from the war, he never learned to express himself elegantly and get along with people. His main skill is to cut perfectly with a two-handed sword and to navigate well outside the city walls. However, it is still unclear to me what is so good about this class. He has less health than a warrior, he also wields a two-handed sword no better, and we don’t need minor social skills. Therefore, we will send the soldier back to the barracks for now. Let him rest after long hikes. Archer. The main shooter in the human army. He, like the soldier, did not study at the academy and participated in military campaigns all his adult life, and therefore knows firsthand about survival in the forest. The archer is terrified of fighting enemies face to face, so in close combat he fights worse than any other class. Mages are also braver and do not hesitate to use daggers and swords if necessary. However, why does a shooter need a melee weapon? Moreover, the class has enough advantages: it knows a little how to understand and convince people, sees far and is able to sneak up. I wouldn't recommend taking an archer at the very beginning. At the first levels, he misses much more often than he hits the target. At the same time, arrows cost money, and the damage they cause is exactly the same as that of a sword. It’s better to take a “tank”, but we’ll still be able to shoot. An elf will join us in the swamps. Battle Mage. To learn powerful spells, you need to study long and hard, and years of imprisonment in libraries leave their mark on graduates of magic academies. The combat caster has completely forgotten how to communicate with others. He speaks poorly and understands people even worse. But he knows magnificent charms, and also has excellent self-control. The magician is able to endure even the most terrible pain. He won’t lose consciousness, won’t run away, and won’t just complain about feeling unwell. I would recommend this class to beginners. Any spell is almost guaranteed to cause damage to the target, and at the beginning of the game the magician hits harder than all the fighters in the group combined. After all, they hit the enemy one time out of five at best. Initially, the magician knows how to increase his own defense and the agility of his partners, and can inflict damage on the enemy with a stream of fire and a ball of light; if necessary, he will slow down the target and damage his weapon. The magic book is impressive. It is important: at levels 4-7 it may seem as if the mage has become a completely useless class. His spells do little damage, his mana runs out quickly, and his health quickly runs out. But at level ten you will have a fireball. This is a very powerful spell that will immediately cover absolutely all the shortcomings of the class. Mage healer. Before us is one of the most necessary classes in the game. Almost any magician can learn healing, but this one is one of the best. To heal wounds, he uses not only magic, but also medicine. Bandages in the hands of other fighters are useless trash, and healer magicians have studied medicine from all sides. Therefore, it does not matter whether the patient is poisoned or simply cut himself - he will definitely be cured. It is not necessary to go to the city for purchases. The doctor knows zoology, botany and alchemy and is ready to get the necessary ingredients himself. The advantages include high mana regeneration, the ability to communicate well with people, and also... the absence of minus parameters. It is important: in the swamps (the location we find ourselves in after five or six hours of the game), we are joined by an elf who is able to heal wounds. But if you already have a healer mage in your group, make her an archer. She is much more useful in this role. Charlatan. As we said above, a good magician studies at the academy for many years, strives to become the best, communicates little with his peers, and even more so with the opposite sex. Some people don’t like such a boring life, they start doing mischief, drinking and debauchery. The academy quickly gets rid of hooliganism, and our hero also ended up on the expulsion list. They kicked him out like a lame little kid, and thus doomed him to starvation. I had to get out. The charlatan quit practicing magic and began studying those around him. He is an excellent expert on the human soul, understands people well and is able to manipulate them. He speaks his teeth, and then takes out all the gold from other people's wallets. A charlatan is not able to learn new spells, but he can easily find a tavern in an unfamiliar city. He fights with a sword, but also knows how to use magic. If necessary, it can blind the enemy and strike him with lightning. Usually robbers are involved in dark deeds. They resemble a charlatan in many ways, but they do not know how to use magic. And here we have an extremely interesting and unusual hybrid. He has huge advantages in social skills, and the rogue fights well. True, he will never learn skills from the “natural” range, but he does not suffer from this at all. Elementalist. He can do... But at first glance he can’t do anything. The only person who can learn new spells is an extremely mediocre comrade. If not for one “but” - the fire elemental. This funny creature (you can see it in the picture) easily copes with several opponents, even though it hits everyone in the area with magic, and even causes long-term fire damage. The elementalist himself, if necessary, will personally fry the enemy, or burn him with lightning... At the initial levels, this is the strongest character. Where warriors aimlessly fan the enemy with their swords, and magicians fall to their knees under a hail of blows, the elementalist walks with his head held high. I deliberately did not take new fighters into the group and walked on my own. The first location went through without any problems. Comfortable... Necromancer. Like the elementalist, he does not shine with talents. A little self-control, a little magic, that's all. At the same time, the necromancer is completely unsuited to any profession. By God, it’s easier for him to learn to swing a sword than to mix potions or break open chests. However, if we look at his book of magic... it will not amaze us with its variety. The necromancer can summon skeletons and deal cold damage. Trifle? But no. The skeleton is a skilled fighter, and the cold attack in the initial stages is more powerful than other spells. In addition, the spell only takes one turn to cast. The power of a necromancer is like a battle mage, only there is a skeleton running next to him. Like? It is important: Due to its high resistance to magic, the necromancer is considered the best opponent of spellcasters. It deals huge damage itself, the skeleton helps quite well, but magic almost doesn’t take it. Comfortable. Alchemist. Nominally, he is an interesting character, but since there is a magician-healer and an exploration geologist in the game, the alchemist is of little use. He knows “nature” well, but a little worse than his competitors. Capable of casting combat spells and healing, but his damage is ridiculous and his health replenishment does not cover the damage. Well, high levels of alchemy are not a panacea. They won’t take him to the team for this reason. True, his apron is beautiful... Pirate. In theory, this class is one of the best “tanks” in the game. He can do absolutely nothing except one thing - hit with one-handed axes. Everything else is not for him. Among the disadvantages, I will mention very low magical resistance. One of the advantages is good health. If literally after two hours of play we didn’t meet a dwarf who is practically equal to a pirate, it would still make sense to take it. And so - alas. Amazon. Incomprehensible class. In terms of skills, he is not very different from a pirate; instead of axes, he wields sabers. At the same time, she has less health than a warrior. I still don’t understand why the team needs Amazon... It is important: The Amazon joins our group first, even before the debut battle with the boars. So whatever your love for the wild and fair sex, it’s better to wait fifteen minutes and don’t take her as the main character. Forest inhabitant. Like all elves, he treats people with complete indifference. The forest dweller does not visit cities and does not communicate with rangers. He just walks through the forest, climbs trees and runs around evil animals. All of his skills in the “natural” line are well developed, and he is able to survive in the deepest forest. At the same time, the elf can extract useful ingredients from animals and plants. But, alas, I am not able to process them. The forest dweller prefers a bow as a weapon, but he fell in love with nature so much that he found a common language with all living creatures. And if some hungry wolf bothers him too much, the elf will not take out the bow, but will put the poor fellow to sleep and pass by. Thanks to his magic, he is also able to heal wounds and sharpen perception. It is important: I already said that an elf will join us in the swamps, so think three times before making this class your main one. On the other hand, if you really like the forest dweller, you can simply not take the second one into the group. There will be more than enough other people willing. Magic Weaver. Again, like all elves, he knows nature very well, but all his social talents are not only zero, but literally in the minus. However, he doesn’t need to. Before us is an elven battle mage. I note that elves have strange ideas about battles and magic. Their strongest spell, “strike with light,” is not used by human magicians; they consider it too weak. But the elf knows how to call the little animal to help. At the initial levels it is just a giant rat. A sort of elementalist, only several times worse. After all, a fire elemental can single-handedly kill five elven rats... But the weaver is able to strengthen and heal the group. The result is a support class that can deal damage, raise group parameters, and summon animals. True, a forest dweller is still preferable. Elven fighter. Once again we have a character who doesn't get along with people. But, unlike his fellow tribesmen, this one also does not understand nature. Maybe he can slowly collect flowers... He prefers spears as a weapon, but is also capable of archery. True, in close combat he feels much more comfortable. Just like a forest dweller, an elven fighter can put any animal to sleep, rather than stab it in the eye with a sharp one. The elf has no need for this. Especially this one - he won’t even take the skin off a wolf. In general, not a very successful class. Other melee fighters have other skills besides combat ones, and a fighter is definitely not suitable for the role of a “tank” - he has health like a magician. Gnome Mercenary. One of the best "tanks" in the game. Almost identical to the pirate, with a few minor exceptions. Firstly, he has more stamina. Secondly, he is able to find precious stones in the mountains and the right people in cities. Everything else is just cosmetic differences. I would recommend the gnome to novice players, but bad luck - it is he who will join us in the second city. So neither beginners nor experienced fighters need it. He will come himself! Sapper. In terms of combat characteristics, this gnome is not much different from the previous one, except that he has one unit less health and is less able to handle weapons. He can also increase his mastery of two-handed axes almost to the maximum in the character editor. But his main skills are still non-combat. The gnome is excellent at forging, picking locks, disarming traps and is able to find precious stones. In general, this class can be used as the main “tank” class. He is not much inferior to the others, but at the same time he has very useful skills. I recommend it to fans of gnomes. Exploration geologist. Alas, this dwarf does not have such phenomenal health as the previous two, so as a “tank” he is much inferior to them. Why am I starting with this? Namely, his relatively poor health influenced his fate. The exploration geologist knows the “natural” line very well, but the forest dweller knows it a little better. And now we are faced with a choice of whom to take: a gnome, who can be neither a “tank” nor a hit-killer, or an elf, who is both a hit-killer and a healer? I think the choice is obvious. Alas... Robber. There are three whole classes ahead of us, which differ only in one or two skills. The robber is the main deceiver in the game. He is the best at ingratiating himself with people, convincing people, and is able to easily penetrate high society. For combat he uses rapiers. Burglar. Unlike the robber, he is excellent at picking locks and disarming traps. He also always has high discounts in the store, since the cracker is the best merchant in the game. He convinces people a little worse, and he will never get into high society. But he knows the streets of cities perfectly and has exceptional powers of observation. Uses sabers as weapons. This skill can be developed to its maximum even at the moment of creation. It is important: the burglar joins us in the first city, but in the second he disappears for a long time. And, in principle, there is a possibility of never meeting him again. If you want, you can make the burglar the main class. Thief. In the last three, it is this character who is best at cleaning out wallets. He can sneak up very quietly and, if necessary, will pick the middle lock and disarm any trap. Unlike the robber, he understands human souls very poorly, and his tongue is worse than that of the other two bandits. He uses a dagger in battle, but since he has very little health, he won’t last even two minutes against a serious enemy. This character is hardly worthy of being the main character. His specialization is, of course, useful. But even without stealing it is very easy to complete the game. It just so happened... Skills After our hero gets into the big world, he will constantly have to learn. In some cases, we know for sure that such a skill is necessary (botany for an alchemist, trade for a robber), but then we will have to choose more than once from non-core skills. Does our magician need self-control, and should a warrior develop street smarts? It is important: Characteristics that increase the chance of the skill being successfully triggered are written in italics. See which of your characters has the highest characteristics - this will make it much easier to develop a non-core skill. Body sneak up. Courage, intuition, agility. Profile skill of robbers, thieves and burglars. It’s difficult to call it useful. Characters sneak mainly when they want to pass by a target unnoticed. But in this case, the high score of one of the group members means nothing. The skill is counted based on the loudest hero on the team. I would not recommend developing this skill. The bandits, in principle, are already good at it, but the rest do not need it. It is important: a sneaking hero can be easily detected by NPCs with a high level of perception. Self-control. Courage, body structure, physical strength. This parameter is important for all classes. Composure primarily prevents the character from getting wounded and losing consciousness (read: dying) from pain. During many battles, it is wounds that cause the greatest trouble. Heroes become weaker, hit the enemy twice as hard, and lose health four times faster. So even if your character is social, he still needs self-control; everyone fights monsters at once. In addition, this skill helps in dialogues. It is important: self-control is very useful for magicians. If the skill is poorly developed, the enemy can easily interrupt the casting of the spell - all you have to do is hit the wizard. This is especially critical at high levels, when sorcerers have to cast a spell within four to five turns! Perception. Wisdom, intuition, charm. It is enough if one single member of the group masters this skill. Perception helps you spot traps and ambushes, and also increases your visibility on the minimap. The second is not so important, but still convenient - you will be able to notice enemies at a greater distance. You will bypass someone, on the contrary, you will attack others en masse... Pickpocketing. Courage, intuition, sleight of hand. Stealing is a pretty boring activity. Sometimes it helps to save some money, but you are unlikely to want to empty the pockets of all the residents of a big city. It turns out that robbers do not need to improve their ability to steal - it is already very high, and for the rest it is simply useless. On a note: There are no serious penalties for failing to steal. The victim will scream at you and calm down. The only negative is that you won’t be able to put your hand in this pocket anymore. Gnome Flair. Intuition, intuition, dexterity hands Allows you to find and remove gems. They are suitable both for sale and for the production of weapons. But it’s not worth developing this skill for everyone; one character with a dwarven sense developed by three or four points is enough. Nature Zoology. Courage, wisdom, intuition. Many heroes who have never read smart books believe that only the skin can be removed from a killed animal. If these comrades had studied at academies, they would have known about the science of zoology, which allows one to extract a huge number of useful objects from animals. Tendons, bones, teeth - they are necessary in alchemy and bow making. And from time to time a blacksmith will need the services of a successful zoologist. So in the group it is simply necessary to keep one character who is capable of skinning the little animal after death like a stick. And the higher the skill level, the fewer mistakes the hero makes. On a note: the amount of “utilities” extracted does not depend on the level of zoology. Botany. . Collecting useful herbs is also necessary for professional skills, so it is best to teach a hero who knows zoology both botany (and ideally a gnome’s instincts). Then your travels through the forest will become several times more productive - it’s no longer just skinning wild boars and selling them for a copper... Life in the Wild. Intuition, dexterity, body structure. What does a smart botanist and zoologist do after studying their favorite subjects? That's right, he experiences life in the wild. But for this it is not necessary to wander through the forest from morning to evening, memorize the places where animals gather and study the local vegetation. It is enough to find a teacher in the city and give him one ducat. The more you develop your skill, the easier it will be to find plants and animals. They will appear on the mini-map, and all you have to do is run back and forth. Ambush. Wisdom, manual dexterity, physical strength. Allows you to set traps for both ordinary wild animals and harmful bandits. The higher the skill level, the more difficult it is for the enemy to detect the trap hidden from his eyes. The skill is so-so and is used very rarely, in addition, it requires various tools, so it is hardly worth developing it purposefully. Knowledge It's a cat. Now he will show us the way, and we will complete the quest. Street knowledge. Wisdom, intuition, charm. Somewhat reminiscent of “life in the wild,” only instead of a dandelion and a wild boar, a merchant or a blacksmith will appear on your mini-map. This is, of course, very convenient, but a city is not a forest; finding the right person is much easier than a small blade of grass. On the other hand, Streetwise allows you to talk to some silent characters. Sometimes very useful. In any case, it’s worth getting several levels of this skill. It will help you quickly find the right traders, and therefore save a lot of time. Treatment of poisoning.Courage, wisdom, intuition. If there is a healer in the group, he usually learns this skill. Otherwise, the “cure” will still have to be studied by someone. After all, going into battle with poisoning is crazy. The heroes are weakened and cannot fight even with half their strength. In general, a very important skill, don’t forget about it. Treatment of wounds.Wisdom, intuition, charm. An even more useful skill, since absolutely all characters receive wounds during battle, which reduce the level of defense and attack. Heavy wounds can even kill the hero, so you just need to find a fighter who will bandage the entire group. This is interesting: Why is charm needed during treatment? To cheer up the mortally wounded with ditties?.. Magic Research. Wisdom, intuition, intuition. Allows the hero to identify magical items. Sometimes we will receive armor, spears, swords that we cannot even pick up, and instead of a picture they just have a black outline. Such a thing must be urgently given to an experienced sorcerer with a high level of “magic research.” If you don’t have such people in your group, it’s very sad. Some good things come across. Apparently, you will have to develop the skill, and the sooner the better. The first such thing will come across in the swamp. Society Deception. Intuition, charm, charm. It only works if the interlocutor is of the opposite sex. The skill helps to convince NPCs of something, but not with the goal of getting a pretty elf in an ermine leotard into bed or inviting a mighty dwarf to dinner. It all comes down to additional questions and answers in dialogues. There is not much benefit from them, so it is hardly worth developing “deception”. Unless you really want to turn some beauty's head... Aristocratism. Wisdom, intuition, charm. Allows the hero to get into high society and behave there, as they say, comme il faut. The benefits from it, which is funny, are few and I do not recommend studying it purposefully. You can play successfully without a high-society upbringing. Trade. Courage, wisdom, charm. In Drakensang, unfortunately, it is impossible to win by reselling goods, but trading is still important, and it would be nice for one team member to have this skill. True, if you are really going to seriously engage in trading, take a robber as the main character - he is the best in this matter. Knowledge of people (wisdom, intuition, charm) And belief(courage, intuition, charm). The essence of these skills is the same - these are, if you may, the most social skills. When developing a “diplomat”, the first thing you need to do is research them. They allow you to complete many quests with just eloquence and even help get some tasks. So if you want to complete the game and learn more about it, you will have to develop it. For greater effect, you should take a robber or a charlatan into the game. They really know how to convince... Profession Alchemy. Courage, wisdom, sleight of hand. When you go on a long and difficult hike, you should not rely only on your own strength. The game has a huge variety of potions that can not only heal and restore strength, but also increase the accuracy of fighters, their defense and ability to evade blows. True, it is either too expensive to buy them or nowhere to buy them; it is much easier, faster and more interesting to prepare the decoction with your own hands. To do this, you will have to pick a dozen flowers, kill a hundred animals, and also find a mortar nearby. It is best, of course, for support mages to develop alchemy. It is their task to protect the group; other characters usually need to improve either social or combat skills. It is important: To make a potion, two bunches of various herbs and the desire to cook something there are not enough. You need to find a recipe and learn it. It is usually taken from mentors and for money. This applies to any skills in the professional branch. Without a prescription - nowhere. Making onions. Wisdom, intuition, sleight of hand. Allows you to create ranged weapons and arrows. This skill is also designed to save your finances, and besides, an ammunition seller does not necessarily end up in the outback. And being left without arrows in some crab hole, you know, is very unpleasant! This skill is usually used by gnomes, but anyone can learn it, including a healing magician. Both effective and funny. Forging. Manual dexterity, body structure, physical strength. If bow crafting allows... to make a bow, then forging provides the group with a melee weapon. True, this skill is not only famous for this. The blacksmith can also create various improving items: for example, blade lubricant, which will make your strikes more accurate, or an excellent master key. In a word, it’s practically alchemy, only instead of jars and bottles we have hammers. Picking locks.. Perhaps the only specialized skill of robbers that is useful to any character. There are a lot of chests in the game, inside of which there are a lot of useful and expensive things, and it can be terribly disappointing if we are not able to do anything with the castle. Damn it, they killed the dragon, but they couldn’t defeat the chest! In addition, there are quests where you need to open locks, one of them is to get into the thieves guild. In general, the skill is extremely useful, let one of the heroes develop it at the first opportunity. It is important: Didn't you manage to break open the chest? It doesn’t matter, we’ll try a hundred more times, and maybe then he’ll finally give in! The only penalty for a failed attempt is a reduction in the skill level for seven seconds. The locks here do not break due to excessive zeal; by the way, there are no master keys either. Disarming traps.Intuition, sleight of hand, sleight of hand. Ideally, the skill is useful, but in practice it is not necessary at all. Any trap is often neutralized like this: a “tank” with a lot of health is taken and sent into the trap. The suicide bomber falls lifeless, and the trap disappears. Even if the “tank” dies, it doesn’t matter. In a second he'll get up and we'll heal him. Combining three great series into one is a truly difficult task. And the developers from Radon Labs were close to success, but they lacked experience. They were a little too clever with the complexity, didn’t correct the balance, couldn’t develop the characters’ characters... As a result, Drakensang turned out to be exciting, but didn’t reveal its full potential. Let's hope this isn't the developers' last attempt at making a role-playing game. Ten Questions for a Newbie 1. Where can I find the first three heroes who join the team? The first to come to us Amazon. It stands near the tavern in the first location. It’s hard not to notice her - she swears loudly, demands help from the innkeeper and looks very menacingly at all the men passing by. The second one will be robber. In order for him to join, he must complete the task of the queen of jesters. And the third on our team will be gnome mercenary. He can be found in the tavern after we learn about the death of a friend. 2. Where does the robber go and where can he be found? He, as was said, is afraid to go past the guards through the main entrance; he will enter the castle on his own, but... he will get caught and go to prison. You can free him only after the oracle gives you the first task. After this, the queen of jesters will appear in the square near the temple. Talk to her. 3. I can't complete the story quest. The required NPC does not appear in place of the cross. This is protection against piracy. 4. How can I become a member of the thieves guild if my character cannot open the first chest? Even in the first location, a robber will join you, and he will break the lock. 5. I'm missing a healer on my team, where can I get one? In the swamps there will be two characters who can learn healing magic - a thief and an elf. The second one is better suited as a healer of wounds. 6. Can a mage wear heavy armor? Yes, but he is not able to cast magic in it. 7. What weapons or armor affect magical attacks? None. The magician quite successfully casts spells naked and unarmed. Another thing is that when the mana runs out, he goes into close combat. This is where he will need armor and weapons. 8. Why sometimes spells are cast immediately, but sometimes you have to wait twenty seconds? If you are not in combat, any action occurs immediately, but in battle, spells, potions, etc. require a certain number of turns. Therefore, magicians with a high level of perception are able to throw two fireballs at the enemy before the battle begins (although this is most likely a bug). The higher the battle radius, the easier it is to win. 9. Why do heroes sometimes die when the monster hasn’t even taken half their health? If your fighter receives more than four wounds, in most cases he falls to the ground lifeless. Therefore, try to fully heal the group before going on the attack. 10. I can't kill one monster, it constantly kills the whole group. If the enemy is walking by himself and you don't need to destroy him, just run past him. The monster can devour at least three of your fighters, but if the fourth remains alive, everyone will be near him. In the event that you need to destroy the enemy, try to drink as many useful potions as possible and upgrade your weapons and armor. Yes, and since sometimes a lot depends on luck, try again and again. Someday the enemy will be unlucky.

Near the gates of the city of Ferdok, Dranor will leave us, because... fears that the guards might arrest him. He says that later he himself will find us in the city.

After checking our documents, the guard allows us into the city and also tells us where we can find Ardo’s house.

10 experience points;

First of all, we go to Ardo's house.

There, near the door, the guard Hasler meets us and informs us that Ardo was killed.

Quest "Invitation of an old friend" completed +20 experience points;

New quest "Murders in Ferdok" received

Guard Hasler says that we can get all the information on this case from the head of the guard, Barla Darkenschmidt.

It is located near the city guard's house.

Having found her, we see that she is talking with the guard Rübinger.

From their conversation, it can be understood that Dranor was unable to sneak into the city unnoticed and was nevertheless caught when he climbed over the wall.

After talking with Barla, we convince her to give permission to participate in the murder investigation.

20 experience points;

She briefly brings us up to date and gives us 3 new quests:

Investigate the murder of Eberstamm

Investigate the Dragon's murder

Investigate Elko's murder

Forgrim the dwarf was Ardo's guard.

After killing the owner, he pours out his grief at the Silver Jug Tavern. Located in the north of Praios Square.

We go to him to interview him.

Unfortunately, Forgrim doesn’t want to talk to us. Those. Maybe he wants to, but he can’t anymore.

Innkeeper Tradan Brauerlich comes to our aid. And he agrees to pour a glass of his signature “Dark Special.” He says that this is the only way to clear Forgrim's mind.

Surprisingly, the potion helped.

Forgrim, who has come to his senses, tells us a lot of interesting things, including the fact that before his death he was going to talk to the guardsman Tashmann, but never had time to do so. Taschmann found his body near the docks.

20 experience points;

Forgrim can be accepted into the team.

Right at the entrance to Furmansheim, three bandits block our way, demanding a Thaler for passage along the street.

You can pay, or you can kill the bandits.

After talking with the fishmonger Shtunkler, we learn that Kladis often visits the “Fat Pig” tavern (located opposite the merchant’s tent).

After talking with the bartender and visitors to the Fat Pig, we understand that no one is going to help us find Cladis.

You will have to rely only on your own strength.

Leaving the tavern, we notice that some suspicious guy is constantly sneaking behind us.

After passing a few houses, Kladis stops us.

After a short conversation, she joins us.

20 experience points;

We go to the place of Elko’s murder (almost in the center of the Furmansheim location)

The whole road is covered in blood, and the little cat Mimi is spinning nearby.

We run after the cat and she leads us to Elko’s neighbor, Libanger.

After asking the neighbor, we learn that Elko had a very valuable brooch, which he hid somewhere. It is possible that by examining the brooch you can get some kind of clue. The cat Mimi can lead us to the hiding place, but she just ran away somewhere.

We go to the fishmonger Shtunkler and take the remaining salmon from her.

We return to the scene of the murder and Mimi immediately jumps out of the bushes.

We give her the fish and watch where she runs.

Soon she leads us to the place where the brooch is kept.

60 experience points;

We rush to Barla to show her the brooch.

50 experience points;

Guard Rübinger, standing not far from Barla, says that some person wants to convey very important information.

This man made an appointment for us at the foot of the Prayos Temple.

The mysterious informant turns out to be Loisan's archivist.

20 experience points;

Loisana takes the brooch to find some information on it in the archives.

In the meantime, we will continue to investigate the murders.

Let's start killing the Dragon.

The crime was committed in the Port Ugdan location. That's why we go there.

As always, the best way to find out all the gossip is to go to the tavern.

The Artful Ferret tavern is located in the north of the Port Ugdan location.

Unfortunately, we were unable to learn anything useful from our conversations with the bartender and the visitors, but when we were almost leaving the tavern, the barmaid Alina caught up with us. It turns out she was a friend of the Dragon - Sandor Kunger.

Alina said that Sergeant-Major Taschmann forbade her to tell anyone about the murder, which is why she remained silent when we questioned her.

After asking Alina, we learn that Sandor had a talisman. But it was not found on the body.

Let's go inspect the place where Sandor was killed.

Having thoroughly searched the crime scene, in a barrel, we find the Dragon talisman.

50 experience points;

Let's run to tell Barla about this.

50 experience points;

The guard Rübinger standing nearby says that Loisana has learned something important and asks to meet her at the old place near the temple of Hesinda.

After talking with Loisana and giving her Sandor's amulet, we learn that these things are connected. It turns out they are made from Dragon scales and only the descendants of the Dragon slayers had such amulets.

30 experience points;

Loisana also reported that another descendant of the Dragon killers is a young girl, Jishka Ignifer, who lives in Furmansheim. All this suggests that she is currently in danger.

We urgently run to Furmansheim to save Jishka.

As always, we are a little late.

Arriving at the scene, near the Fat Pig tavern, we learn from the words of local residents that bandits in red dragged Yishka into the sewer.

Let's run there.

We don't have time again. Yishka is dead, candles are burning around her and everything is covered in blood.

30 experience points;

We run through the dungeon, following the killers.

Attention: While wandering around the dungeon, look carefully at the map. Forgrim's Dwarven Nose trait will reveal 3 hidden areas in the dungeon.

In one of them you can find a "Furrier's Knife".

The exit from the dungeon is in the library. There we meet the noble aristocrats Ferio of Ferdok and Chestnut Wagnitz.

30 experience points;

They captured the archivist Loisana.

We kill everyone we can and save Loisana.

100 experience points;

Then the Grand Inquisitor Da Vanya suddenly appears on the battlefield.

He loudly swears at us, at Loisana, and says that hunting respected nobles is not very good.

In the end he orders us to get out of his sight.

Be that as it may, now we need to report on the work done to Barla.

She is already waiting for us.

We tell the whole story to Barle, and then we are invited to an audience with Count Grovin.

He praises us greatly and gives us 50 ducats as a reward for our help, and also transfers Ardo’s house for our use.

Quest "Murders in Ferdok" completed +20 experience points;

There we also meet the head of the prison, Doriana, and learn that it was on her instructions that Ardo conducted an investigation in Ferdok.

And since he did not have time to complete the investigation, she offers us to do it.

Quest "Investigation at the port" received

We also receive the quest "Chestnut Wagnitz". The criminal managed to escape and now it looks like we will have to catch him.

As we exit the audience hall, Housekeeper Wirrvosh greets us and says that he used to serve with Ardo. And because Now his house belongs to us, then he offers his services.

Received the quest "House of Ardo".

We need to arrive at Ardo's house, and there Wirrvosh will give us a letter from the magician Rakorium asking us to come to the temple of Hesinda. Received the quest "Preparing for the Test of the Dragon"

Quest "House of Ardo" completed +20 experience points;

Quest "Preparing for the Dragon Test"

Arriving at the temple of Hesinda and talking with Dorion, we receive the task of finding 3 parts of the oracle in the catacombs under the temple.

1. Take the key to the catacombs from the novice Avanti.

20 experience points;

2. Find the wings - located on the -2nd floor.

3. Find the torso of Ouroborus - located on the -3rd floor. Next to the large emerald spider.

50 experience points;

4. Give Dorion 3 pieces of the oracle.

50 experience points;

The quest "Preparing for the Dragon Test" is completed.

Dorion begins the Dragon Test ceremony, the Oracle comes to life, declares you the Chosen One and begins giving out tasks:

Whether or not to rush to Aidan’s aid is up to you, but remember that at the moment our main task is to complete the “Third Dragon Trial.” After receiving it, access to the “Fang of Fury” location opens on the map.

Priest Dorion is simply amazed! All three Oracle tasks have been completed, and we are still alive!

Let's listen to what the oracle says.

All dragon tests have been passed! A lost spirit was saved, the Book of the Snake was found, and we were able to look into the Eye of the Dragon. The last secret is destined to be revealed only to us! The eye will guide us, the book will give us knowledge, and the spirit will give us hope.

You need to find the diamond heart! Reveal the greatest secret, which has not yet been smoked by more than one fighter.

The “Fire Shield”, which once belonged to the first fighter of the dragon test, will help us on our difficult journey.

That's all. The tests are over, but the adventure continues!

Received the task "Prologue: Diamond Heart". +500 experience points.

Also received "Fandral's Shield" - The enemy's attack indicators are reduced by 4 units.

Priest Dorion advises talking to the magician Rakorium. Perhaps he will be able to unravel the mystery of the Eye of the Dragon

Let's go home and ask Rakorium.