Drakensang is a breath of fresh air who is sure to please crpg'ers and the casual gamer alike.
Right off the bat. I have to say that this game deserved at least an 8. Drakensang's as streamlined out of the box as you can get compared to most other rpg's released these days. It's a definite plus to play a game and not have to wait a few weeks or so for a patch that fixes game issues that should've been fixed before the game is released in the first place.
For the rules set, yeah its not as easy to get yourself into if you compare it to DnD, but its not entirely right to criticize it for that. If you think about it, lets say someone bought a DnD licensed crpg and he's completely new to the ruleset, that person imo would also need to read his fair share of stuff about DnD to truly enjoy the game.
One of the reason why I enjoy playing rpg's is to figure out how i can maximize the potential of the characters im playing. Granted, its not as easy to learn as DnD, the tooltips embedded on the interface in game in drakensang should help newcomers familiarize themselves to the nitty gritty of this game.
As for the graphics engine, I dont see anything wrong with it. In fact, most people who played it and shared their opinion about it consider the graphics in drakensang as one of its main selling point. Its a definite plus for me to see how such a small company with a limited budget managed to create a graphics engine as beautiful as what drakensang has. For an rpg, this is as delightful as an eye candy as they come.
Voice acting in drakensang is a bit of a touch and go. For the most part, they did it right imo. The only thing that grated my ears was from the intro cinematic. It's also not a huge loss for me that they didnt have voice overs for all the lines. Ive been used to playing crpg's (and no, i dont consider oblivion/fallout 3 as crpgs) and they dont have full spoken dialogue themselves.
I enjoyed the music in this game. The tunes were appropriately synched with the onscreen action or lack of it. Its more than adequate and though repetitive, its not as if a lot of other great crpg's change their tracks every 5 minutes or so.
The animations are fluid for the most part. Seeing your characters performing special attacks and perfectly timed together is a thing of beauty. Again, im basing my comparison on other crpgs when i say that the animations in drakensang is perfectly suited to a game in this genre.
The storyline is decent but not thorougly complex. Lets just say its not as good as Planescape's. Some parts of drakensang borders on boredom, but compared to other cprgs, its not that horrible since there are some engaging moments in game. This game has plently of written dialogue, i wouldnt exactly call it a negative, since for the most part you can skip those and still know what youre supposed to do. But that doesnt make it as enjoyable as knowing all the details of the stories involved. There are some genuinely funny moments in this game if you dont skip all the dialogues.
I'd score this an 8.5 -- and im being stingy when i give it an 8.5. Given the relative obscurity of the developer and the budget constraints they experienced in crafting as true a crpg as this in recent memory, Radon labs definitely has a winner with Drakensang.