The Dark Eye Book of Heroes Review

[@warmaps78]

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[@elverkongen2515]

* 0:12 "The Dark Eye" was first released in 1984, only 10 years after D&D. If it's a copycat, then it's one of the first. * 0:23 "RPG game" * 0:48 "...feels lifted from a tabletop rulebook" That sounds excellent and exactly what a good CRPG based on a tabletop game ought to do. * 1:02 Dice rolls/chance to hit/etc. are integral parts of combat in many CPRGs e.g., "Baldur's Gate", "Pillars or Eternity", "Pathfinder: Kingmaker", "Morrowind". Actually showing the dice rolls above the character I think is a neat touch as long as it doesn't clutter the screen. Dice rolls, if they are shown at all, are typically relegated to the battle action log. * 3:03 "Personally, we found the idea of right-clicking an enemy and watching for a few seconds as our character continually swings and misses until he lucks out a hit extremely boring." See my comment above for timestamp 1:02. * 3:25 "It must be said however that the setting is extremely generic... " The Dark Eye is partially responsible for creating and popularizing that 'generic setting'.

[@shantyman161]

I cringed so hard as he mentioned halflings. Those do not exist in the game - after that he did not need to mention that they are not familiar with the franchise.

[@croec]

It's hilarious how he describes the setting as "generic" allthough it's one of the biggest selling points of the game. Guess he couldn't look for a minute past the DnD glasses and believe that there can actually be grounded fantasy worlds with a rich history and culture that play into each other. Hell he didn't even take a look into the history of the creation of the setting or made anything that could even come close to be titled journalistic. That said, Book of Heroes is a horrible TDE adaption and pure dogshit.

[@Jawsofhana]

This is made in the Baldurs Gate engine? Or at least looks like it. That engine could implement dnd 3.5. The fact that it's a faithful adaption of the tabletop rules, should be the highest selling point.

[@DarkLorgan]

To me Aventuria is literally one of the coolest continent names (plus, the tabletop game itself is just amazing). To each their own, I guess.

[@narusempai-virtualcutetube4173]

Hahaha, why all the negatives are all of the things found in DND? All positive for me. The story though. Is it good?

[@AlexBermann]

The story is very good. Aventuria is one of the most detailed RPG settings in existence and it became this way because every adventure, starting with the first edition, is absolutely canon. Furthermore, there has been an official play-by-post system in which some players played noble houses and their diplomatic entanglements got included into the official plot. The problem is: most of this material is only available in German. My summary is very bridged and incomplete, but it should give you an idea of previous events. Also note that there are many plot threats that run parrallel: Deep in the South, the city of Al Anfa grew wealthy and strong on the backs of slaves. Their ruling class are ruthless noble houses that work hard to undermine each other. In order to lower the prices of slaves and damage another houses business, one house started a war with the Kalifat. The Kalifat consists of various tribes of nomadic tribes that follow a monotheistic God while the rest of Aventurica follows a pantheistic pantheon (with local specialties). Al Anfa was successful initially, but when their emperor died, they were pushed back. Admiral Oderin de Metuant prevented a complete annihilation of the empire. Still, Al Anfa was a thorn in the side of other strong seafaring nations, and they allied with other city states to stay a threat. There was another war against the Horas realm which Al Anfa lost again. Then, domestic politics threatened to tear the empire apart - until Oderin de Metuant took control. With him at the top, Al Anfa gained some military victories and again threatens its neighbors - specifically the young Kemi empire. The Horas realm is the most technologically advanced nation on Aventuria, but they have a complicated history with the biggest realm of the continent: the Middenrealm. Initially, both realms were once one: the realm of Bosparan which was founded by settlers from the Western continent. However, the capital of the now-middenrealm defected due to high taxes when it was just a backwater province. The problem is: it endured against the siege of the Legions of Bosparan. So the emperor of Bosparan called upon the Archdemons who promptly destroyed both armies. Bosparan fell into a dark age and ultimately was conquered by the Middenrealm. Later, the former Bosparan declared independence and when the tension started to clm down, its empress declares herself Horas - a descendent of a demigod. Behind the surface, another noble house attempted to escalate the situation to claim the throne for themselves. They failed, but many who were at the wrong side of the conflict joined Borbarad - more about him later. The Horas realm endured the threat of Borbarad by forging a pact with a dragon named Shafir - but the price was the princesses hand. When this princess was to become emperor, a civil war started in the Horas realm. Ultimately, her son became emperor, but he is not quite human. His amazing powers even manage to shatter the shards of the demon crown. But what is this demon crown? I'll get to it soon. The third big player on the continent is the Middenrealm. After a long period of decadent rulers, emperor Reto took the crown. While Reto brought a order to the realm, he also was obsessed with the island of Maraskan on which he was previously banished. He tried to conquer it, but his armies were ill-equipped for the poisonous jungle and the natives who didn't think of fighting without subterfuge. Retos son Hal was a different kind of emperor. He tried to consolidate the conflicts, but influenced by the mysterious sorceress Nahema, he provoked the court mage Galotta into summoning a demon who then attacked him. Galotta was humiliated and banished - but the brilliant enchanter vowed that he would have his revenge. He went so far as to sell his very soul to the archdemon of revenge to get it. Through a mind control spell and the use of a dark eye, a powerful artifact, he controlled a thousand ogres and attacked the Middenrealm. Big parts of the army died, among them many nobles. Hal used that opportunity to give noble titles to many famed adventurers, but this enraged the old noble families. One of those families briefly took power, but was pushed back afterwards. After that conflict, Hal assigned the most brilliant tactician of his time, Helme Haffax, to Maraskan. Hal never gave up on the island his father wanted to conquer and this mistake even made him lose the province of Arania. But he lost something even more valuable: the loyalty of a military genius who felt like he was promoted away to a godforsaken place due to petty politics. The various plot threats in the Middenrealm and in the Horas realm - alongside many others were tied up when Borbard returned. Borbarad was revered as a sort of archangel - he promised to give everyone access to magic who was daring enough to take it. Also, he promoted a ruthless dedication to power and knowledge. This made him a very devisive figure to begin with. But when he returned, he gathered all those people who were disappointed by the world around him and started a conquest to conquer the whole continent. One huge part of his power was his crown which allowed him complete control over the demons of seven of the twelve domains - alongside other powers. Ultimately, Borbarad was defeated, but his forces were not annihilated. Seven rulers claimed the shards and established their own twisted empires. This set the continent into an unstable balance that was broken when Galotta used his shard, his tremendous magical knowledge and an alliance with an undead dragon who had another shard to attack the Middenrealm. While they were defeated, their shards returned to the dark lands - and the Middenrealm was at its limit. Another succession crisis happened, another region declared independence due to old grievances, one region was ungovernable and the capital was not only demolished but tarnished by demonic material. Then, a series of adventures started in which the player characters could take care of each individual shard, changing the respective region considerably. Ultimately, Borbarads general, Helme Haffax attacked the realm with his huge military might and strategical brilliance. The realm endured, things started to turn back to normal. Then, the era of humans ended. After each era, the various deities compete over the position of Alveran (basically mount Olympus). The way miracles from blessed ones work changes, stars disappear from the sky and a major city was attacked from the underground. Old secrets awaken all over the continent - and the church of the God of evil who lost his name eons ago becomes more active. It has always been there and it had its hands in Borbarads return, in the civil wars in the Horas realm and in the fall of the Bosparan empire. And despite the length of this text, I did not talk about the proud seafaring nation of Thorwal who may be corrupted by Charyptoroth, the bloody drowner, Archdemon of the endless depths of the sea, who has subterrean empires following her that most humans don't even know exist. I didn't mention the proud knights of the Bornland whose genocide of the native Goblins centuries ago bites the in the rear as the land itself regains consciousness. I did not talk about the ambitious and brilliant wizard Sultan Hasrabal who expands more and more while other conflicts keep his neighbors busy. I didn't talk about the colonization of the southern continent Uthuria, I didn't talk about the ambitions of the Orcish pantheon. I ignored the resurgence of Pyrdacor, the former warden of the elements who abused his power to extent the age of his followers - creating climate zones in the process. And no doubt, there is much more going on I don't have on my radar...

[@wildchild1823]

you seem to fail to grasp the difference between a CRPG/RPG and a action RPG... just remember this is not gauntlet and you will be fine

[@lucasterable]

There are no Halflings in The Dark Eye ;) 3:34 - 3:50 That is actually a pretty accurate description of the TTRPG as well!

[@qltGaming]

>A seemingly faithful adaptation No, not really.

[@TheNathanNAPALM]

Great review, it's a game definitely designed from the ground up to be a table top game on your PC, plus multiplayer, makes it awesome albeit niche as you said

[@warmaps78]

Thank you!

[@TalkingAboutGames]

Hi Nathan! Didn't expect to see you here; guys, check out his channel for all things MMO, specially Pantheon. Putting that aside, I highly recommend you try out the tabletop game, I reviewed the core book, bestiary, etc. a couple of years back, it's not passive at all, as the video game seems to imply. It looks like Book of Heroes didn't adapt all of the combat rules for the sake of simplicity; such a shame. And thanks for the review GameWatcher, very informative!

[@rebornstillborn]

Seems like it would be great for mods, making your own adventures for friends and sharing them online etc. A basic framework to play The Dark Eye on a pc, which players can then do what they want with. It's really the kind of RPG that should be a no-brainer yet never shows up.

[@mwmv921]

For clarity: there is no story. You just running around map doing random stuff. Thats the all 'game'. It's like base of the game, with 80% of content (epic story, characters, and quests) missing. Beware!

[@abnnizzy]

Game looks fun, but I'm not sure I'm down with this whole "pick a card to level up" thing. It curbed my enthusiasm.

[@bombyouup62]

To me the 4 man parties (and lower) are ruining tabletop like games. 6 man parties should be the lowest. I don't have a problem with misses and that's just your age showing.

[@warmaps78]

Sadly we aren't really too young on average on this end. But hey not too old either. It's more down to personal preference, but age, sure would play a role.

[@GamingArcane]

The comment about the combat being uninvolved amuses me. Because they did it this way because they assume no one likes true turn based combat but turn based combat where you move each character individually would be more involved.

[@revoltingpeasantry8796]

Do more research, please.

[@Charok1]

always thought of it as the european D&D, haha

[@croec]

There couldn't be more difference between DnD and TDE.