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龙歌（Drakensang）改编自知名的德国桌面 RPG 《黑暗之眼（The Dark Eye）》。这一规则上一次被改编为电脑 RPG 要追溯到 1996 年的《阿卡尼亚王国：里亚的暗影》（Realms of Arkania: Shadows over Rivia，以下简称 RoA）。
自那以后很多事情都改变了。《龙歌》采用了更新的第四版规则，而且也没有使用 RoA 的第一人称小队制模式和回合制战斗。按照开发者的说法，《龙歌》是“3D 的《博德之门》（Baldur’s Gate）”——一部波澜壮阔的可暂停即时制 RPG，玩家创建一个角色，然后募集伙伴拯救世界。
说到这个，很多人首先会想到 2009 年的《龙腾世纪：起源（Dragon Age: Origins）》，但《龙歌》实际上比它更早。而且两者的基调差别也很大，《龙歌》采用了一种色彩丰富、略显卡通的美术风格，塑造一个异想天开的世界，其中到处都有滑稽可笑的角色。《龙歌》给人的感觉就像是好友之间一次愉快的桌面 RPG 记录一般。
这款游戏最大的特点是《黑暗之眼》规则，而这是一把双刃剑。《黑暗之眼》是一套复杂的无职业规则，它在角色构建上提供了大量的自由度。经验点直接用于提升角色，例如增强属性、法术和天赋，或者在训练师处用来学习新的能力。
Drakensang adapts The Dark Eye, the popular German pen-and-paper RPG, to a computer RPG for the first time since Realms of Arkania: Shadows over Rivia, way back in 1996.
A lot changed since then. Drakensang uses the updated 4th edition rules and, instead of a blobber with turn-based combat like RoA, plays as what its developers described as “Baldur's Gate in 3D” – an epic real-time-with-pause RPG where you create a character and gather companions to save the world.
This instantly brings Dragon Age: Origins (2009) to mind, but Drakensang actually predates it. It also goes for a very different tone, with a colourful, slightly cartoony art style and a whimsical world, populated by burlesque characters. It feels as a game born out of a fun pen-and-paper RPG session between friends.
Its main feature, The Dark Eye ruleset, is both a blessing and a curse. It's a complex, classless system, that offers a lot of freedom in character building. Experience points are used to directly upgrade your characters – improving attributes, spells and talents, or being spent on trainers to learn new ones.
在《龙歌》发行时，很多基于《黑暗之眼》规则的“自选历险体验”（Choose Your Own Adventure）在线游戏也随之一同推出，你可以在 www.tde-games.com 上玩到这些游戏。
A series of online Choose Your Own Adventure games based on The Dark Eye were released alongside Drakensang. You can play them at www.tde-games.com
游戏开始时，你可以从 20 个原型角色中选择，例如人类战斗法师（Human Battlemage）或矮人勘探者（Dwarf Prospector）；你也可以选择“专家模式”（Expert Mode）然后按照《黑暗之眼》规则来定制角色。
You can start by choosing from 20 archetypes, such as Human Battlemage and Dwarf Prospector, or toggle the “Expert Mode” and customise your character using The Dark Eye ruleset.
这种级别的自由度要求玩家具备相应的游戏理解，这样才能获得最大程度的乐趣。开发者在游戏中加入了大量的提示和精心编写的手册，然而《黑暗之眼》毕竟还是一个比《龙与地下城》复杂得多的系统，一些细节对于新手来说太难掌握了，例如招架的运作方式。
另一方面，游戏对这些天赋和细枝末节的处理方式也给玩家带来了更大的挫败感。举一个例子，游戏中有五种社交（Social）天赋，其中包括快速交谈（Fast Talk）和诱惑（Seduce），但能够用上的机会非常少。游戏中大量的对话完全没有提供角色扮演选项，玩家只能点击唯一一个可以按的选项然后继续读对话；或者干脆跳过对话，因为尽管 NPC 大多造型独特，但台词却很无趣，而且翻译质量也很差。
实际上，《龙歌》的内容整体上来看质量欠佳。整个流程是线性的，而且十分仓促。一旦你探索完一个区域并且完成了这里的主线任务，那么你就会被送到下一个区域，甚至不能返回之前的地方。一些任务本可以很有创意，但它们往往会强迫你在一片巨大的区域里来来回回好几次，而且路上还要一遍又一遍地对付重生出来的同一批敌人。
战斗方面同样有好有坏。《龙歌》的战斗动画很棒，而且过程流畅，但缺点是深度不足。大部分游戏时间里角色只有一到两个战斗技能，这限制了玩家的选择。更糟的是游戏中没有碰撞检测，这意味着敌人可以径直从你的角色之间穿过去，站位因此变得没有意义。
在大部分战斗中，这还是可以忍受的；可是一旦到了有挑战的头目战斗，这就会让人痛不欲生——特别是面对凭数量压倒你的敌人时，游戏系统缺乏行之有效的战术选择这一缺点就暴露无遗。
总的来说，《龙歌》具备了成为一款伟大 RPG 游戏的基本组件，但是内容质量欠佳，而且也没有利用好自己的长处。这款游戏给人的感觉是怒其不争。它看上去很棒，而且系统丰富，它明明能成为一款优秀的游戏的！然而它没能做到。
Such degree of freedom demands understanding to be fully enjoyed. The developers added tooltips and a nice manual, but it's a system much more complicated than Dungeons & Dragons. Some nuances, such as how parry works, can be hard for newcomers to grasp.
A bigger frustration comes from how poorly the game employs all these talents and nuances, e.g. there are five Social talents, such as Fast Talk and Seduce, but you'll have very few chances to use them.
The majority of dialogues won't even provide a single role-playing option – you'll just click on the only available option and continue reading. Or just skip, since NPCs have unique looks but dull, poorly translated lines.
In fact, Drakensang as a whole suffers from a poor overall quality of content. Everything is linear and railroaded – once you explore an area and finish the main quest there, you're sent to the next area, unable to ever return to the previous one. Some quests have creative premises, but too often they force you to walk back and forth over large area, usually fighting the same respawning enemies over and over.
The combat is also a mixed bag. It has great animations and flows well, but lacks depth. During most of the game, characters will only have one or two combat skills, limiting your options. Worse, there's no collision detection – enemies can walk right through your heroes, making positioning useless.
This is tolerable during most fights, but hurts during the challenging boss battles – especially when they overwhelm you with large numbers of enemies, exposing the lack of tactical options available.
Overall, Drakensang has all the building blocks required for a great RPG, but the content lacks in quality and fails to take advantage of its strengths. Playing it leaves you disappointed. It looks great and has a rich system, it should be fun! But it isn't.
《电脑 RPG 游戏史（The CRPG Book Project）》原书信息
英文原版主编：Felipe Pepe
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这本书历时四年，由 119 名志愿者共同完成。
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