Realms of Arkania 2 - Star Trail Classic Reviews

Copy protection; uninstall... 6 of 5 must play. 5 of 5 great story great game-play. 4 of 5 great story average game-play. 3 of 5 average story great game-play. 2 of 5 play only if it's your favourite genre. 1 of 5 play if you have nothing better to do. 0 of 5 play if you're a masochist. -1 of 5 avoid. Realms of Arkania 2 Star Trail score is -1 of 5.

Okay. First, this is an old-school RPG. By that I mean, anyone expecting modern bells and whistles will be VERY disappointed. Hardcore and old-school gamers will likely find it to be an engaging story with mechanics they may not be used to. I do suggest getting the entire trilogy at the same time, if you are interested.

One of the best, true old-school RPG, with incredible depth and detail. Based on the most popular, German PnP roleplaying game The Dark Eye (Das Scwarze Auge). Overall a very challenging game, but quite playable. Character creation and party-building is very hardcore, the complex rules aren't explained at all, even the [url=http://www.gog.com/forum/realms_of_arkania_series/roa1_blade_of_destiny_spells_and_descriptions]spell descriptions[/url] are missing from the manual provided by the Steam version. The game however allows the player to skip the depth of this part and provides pre-generated characters as well as automated character creation and leveling. The game features a medium-sized open-world with overland travel and camping. The world is dynamic, it reacts to the players' many choices and is very alive. It has about five, multi-level dungeons and five towns (one of these is quite big), each handcrafted with great attention to story detail and puzzles. Dungeon-crawling is superb. Navigating is not too hard, due to an excellent automap, but knowing where to go and what to do is much more difficult, the player needs to pay attention to details and explore a lot. Combat takes place in an isometric, grid-based environment and in a few cases it can get quite big-scale, with up to 20 participants. These can take a bit too long and are boring, so the game features manual, auto and quick-combat modes. Some random stuff: - Bring ropes, grappling hooks and shovels to dungeons, even if they weigh quite a bit, they will help in the long run. The same is true for sleeping bags and winter coats in the winter. - Sometimes splitting up the team and going to different locations is necessary to proceed.

Copy protection on saving games. Yes they provide the PDF to count words in, but hell - just remove the copy protection if you still want money for this. Nobody cares about < 5 euros. But I definitely don't recommend this old gem when we have to pay for a "broken" version

This is pretty hard to play. But if you are 30+ years old and you found this in childhood, difficulties should not confuse you. The atmospheric soundtrack literally takes you back to childhood. Well-developed character development and an interesting world. Dozens of days, lots of detailed details like food, drink, supplies and camp - all this perfectly captures the spirit of old-school role-playing games.

I can still remember the hundreds of hours spent on exploration Aventuria in the early nineties. Amazing experience. That is why I decided to purchase the whole trilogy and create a perfect team to go through the beatiful world. I would recommend this game to anyone, especially the younger players, I want you know that once really good games were made and the amazing graphic is not everything.

Star Trail is unique and one of the best RPG adventures i have ever played. World of Arkania is very alive and dynamic, beautiful artwork and fairy music, a lot of secrets to uncover and mysterys to reveal. I am very happy to see this game on steam........install now and become a part of the epic adventure. A bit late , but i reccomend to edit - dosboxrealms2.conf - this file can be found in the game directory, few lines have to be changed: scaler=advmame2x ; cycles=18000 . scaler makes picture a bit softer and 18000 cycles looks like the optimal speed.

Star Trail follows in the tracks of the original game released two years earlier but is still different in several ways with the graphics and general gameplay being slightly more refined. It is possible to transfer the party of the original game over to Star Trail for an easier start along with their stats and most equipment. Different bugs depending on the game version can still make this annoying though as e.g. weapon skills can become messed up and the money gathered in RoA1 is generally greatly reduced. The story is a continuation of the first game. One year has passed in Arkania since the heroes were able to thwart the orc attack on Thorwal. But not all is well as the vile creatures have instead turned their attention east and invaded and conquered the greater part of the Svellt City-League. As the heroes arrive they are given two tasks. For one they are supposed to find the Salamander Stone, an artifact created to commemorate the short-lived alliance of elves and dwarfs. The artifact might rekindle the old alliance and incite them to drive the orcs from the land. On the other the heroes ought to find the legendary throwing ax Star Trail – for mere monetary reasons. With just the tiniest bits of information the hero party, consisting of up to six characters, is off to explore the lands. And at that point the game shows the first significant differences to the original. Walking through towns is now smooth and not a step-by-step process, greatly resembling the modern title ‘Legend of Grimrock’ minus the strafing. Buildings have various styles now, the map system was vastly improved and range weapons and spells can now be fired diagonally as well. Speech and small cut scenes were also included. While in RoA1 even the smallest village could be thoroughly explored in RoA2 this is only true for the six major cities and the dungeons. Smaller hamlets are just handled through text boxes where the heroes are given choices to e.g. visit the local inn or temple. Travelling through the world of Arkania is still done on a large map in form of a red line. Diseases are a constant threat in the game, caused by bites of wild animals or inappropriate camping equipment in harsh weather conditions. Food and water need to be found or the party will starve to death. In addition the shoes of a hero might be destroyed, making him lose precious health points with every step. While camping the heroes can attempt to gather herbs, food and water, perform healing talents and put up guards at night to avoid surprise attacks by the local wildlife or bandits. A handy in-game function lets you repeat these tasks as required and you do not have to set them manually every night as in RoA1. Ever present are the death traps ranging from an ibex that likes to knock overly daring heroes off the mountain, a deadly fire spirit that needs well thought persuasion, to mobs that arrive with pitchforks and torches to end the heroes unless they carry the correct item to save them. For the most part the death traps are easier to avoid than in RoA1 though. Combat is done on an isometric grid with each character having an amount of points per round based on how much weight they carry. The less your character carries the more actions (attack, use items, use spells etc.) he will be able to perform. New is the helpful but risky auto-combat mode where the game calculates the outcome of the battle. As the game does not bother with well thought out tactics it is good to always keep an eye on your health and when things go wrong quickly return to manual combat before it might be too late. The auto-combat speeds up battles greatly though. Spells are still important in the game, both in combat and outside, but just like in the predecessor some spells are a waste, meaning they have no use in the game altogether while others can only be used meaningfully a single time in the entire trilogy. The same is true for certain talents. It is good advice to find a game guide telling which spells or talents should not be trained or precious points are wasted in never used talents like ‘riding’ or spells like 'AEOLITUS'. All in all Star Trail is a vast improvement compared to RoA1 and probably the best of the series. It is still difficult, requires lots of micro management and one wrong move can mean death. The fact that the game gives you few hints as to what to do and where to go does not help. You need to explore a lot and talk to all the people you can meet, no matter how unimportant they seem, as they can still carry the important piece of information you need. Star Trail might turn many players away due to its age and antiquated style but it is a grand adventure worth remembering if you give it a chance.

This is one amazing game! If you were born in 1985 or before you will love this game! BEFORE YOU START YOUR EPIC ADVENTURE PRINT OUT THE GAME MANUAL!!! I just realized steam has it scanned in. In order to save you will have to refer to the Manual!

I played this game years ago when it was rereleased on CD so this is really for new gamers who want to consider trying their hand at some classic RPG gaming. This is the core of what hardcore old school RPGs used to be and why they were glorious but also frustrating at times. No single superhuman adventurer battling through hordes of enemies - no man could be that powerful. Instead, you have a band of adventurers with real needs like hunger, thirst, illnesses, and broken equipment. Magical items? They are extremely rare and not the absolute destructive force they are in current fantasy games. Skills? Ha! Every skill you can think of you can upgrade, even ones you'll never use. And there in lies the beauty and the flaw. You, the grand guide, have to decide how you want to handle your adventurers. In current RPGs, such details have been reduced or even eliminated to improve the gaming experience. If the concept of handling the challenges of weather, terrain, illnesses, wear and tear of equipment, and your adventurers' needs immerses you into the game, then by all mean you should purchase this game and maybe even the whole trilogy. If such details sound tedious and aggravating, then pass by this game. But I shall also provide a warning; it still contains the bugs that the originals contained. They are minor, but they can still be irritating. The biggest of which I always had to deal with is the step wise error when trying to complete a quest in the swamplands. You must turn it off to access the quest-required sunken chest. Lastely, when in doubt, do an internet search!