The Dark Eye is a fantasy roleplaying setting that debuted in Germany in the mid-'80s. It's tremendously popular in the country, and has served as the basis for numerous videogames over the years, including the excellent Memoria. (Others, such as Blackguards, were less than excellent, but nobody gets it right all the time.) Later this year, a new Dark Eye game called Book of Heroes promises to bring an old-time "classical roleplaying" experience to Steam.
The Dark Eye: Book of Heroes is a party-based isometric RPG that "hearkens back to the glory days of computer role-playing games like Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights." Players will undertake "unique quests, tasks, and agendas" above and below ground, solo (with AI-controlled NPCs) or in online parties of up to four, with custom-made characters drawing from among 12 professions and four species.
Invoking the names of famed BioWare RPGs from the turn of the millennium is a pretty bold move for any game developer to make, and especially so with hype about Baldur's Gate 3 beginning to build, but if nothing else Book of Heroes certainly looks the part. It's impossible to say how that will translate into gameplay without actually getting hands on it, but The Dark Eye has been around for more than 35 years and that's plenty of time to build up lore and systems. With luck, it'll go a long way toward addressing our primary criticism of Blackguards, whose "underserved RPG elements" undermined its fine tactical combat simulation.
The Dark Eye: Book of Heroes is expected to arrive on Steam in the spring. You can find out more about the game at wildriver.games.
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