Re: FREE GAME: The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav

On 12/27/2024 4:15 PM, Spalls Hurgenson wrote:

 GOG can't compete with Epic on the frequency of their free offerings,
but that's not for lack of trying. They may not give games as
frequently, and the games they offer are usually a lot older and less
desirable, but... um.... look, it's a free game; you want it or not?
  * The Dark Eye: Chains of Satinav
https://www.gog.com/en/game/the_dark_eye_chains_of_satinav
      This is another of those games I /know/ that I have
      played in the past, and yet I remember nothing about
      it. It's a side-scrolling adventure game in the
      classic style; it's based on the "Dark Eye" fantasy
      RPG setting (also used in the old Arkania games, if
      you remember those) and it generally reviewed well...
      but beyond that? A total blank. That it left so
      little impression implies it wasn't completely
      terrible (those are always memorable!), but it
      doesn't speak highly of the game otherwise. Oh well;
      adventure fans might want it.
 Like all GOG give-aways, you have 72 hours to claim the game before
the offer expires. Three days to increment The Number; that's more
than enough time. Click-click!
 

I have it on Steam already, now I have it on Gog as well. I played it before and I definitely meant to get further into it, but it suffers from what I sometimes call the melancholy disease: the life of the protagonist is so miserable from the beginning it gets you down in real life. Everybody hates him because of a prophecy, nobody likes him, and fitting for the adventure genre everyone treats him kind of shitty. That works well if the character is some self-obsessed dunce like Roger Wilco or Guybrush, it doesn't work that well if the character is an ultimately decent, if a bit downtrodden guy.
Anyway, yes, it's based on the Aventuria setting. It seems they wanted to branch out into adventure games for a while, but the lack of further games in the vein (outside of one sequel) tells me it was not as successful as they wanted it to be.