At Gamescom we got the chance to speak with some of the developers at Bigpoint for a tour of the up and coming expansion of Drakensang known as the “Rise of Balor”, a huge expansion that is going to result in a huge article given how much has been added and updated. This is going to be the first big expansion since back in 2013, spending the time since trying to sort out some other issues and overhauls with the game and the change of direction they’ve been preparing for. Both the PR guys and the devs we got to speak to, who walked us through some of the high end content, were both enthused about the new direction the company was taking in regards to how it approach the community in terms of support, monetization and general gameplay experience with a quite a bit of negative press previously that they’re hopefully clearing up.

However, company aside, the focus of our meeting was for Drakensang and its expansion, reportedly three times as big as the previous expansion it will feature a newly introduced 16 full maps on the continent of Lor’Tac (previous expansion only had 7), 16 new monsters (previous expansion only had 5), an increase on the level cap up to level 50, a fifth as of yet unrevealed class, a new talent system, PVP balancing and updates and finally some new free to play monetization.

Our tour began with our guide loading up his god mode Dwarf, dressed in full new top tier armor set these new sets have proc abilities on them that trigger effects every so often when certain triggers are met; in this case the Mesopotamian/Aztec style armor would fire down a lightning strike to nearby enemies. Taking a tour around Lor’Tac we were told how exploration the new continent had led to the discovery of the World Heart, a huge living beating heart that brings life to the world, that has been corrupted by the dragon Balor and started to spew forth all sorts of evil nasties. Our tour took us to some impressive looking places including some deep cavernous dungeons, lush jungle forests and even a treetop jungle city that is the continent main social hub, a look over the side and we could see the trunks descending down into the misty fogs, which only showed the type of graphical upgrade the game has gotten. In the dungeons the new lightning effects were shown off as well, with a black vignette surrounding the screen and an ambient light on the hero, the cast of shadows and generally creepy nature made a truly atmospheric environment, one that the developers intend to revisit and implement in the other older zones.

Some new mechanics with PVE were also demonstrated with the introduction of random Elite spawns, identified by a glowing circle around them, these seemingly normal creatures are imbued with random powers that can make them considerably more challenging for a player or group and requires a lot of team bases strategy, particularly when more than one of them spawns and they work together! We did get the chance to see the final end game boss fight for the expansion, and without giving too much away, it showed a new direction in terms of how players will have to battle the more powerful creatures and bosses, with unique mechanics this particular boss builds up rage as the battle progresses and continues to unlock new powers, so the fight constantly changes and players must change their tactics.

Another key change were some of the dynamic environments, though we didn’t get to explore them in any great detail, there are instanced based locations where the party leader is able to choose how the group will explore the location. In the example we were given the map was an open watery area where players could explore it as an aquatic map, or use a spell to make everything, players and mobs, walk on the water and so suddenly the area became an entirely new map.

The new skill system was one of the biggest changes in the game, previously players would level up and choose between two different talents each level, now the developers have introduced an extremely robust system that offers massive amounts of customization. Players will unlock a talent point every level, allowing them to earn 50 talent points, and then can spend them between the three different talent types: Skills, Knowledge and Fame. Skills are, as expected, to the upgrades to your classes available skills and allows players to upgrade, boost and fundamentally change how these skills work, Knowledge offers up eight passive talents and Fame focuses on eight PVP focuses talents. Each talent has three upgrade options costing 2, 3 or 5 points, with each upgrade being completely different and not simply adding 10% damage, 20% damage then 30% damage, for example, instead the upgrades can improve power, offer further utility or give extra effects; more importantly players can pick and choose the talent upgrades they want and don’t have to buy the 2 cost and 3 cost talent upgrade to get access to the 5 cost upgrade and could literally spend all 50 talent points purchasing ten 5 cost talents.

One of the great things about the talents is that the developers have incorporated two tabs where players can independently switch between two different builds that they have made with their skills points; ideal for having a PVE build and then switching to a PVP build. PVP itself is going to be revamped, an ongoing task that they will continue to readdress every time new content expansions come out (hopefully around every nine months). Aside from revamps we’ll also see new PVP modes, optional PVP areas and Guild vs Guild combat towards the end of 2015.

Last but by no means least we addressed the monetization aspect of the game and the developers visibly perked up, clearly happy with the new direction that has been taken (and actually quite openly voiced their dislike of the old system). What we had now is a free to play game with an optional Premium Membership subscription that will give access to XP boosts, Mystic Cubes, Adamant each day, a Premium Merchant, Honor Points and more. What they are actually removing is actually equally as important as what they are adding, firstly Essences will be removed from PVP to remove any “pay to win” factors, but more astonishingly the company are removing Crystals of Truth from the game completely. For those unaware Crystals of Truth were a generally purchased item (looting them was extremely difficulty) required to identify magic items so that they could be used; at top end gameplay buying Crystals of Truth pretty much became a necessity and, as we were told, was one of if not the primary way the game was making money, but also one of the biggest reasons players were leaving. Making the change seems to have both developers and players happy and they’re actually seeing people return to the game, for us we’re just happy to see the game adopting a “pay for convenience” business model as opposed to a “pay to remove the inconveniences” system they had in place before.

Drankensang: Rise of Balor will be coming out August 26th, but if you can’t wait then it can already be checked out on the games public test server.

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