xact did not do the trick. I'm thinking maybe the game needs a 32-bit prefix and wmp9 to work properly, but I haven't had time to look into it.

Hey Dude you got a spare copy for this poor old sod.

No.

Been waiting a while for this. However disappointing to have nothing in the Extras section (no manual though a copy is apparently included in the install and no soundtrack).

This is a solid RPG with two long, intertwining plot lines and a few side quests (some quite amusing). Strong points in particular are the atmosphere - very good music, reasonable graphics and well-designed areas. In particular, the areas do have a "proper" 3-dimensional aspect (e.g. cave tunnels that cross over and under each other as opposed to the more restricted level-based maps of Dragon Age Origins or NWN2) and some of the later locations have a very distinctive look.

The real downside is conversation options - while most other RPGs give you a choice of replies (with good/evil choices in many cases) all too often in Drakensang you have a single "good heroic" choice (at least with the English version). If you like playing villains, this will probably annoy you immensely.

You have skills that can give you different dialogue choices though

The Dark Eye system was originally not really designed with evil player characters in mind. Consequently the player characters are always called "heroes" in the rulebooks. Afaik there also no official "evil" adventures available (but I could be wrong). Morally grey, yes, but not outright DnD evil.
All the truly dark abilities and spells and options (like a pact with an arch-demon) are designed for NPCs and are either useless, impractical or outright dangerous for the standard player character. Of course, in a PnP group, there always is a way ;-) but you have to bend the rules/system/world a bit to make it feasible.

ok i tried it and it works. no more weird fixes or whatever. really hoping the second game is released here as well.

At some point im going to ask a kind person to help me get a copy of the game...

Our group once decided to try out an evil party. We looked into summoning demons, blood magic, had adventures where we searched for everything related to Borbarad¹, were looking into the Nameless²... and... yeah, the rules aren't really made for stuff like that. We all ended up being physically broken lunatics, controlled by various demons! At one point we had to ditch the rules completely. You can't summon a demon for a simple fight in a tavern (especially not when you're just some minion to them *lol*), but if you don't, you're done after two rounds (because of the permanent HP cost of most of our spells and former experiments).

We started as a group of mages who were interested in forbidden books and magic. We ended up as evil creatures you don't speak about. The Draconites³ of Hesinde's⁴ order hunted us and locked up our books and studies in some secret place. I think our characters are still hiding somewhere in the "Schwarzen Lande"⁵ (whatever they're called in English... Shadow Lands? Black Lands?). It was fun, but The Dark Eye simply doesn't work like that.


¹A mage who was into demons and blood magic. His spells are forbidden, his books are banned. There was a huge crisis because of him.
²Basically THE Anti-God. Don't talk about him. Don't read stuff about him. Don't even think about him!
³an order of holy Knights
⁴the God of wisdom and magic
⁵a pretty messed up place, because of what Borbarad did

Then you were doing it wrong ;-) When playing evil, go all the way and take somebody else's HP - what do you think Borbarad (who actually was a half-god) did?

Yeah of course in a normal party that simply doesn't work. Evil mages need to form covenants to summon and control more powerful demons, it's simply not realistically possible for a single character (unless they already are extremely powerful and have tons of stuff to help them). I guess the creators intentionally blocked this way of playing behind nearly impossible checks and requirements.

Thanks for the update! I nevertheless couldn't resist, but also had no time yet to test the game.

There is a solution, but you should give people the possiblity to start a conversation with you.

Could be because of licensing issues, or just because GOG prefers to err on the side of caution, when it comes to violent games in certain countries (as a German, I can tell you a thing or two about it).

Here's a thread:
https://www.gog.com/forum/drakensang/region_locked

There are also threads on the other store.

If you're not fixated on getting a DRM-free GOG release, there are keys for the other store available, that apparently unlocks in Australia.

Seems unlikely that violence is the issue, if it's not locked in Germany, but there could be something about sex or smoking / drug abuse that Australian laws would look harsher on? Anyway, the fact that it's not region locked on other stores might hint at this really being a matter that GOG should look into fixing or explaining to their Australian customers at least.