The Dark Eye: Book of Heroes Released, Reviews

If you’re up for some co-op focused roleplaying based on the German The Dark Eye system, you can now purchase Random Potion and Wild River Games’ action-RPG The Dark Eye: Book of Heroes. The game is available on Steam for $29.99 or your regional equivalent, featuring extensive character customization, numerous dungeons to explore, and plenty of iconic The Dark Eye characters and locations.

Here’s the launch trailer:

And a press release with additional details:

MUNICH, GERMANY (June 9, 2020) — Wild River Games, the German publisher of console hit Windstorm, in close collaboration with developer Random Potion and rights owner Ulisses Spiele, today released The Dark Eye: Book of Heroes, their action-RPG based on the popular The Dark Eye tabletop RPG. Available now for PC, The Dark Eye: Book of Heroes sets players on an epic adventure through the mystical lands of Aventuria, where they’ll battle monsters and men on their heroic path to glory. The game features a multiplayer cooperative mode, to give players an “adventuring party” experience that can be enjoyed online, or via “couch co-op”. The Dark Eye: Book of Heroes is available now for $29.99 via Steam.

“We are incredibly pleased to launch Book of Heroes and bring the excellent The Dark Eye license to life digitally,” said Marc Wardenga, CEO of Wild River Games. “The Dark Eye is the perfect setting for fans of old-school RPGs, and the team at Random Potion has worked hard to recreate the joy of playing it on the tabletop, on PC.” The Dark Eye: Book of Heroes hearkens back to the glory days of computer role-playing games like Baldur’s Gate and Neverwinter Nights with its party-based, cooperative gameplay and a beautiful and extensive world showcased in a classic isometric view.

Continuing in this tradition, Book of Heroes features a deep and robust character creation system all wrapped up in a setting based on Germany’s best-selling tabletop RPG world that goes back to 1984. Based in the popular The Dark Eye universe, Book of Heroes sends players on an exciting journey through the lands of Aventuria to hack, slash, sneak, steal, and connive their way through an expansive role-playing experience. The game features an immersive and robust character creation system that will allow players to combine an enormous variety of traits and skills to ensure a true tabletop-inspired experience. Multiple fantasy racial backgrounds, professions, and skills help layers create incredibly well-rounded adventurers!

The Dark Eye: Book of Heroes Key Features:

• Extensive Character Creation: Choose from 12 different professions and four classic species with customizable appearances and unique quests, tasks, and agendas
• Party up, adventurers!: Play with up to four friends online or on the couch, or hack (and slash) it solo-style with virtual friends by hiring NPC companions at The Black Boar Inn
• It’s a Beautiful World: Delve dank dungeons or take the (not so easy) route above ground as you explore gorgeous, hand-painted visuals from some of The Dark Eye’s most highly regarded artists
• All Around Me Are Familiar Faces: With a history dating back to 1984, Book of Heroes features a host of iconic characters, locations, and lore from the sweeping history of The Dark Eye

The game is currently sitting at Mostly Negative Steam user reviews, so you might want to approach it with a certain degree of caution. However, the currently available proper reviews paint a less grim picture:

GameWatcher 5/10:

If you are a fan of old-school RPGs or a fan of The Dark Eye, Book of Heroes should be right up your alley. The mechanics are complex enough to require you to know the rule book, the world is expansive enough to have a few playthroughs, and the scope is small enough to make it manageable. However, if you have no intense interest on old-school game design or the franchise itself, I recommend you stay away – the focus on maths instead of heart and soul makes this the kind of niche game that would feel dated 10 years ago, and the end result in modern times ends up being extremely boring.

Critical Damage 9/10:

The Dark Eye: Book of Heroes is a great representation of the quality you can achieve when taking an excellent tabletop ruleset and building a video game around it. It stays true to its source material whilst not being afraid to bring some new concepts to the table that we haven’t seen in other RPGs.

It does have some minor drawbacks and frustrations in both the graphical and AI departments, but I can’t say that either of these is enough to take away from how polished and fun the game is.