Long-time fans of fantasy-oriented MMORPGs will remember the glory days of Ultima Online. When that game was heavily distressed by the "next-generation" MMO, EverQuest, fans of both games found themselves at a disadvantage that would continue for nearly a decade. There were no good games. The heavy penalties for death in EverQuest alienated the casual players of the time, while at the same time the open PVP in UO alienated its fair share of folks, causing both games to suffer heavy population detriments. It didn't help when the MMO boom began, either. Dark Age of Camelot, City of Heroes, Asheron's Call, AC2, EverQuest 2, and many others followed in quick succession, each having their own flaws that left MMORPG fans with the plain and saddening belief that no good game would ever see the light of day again. Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach proves this notion wrong.
The biggest and most terrifying thought about this game is that it is based on the Dungeons and Dragons pen-and-paper RPG. Set in the DnD realm of Eberron, players must know the d20 system backwards and forwards if they expect to reach their full potential. This leaves two different groups of people with two different questions. Long-time DnD fanatics will want to know how closely this game sticks to the rules, while at the same time, World of Warcraft junkies will want to know how easy this game is to pick up. Both of them will want to know if it is fun.
First off, DnD. The city of Stormreach and the Eberron campaign operate under Dungeons and Dragons Revision 3.5 Ruleset by Wizards of the Coast. This ruleset features d20 (combat, skills, saves, etc.) and feats. Most of the general rules are followed very closely. Every time a d20 check is made, you see the actual dice roll on your screen. That's right: every swing of your sword, every disarming of a trap, every attempt to use a magical device: the dice are -always- rolling. The huge discrepancy this game has from PnP (pen-and-paper) is Action Points. You do not use Action Points to reroll your dice, as you would in PnP. Instead, four times per level, you achieve a new rank, at which point you gain Action Points to spend on enhancements. Low level enhancements are approximately equal to one additional feat. Higher level enhancements can equal nearly four feats combined (example: level 9 rogues get one that gives +7 to Disable Device and Open Lock simultaneously, passive). All players may have four different enhancements granted to their character at any time. While some may think that this may make your character terribly over-powered, this is not necessarily the case. The game is designed to overcome the problems a live action environment creates with the PnP game, and, as a result, your character will be expected to have the proper enhancements. These abilities are what make characters of varying levels significantly more or less powerful than each other in DDO. Each class and race has their own unique enhancements to choose from, but you must keep in mind as you develop your character that you are limited to having four at any given time. In addition, every time you level, you lose unspent Action Points, and the set of available enhancments will change every level also. The current level cap is 10, which Turbine has announced that it will raise in a few months. Prestige classes are also in the works. Other than Action Points, the game plays largely like PnP DnD, with a few very minor exceptions. Fans of the game will undoubtedly enjoy the MMO atmosphere of DDO.
Now for the gamers. So you're used to sitting in dungeon, blasting away at countless critters until you eventually gain a level? Maybe a few Catacombs raids will do you some good. Not in Stormreach. In this troubled city, you must use your brain more than your braun. Each class has a very specific purpose that you must play well to survive. If a fighter runs ahead of the rest of the party, for example, trying to blaze the way, he will undoubtedly be killed quite quickly by hidden dungeon traps that can only be disarmed by well-equipped rogues. Similarly, a rogue cannot hack and slash his way into a group of enemies without getting severely torn up. You have to use strategy, and you have to read up on your class. Know how the game works. It is very important. This game also features active combat. You click to swing your sword, fire your bow, raise your shield, or tumble away from an attack. DnD features both a targetting cursor and a targetting system, allowing you either to mouse-over the specific enemy you want to shoot at and fire or, if you happen to be trying to aim at a small critter that jumps around quickly, you may decide that you simply want to target it and auto-attack away. Both options are available (when using a weapon--spells can't be autocast). The game has no crafting system, which does not affect your ability to acquire items. The economy (at lower levels) is quite an easy one, with most players giving gear they do not need to other players in their party who do need it, free of charge. Mosts quests also offer very useful item rewards. You do not regenerate spell points or hit points unless you rest or are in a tavern (and resting is only possible at special shrines found in dungeons), although healers can heal you and even sometimes restore your spellpoints. This system makes strategy very important. The game is very easy to play and user-friendly, but difficult to master. You do not need any knowledge of DnD to get started, but, as your interest in the game grows, you will undoubtedly spend hours reading up on how things work and what people think works best. This is a huge boon to the players who take pride in their accomplishments. In addition, DnD features quest-based advancement. You do not get any experience for "grinding". In fact, you do not get any experience at all for killing individual monsters. Your experience comes from quests, which are all instanced. The quests are very well-developed, featuring a wide variety of stories, monsters, and objectives (everything from rescues to obtaining an item to defeating an enemy to solving a mystery and more). The graphics, controls, and musical scores are without a doubt some of the best I have ever seen. I have seen better graphics (namely in Asheron's Call II: breathtaking), but combined with the other artificial elements, this game is very pretty indeed. The avid gamer will not be disappointed. The main issues for some players will be the following: lack of player versus player combat, different gameplay style of Dnd, lack of crafting skills, and necessity to complete quests in order to advance (the good ones are long and involved). The pros of the game, though, heavily outway these potential cons: grouping is VERY heavily encouraged (meaning it is always possible to find a group), the storylines are extremely engaging (if you take the time to read them), combat is intense, and strategy is important. Most gamers will very much enjoy this game.
Overall, then, players will find that DnD Online (also known as DDO) is a great game. It fills a niche that many MMORPGers have sought for years. DDO isn't just your next hack-and-slash, ding, level up game. It is very involving, requires strong knowledge of your character, and features many things never before seen in MMORPGs. The game is fun at all levels; not just at maximum level. You will find the depth of character advancement to be absolutely astonishing. On the whole, Eberron is an amazing world and Stormreach an amazing city. With so many ways to customize your character and so many things to do with him (or her), many DDO players feel confident in calling the game flawless--the best ever made. After all, it is Dungeons and Dragons, which has remained a brilliant RPG for decades. And there you have it: Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach is simply brilliant.
Other game notes: DDO features the races and classes of the DnD 3.5 ruleset, with the current exception of Monks and Druids (which are in development). These classes are Paladin, Ranger, Fighter, Cleric, Rogue, Barbarian, Sorcerer, Wizard, Paladin, and Bard. Each class has its own role in a group, except for the Bard (who is a sort of jack-of-all-trades). Each character may choose one class at character creation and either continue that class to the level cap or multiclass to a second class when they reach their next level (so if a level five Fighter just reached level six and wanted to multiclass to a Ranger, he would become all of the following: a level five Fighter, a level one Ranger, and a level six character, meaning that the sum of your class levels cannot exceed your current character level, which cannot be higher than the level cap). Each character is also of a particular race, and each race receives particular advantages or disadvantages that may allow it to excel at one or more particular class types. Available races in DDO include Humans, Elves, Half Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, and Warforged. You may only select one race. Information on feats, spells, enhancements, skills, racial abilities, and class abilities can be found at many DDO fansites, but documentation on the game can sometimes be hard to find because of so many inaccurate references. Check with reliable sources (open source works best, such as Wikis). The game also features a sort of tutorial area to help new players get started. It is optional.
If you are considering trying this game, do it. Period. |
Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO) is an above average dungeon crawler that has the potential to be a lot of fun for a while with enjoyable instanced quests and lively gameplay. Unfortunately, there are a lot of little things that will likely make the value of the subscription fee here questionable in a month or two, and even early on many will have issues with forced grouping. Having actually purchased the headstart, I am having a blast - but take a star off of fun for the grouping issue, and two stars off of overall for the rule implementations, lack of PvP, and value proposition, leaving this at 4 fun/3 overall, or 3.5 stars. Finally, because you can get an equivalent 5% running boost item with about 45 minutes of work very early on, the LE special item (boots of striding) is worthless, meaning you should buy the regular edition rather than LE.
With Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) having spawned literally tens of thousands of imitations at the top of the family tree of RPGs, MUDs, and MMORPGS, publisher Turbine has both the blessing of an eager audience and curse of a really tough comparison. The good news is that they've done an enjoyable job of implementing the heart of the D&D experience, which is the dungeon crawl. Unlike many MMORPGs, support classes like rogues are a requirement for almost all dungeons - there's no uber single class build here - and a well designed group and careful gameplay is a more important than any particular player, item, or spell.
However, the group aspect is double-edged. Outside of the first 5 or 6 early dungeons (even less for certain weak combat classes), solo play simply doesn't work - meaning your entire gaming experience will depend on finding a suitable group or guild. The support for this isn't bad, with ingame voice chat and being able to select exactly what you want in terms of a class and level in group search, but even players within a good guild can have significant waiting times while everyone gets ready. Turbine could and should have come up with a way for solo players to do something to advance. All adventure is instanced, which in this implementation makes sense but does mean like Guild Wars the only 'massive multiplayer' aspect of the MMORPG feel is when you're at the taverns.
D&D purists will probably not like the rule implementations either. Monks, druids, and several races are left out as are any number of skills, but the biggest wildcard is adding 4 class and race 'enhancements' which provide benefits far above even the best feats (like +5 to all skills or +3 in a certain statistic). Given how the game is set up, it doesn't really affect balance much - can't solo anyway - but between that and loot drops that rival the taj mahal (down a bit from beta, but not much), it does annoyingly throw traditional character builds out the window. Why bother making an especially stout fighter with high constitution if you're going to get 25 free hit points from the start?
More significant is longer term viability. Advancement is quick enough so the current level cap (10) was actually reached by any number of people in the 10 day beta. This will shortly be raised to 12 and eventually to 20, but the real issue is the lack of any alternative to the dungeon crawl - PvP, crafting, or anything else - that encourages people to stick around to pay the $14.95 monthly fee.
Don't get me wrong. I'm having more fun playing this now than any game in a long time. The issue is that I can also easily see not playing this in 30 or 60 days from now, which is a real shame. Hence, why this is rated 3.5 stars, and why I hope Turbine thinks carefully about how to improve it. |
Expedited Available
"DDO is the best!"
"Solo need not apply"
"Enjoyable dungeon crawl, but forced grouping and other issues challenge viability"