Category: 
Developed by: Turbine
Published by: Atari
Release Date: US: February 28, 2006
ESRB: Teen
ESRB Content Descriptors: Alcohol Reference, Blood, Violence
Genre: MMORPG
PROS: It has strong team play elements. The difficulty makes it a real challenge for advanced MMO players.
CONS: It lacks the solo phase of building a character. Not a beginner’s MMO. Graphics look outdated.
Total Rating - 4
Gameplay - 4.5
Enjoyment - 4
Graphics -4
Sound/Music - 4
Multiplayer - Good
Minimum Hardware:
PC Windows XP Pentium 3
First Impressions:
It’s no secret that I’m a long time D&D player / fan. I ran out and got the very first D&D pencil and paper game way back in the day. When Advanced D&D came out for the Sega Genesis I picked it up and played all the way though every delightful Dungeon of it. I guiltily enjoyed the movies along with about three other people that will admit to it. Yet, I can’t write an ode in awestruck praise of this new game. So why do I say that DDO is complex, rather than compelling? Why do I hesitate to utter the accolades that other reviewers have? I have to be honest.
This game will have it’s niche in the MMO marketplace. It is hard as hell. All of those people who have played World of Warcraft to death, got to level 60 and said “Is that all there is?” Here you go, try DDO. The game-play is centered on a dice roll system. You can see the little animated die rolling and determining the fate of your character as you attack enemies and dishearteningly see that your swings and casts miss for no other reason than luck. Many games have imitated the die roll under the hood but aren’t nearly as difficult. It is the random thread of chaos that makes this game so challenging. There I said it, ‘challenging’ a word that I reserve for games that truly make you work for it, without lame devices that make the game longer and frustrating with out adding to the experience. This game avoids the grind entirely.
To begin at the beginning, the character creation is lackluster. She is larger than most characters in MMO’s. She can jump and grab ledges and hang which is an unusual feature. The colors of clothing hair and makeup are subdued and dull. I put together the rather drab looking Sorcerer that would ultimately blend in with the bland environment of DDO. Everything in this game is brown. Would it have hurt them to dab in some red, blue or green someplace?
Graphics
The graphics are universally brown hued. It looks very much like Asheron’s Call. The characters are graceless and blocky. It is hard to believe that after all this waiting that such a big name in gaming would release a game that looks like the graphics of five years ago. It isn’t crisp looking like Guild Wars. It looks very similar to the old time favorite Dark Age of Camelot (DAoC) and play elements from DAoC have been lifted into DDO. Bind stones are swapped for Taverns, more about this later. The game’s environment looks foggy and indistinct. Even at higher resolution levels, which are enabled though sliders in the options tab, the graphics become even more cloudy.
Perhaps the dull drab backgrounds were intentional so that when something such as a sunset, or a lighted building occur at night fall, then the contrast is even more noticeable? This game doesn’t have its strongest points in the graphics. Looking at Guild Wars Factions which was also released around the same time there is just no comparison. Where the Factions graphics are astonishing, gorgeous and cutting edge, Dungeons and Dragons graphics are tired, dowdy and boring. It is exciting to delve down into dungeons in itself, but they look like they were quickly slapped together with no attention to detail or sense of artistry. I’ve seen all these textures before. Patterns of the stones for example repeat over and over right where you can see it.
Game-play
The major aspect where DDO falls down is game-play. It begins like Baldurs Gate by having to go and clear the basement of vermin. But that is where the similarity ends. Baldurs’ Gate was fun and has wonderful replayablity. DDO isn’t fun. It is merciless. There isn’t much territory that you can explore. You are limited to the towns where you have finished quests or missions below ground. The only place to regenerate health and magic points is in a Tavern or during a mission at the rare Rest Shrines. You won’t regenerate over time anyplace in the game. The developers went out of their way to make the healing and regeneration system as difficult and annoying as possible. The healers kit I am given initially is not for healing my own character. Health and mana potions are rarely given as drops. After finally finding a place that sells health potions, I find that they are prohibitively expensive.
This forces you to wait around in the Taverns doing nothing. You can purchase food items, but there is no animation to see you consuming them. If you could sit at a table and eat the Greasy Chicken Leg or the Ominous Beef Stew with a cup of Brown Froth (of course it’s brown) then it would make more sense. But those items waste coin as they take just as much time or <i>more</i> to regenerate the health points. In fact sitting down puts your character beneath your perspective. When you sit down in Guild Wars your eye level also changes realistically.
The result of this bad level design is that you have a log jam and lines of pissy players waiting by the Tavern doors twiddling their thumbs, who are waiting aimlessly to get the heck out and back to the missions. There are no Saves or Checkpoints which is a weak way to make the game play time longer. Realistically there is no solo-able content past the uninformative Tutorial level.
The other flaw is that you do not gain experience by killing things. You gain XP only by completing missions. Repeated tries at a dungeon mission deplete the items in inventory. If you mange to obtain a health potion, and use it, you won’t be able to get more. Your character does not gain in strength each time you make an attempt at a mission. It is a self defeating cycle of frustration. There is no incentive to keep playing the game. Since the game is based on luck and not skill there is no way to improve the character’s chances of success.
I spent two days trying to kill just 3 Scorpions in Dungeons and Dragons and barely made it to level two and not past rank one. A quick comparison is that when I began Guild Wars Factions I played for two hours, killed numerous enemies and made it to level 4, and I filled my task bar with powerful skills. It is no wonder that Guild Wars Factions is the number one selling MMO right now (IGN May 18, 2006)
The interface in DDO is not intuitive. The manual is less than illuminating. It is difficult to find out how to operate the interface and set up weapon sets, and other necessities. Depressing the letter “T” puts the game into “Mouse Look Mode” I can’t discern a purpose for this other than to totally screw up my character’s mobility when the game randomly enters this mode for no apparent reason.
Scrolling or clicking on items does not reveal their purpose, or what class or character can use the item. Vials of “Pure Water” and “Amber Liquid” and a load of other stuff sits in inventory because they “Cannot Be Sold Here”. Well what are they for and where can they be sold? After searching fruitlessly in the online “Help” for answers to a host of questions, I give up trying. As I gratefully don some well earned Masterwork Padded Armor, I have no idea that it will impede my ability to cast Arcane spells.
For instance I want my character to regenerate in the new Tavern that I have discovered, The Wayward Lobster. I search for “Regeneration”, “Death” and “Tavern” in a variety of combinations and it yields no answers. What I am looking for is a “Priest” not a Brother or the Tavern Keeper. If you’ve forgotten who offered to Regenerate you in the Tavern you could be stuck returning there.
Even worse the game is still buggy and unstable. It randomly crashes off. The interface does not always respond during battles.
“You have no target selected.” Pops up for apparently no reason.
“What?The three scorpions dancing on my head aren’t targets?”
My brand new Dell laptop far exceeds the recommended specs and yet the game lags, even though the latency is 0%. I know one woman whose character became inexorably stuck still and immobilized. It is pretty bad when you see that “What do I do if I can’t move my character?” in the FAQ is labeled as “Priority”.
The social networking system in the game does have the ability to voice chat built in which is surprising since everything else in the game is so last year and primitive. The “squelch” feature would enable you to stop a creepy person from talking to you. The LFG (looking for group) system is somewhat tighter than most. It would seem that you can’t “whisper” or private message other players unless they are in your current party.
Sound and Music
Occasionally an omnipotent and sexy male voice narrates instructions. The music is rudimentary and repetitive. Mandolin and guitar plink out non melodies, sounding worse than most Renaissance Fair “performers”. You know how bad that is. This is just another area where a little more effort would have made a big difference and it was not done. Most MMO’s have a musical score these days. I am sure there would have been numerous applicants who would have provided music for this game - gratis even. There’s no excuse for an omission like that when other games have thrilling musical compositions that stands your hair on end.
Enjoyment:
This was the biggest disappointment I have had in gaming - ever. I’ve been collecting the D&D books and shwag for years. I can call myself a Geek Woman largely because of the association with Dungeons and Dragons as many nerds do. I was well prepared to throw over my weekly MMO time for this game. But it was not meant to be. Don’t buy this game.
Overall Impression:
It was a waste of time and money. According to some players it really wasn’t worth it and I tended to agree. There are other MMORPG’s out there that are more fun. Some of the older ones wouldn’t seem to be worth switching over from and starting over. It gives the impression that it was tossed together without much consideration for players with the intent being that long time fans such as myself and you the readers would buy anything bearing the D&D franchise logo. There are several areas that could have benefited from more time and detail. Maybe they will be refining it as time goes on. The game lacks the grace or elegance that you see in other titles.
Marketing Efforts Towards Women:
The looks of the female characters have alot in common with DAoC which has an almost historical looking character design. My Sorceress was decidedly unsexy. She appeared to have the same abilities and skill available to her as did the male Sorcerer. I was able to adjust her height, but not her physical features or build. I didn’t see any female characters wearing any revealing clothing. I didn’t see any of the female characters wearing any imaginative or attractive clothing either. Perhaps that gets better later in the game. It wasn’t easy figuring out what acoutraments and accessories were appropriate. I guess this game is all about battle. I do enjoy a good dress up with my characters. I like to buy fancy armor and weapons and outfit them and color coordinate them. This wasn’t happening in DDO.
A new study was in the games news recently where it was mentioned that female players like to solo or play with someone that they know in MMO games. I met a able dwarf and a polite paladin that helped me get through a couple of the missions. It was impossible to get far without extra fire power. Those who have the muscle lack skills like finding hidden doors and opening locks. Lucily that went ok, but instanced solo playability as an option would have been welcome too. Since there is a monthly subscription fee of $14.99 players should be able to play when ever it is most convenient for them and not have to play at prime times to group for completing levels.
Conclusion:
In fact as I was playing and taking my notes for review, I used a little different mathematical formula to come up with the score to make sure I was being fair. I gave each positive note a +.5 and each negative a -.5 I ended up giving Dungeons and Dragons a “go back to the drawing board” 4 out of 10.
Recently:
- Tomb Raider Underworld : Underwhelmed PS3 Review
- Geek Woman’s Best Video Games of ‘08
- Girl Geek Shopping Guide
- Lord of the Rings Online : The Mines of Moria PC Review
- Good Girl Power : Nancy Drew
- A Glimpse Inside Moria
- Not Much to Write Home About
- Bleach: Dark Souls DS Review
- Adam Sessler : Home is on the Way?
- Myvu on Ellen
