Dungeons and Dragons Online - thoughts

[SpiritWarrior]

I myself am a D&D fan of many years. I have played a good few MMO's and paid for them monthly from SWG to CoH to EQ2 and WoW. I know what is worth paying for and what is not so I have added some of my impressions of DDO here after playing the short but informative preview event. I hope some of you find it helpful if you are eyeing this one.

Pros

• It's D&D and uses an MMO-adapted D&D system.
• The people seem alot nicer than in most MMO's I've played. Perhaps the need for strategic play and the fact that it is D&D has further screened out alot of the punks. Eh it's still beta we can't really tell yet but in my time there people were so helpful and friendly and eager to join you.
• The missions/quests are great fun. They seem to be all unique and immersive. Obviously a large amount of work went into them and there are a variety of maps. There are things like giant puzzles on the floor your party must solve, secret doors, traps, alot of mechanical door levers etc. I can't stress how much was put into the actual quest dungeons. Some are long, some are short but rarely are they boring. There are DM voiceovers around every corner, describing things to you in the room like a DM would his players. Sometimes they will describe the obvious or remind you of a key aspect in your current room. Either way this was my favourite aspect of the game and it is a refreshing change from the "Go here kill x bad guys" missions in other MMO's where you enter a map filled with a few and then complete it on killing each one.
• The spell-effects are pretty nice. Mage armor, Bless and some of the higher ones I've seen all look good.
• There is an intergrated teamspeak client in DDO which I never used but hey, it's handy. The bandwidth and server are hosted by Turbine so you never have to worry about setting it up. It's always there to turn on at anytime with your teamates.

Cons

• The game feels kinda like D&D but isn't D&D. Neverwinter Nights did a better job at coming close to the MMO aspect of it. I hesitate to say it looks ugly because the graphics are high-tech but yeah like the poster said, it is bleak. It's like a dark and lifeless EQ.
• The world is Eberron. I don't really like it personally and hate the idea of this new race, the warforged who look like robots or iron golems. It ruins the classic D&D feel of which I was seeking when I see these creatures just strolling around everywhere. It is a world of mechanics and magic, like warcraft. Again, this isn't what I wanted personally.
• There is one city, with tons of quests almost jammed atop each other. There truly is nothing really going on and there isn't close to enough ambient sound to make it seem like you're in a big city (remember BG 1 and 2 when you'd higher the volume up?).
• The interface is a bit awkward and melee combat is just annoying. I see what they tried to do with the real-time combat action but it just isn't pulled off right here. Instead it becomes frustrating.
• The spell and skill icons are ugly and bland and blah. You may not think it matters but a bare, red first-aid symbol to represent the spell 'Cure Light Wounds' doesn't compare to the white shining cross of holy magic used in the likes of NWN's and IWD. They look like scanned monopoly icons IMHO.
• As touched on before, there is a severe lack of content. There is nothing else to do but quest and sell. The quests may well be immersive but it is way too linear in this respect to be an MMORPG. There is no crafting, mounts, non-combat related skills. Basically when you get bored with the grind there's nada to do. In tabletop D&D we just get up, stop playing and do something else. In DDO we just log off.

All in all I wouldn't pay $15 a month for this game. Maybe $7. I'd rather pay $0 dollars like Guild Wars as it would be a success that way I think. I see it flopping if Turbine don't add something big in the near future. I really hoped this would be the D&D game we were all waiting for, something fresh and new that updated D&D from what we saw in NWN's. Sadly, it's not quite there at least, not yet.

[Hivetyrant]

Holy crap! It's set in Eberron?

I wasnt even considering looking at this game, but I may just have to now [img]smile.gif[/img] Then again, from what you have said, it might not be enough to drag me away from WoW....

[TheCrimsomBlade]

Originally posted by SpiritWarrior: I myself am a D&D fan of many years. I have played a good few MMO's and paid for them monthly from SWG to CoH to EQ2 and WoW. I know what is worth paying for and what is not so I have added some of my impressions of DDO here after playing the short but informative preview event. I hope some of you find it helpful if you are eyeing this one. Pros It's D&D and uses an MMO-adapted D&D system. The people seem alot nicer than in most MMO's I've played. Perhaps the need for strategic play and the fact that it is D&D has further screened out alot of the punks. Eh it's still beta we can't really tell yet but in my time there people were so helpful and friendly and eager to join you. The missions/quests are great fun. They seem to be all unique and immersive. Obviously a large amount of work went into them and there are a variety of maps. There are things like giant puzzles on the floor your party must solve, secret doors, traps, alot of mechanical door levers etc. I can't stress how much was put into the actual quest dungeons. Some are long, some are short but rarely are they boring. There are DM voiceovers around every corner, describing things to you in the room like a DM would his players. Sometimes they will describe the obvious or remind you of a key aspect in your current room. Either way this was my favourite aspect of the game and it is a refreshing change from the "Go here kill x bad guys" missions in other MMO's where you enter a map filled with a few and then complete it on killing each one. The spell-effects are pretty nice. Mage armor, Bless and some of the higher ones I've seen all look good. There is an intergrated teamspeak client in DDO which I never used but hey, it's handy. The bandwidth and server are hosted by Turbine so you never have to worry about setting it up. It's always there to turn on at anytime with your teamates. Cons The game feels kinda like D&D but isn't D&D. Neverwinter Nights did a better job at coming close to the MMO aspect of it. I hesitate to say it looks ugly because the graphics are high-tech but yeah like the poster said, it is bleak. It's like a dark and lifeless EQ. The world is Eberron. I don't really like it personally and hate the idea of this new race, the warforged who look like robots or iron golems. It ruins the classic D&D feel of which I was seeking when I see these creatures just strolling around everywhere. It is a world of mechanics and magic, like warcraft. Again, this isn't what I wanted personally. There is one city, with tons of quests almost jammed atop each other. There truly is nothing really going on and there isn't close to enough ambient sound to make it seem like you're in a big city (remember BG 1 and 2 when you'd higher the volume up?). The interface is a bit awkward and melee combat is just annoying. I see what they tried to do with the real-time combat action but it just isn't pulled off right here. Instead it becomes frustrating. The spell and skill icons are ugly and bland and blah. You may not think it matters but a bare, red first-aid symbol to represent the spell 'Cure Light Wounds' doesn't compare to the white shining cross of holy magic used in the likes of NWN's and IWD. They look like scanned monopoly icons IMHO. As touched on before, there is a severe lack of content. There is nothing else to do but quest and sell. The quests may well be immersive but it is way too linear in this respect to be an MMORPG. There is no crafting, mounts, non-combat related skills. Basically when you get bored with the grind there's nada to do. In tabletop D&D we just get up, stop playing and do something else. In DDO we just log off. All in all I wouldn't pay $15 a month for this game. Maybe $7. I'd rather pay $0 dollars like Guild Wars as it would be a success that way I think. I see it flopping if Turbine don't add something big in the near future. I really hoped this would be the D&D game we were all waiting for, something fresh and new that updated D&D from what we saw in NWN's. Sadly, it's not quite there at least, not yet.

I agree 100% and couldn't have put it any better thanks SpiritWarrior. What you have written here may be the best actual review of what I found out in playing for the past 3 months. Except for one thing! Once you have done all the missions 3 times and you realize you have finished Beta, all but the last chapter,(where you get to fight the dragon) there isn't anything to do and it only took 70 Days of 2-3 hrs a day m-f and maybe 10 total hours each weekend to finish everything and explore all the areas.
I was impressed with the great improvements made from day one until now but, even with them I believe I'll wait for three or 4 expansions to come out as well as some kind of back ground noise besides just the windy sound in the open area.
I hope NWN 2 is better and after my little preview of Elder Scrolls Oblivion and the fact that it totally blows away DDO in every way I'll just say Don't waist you money on DDO save it for NWN or your monthly WoW bill.