Surprisingly...enjoyable.

Dark-Asylum

I remember a long time ago when this game came out and I gave it a shot, and it wasn't so memorable. In fact, I don't even think I played it for more than 30 minutes and i'm not sure I remember why. Anyway, let's get to my point.

The problem I think I had was that I was too used to the WoW scheme. After being a SWG vet and being spoiled by WoW, I instantly thought that it was a WoW clone gone bad and I thought it was boring and all that jazz. 

Well, being over with WoW for at least 2 years now, I decided to give it another go, this time they have the newbie zone implemented and all that. Surprisingly, I found myself enjoying it. The first thing I noticed was how fluid the movement was and how it had a slight resemblance to LOTRO's engine, which I actually think is the reciprocal. It had a different art style which I took tastes to and the D&D narration was quite to my liking for not being much of a player of the table top, at least serious table topping.

The combat is quite simple but nonetheless enjoyable. It's quick and action packed, although I can't speak for casters. The ability to dodge arrows and spells is a great thing and the interaction with the environment is quite surprising. The only other game that has scalable walls that i've played is EQ2, and in this you can also grab onto ledges which just makes it an incy bit more enjoyable, and it just makes you say "wow that's cool". I know these are trivial features but it helps with the immersion of "dungeon crawling". 

Quests are a only slightly un-intuitive but I think as long as you take the few seconds to read where you're supposed to go you'll be alright. Exploration areas do not stay unmapped once you zone out but it isn't really an issue for me. Most quests point you in the direction you're supposed to go, but mostly generally, ie: "South end of the island", or "Right outside the village". In my opinion it adds just a little sense of achievement when you get the narrator hinting that you're at the correct location. Some of the quests are even story arcs that take you through dungeons within dungeons, and if you fail on say, the third part of that quest's dungeon, then the next time you zone back at the beginning of the entire quest, it will take you to the dungeon that you were previously on. Pretty cool i'd say, and the loot system is fantastic for friends. Every chest and mob spawns loots specific to each player, but not in a "round-robin sense" Chest's spawn entirely seperate loot for you and let's say your 2 other friends. Some dungeons have some pretty cool puzzles too. Like the beginning ones have you re-routing power to different crystals and another one later on has you pointing the direction of an icey funnel to freeze an ancient creature.

I'm only level 3 right now and i've been playing with 2 other friends who also share my same sense of delight that this game offers. Every dungeon that we've traversed or any landmark are mostly virtually unique and each are crafted differently, which is a big plus. Also, many zones contain traps, which is a given, that always end up with me and my friends have a good laugh or two. The game is just plain fun. I can't give any insight on end game play, but I think if you take this game for what it is, then you could have a lot of fun. I wouldn't recommend soloing because I see how it could get a little boring. There's a lot of customization and room to build with your characters, and most of the game hold's true to the DnD ruleset, which is 3.5 I believe.

And the best part of all the game is 14.95 for the game and the first complementary month. I know I might sound like an ad or rep for Turbine, but when I buy games I like to factor in cost as much as the next person. For playing on the trial alone I've probably put in around 8 hours, and if you assume I already paid the initial 15 dollars, then I only paid $1.87 per hour of entertainment, which is a lot better than the $4.50 an hour I pay to see movies in my area. Not to mention, the more I play, the more my money bought.

Anyway, I'd suggest for anyone that is looking for something a bit casual and also just plain fun for friends to give this a try. You have nothing to lose really, and at least something possibly to gain.

mindspat

I was also someone who was engrossed with the depth of the original design of SWG and it has spoiled me.  If it weren't for the "combat upgrade" or the "new game experiance" I would likely still be playing SWG.  That being said, it's also caused me to have certain expectations from MMO's. For instance, I expect diveristy and dynamics along with mechanics where player skill is just as important if not more so then the character. 

I tried DDO when it first launched in 2005 and thought it was terrible.  That doesn't mean there weren't some good qualities about it, it's just that it was extremely bland and lacking for an MMO, but the tactile of the game play was extremely interesting.  Something I found very dissapointing is the game was based upon D&D 3.5 in Ebberon and all I knew, and liked, was AD&D set in Greyhawk or Forgotten Realms. Needless to say, I quit by the end of my free month. 

Coming back to DDO a year after it's launch was a refreshing reward and a nice shift away from the stale mechanics and generic characters of "other" mmo's.  Even though I liked where it had gone in a year I found myself frequently stepping away from the game for a month every 2 I played and this continued up till last September. 

My problem with DDO is there's certain worldly elements you come to expect from MMO's which just aren't present here, namely shared non instanced global adventure areas.  I suppose it's a double egded sword, on one hand you don't have to contend with kill stealing and camping mobs to advance quests whereas everything feels very personlized and catered to The experiance which enhances the immerssion.  A nice addition would be what's known as Public Quests in Warhammer Online. 

Being a fan of strategy based games I've found that DDO does this better then most other MMO's.  If there were a game that had a potential of being a sleeper hit I suspect this one to be it.  There's an incredible amount of potential and a few additions to the game play environment would do this one well.  Thankfully, it's a hell of a lot of fun in the current state its in today. 

EVE Online barely had 60k subscribers when I started playing it more then 2 years after its launch.  Today it boasts 300k subscribers and experiances 40k logged in on sundays.  Is it unreasonable to believe something like this could happen with DDO?

Sarr

Good to hear it, Dark-Asylum . I'm yet another player who was interested in this game long time ago, but left, without even subcsrcribing. But found that DDO is starting be the best MMO out there for me around Module 7, which brought the Monk class and probably explosion in Marketplace too. But I came after it happened, so I'm not sure .

From that point however, the game was like a new discovery. Each news, patch  and Module (mod8) was raising my hopes that Turbine wants more attention to this game. Actually, instead of brining doom, which many tried to foresee  (no luck, doom sayers), Turbine confirmed they are investing time and work to revamp DDO and make it much, much better and more popular. So , Mod 8 came, New Player Exprience came, new AI technology came (brining hirelings which may test the ground for familiars and pets) and Turbine said they will continue to revamp the game / fine tune it. So I think yes, DDO may be a hidden hit .

As about open areas and elements from other MMOs... I agree. Turbine won't lose the ability to create unique things if they'd try to learn from others. Blizzard is one great "copier" company - just look how they react to new MMOs on the market. When WAR was coming, Blizzard already worked on WotLK which has many ideas taken from WAR (PVP areas, machines, sieges, etc.) and LotrO (weapons similar to "Legendary Weaopns" from LotrO). Blizzard did it copy some things from Guild Wars too, when that game was growing and becomming succesful. They really know what they're doing.

I think DDO would benefit if Turbine created some open content, some more "usual" but fun stuff while still concentrating on DDO uniqueness and narrated quests. DDO should have more options, should be open for more playstyles, things to do beside of questing, open for more players. That could make DDO a major player on the market, like it should be - in my opinion.

EVE's number of subscriptions is entirely possible, if you ask me. Even more is possible, I think that Turbine has a "hidden giant" lurking in DDO.

Aganazer

Your experience is pretty much the exact same as my own. I brought a few friends with me and have been having the best time in a MMOG since... maybe forever. In the other MMOG's we tried to play together we would all end up on different parts of the world, different levels, different quests and would never be able to bring it together for a good dungeon crawl. The solo content was too easy and there either wasn't enough group content or it was custom made for a very specific group size that we couldn't meet without a PUG.

During our regular real life get together's we would always talk about a good dungeon crawl or starting a new game and only playing together. DDO is ideal for that type of gaming and its worked out great so far.

We are all around level 6 now with our Drow characters. Every new dungeon is still unique and inspired. The game is getting tougher, but the challenge is just about right for a group of 3-4 players.

almerel

To me the game is more enjoyable to start with people you've known for awhile. I've made new friends (people worth keeping on my friends list) that I would play other games with besides DDO. Since I've made those friends I would stay even if the friend I came back with left. It also helps that I'm working on getting some other gamers back into DDO.

Mordrid

I started playing from release and lasted til about Mod 3. I recently started looking for a game my gf and I could play together. We tried Dungeon Runners for a bit, but we enjoy gaming together and not really with strangers for the most part. Also her daughters have pretty much taken over our DR accounts which is fine by me. I was looking through my game cds and found DDO. I figured why not give it another shot. I wil say I was blown away by the vast improvements in the game. On Friday, I am activiating my old account and giving it to her, and using my trial account as my primary (not giving up my lvl 4 ranger). I will say while it is not a try table top game, it does a very good job recreating that magic and it is something she and I can play without the fear of idiots ruining it for us (ex WoW).

Doctorwhofan

Welcome to the game!

 

Turbine, in all its faults, has done a good job fixing the mistakes of launch.  Been with the game for three years, with a small two month break (did not cancel accounts) with FF, LotRO, and WoW.  I am far more aprreciative of DDO's systems than ever!

 

If any of you are on the Thelanis server, look up my guild Merc's Only and ask for Trissa, more than welcome to run with new  and returning players!

fortuente

It's funny, but I had the same basic experiences as everyone else in this thread. I couldn't stand DDO when it came out, but after a year-and-half or so I was blown away by how good it got.

Kudos to the OP for pointing out that pepole like us, also, may not have been ready for the game. I certainly matured and my viewpoints expanded within that time and I am sure that played no small part in my change of heart. But the hard work Turbine put into the game sealed the deal.

My only two complaints that remain are:

1. I don't like Eberron. Nothing can be done about that, but they have done a good enough job getting the classic D&D feel that it doesn't really bother me any more. They have done a reeeally good job at that, actually.

2. Subscription model. I wish there was a combined LOTRO-DDO sub (like SOE Station pass) because I just can't see myself subbing to more than one game at a time and I don't want to lose my LOTRO $10/mo rate - plus I want to support LOTRO also. If DDO was $10/mo or you could get both for $20-$25/mo I would be all over that and resubbed to DDO in a heartbeat. Micropayments, perhaps?

Something I would like to see in any game, but I think DDO would be particularly well-suited to: create your own dungeons/keeps. The ability to design your own instances, dungeon master style. I would pay the $15/mo on top of LOTRO or any other game sub for that feature without a doubt.