An Honest Review of the First 10 Levels of Knights of Dream City

johnmatthais

 
From the point of view of Knights of Dream City player, Johnon.

I came to this game fresh out of games such as Darkfall and Final Fantasy XI (still subbed to FFXI) not knowing what to expect. I've played over 60 MMOs in my time as a teenage gamer and besides EvE and FFXI, haven't ever found something I could really stick to and enjoy. Nonetheless, as many looked at the game and were put off by the graphics, I was still excited for the game. It brought out a sense of nostalgia in me immediately. The graphics aren't ugly, they're just N64/PS1 era retro. Not to mention, with the downfall of their previous game Fasaria World, this game is the only commercial game out there using RealmCrafter. Everyone thinks RealmCrafter is some sort of easy way to do things. Well, this one's the only one out there that uses it at the moment. For that, I applaud New Source Gaming right off the bat.

I'm going to say right now, this game is a perfect balance of hardcore gaming and casual gaming and those who played games like Dungeon Runners should find themselves at home within the basic confines of gameplay.

I'm also going to say that it's a niche game and not everyone will like it. Due to the extremely different use of a sci-fi setting and excessive use of instancing, it may not be for everyone.

I got into the game not sure what to expect. I loaded it up, created my character and started to wander around. After figuring out that the world was mostly instanced, save for the lobby, and that anyone could join an instance with you at any time, I jumped into the training area where I was almost immediately partied with a player who had been in beta and who showed me the basics of crafting and trading that weren't part of the basic tutorial or help guides (these may help get you started, but in the long run, asking another player for help may be a good idea. Anyone who decides to play can ask me for instance =D). After a short while in the training area, he logged off and I continued on in my journey to level and get out of the training area.

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Gameplay:

The game essentially plays like a dungeon-crawler MMO. In the lobby area, the area where you start out which contains the player-run-economy affected market, the equipment shops, the zone selector, the crafting stations, the general character help guide and the VIP room, you go to the zone selector and you select the hostile, group or exploration zone (zones are limited by the amount of security clearance you have) you want to go to.

In a hostile or group zone, you enter a city-like area where you spend your time fighting mobs that are limited to one enemy per street corner. You're probably thinking this would make things pretty bare, but with 8 instances per zone and quick respawn times, it works out fine. There is also a safe zone, marked by a green sparkly semi-sphere, where you can go to reset mobs and regain health, though you have to use energy packs to get your energy back.

In exploration zones, you get a clever distraction of hide-and-seek with characters that provide a backstory about the Legion upon being found. These missions give you a handsome experience reward too. Group zones are self-explanatory.

Actual combat works much like every other MMO. You right click to start an auto-attack and use a variety of skills to help you take down your enemy, then move on to the next. You may think "oh great, another one" but given the set up, it actually feels much different than every other MMO.

Progression in the game is determined by how many security clearance points you get. Security clearance points are earned through missions. Missions in the game give you a set amount of clearance points based on which zone you're in. The first gives you one per mission, the second 2 per mission and so on.

The game also encourages you to take risks. While you can go about fighting enemies your level and survive fine, progression will be very slow and experience gained will be minimal, whereas if you fight something 4 levels over you, well-stocked with Med packs and energy packs, you will gain much, much more experience. However, the game keeps you from fighting something well above your level and gaining levels per kill by keeping each security clearance zone having progressively harder mobs as you gain more points. There is also a boss in each zone labelled as a "GIGA" to add to the difficulty. These are extra hard to take down, even if you are their level or are above their level.

Gameplay gets addicting, and it keeps you wanting to fight bigger, stronger enemies. It's a long way up though. There are 100 levels and often, you'll find that you've completed all of the missions in an area, but aren't quite ready for the next area yet or that you need some more security clearance to get into the next area. This could cause the game to become a grind as you farm for certain items dropped by each mob to turn in or as you build up your strength, or as you farm for better armor so you can handle the challenge that awaits. Fortunately, I've been told the game does reward players for their hard work, though I have not yet gotten far enough to experience the rewards firsthand.

 

Missions:

The Missions in Knights of Dream City come pretty standard. In the hostile areas (and for players under level 5, the training area), you go to a mission bot and you can either turn in certain items dropped by mobs for a reward of experience, mira (money), VIP tokens and security points, or you can take up a mission to kill x number of a certain enemy type for a similar reward. The only exception to this is exploration zones, which essentially have hide-and-seek missions with NPCs scattered around the zone.

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After getting out of the training zone, I started really farming for items I needed to craft crystals for buying armor. I also continued to do as many missions as possible, as they gave great rewards. Other than that, I bought a zoning license for my colony, so that I could get started building my colony and taxing my colonists (yes, they have this feature), stocking up on med and energy packs every chance I got and I started taking part in the community.

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Community:

The site has a lot of community features set up. They have forums, blogs for telling of your game experiences, guilds, help clubs, player-made game guides, music, videos, pictures with ratings, friends and so on. I started taking part in it all and so far have a guild, a help club, a starter tips guide and a blog that I manage myself. 

Inside the game, players are helpful, friendly and mature as niche game communities tend to be. They're always there and ready to help out, as is the one developer, Thywill, who polices the community and answers any questions, bug related or game help related that others can't answer.

Also inside the game, there is the ability to hold guild-wide events and there is a Top 5 list based on player activity where players are rewarded at the end of each week with a progressively larger amount of VIP tokens for being active that week.

Graphics:

Many will be offset by the graphics, but the zones vary enough for it to be overlooked and to me, they are nostalgic. They may be subpar for today's day and age in technological advances, but they are enough to do their job well and be memorable for players.

Bugs/Stability:

As of today, 2 days after release, there are a few bugs being looked at such as the intro movie causing a black screen on Vista and Windows 7, certain energy packs being duds, etc, but they're minor compared to some launches. There are also a few typos to be mentioned and falling through the ground happens occasionally. Thankfully, resetting is easy due to the instanced nature of the game.

 

The one major issue with the game so far is server stability, and while it doesn't crash, it makes for lots of lag server-side and you will find yourself hitting invisible walls or getting caught on a rubber leash occasionally. However, as stated before, it's being looked into and hopefully will be fixed soon.

Conclusion:

For what it's worth, due to school I'm not the most active player and all and I'm not an avid NSG fan (I jumped on board the when the free trial day on the 7th was opened up to me), but I'm enjoying every minute i spend in the game and eagerly await what the game will throw at me next. There are a few issues and it may be grindy at times, but it's just launched this week and I'm sure everything will be fixed and more content will be added soon. As of right now, there's no in-game guild system or friends list, but both are being looked into and a guild system is said to be likely in the future. The game currently only costs $20 for 3 months, $40 per year or $60 for lifetime with the client software being free. There's currently no free trial but I'd hope after this review, you don't need one.

8/10

-Johnon, 16

Starburst77

Your review was very thorough and I appreciate that seeing many people like posting reviews for games they have only played for a few minutes. Playing the game myself, I agree with many points you brought up about the game and even those areas that may need improvement. As for me, I really like the game. With all things considered that you pointed out, I think anyone who gives KoDC a chance will like it.

KarmaCry7

Great review. I agree with a lot of points you made. I don't see you in the game though and I'm playing a lot more now. PM me if you decide to get on again.