about D&D online...

maddogmikie

I read one of the post the other day and one of the beta testers were saying that "there arent much place to explore..." something like that...

well I have some quest about this game.

1. how is the map system? is it like 'loading area to area', 'only loading  to enter dungeons', or 'no loading at all' ??

2. what did it meant by the beta tester that there arent much place to explore?

3. is D&D online play style simular to EQ and DAoC??

4. I know the beta testers arent have much info on the game cuz its still beta, but would you say its worth buying it?? or should I stick with WoW??

thank u.

Frek

1.) Not exactly sure what you mean but I'm guessing that your asking about zones. In DDO everything is instanced. Even the city is an instance so anytime you want to go anywhere you have to travel through a portal to another zone. If your familiar with Guild Wars at all then it is similiar to that.

2.) You mentioned EQ and DAOC so I will use them to make a comparison. In those games you can travel to different zones which are wide open outside land masses. DDO is just the exact opposite. In DDO there are no wide open land areas for you to explore. The entire game in DDO consists of a town (Stormreach) and dungeons. So it can feel very cramped if you are the type of person who enjoys exploring.

3.) The play style of DDO is very different from EQ or DAOC. The combat is very action oriented. By that I mean that you use your mouse and click on mobs to attack them. It's not like EQ or DAOC where you can just "stick" to the mob and hit your attack key once. DDO actually requires you to use your own manual dexterity. I guess you could say it's closer to a FPS game than your traditional MMO.

4.) This question is highly subjective. Only you can determine if you will like it or not. Unfortunitly Turbine did not offer an open beta. For me personally I did not enjoy DDO at all. My biggest complaints were that the world is very small and there are obvious signs that the devs were extremely lazy in that you will see repeatable content as early as level 4.

Kelsonmac

Frek,

Very good post, and I agree with everything you said. Excellent explanation!

I was a beta tester for DDO. A couple of points I did not notice you covering. There is almost zero solo capability in DDO, so if you play it, I would suggest forming/joining Guild or perma-group right away, or you might find yourself spending a lot of time looking for random parties. Also, levelling is very difficult in DDO for the casueal player. It can take a long time for a casual player to level . . even at the lower levels. There is also no PvP in this game . . which is important to some.

I passed on this game. I just did not feel it was worth $50, and it certainly is not worth the additional $15 a month. This is a case of newer not necessarily being better. Though it IS a different kind of game, there are many, many games in the genre (and out of the genra) that are much better values IMO.