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First time impressions of D&DO
korvass
Member Posts: 616
Here's my initial impressionistic review of D&DO after a few days of playing. It is perhaps useful to point out that I've been playing D&D and other games for about 20 years now. I also went into this game with a certain desire and expectation. Namely, I bought it so I could group up with my regular D&D group for some online fun and adventure.
So I'm not playing D&DO as a regular main-stream MMO (already have one or two for that).
I had a few problems before even connecting, but these were largely unrelated to D&DO. Firstly, I found it impossible to trace back the original trial account I had a few months back. The Codemasters website only gave options to change the password. Second problem was the lack of serial code in my box. Seems the shop I bought it from might have tossed it out with the empty CD sleeve.. *shrug* Oh well... Main problem I had with D&DO was the patching.
Naturally, I started patching right during the server problem period, meaning my game ended up being ready to play about eight hours later. OK, so first evening of play down the tube.
The game itself though, so far, is exactly what I expected it to be. I started by resurrecting my old PnP characters as D&DO characters. Then found out most of their names were taken, and ended up with close approximations, heheh. The graphics are very nice, even a little too nice for my upper-average PC. I'm glad that Turbine went for the more realistic fantasy, as opposed to the usual porn-model booby-elves and GW/Warcrack dwarves. Though I do miss my Forgotten Realms, Eberron seems nice enough to look at.
The sound is also well done. The music is good, and not intrusive, and the little background noises really help to give that creepy dungeon-crawl feel when you're wandering about some dank sewer.
The gameplay is also about right for this type of game. Combat is nothing ground-breaking, but fluid enough and easy to get into (always something amusing about one-hit killing kobolds with a greatsword). The whole questing aspect of the game is great, so far. The interiors of the instances are very well detailed, and really give you that feeling that you're playing D&D.
And that's the overall thing that currently has me looking forward to logging on: the D&D feel. It's precisely what I was looking for in this particular game. Being low level, I find myself inching forward, peek round the edge of my screen as if I could see round that corner, and then consider putting the emergency services on speed-dial as some trap goes off in my face, or some little critter jumps out at me, intent on my death. Think my next mission will be to find a game that doesn't have any gorram spiders in it!
So yeh, that's about it. D&DO will never be my 'main' MMO, but what it aims to do (allow D&D pals the chance to play in a graphicsl online environment), it does very well in my opinion. It isn't perfect, but it lives up to the task I want the game to perform.
Graphics: 8
Sound: 8
Gameplay: 7.5
Roleplaying/Community: N/a
Challenge: 8
Overall: 8
So I'm not playing D&DO as a regular main-stream MMO (already have one or two for that).
I had a few problems before even connecting, but these were largely unrelated to D&DO. Firstly, I found it impossible to trace back the original trial account I had a few months back. The Codemasters website only gave options to change the password. Second problem was the lack of serial code in my box. Seems the shop I bought it from might have tossed it out with the empty CD sleeve.. *shrug* Oh well... Main problem I had with D&DO was the patching.
Naturally, I started patching right during the server problem period, meaning my game ended up being ready to play about eight hours later. OK, so first evening of play down the tube.
The game itself though, so far, is exactly what I expected it to be. I started by resurrecting my old PnP characters as D&DO characters. Then found out most of their names were taken, and ended up with close approximations, heheh. The graphics are very nice, even a little too nice for my upper-average PC. I'm glad that Turbine went for the more realistic fantasy, as opposed to the usual porn-model booby-elves and GW/Warcrack dwarves. Though I do miss my Forgotten Realms, Eberron seems nice enough to look at.
The sound is also well done. The music is good, and not intrusive, and the little background noises really help to give that creepy dungeon-crawl feel when you're wandering about some dank sewer.
The gameplay is also about right for this type of game. Combat is nothing ground-breaking, but fluid enough and easy to get into (always something amusing about one-hit killing kobolds with a greatsword). The whole questing aspect of the game is great, so far. The interiors of the instances are very well detailed, and really give you that feeling that you're playing D&D.
And that's the overall thing that currently has me looking forward to logging on: the D&D feel. It's precisely what I was looking for in this particular game. Being low level, I find myself inching forward, peek round the edge of my screen as if I could see round that corner, and then consider putting the emergency services on speed-dial as some trap goes off in my face, or some little critter jumps out at me, intent on my death. Think my next mission will be to find a game that doesn't have any gorram spiders in it!
So yeh, that's about it. D&DO will never be my 'main' MMO, but what it aims to do (allow D&D pals the chance to play in a graphicsl online environment), it does very well in my opinion. It isn't perfect, but it lives up to the task I want the game to perform.
Graphics: 8
Sound: 8
Gameplay: 7.5
Roleplaying/Community: N/a
Challenge: 8
Overall: 8
Comments
It is very true that Turbine has done a great job in translating the Paper game in the Pixel version, but the problem is they probably did it a bit too well.
This game as it is, can appeal only to people like you, who wants to play an electronic version of the original D&D.
But it doesn't appeal to the masses, not even a portion of it.
Most people who used to play D&D PnP has evolved, and now prefers to play MMORPG (like myself).
I see the PnP like a limitation, and copying the same limitations of PnP on a videogame is stupid and defeat the idea of videogames itself.
In videogames you are supposed to do more things compared of what you did in PnP.
In the PnP version you had to play in a restricted area (the board) and use lots of fantasy in creating the right atmosphere in your head.
In videogames you have the advantage of graphic 3D and the possibility to explore wonderful worlds created for you by the devs, worlds that the players can explore and immerse themselves in.
But what Turbine does? They stick with the dungeons, with no world to explore, only because D&D PnP was played in dungeons.
I think that's plain stupid.
Don't get me wrong, dungeons are very well done, the puzzles are fantastic, but the overall feel of the game is boring and outdated for modern games.
DDO is GW without outdoors.
But GW has no monthly fee, while you will have to pay a montly fee to play this garbage called DDO.
"This game as it is, can appeal only to people like you, who wants to play an electronic version of the original D&D."
Normally I hear everyone say how DDO *doesn't* appeal to old PnP'ers because it's real-time and they changed various rules, etc.
DDO has the "feel" of a "kick in the door and roll initiative" type of PnP game, which is a type of PnP a lot of people enjoy. Overall, it's a good game compared to most other MMOs out there. I'd stick it closer to City of Heroes than I would Guild Wars, not only due to the instancing but also the combat and character customization aspects of it.
Guild Wars to me is just... meh, and is not similar to DDO other than instancing. I often wonder if some people (not necessarily you) who link the two have ever actually played both. I'm not even counting the lame-o invisible walls everywhere, either.
I played ddo in beta & for about 60 days after release have all my founders gear ..but I like a lot of people found the game too restricting because of the forced grouping ..lack of content & low lv cap
I have recently returned to see the new mod and because I am in a gaming guild that has chapters in a bunch of games (the old timers guild) they have a bunch of peeps still playing so IMHO to really get what ddo offers you need to be in this kind of guild Or as the op stated have a static group of friends to play with ..
DDO will never be a mainstream mmo it will be more niche game like EVE another game I enjoy ..
Being able to solo much of the harbor quests & pull them up into the normal& hard lv`s is a big improvement the ah is a big improvement mail is a big improvement ...hopefully they will add more lower & mid lv quests & continue to add the solo function to many more quests ..I know that all the quests cannot have this but there many that can
I will continue to play DDo for a bit & check out the new content ..then move on to the new games coming out its a lot of fun if/when u get into a good group or better yet a great guild like I am in..
I am not sure if u played GW though, because apparently you don't think that GW has instances.
For your information GW is only instances, there is not persistent world except for the cities where people met to find a group.
The only difference between GW and DDO is that GW has outdoor instances, while DDO has only indoor instances (Dungeons).
Apart for that the games are really similar, even if GW is 5 times more fun to play.
City of Heroes on the other hand has more persistent world than those 2. The cities in CoH are really big, and they don't exist only as a meeting place but you can explore, quest and fight in them, although all of this is more limited compared to proper MMORPG like in EQ/EQ2.
this game awesome... I mean the voice system and the team co'op its
really cool, its like the game that I wanted to play always... a game
in which you need to team and cooperate with others players, doing fun
stuff and only killing 5 orcs and 6 goblins!
Wallo
NWN is similar in its limitations: you're playing a module, and can only interact with things that the creators intend to as a part of the story and quest they have designed. That's pretty boring as well. It's fine in the context of tabletop PnP roleplaying, but in a computer context, we've moved on to more immersive, complete virtual worlds with their own functioning virtual economies and the like. That's where roleplaying is at these days, not static. linear instances and/or modules a la "classic D&D" ruleset.
"I am not sure if u played GW though, because apparently you don't think that GW has instances."
I figured the part where I said GW to me is meh would be a big clue that I've played the game.
I thought I was clear that DDO and GW both are instanced, as are the missions in City of Heroes. And CoH missions, as much as I enjoy the game, are pretty much carbon copies of each other. DDO quests are WAY better than CoH quests/missions. I mean, it's not even close. Interesting how CoH rarely gets bashed around here when it comes to instancing and missions, especially when its missions basically suck.
There are differences between DDO and GW, but I'm too lazy to spend the time to put my finger right on those things. They play quite differently to me. I have fun playing DDO. GW, not much. You'd think with all the people saying the two are identical other than a monthly fee they'd play the same, but they don't. GW seems much more "button-pressy" and "Korean" to me. DDO can be that way if you want, but it is capable of much more.
With all the bad-mouthing around here, you'd think DDO is the worst game ever. And yet, the more MMOs I play, the more I find them lacking compared to DDO. And, believe me, I've done my share of bashing over at DDO.com. The game has the potential to be SOOOO good, but they seem to keep getting in their own way. I'm surprised at how much I defend it here, but there is SO much negativity towards it, and then I play the "good" games, and they aren't any better. It's like as long as a game puts in a big world of sameness to be able to run for 10 minutes in a straight line people consider it a good MMO.
I do agree that it plays different from GW. GW is much simpler and designed to be very streamlined and focused on PvP. But because both games feature liberal use of instancing technology, and only one charges a subscription, there will inevitably be comparisons made.
What DDO does, it does fairly well. The problem with the game has always been that what it does is only a sliver of what an MMORPG needs to do today. Even with it's limitations, it's audience would probably have been larger by a factor of ten if it was solo friendly and wasn't designed around repeating quests. The fact that the design team couldn't even leverage it's limited/focused design for maximum appeal is why it will always just be a small niche game.
That's fine on one hand, but I doubt it's what the money men had in mind when they tapped the DDO dev team to make DDO and it hasn't done much to enhance the D&D license either. If as an executive or venture capitalist I invested in what was meant to be a successful AAA MMORPG title and ended up with this, there wouldn't be a safe place on Earth the lead designers could hide!
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
All the major MMOs use instancing for end-game content to prevent conflicts of interests between users including Wow & EQ2. The more hyped of the next-gen western mmorps are using 100% instancing including Phantasy Star Universe, Star Trek Online, Tabula Rasa and Huxley. Theres absolutely nothing wrong with instancing everything, especially for a game where you dont get xp per mob as there would be no advantage to non-instancing. If you made DDO mob-xp orientated it would have been an aweful game with an endless battle between Devs and wannabe-farmers, all DnD fans would quit as PUGs without people whoring mobs would be impossible.
DDO suffers from having a double user-base. You have the Slowbies - people that love DnD to the extreme and want to log on and do the most obscure quest they can find regardless of xp and have no interest in min-maxing or twinking, as a result they make appaulling whiney pugs, take an hour to complete a quest and complain that everyone else is rushing and eventually leaves through fraustration. Then you have the hard-core gamers who may have a passing to moderate interest in DnD, people willing to do the same quest 10 times if it has amazing xp and are perfectly happy doing that for a week or two but then get bored. Example: At level 6 there is 1 quest series and 2 individual quests worth doing, thats it. Thats basically 4 hours content that must be repeated 3 or 4 times to ding.
The Slowbies are winning the devs approval and dominating the devs upgrades. Level upgrades are coming painfully slowly (6 months for 2 levels...) and time is being wasted on making the most obscure quests solo-able for the extreme slowbie that cant stand human contact.
Auction Houses have turned the game around a bit as people are starting to see that towns arent instanced and you can gauge the number of people logged on and talk to them intereactiving. The LFG system is a lot better too and there are no more bugged group listings so you get an excellent feel for how many people are on and what groups meet your demands.
Bottom Line: Quit moaning about instancing - you wouldnt moan if your car was more efficient so why moan if a game is more efficient? Start putting pressure on the devs to hire more people and get us some decent end-game content to keep us ticking - you can level 1-10 in maybe 10 days of play around a job giving most people access to end-game so the people sitting at level 3 and constantly re-rolling need to stop screaming for alternatives to STK and solo content.
--
Note: PlayNC will refuse to allow you access to your account if you forget your password and can't provide a scanned image of the product key for the first product you purchased..... LOL
"Hey, look a mob! lets kill it! "miss miss miss miss miss miss parry block parry parry parry block miss evade resist miss block 1 miss block miss" and is there anything else to do beside questing?
right that GW is different from DDO. DDO's instances dungeons are
better designed, more involved, and the game system is based on D&D
which is also more involved than GW. The reason why people
compare it is because they have become accustomed to the idea that the
pay to play games feature persistent virtual worlds, and DDO doesn't
really do that. It all depends on what you like in a game.
A lot of people like a bit more virtual world in their game, whereas
others like to cut to the chase. DDO is for the cut to the chase
crowd.
I do agree that it plays different from GW. GW is
much simpler and designed to be very streamlined and focused on
PvP. But because both games feature liberal use of instancing
technology, and only one charges a subscription, there will inevitably
be comparisons made.
DDO has the same
exact mechanics as GW with the dungeons crawling and bleed moves. GW
actually has a better designed and more involving game sytem than DDO
because you can't do most mission without certain team members. In DDO,
you can dog pile most monsters and still win. There is no tactics to
DDO game where as GW you have to becareful not to cause aggro. All DnD
games have the same problems, they never design the dungeons to appeal
to the classes' strengths and situations created within the game are
never really life-threatening. The dungeons in DDO use the same module,
feature a lot of the same monsters as the last dungeons and a lot of
the same treasures. In fact, DDO feels more like a grinding than WoW
seeing as I have to kill the same damn monster and every freaking
dungeon. I mean how many times can a man kill kobold before getting
bored.
without tanks - casters are dead
without cleric/bard - tanks are dead
without rogue - it will cost the cleric alot of extra SP for the healing and raise dead spell.
Without caster - well, if you played this up the levels you know how important crowd controll can be.
Quests also includes Stat runes, which only characters with 20+ in a certain stat can use. i have yet to see a tank with 20 intelligance, or wisdom....
your ignorence of this game, captainrpg, is getting very obvious. so, im gonna try and ignore your trolling from now on.
Btw... Kobolds? Kobolds are pretty much non-existing after level 3! where do you get this stuff from?
I do agree that it plays different from GW. GW is much simpler and designed to be very streamlined and focused on PvP. But because both games feature liberal use of instancing technology, and only one charges a subscription, there will inevitably be comparisons made.
DDO has the same exact mechanics as GW with the dungeons crawling and bleed moves. GW actually has a better designed and more involving game sytem than DDO because you can't do most mission without certain team members. In DDO, you can dog pile most monsters and still win. There is no tactics to DDO game where as GW you have to becareful not to cause aggro. All DnD games have the same problems, they never design the dungeons to appeal to the classes' strengths and situations created within the game are never really life-threatening. The dungeons in DDO use the same module, feature a lot of the same monsters as the last dungeons and a lot of the same treasures. In fact, DDO feels more like a grinding than WoW seeing as I have to kill the same damn monster and every freaking dungeon. I mean how many times can a man kill kobold before getting bored.
You are making yourself look a fool with the kobold statement, there is a much larger variety of monsters in DDO than you make out and much more than WoW. WoW is a game where you kill the same monsters over and over again, spiders, bears, murlocs, they are EVERYWHERE, you kill them at lvl 1 and you don't stop all the way to level 60. The thing with WoW is, they give them a different colour to fool you into thinking they are something different!
You must not leave until you free Arlos and have gathered your party safely in this hallway.
are making yourself look a fool with the kobold statement, there is a
much larger variety of monsters in DDO than you make out and much more
than WoW. WoW is a game where you kill the same monsters over and over
again, spiders, bears, murlocs, they are EVERYWHERE, you kill them at
lvl 1 and you don't stop all the way to level 60. The thing with WoW
is, they give them a different colour to fool you into thinking they
are something different!
Dude, I know there is
variety of other monster, but for the first part of the game, you're
killing nothing, but Kobolds. I've been through the game already. In
WoW, you go from killing kobolds, to humans, to Gnolls, to wolves, to
bear, to tigers, oh my. It's actually a rumor spawn by WoW haters like
yourself that you are put on quests to kill the same monster when in
fact, the only quest where you have to kill the same monster is to kill
10 rats or something, which is the same quests you'll find in DDO and
other games.
WoW has you move on from one monster to the next. DDO sticks with the
same monsters until you get to the late dungeons. In fact, DDO does the
same thing with monsters that GW does and that's repeatedly throw
hordes of the same monsters at you.
or tank, if you have an extra cleric. Tanks are a most and rogue don't
do much except find hidden areas, avoid traps and looking cool while
fighting two swords.
Actually, you still fight Kobolds up to level 5 to 6, you didn't every
quest in sewer did you? Because the whole area is filled with Kobolds
more so than humans and slime. The only person is ignorant of DDO is
yourself saying that Kobold don't exist after level 3. We did that area
right near the bar, the sewer plant or whatever the hell the name of
that place is, that place is filled with Kobolds and you can only do
that quest at level 4 to 5 so don't go telling me your lies.
Actually, you still fight Kobolds up to level 5 to 6, you didn't every quest in sewer did you? Because the whole area is filled with Kobolds more so than humans and slime. The only person is ignorant of DDO is yourself saying that Kobold don't exist after level 3. We did that area right near the bar, the sewer plant or whatever the hell the name of that place is, that place is filled with Kobolds and you can only do that quest at level 4 to 5 so don't go telling me your lies.
What place near the bar did you do with the kobolds that was a lvl 4 or 5 dungeon? The sewer place you mention is the Waterworks and it is a lvl 2 dungeon, at least get your facts straight, after the Waterworks, you get market access and as I recall, the only dungeon there with kobolds is also lvl 2 which is Missing In Action!
You must not leave until you free Arlos and have gathered your party safely in this hallway.
And no, I cant honestly think of another quest past level 3 with kobolds in it. can anyone help me think of one?
Critters up to level 3: slimes, kobolds, humans, iron hounds, spiders, zombies, skellies, mephits, troglodytes, ogres, hob-goblins, dwarfs, Wraits, giant, scorpions, ghouls.. prolly more but but couldnt think of anymore. but yeah, the kobold dungeons are the most popular ones and one can get a kobold overdose for a while. but they go away fast.
btw.. did i say you needed bard? i said cleric/bard, meaning one or the other. bards are a very nice addition to a group so you could very well have them both tho.
Maybe its a difference in experience but I still love to play PnP because the people you sit around and play with are atleast friendly and not a bunch of 10 year old jack *** know it alls. How can you say your supposed to do more in computer games then PnP games? Videogames no matter how many options you might have especially MMO's are LINEAR!
Granted the setting DDO uses is restricted in the exploration department but in a real game of PnP D&D with a GOOD Dungeon Master you can wander off all you want you just have to expect there to be consquences. I mean in what MMO game have you been able to walk into a tavern knock someone around and get thrown out by security? NONE! In what MMO can you go break into someone's house and rob them? In what MMO do your actions really have consquences in the setting around you? None of them. A good PnP game is all about actions, reactions, and consquences none of which any MMO game really offers. Sure you can run up and peeve off enemy guards and get yourself killed but thats pretty much it in most MMO games.
You get far more options in PnP than you will ever get in any online game unless you have a DM thats never DM'd before or just a really shitty one that doesn't let you go outside the story he's running (i've never met any that did this, course that might be why my friends and I had alot of mishap at times). Not that this is a downside to MMO's because I do love them but you can't go and say "Oh most PnP'ers now play MMO's because thast not true any real PnP fan still plays religiously.
Please Refer to Doom Cat with all conspiracies & evil corporation complaints. He'll give you the simple explination of..WE"RE ALL DOOMED!