Originally posted by Foxly I don't think Mr. Fuller has taken into account that DDO had opened about two months ago (or 3) and the upcoming patch has solo content and new places to explore (July), not to mention a new playable race and quests. Forgive me, but it seemed to me the pen & paper aspect doesn't apply in the MMO setting, just that it is BASED on it. As the pc and console games have ALWAYS differed, some quite irreverently, from the pen & paper game. The solo content they are adding is just for the begining levels to make the transition to group play easier. They are NOT adding solo play for all levels. Keeping that in mind, his review seemed to me like a restrained p&p elitist's attempt to be fair to a game he doesn't like. In doing so, I think a lot of things were not taken into consideration (see paragraph 1). To me, DDO is like EQ2, where you spend MOST of your time in a city to START with. When you get to 5th level or so in DDO, you can leave the city to Xen'drik's excavation siteS, Redwillow Ruins (not in Stormreach), the pirate islands, and other places (Cult of the Six, for instance). Not to mention, the places you get to go are more interesting compared to similar places in other games like EQ2, such as Stormreach's sewers and harbor. Can you tell me if the areas you can go to, (Xen'drik's Excavation Site, Redwillow Ruins, Pirate Islands) are open to more then the group you are in? In other words, con you find players there that are not in your group? Also, Delera's Tomb in the Graveyard area was far cooler than any other undead sequence I've gone through before. The wraiths are relentless and a good party is all it takes to get through. I've been through several times and the Man himself, Gary Gygax (for the uninitiated, he created D&D), DM's the tomb as you go! How cool is that? In light of the review, I would like to suggest that anyone who cares to criticize this game also look at 3 things: 1) Satine answers all questions on the forums. She is perfect. Excellent customer service (within 3 minutes I always get a response). 2) Patch frequency. NOT FOR FIXES -for NEW CONTENT! There is a patch once to twice a month with new quests, items, abilities, etc. 3) The newsletter. This thing is thorough about what is coming up within 2 weeks of its publication. It has everything with such clarity as to leave no doubt where item changes are planned. And Satine does it. I think Satine is also handling the forums for Age of Conan now. You just can't beat that. So you are saying that Satine works for both Turbine and Funcom? And that so far they, Turbine, have added new content (meaning new quests, items, etc) several times since they went live? Not including the Update module they released?
Your post begs the question... "What are you smoking?"
"However targeting can be difficult as you have to actively click on your target to get the spells off. The problem is, when six people are all attacking the same monster, it is hard to focus on getting the target right."
LOL.....please actually take time to LEARN the game before posting such insanity. Did you actually play it long enough to know you can set an auto target key and simply hit a key on your hotbar to attack ANY target?
"The whole game is instanced and no matter how big guilds are, players must adventure in six-person groups."
I guess you must have forgotten the game is titled DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS Online, right? Frankly, all of you people that think D&D should have been translated without instanced dungeons and a focus on small groups either have never played D&D or don't understand what it is about.
"Without opens areas for players to explore and PvP content for players to enjoy, DDO comes up a little short of expectations."
PvP does NOT belong in this game....period! Not EVERY mmo needs pvp to be viable. So many complain that none of the new games try to brek the mold and do anything different. This game takes the risk to do that and people complain that it isn't like every other EQ or WoW clone out there. PvP does not really make much sense in a D&D game and it can open a HUGE can of worms with constant balancing of classes that would cause a ton of nerfs to the players. When a game wasn't designed for PvP right from the get-go usually adding it later is a big mistake and causes many balancing problems that never seem to end. Nerfing these classes like mad to balance for PvP would only serve to alienate the people that are playing and actually enjoying the game and it would turn the mechanics of those classes further away from the pen and paper versions they are supposed to be based on.
My advice to the reviewer: Don't judge an entire game based simply on your perceptions as a total n00b. It was completely obvious to me while reading your review that you are very inexperienced in the game and lacking knowledge in many areas. You didn't even play any of the higher level instances and admitted so in the review. It makes no sense to me why people will play a game for like 3 hours to maybe 15 hours and then judge the entire experience based on those n00b perceptions.
Originally posted by daddystabz "However targeting can be difficult as you have to actively click on your target to get the spells off. The problem is, when six people are all attacking the same monster, it is hard to focus on getting the target right."
LOL.....please actually take time to LEARN the game before posting such insanity. Did you actually play it long enough to know you can set an auto target key and simply hit a key on your hotbar to attack ANY target?
"The whole game is instanced and no matter how big guilds are, players must adventure in six-person groups."
I guess you must have forgotten the game is titled DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS Online, right? Frankly, all of you people that think D&D should have been translated without instanced dungeons and a focus on small groups either have never played D&D or don't understand what it is about.
"Without opens areas for players to explore and PvP content for players to enjoy, DDO comes up a little short of expectations."
PvP does NOT belong in this game....period! Not EVERY mmo needs pvp to be viable. So many complain that none of the new games try to brek the mold and do anything different. This game takes the risk to do that and people complain that it isn't like every other EQ or WoW clone out there. PvP does not really make much sense in a D&D game and it can open a HUGE can of worms with constant balancing of classes that would cause a ton of nerfs to the players. When a game wasn't designed for PvP right from the get-go usually adding it later is a big mistake and causes many balancing problems that never seem to end. Nerfing these classes like mad to balance for PvP would only serve to alienate the people that are playing and actually enjoying the game and it would turn the mechanics of those classes further away from the pen and paper versions they are supposed to be based on. My advice to the reviewer: Don't judge an entire game based simply on your perceptions as a total n00b. It was completely obvious to me while reading your review that you are very inexperienced in the game and lacking knowledge in many areas. You didn't even play any of the higher level instances and admitted so in the review. It makes no sense to me why people will play a game for like 3 hours to maybe 15 hours and then judge the entire experience based on those n00b perceptions.
Just one quick question... In what way/ways has DDO broked the mold in MMOs?
Oh, an in his defense... The only way he can judge a game is on his own perceptions. Wether or not "you" like it or not is has no validity.
Originally posted by Size-Twelve I don't understand what's so confusing about the rating system. Just think of it like school, and use percentages.
9 - 10 [ 90 - 100%] = A 8 - 9 [ 80 - 90% ] = B 7 - 8 [ 70 - 80% ] = C 6 - 7 [ 60 - 70% ] = D 5 - 6 [ 50 - 60% ] = F
Anything below that is still failing, but just how badly depends on the score.
If it were meant to be a 'grade' system they'd use % instead of a 1-10 scale. I'm sorry I totally dissagree. On a 1-10 scale 5 is AVERAGE (C)... 3-4 is "below" average and 1-2 is "bad/awful"
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online. Sig image Pending Still in: A couple Betas
Originally posted by Elnator Originally posted by Size-Twelve I don't understand what's so confusing about the rating system. Just think of it like school, and use percentages.
9 - 10 [ 90 - 100%] = A 8 - 9 [ 80 - 90% ] = B 7 - 8 [ 70 - 80% ] = C 6 - 7 [ 60 - 70% ] = D 5 - 6 [ 50 - 60% ] = F
Anything below that is still failing, but just how badly depends on the score.
If it were meant to be a 'grade' system they'd use % instead of a 1-10 scale. I'm sorry I totally dissagree. On a 1-10 scale 5 is AVERAGE (C)... 3-4 is "below" average and 1-2 is "bad/awful"
I agree, But how many rating have you seen below a 5? I have not seen any... And I know some of the games are really bad...
Excellent review! Although there were some factual errors, as previously pointed out in the thread. I think the review in general hit spot-on.
As for the "value"..
They hit the "casual" dungeons and dragons feel spot-on, and that feel isn't worth a monthly fee in my opinion. I'd actually rather pay a monthly fee for Neverwinter Nights, as it generally offers more to do than this game, largely thanks to the toolset.
Great review that is honest about the negatives. Of course Mr Fuller has been previously corrected on his many errors and I need to add another failing in his review (on top of all the others owch). He fails to truely imply how good the combat system is - unlike his many other omissions through lack of game play he should have instantly recognized the depth and dimension of the combat system.
I have yet to find a better one given that you can block with shield, tumble/roll out of the way, time your strokes of melee weapon, jump out of danger, use the geography to advantage, sneak etc (or use the auto system if your dex is below 10!). Also as previously mentioned you can dodge missiles, melph's acid arrow, so Advanced D&D is brought to life via your pc...no more frickin' dice!...just some of the things that make the combat the best around at the moment. I think only Roma Victor may offer a better combat system (but without the very attractive graphics of D&D - even playing on low settings is sweet!)...please some one disagree with me and inform me if you know a better one!
combat systems I know are EQ 1/10, City of Villains 6/10, Guild Wars 8/10, Project Entropia 7/10, StarWars 4/10, WoW 0/10, and D&D i give 9/10
so any 10s out there please let me know!
So good review but played too safe with the scoring...and just for the record I have been playing from release and have not paid yet for 2 accounts...maybe it is just free in Europe (hahahaha)
id have to rate this game at least a D+/C- range as a potential grade
graphics are a B+ good but not extraordinary, plus kinda bogs down anything not running latest system. I can forgive that since its rather new.
the VIOP feature is a nice touch i give that a A for inventiveness.
BUt the instanced, this is where we get tangled and gnarly. THis game is similar in structure and game play to GuildWars, too similar in fact to justify playing $14.99 for a completly instanced closed game. I played this game for the fact I am a major DDO fan been so since i was 8. but this whole instanced thing where you are forced to play along a 6 man group is ridiculous.
I cant tell you how many times i went into the taverns and ask for a group or did high lvl ROGUE LFG most poeople just stand around, or are running around town doing nothing. I can sit there for over an hour or more trying to form a group. I give DDO a major D- on this.
I cant even call this a MMO in he traditional Sense, i figure if i wanna do instanced dungeons and areas, id play GUild Wars for god sake.I am very upset that Turbine would charge their customers such a traditional MMO pricing for a Un'MMO like game. I canceled within a week by that time i was alrady lvl 4 rank 4 lol i was gonna level out end game in a matter of a week to 2 weeks after taht. ill never buy or play this game again. it has truly failed.
$60 down the drain for me.
3.4ghz Phenom II X4 965, 8GB PC12800 DDR3 GSKILL, EVGA 560GTX 2GB OC, 640GB HD SATA II, BFG 1000WATT PSU. MSI NF980-G65 TRI-SLI MOBO.
This game gets 2 thumbs down and a 7.5 rating is being way WAY to kind, a 4.5 would be more in line for this flop.
I had high hopes for this game but ended up completely disappointed.
It has horrible lag in the non instanced areas and there is almost no social interaction, once you find a few people to quest with you don't have any need to speak to anyone else EVER!
Very Limited content, almost no real involvement in the story line, a lot of the quest dungeons look exactly alike.
Playing a FPS gives me a bigger feeling of accomplishment than D&D online which is really sad because I hate FPS.
I haven't played in awhile because the thought of spending another dime on this POS made me sick.
I am hoping Turbine does a better job with LOTRO but I wont hold my breath.
Turbine hasn't got it right since they first released Asheron's Call and in the end they screwed that game up too.
I feel you are too lenient on DDO and Turbine. To any RPG fan this is a complete flop, yet you rate the roleplay at 7? That's saying there is considerable roleplay to be found. No exploration, and you said it yourself no reason to roleplay. Value at 6? There is nothing to do here except repeat things you did yesterday. MMOs are suppose to be huge with tons of things to do.
Turbine really dropped the ball in a big way. They let down the D&D name, the MMO industry, and more importantly the fans. I still can't get over how the D&D game has no exploration or storyline. A complete and total joke.
I completely agree with this review. I bought this game because many of my guild members in Wow had started to play, so I knew I would have someone to play with. Unfortunately, even being in a large guild, it seemed like I spent most of my time trying to get a group together. Once we did, it was quite fun.
I cancelled my subscrbtion before the first month was over. Enough said.
Originally posted by Velgar Well this game is hard to rate
Nah, it's easy to rate. I give it a 1. This is without a doubt the worst MMORPG I've ever played.
EDIT: Why is this game only reviewed by pen and paper DnD fans? Why is it never rated by the average gamer? Hard core DnD fans seem to be the only people who like this game.
i give D&D a 5 its ok from all the reviews but im only givein it 5 for its graphics (4 for graphics 1 for everthing else)
Whenever i step outside, somebody claims to see the light It seems to me that all of us have lost our patience. 'cause everyone thinks they're right, And nobody thinks that there just might Be more than one road to our final destination--
My advice to the reviewer: Don't judge an entire game based simply on your perceptions as a total n00b. It was completely obvious to me while reading your review that you are very inexperienced in the game and lacking knowledge in many areas. You didn't even play any of the higher level instances and admitted so in the review. It makes no sense to me why people will play a game for like 3 hours to maybe 15 hours and then judge the entire experience based on those n00b perceptions.
Because when you're actively trying to pitch your game to customers, those first three to maybe fifteen hours are crucial in the bait-and-hook.
I was fortunate to be in the beta and I had very high hopes for this game.
Rating the game a 6 is being very generous.
If it were a free to play, like Guild Wars, I would say it's worth the money to get the cd's. The game lacks the depth of other MMOG's due to all the instancing. Plus early on, it was very everquest-like in that it was near impossible to solo as you leveled up. I have read they are fixing that issue, but still isn't enough incentive for me to subscribe. I can only go into the same door in the same city to fight the same rats so many times before I'm bored outta my mind.
I also discovered DDO during its beta phase, and was key in eagerly pitching it to all my online friends. Unfortunately, once we all tried it out, we came to the same conclusion: this product needs more work.
I remember hoping DDO would fail, if only so I would have the last laugh against fanbois who screamed nothing was wrong with DDO. While there's always a smug bit of satisfaction whenever I open my e-mail to see the equivalent of "plz play me kthnx" e-mails from Turbine, it does make me sad--'cause I do love the D&D, and I would have loved to love this, except..
.. it really needs more work.
In its current incarnation, it's, like.. I suppose the best description would be Neverwinter Nights?.. in the sense you have all these little "module" stories you can load up with a group of friends?.. but there's no real sense of MMO to it. Sort of like a Guild Wars/NWN.
One of the things about static reviews is they don't take into account updates
Turbine have been listening to the players ( yea i know weird) and have made major changes
We have had new content added every 2 or 3 months ( actual instances / quests )
We now have in game mail like WOW etc.
We now have a full and rather clever faction system ( called favour in DDO) which has a reward / enhanced shop system ie - a ranger that naturally uses bows etc . will try very hard to get house Deneith faction to get reduced rate on 75% +3 returning arrows ... a mage may well go for house P to get similar benefits .
This has led to charactors wanting to increase faction to make themselves better House k leads to more bank slots Coin Lord leads to increased backpack space once you obtain a portable hole ..
All in all this has enhanced the game in the way the players have requested.
Turbine have also added solo instances which can get you through the lower ranks / levels but after that you have to interact and group to make any headway - you cant just pop out of your spawn and beat on little gribblies to get levels you have to work for it and work with other people ! This was a very brave option to go for as a lot of the powergamey types want to be able to solo their way to l33tdom - in ddo if you see a rank 60 then its been earned through play and interaction
A major difference from dand is the enhancements - within each level there are 4 enhancement slots - originally practically every class had the same enhancements - but turbine have increased the choices and now we really do have to choose how to further customise the charactor .
In game support is exemplary - I have played a lot of MMORPG's since being in alpha on eq1 - DDO's gm beat every other sytem around - they arent jobsworths , they actually try to help !! - the longest I have had to wait for a gm to not only respond but to fix a glitch is 3 minutes ....
RP wise the internal voice chat actually reduces rp - but it is still there - as much as in any other large scale MMORPG
Servers The servers are bounced once a week which is when they also do patches and upgrades - apart from that they are practically up 100% of the time. Downtime is kept to the announced windows in general
The only thing I have really seen in this game that is wrong is that they swamped it with magic items . Magic items in Dand should be a great boost and sought after - when you have 4 rank 50 charactors ( lvl 10 is rank 50) with multiple +5 items for every slot then they loose their benefits . The game is biased towards Lawful Good quite heavily but that may change ( best weapon in the game is lawful good and there are no comparable items)
The next patch brings in limited pvp and rank 60 ( lvl 12) as well as 25 new dungeons and an auction house - which all in all is a lot of content -this like all other content enhancements is included in your subscription and not an add on you have to buy . Patching is fast as they use a bit torrent style dowload
All in all i like this game and if you are a non-powergamer id say drop in and say hi NinjaGranny HouseHydra Lyrandar
PS - the european servers are far better than the american
I think the review is unfair and that a fairer idea wold come from a player - I have played from noob to raid and these are my humble opinions
Graphic 7 ( bit samey with some display glitches but nice scenery)
Sound 7 ( bit samey but nice effects in some dungeons )
Role Paying 6 ( unfortunately but it is the way it is played rather than the game itself - introducing languages so for example a drow is at a disadvantage inhuman settlements would be nice)
Fun 9 ( you need to play to get into it but after that it beats the others hands down - i have dropped all other subs to play this exclusively)
Community 8 ( forums are good and pushed even from the login launcher - in game peopel help and interact - l33t u3ers dotn get on at all -- yay !!
Perf / lag 9 ( main areas are instanced to load balance and actual dungeons cant lag as even on raids 12 people run at full speed )
Cust service 8 ( GM and in game assistance is superb - account issues etc. appalingly bad - 3 misn to get resolved issues in game - 6 months to not get resolved outside)
Value 10 ( free continually upgrading content and game play - servers 100% uptime ( apart from scheduled patching) - nuff said really
How you have someone write a review that only made it to level 4 is beyond me. A lot of the other people bashing the game said that they only played it a month. The reviewer says that the level cap is 10 when it's 12 and has been for awhile which makes me think that he hasn't even played in a long time. At level 4 you haven't even seen 5% of the game. How can you write a review based on seeing less than 5% of the game? He's heard of raids? He doesn't mention the Titan or The Demon Queen, Necropolis, or any of the other outstanding quest series. If he played recently he should know that they are releasing alot more solo content up to level 9. He said the sound was ok with the different music but didn't talk about the dm narrations or the ingame voice chat so that you don't need 3rd party programs.
If you don't like it that's fine. If you hate it that's fine too. But somebody who hasn't really played it should not write a review. The last review I read here of WoW was written by someone that reached the maxed level and he was able to talk about the full scope of the game. That's the way all reviews should be unless the game just came out.
Originally posted by Zackxm If you don't like it that's fine. If you hate it that's fine too. But somebody who hasn't really played it should not write a review. The last review I read here of WoW was written by someone that reached the maxed level and he was able to talk about the full scope of the game. That's the way all reviews should be unless the game just came out.
Err..the original review that you seem to be upset with was written and posted on 5/29/06. That's seven months ago, shortly after the game launched. It was an early review. You could argue that the game is due for a re-review, but they've kept the news section for the game up to date with official release information, even if they haven't added more editorials or reviews on it.
Comments
9 - 10 [ 90 - 100%] = A
8 - 9 [ 80 - 90% ] = B
7 - 8 [ 70 - 80% ] = C
6 - 7 [ 60 - 70% ] = D
5 - 6 [ 50 - 60% ] = F
Anything below that is still failing, but just how badly depends on the score.
"However targeting can be difficult as you have to actively click on your target to get the spells off. The problem is, when six people are all attacking the same monster, it is hard to focus on getting the target right."
LOL.....please actually take time to LEARN the game before posting such insanity. Did you actually play it long enough to know you can set an auto target key and simply hit a key on your hotbar to attack ANY target?
"The whole game is instanced and no matter how big guilds are, players must adventure in six-person groups."
I guess you must have forgotten the game is titled DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS Online, right? Frankly, all of you people that think D&D should have been translated without instanced dungeons and a focus on small groups either have never played D&D or don't understand what it is about.
"Without opens areas for players to explore and PvP content for players to enjoy, DDO comes up a little short of expectations."
PvP does NOT belong in this game....period! Not EVERY mmo needs pvp to be viable. So many complain that none of the new games try to brek the mold and do anything different. This game takes the risk to do that and people complain that it isn't like every other EQ or WoW clone out there. PvP does not really make much sense in a D&D game and it can open a HUGE can of worms with constant balancing of classes that would cause a ton of nerfs to the players. When a game wasn't designed for PvP right from the get-go usually adding it later is a big mistake and causes many balancing problems that never seem to end. Nerfing these classes like mad to balance for PvP would only serve to alienate the people that are playing and actually enjoying the game and it would turn the mechanics of those classes further away from the pen and paper versions they are supposed to be based on.
My advice to the reviewer: Don't judge an entire game based simply on your perceptions as a total n00b. It was completely obvious to me while reading your review that you are very inexperienced in the game and lacking knowledge in many areas. You didn't even play any of the higher level instances and admitted so in the review. It makes no sense to me why people will play a game for like 3 hours to maybe 15 hours and then judge the entire experience based on those n00b perceptions.
Just one quick question... In what way/ways has DDO broked the mold in MMOs?
Oh, an in his defense... The only way he can judge a game is on his own perceptions. Wether or not "you" like it or not is has no validity.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
I agree, But how many rating have you seen below a 5? I have not seen any... And I know some of the games are really bad...
As for the "value"..
They hit the "casual" dungeons and dragons feel spot-on, and that feel isn't worth a monthly fee in my opinion. I'd actually rather pay a monthly fee for Neverwinter Nights, as it generally offers more to do than this game, largely thanks to the toolset.
Great review that is honest about the negatives. Of course Mr Fuller has been previously corrected on his many errors and I need to add another failing in his review (on top of all the others owch). He fails to truely imply how good the combat system is - unlike his many other omissions through lack of game play he should have instantly recognized the depth and dimension of the combat system.
I have yet to find a better one given that you can block with shield, tumble/roll out of the way, time your strokes of melee weapon, jump out of danger, use the geography to advantage, sneak etc (or use the auto system if your dex is below 10!). Also as previously mentioned you can dodge missiles, melph's acid arrow, so Advanced D&D is brought to life via your pc...no more frickin' dice!...just some of the things that make the combat the best around at the moment. I think only Roma Victor may offer a better combat system (but without the very attractive graphics of D&D - even playing on low settings is sweet!)...please some one disagree with me and inform me if you know a better one!
combat systems I know are EQ 1/10, City of Villains 6/10, Guild Wars 8/10, Project Entropia 7/10, StarWars 4/10, WoW 0/10, and D&D i give 9/10
so any 10s out there please let me know!
So good review but played too safe with the scoring...and just for the record I have been playing from release and have not paid yet for 2 accounts...maybe it is just free in Europe (hahahaha)
id have to rate this game at least a D+/C- range as a potential grade
graphics are a B+ good but not extraordinary, plus kinda bogs down anything not running latest system. I can forgive that since its rather new.
the VIOP feature is a nice touch i give that a A for inventiveness.
BUt the instanced, this is where we get tangled and gnarly. THis game is similar in structure and game play to GuildWars, too similar in fact to justify playing $14.99 for a completly instanced closed game. I played this game for the fact I am a major DDO fan been so since i was 8. but this whole instanced thing where you are forced to play along a 6 man group is ridiculous.
I cant tell you how many times i went into the taverns and ask for a group or did high lvl ROGUE LFG most poeople just stand around, or are running around town doing nothing. I can sit there for over an hour or more trying to form a group. I give DDO a major D- on this.
I cant even call this a MMO in he traditional Sense, i figure if i wanna do instanced dungeons and areas, id play GUild Wars for god sake.I am very upset that Turbine would charge their customers such a traditional MMO pricing for a Un'MMO like game. I canceled within a week by that time i was alrady lvl 4 rank 4 lol i was gonna level out end game in a matter of a week to 2 weeks after taht. ill never buy or play this game again. it has truly failed.
$60 down the drain for me.
3.4ghz Phenom II X4 965, 8GB PC12800 DDR3 GSKILL, EVGA 560GTX 2GB OC, 640GB HD SATA II, BFG 1000WATT PSU. MSI NF980-G65 TRI-SLI MOBO.
This game gets 2 thumbs down and a 7.5 rating is being way WAY to kind, a 4.5 would be more in line for this flop.
I had high hopes for this game but ended up completely disappointed.
It has horrible lag in the non instanced areas and there is almost no social interaction, once you find a few people to quest with you don't have any need to speak to anyone else EVER!
Very Limited content, almost no real involvement in the story line, a lot of the quest dungeons look exactly alike.
Playing a FPS gives me a bigger feeling of accomplishment than D&D online which is really sad because I hate FPS.
I haven't played in awhile because the thought of spending another dime on this POS made me sick.
I am hoping Turbine does a better job with LOTRO but I wont hold my breath.
Turbine hasn't got it right since they first released Asheron's Call and in the end they screwed that game up too.
LOL
I guess I'm more than a little disappointed
To any RPG fan this is a complete flop, yet you rate the roleplay at 7? That's saying there is considerable roleplay to be found. No exploration, and you said it yourself no reason to roleplay.
Value at 6? There is nothing to do here except repeat things you did yesterday. MMOs are suppose to be huge with tons of things to do.
Turbine really dropped the ball in a big way. They let down the D&D name, the MMO industry, and more importantly the fans. I still can't get over how the D&D game has no exploration or storyline. A complete and total joke.
I completely agree with this review. I bought this game because many of my guild members in Wow had started to play, so I knew I would have someone to play with. Unfortunately, even being in a large guild, it seemed like I spent most of my time trying to get a group together. Once we did, it was quite fun.
I cancelled my subscrbtion before the first month was over. Enough said.
Nah, it's easy to rate. I give it a 1. This is without a doubt the worst MMORPG I've ever played.
EDIT: Why is this game only reviewed by pen and paper DnD fans? Why is it never rated by the average gamer? Hard core DnD fans seem to be the only people who like this game.
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
Whenever i step outside, somebody claims to see the light
It seems to me that all of us have lost our patience.
'cause everyone thinks they're right,
And nobody thinks that there just might
Be more than one road to our final destination--
In other words, it makes perfect sense.
I was fortunate to be in the beta and I had very high hopes for this game.
Rating the game a 6 is being very generous.
If it were a free to play, like Guild Wars, I would say it's worth the money to get the cd's. The game lacks the depth of other MMOG's due to all the instancing. Plus early on, it was very everquest-like in that it was near impossible to solo as you leveled up. I have read they are fixing that issue, but still isn't enough incentive for me to subscribe. I can only go into the same door in the same city to fight the same rats so many times before I'm bored outta my mind.
I remember hoping DDO would fail, if only so I would have the last laugh against fanbois who screamed nothing was wrong with DDO. While there's always a smug bit of satisfaction whenever I open my e-mail to see the equivalent of "plz play me kthnx" e-mails from Turbine, it does make me sad--'cause I do love the D&D, and I would have loved to love this, except..
.. it really needs more work.
In its current incarnation, it's, like.. I suppose the best description would be Neverwinter Nights?.. in the sense you have all these little "module" stories you can load up with a group of friends?.. but there's no real sense of MMO to it. Sort of like a Guild Wars/NWN.
I'd play it if it weren't P2P.
One of the things about static reviews is they don't take into account updates
Turbine have been listening to the players ( yea i know weird) and have made major changes
We have had new content added every 2 or 3 months ( actual instances / quests )
We now have in game mail like WOW etc.
We now have a full and rather clever faction system ( called favour in DDO) which has a reward / enhanced shop system ie - a ranger that naturally uses bows etc . will try very hard to get house Deneith faction to get reduced rate on 75% +3 returning arrows ... a mage may well go for house P to get similar benefits .
This has led to charactors wanting to increase faction to make themselves better
House k leads to more bank slots
Coin Lord leads to increased backpack space once you obtain a portable hole ..
All in all this has enhanced the game in the way the players have requested.
Turbine have also added solo instances which can get you through the lower ranks / levels but after that you have to interact and group to make any headway - you cant just pop out of your spawn and beat on little gribblies to get levels you have to work for it and work with other people ! This was a very brave option to go for as a lot of the powergamey types want to be able to solo their way to l33tdom - in ddo if you see a rank 60 then its been earned through play and interaction
A major difference from dand is the enhancements - within each level there are 4 enhancement slots - originally practically every class had the same enhancements - but turbine have increased the choices and now we really do have to choose how to further customise the charactor .
In game support is exemplary - I have played a lot of MMORPG's since being in alpha on eq1 - DDO's gm beat every other sytem around - they arent jobsworths , they actually try to help !! - the longest I have had to wait for a gm to not only respond but to fix a glitch is 3 minutes ....
RP wise the internal voice chat actually reduces rp - but it is still there - as much as in any other large scale MMORPG
Servers
The servers are bounced once a week which is when they also do patches and upgrades - apart from that they are practically up 100% of the time. Downtime is kept to the announced windows in general
The only thing I have really seen in this game that is wrong is that they swamped it with magic items . Magic items in Dand should be a great boost and sought after - when you have 4 rank 50 charactors ( lvl 10 is rank 50) with multiple +5 items for every slot then they loose their benefits .
The game is biased towards Lawful Good quite heavily but that may change ( best weapon in the game is lawful good and there are no comparable items)
The next patch brings in limited pvp and rank 60 ( lvl 12) as well as 25 new dungeons and an auction house - which all in all is a lot of content -this like all other content enhancements is included in your subscription and not an add on you have to buy .
Patching is fast as they use a bit torrent style dowload
All in all i like this game and if you are a non-powergamer id say drop in and say hi
NinjaGranny
HouseHydra
Lyrandar
PS - the european servers are far better than the american
I think the review is unfair and that a fairer idea wold come from a player - I have played from noob to raid and these are my humble opinions
Graphic 7 ( bit samey with some display glitches but nice scenery)
Sound 7 ( bit samey but nice effects in some dungeons )
Role Paying 6 ( unfortunately but it is the way it is played rather than the game itself - introducing languages so for example a drow is at a disadvantage inhuman settlements would be nice)
Fun 9 ( you need to play to get into it but after that it beats the others hands down - i have dropped all other subs to play this exclusively)
Community 8 ( forums are good and pushed even from the login launcher - in game peopel help and interact - l33t u3ers dotn get on at all -- yay !!
Perf / lag 9 ( main areas are instanced to load balance and actual dungeons cant lag as even on raids 12 people run at full speed )
Cust service 8 ( GM and in game assistance is superb - account issues etc. appalingly bad - 3 misn to get resolved issues in game - 6 months to not get resolved outside)
Value 10 ( free continually upgrading content and game play - servers 100% uptime ( apart from scheduled patching) - nuff said really
Overall 8.125
How you have someone write a review that only made it to level 4 is beyond me. A lot of the other people bashing the game said that they only played it a month. The reviewer says that the level cap is 10 when it's 12 and has been for awhile which makes me think that he hasn't even played in a long time. At level 4 you haven't even seen 5% of the game. How can you write a review based on seeing less than 5% of the game? He's heard of raids? He doesn't mention the Titan or The Demon Queen, Necropolis, or any of the other outstanding quest series. If he played recently he should know that they are releasing alot more solo content up to level 9. He said the sound was ok with the different music but didn't talk about the dm narrations or the ingame voice chat so that you don't need 3rd party programs.
If you don't like it that's fine. If you hate it that's fine too. But somebody who hasn't really played it should not write a review. The last review I read here of WoW was written by someone that reached the maxed level and he was able to talk about the full scope of the game. That's the way all reviews should be unless the game just came out.
D&D Online "Game List" entry: www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/setView/overview/gameId/163