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Dreamlords: Review
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
News Editor Garrett Fuller takes a look at Dreamlords, the game that merges MMORPG and RTS elements.
Dreamlords presents a unique game play experience for MMO players. The game has been called the RTS-MMO. For those who do not know, RTS stands for Real Time Strategy. For fans of strategy games, Dreamlords definitely gives you a chance to try your wits in an online world against other opponents. You do get an avatar to build up and select abilities for, but the real punch in the game is building and battling with your armies.
Players can choose between three races to fight it out in a world that becomes one giant battlefield. The Thul are a beastlike warlike race that relies on their brute strength to fight off monsters and other races. The Covenant are the clerics or holy warriors who rely on their faith in battle. The Nihilim are also humans who rely on magic to do battle with their foes. Each race offers a specific type of game play. The Thul are the primary fighters, the Nihilim compare to mages, and the Covenant are the faith. If a player enjoys one of these areas then the decision on which race to play is easy.
;)
You can read the whole article here.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
it won't matter what they say if yo want the truth i recommend you read my post before i left the game , the idea sounded interesting , but they put it out the bad way.
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It's been a while i've played this game ,and i don't think any of you would argue with me that i've not tried to play enough of this game to get a good aspect about.
So here i'll list some of the deadly problem of this game that i've seen so far.
We are paying for 15$ a month.
If you ask anyone that has a decent income, even if someone only holding a part time job as a student(like myself ) it isn't much, just some pocket money like [FB] Cobis says. But what are we paying for? does it really worth it? I guess the answer would be pretty disapointing, No! It doesn't at all. The reasons are:
(1) This is hardly be called as an MMORPG when it comes down to PvE, call that Single player please. There is no need to group or talk to people, and it's worth if you are managing your patria, you don't need to talk or even gaven a chance to talk to anyone at all.
(2) When it is PvEing , your computer starts lagging after a couple of fights, the problem with Memory leak( some says) is deadly, or whatever that's causing the game to be lagging like hell! Lossing your units for not doing anything and waste Med points , and have to reboot your PC pretty frequently ? NO, i guess no one would enjoy it.
(3) As PvP , if you are in a Convergence that assigned to people who are going in specific roles , only a few can be lucky enough to have time//resources to focus on PvP built patria. As all the rest of you can only do PvE pretty much , cause you know you'll get owned in PvP, or probably won't be as good as others as you are focusing on resources//teching or w/e. You could argue with me that you'll be able to PvP once you manage to top the tech tree you are focused on , but please, that's a long time before you could acutally do something , and that's pretty much the only thing that's this could be even called as a MMO, this is the only place where you interact with other people. But we know as any other RTS game does ,they have chat rooms. so my point is: THIS GAME LACKS THE BASIC CONCEPT OF AN MMORPG BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT INTERACTING WITH OTHERS ENOUGH, THUS YOU DON'T MAKE ENOUGH NEW FRIENDS. What this is directly causing is , no point to play this game , since most MMOers chosee to play with friends as a reason to play the game.
(4) Speaking of RTS side of the game, the biggest problem of this game is being imbalanced, most of the games i've played turns out to be pretty one sided , and if someone tends to abuse their WE or something , they can take the advantage without really fighting other than a few mouse click , and summon the units out. Oops , there's no strategy invovled what so ever. This game also missing some basic component that makes a RTS game interesting. if anyone that played Red Alert and Starcraft // Warcraft Series would know the difference between playing a guy as you can see all the map , Or actually each units had visual range and had Fog of War. Note here, this is like playing someone with maphack Is there any strategy? Yes , there is , but isn't that obvious , you won't pull much of impressive things you can do or timing is all that critical as in the Other RTS game. Let me give you some example: If one of your units is down to 1 man out of 6 , you can try to cap somewhere and make him as a decoy , but obvsiouly , the neemy doesn't have to send all his units to defend it or be worried about anything , just another group of his , which is pretty pointless , the guy has advantage will just keep it , it's compeleted no need to play. so my whole point is: If you are in a lower position to start off with ,you are probably never gonna pull it off with any impressivement in this game, Obviously , the other guy has the Physical advantage with a MAP HACK.
Summary: This game has adpoted the worst way a MMO or a RTS game could ever be, as it being completed imbalanced or pointless to play in a PvP match, it's all determined pretty much right at the precaution step , and you won't have UBER precaution pooints saved up to spam all day. And again , this game has no communication between users, you'll see pretty much the same People online just about everyday that's actually PvPing and have some what a little Communication with eachother, rest of you? Stuck on web ? can't do anything else like someone say they only log on and sell some stone that's it ? For 15 $ ? That's toally not worht it.
And let's move on to the next problem, The goal of this game(Convergence role play mode playing), as any good convergence would try to do is try to get people specialiezed in different area vastly from resource to crafting. See any problem? new players will not know such thing as CV quest or goal of the game , it's not well introduced to the players as it is a very new concept in MMO game playing. but the biggest problem is ,you are making all these things SINGLe PLAYER , SINGLE PLAYER!! And these quest are fighting stupid Computer AI, the repeatness.. oh no , we are really bored.
Finally the Web site playing style is alright ,but hey you just made this gmae mostly played on WEBSITE, and we again , i hate to talk about or bring this up EVERYTIME i try to say something ,but it's a FACT , WE ARE PAYING 15$ just to click something on a website which usually lags for most of the players about few times a day. This kind of game any good? I guess not.
So after all , this game has nothing attractive besides it's idea of MMORTS as a whole BIG concept and , what it intends to offer ,but once people try to find it out here in game, they get hopeless and there's nothing delivered as they've wished, and of course, no one know what we really want, but this kind of mixing up 2 different playing style is not gonna work , it's almost as stupid as trying to mix up a FREE MARKET with a Communist Goverment. Why do i say this? Cause RTS player would look for balance and MMO players would look for ownage with their items//skills they have or levels they at , others aren't there yet, They could obtain such advantage , but is usually able to counter with more lower geared//leveled people , but here? I guess nothing you can do.
Like all my friends that played this game has said the samething, This game sucks ball as trying to stay attractive and keep a BIG community.
I hope this threat won't get deleated, cause these are actually suggestions or my feedback for after playing all these much and how i feel. I do greatly respect the hard working Admins, who have been helping me with my troubles, and I do agree with a lot of people that Lock Pick is willin to make changes to this game and improvement , but so far it's been disapointing what the game has offered.
well I dont need to read ya post all the way through to know that i dont want to play that game. but for you, you seem like you have some agenda against it, maybe you were wronged, or felt violated by it expecting it to be something else. be what it may, you need to learn how to post. i dont know what you did but your post is almost unreadable by any convienent approach.
i was thinking maybe you copied and paste your response or something who knows. but dude if your going to post seperate your paragraphs properly, and please dont use clipboards or whatever it is you used to make your post to this game. but in the end I can kinda understand your view of this game so I cant complain too much but please remember in the future to properly organize your post and make it easily legible by other members. thanks
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.
Anyone thats spent 5 minutes with the game would know its not worth anything close to a 7.
Its pretty sad really. Are you guys friends with the devs or what?
Its not like me to call into question your journalistic integrity but its just that bad and blatant.
----ITS A TRAP!!!----
I had a subscription to this game. Being an avid single console-RPG & RTS, and MMORPG player, I have to say that I was very disappointed by this game. The previous posters basically highlite all of my complaints about the game and more. This was definitely not worth the money. I had an issue that I'm not going into too much detail about - but basically the customer service was shitty (and the email I received from the GM was quite rude to boot).
The game provides a tutorial video but I would rather this game offer a demo or free trial period. The tutorial video and the actual gameplay experience are very different, thus my disappointment. I'm saddened to think that the money I put up for one month of this game could potentially fund future game projects by these devs. Dream Lords is not worth the score the reviewer had given.
...and for the record, I don't have a personal bias against this game or the devs (as another poster was previously accused). I simply have a passion for good game design, primarily that of online RPG's and RTS's. This game did not fulfill that at all.
Sadly, I agree with the above posters.This game is a good idea, poorly implemented.
The RTS part just doesn't have enough variety to make it worthwhile. You gain your units types through research, which basically means you'll be spending a considerable amount of time with only two (even one) unit types to choose from. Which really limits your options, and makes the game seem very, very slow-moving. Also, the way the game rates your patria puts anyone who invests reasonable time into anything other than their war effort at a severe disadvantage in pvp. A side-effect of this is the fact that the most war-oriented race (Thul), have a hefty advantage in pvp. It's hard to forgive balance issues in a game with only three sides, and few units.
The game's other major failing, is a lack of players. It's online sale only, so it will get zero impulse-buy sales. What makes this worse is a severe lack of advertising. (In fact, I've never seen it advertised outside of mmorpg-related sites such as this one). On top of that, the players they do have struggle to be able to pvp with each other (since you can only fight opponents of similar strength).
The review above is very generous, though it's clear the reviewer hasn't played for very long. I must say I enjoyed it very much for the first few days, but it takes a steep nosedive from there on. Even had it been free, I wouldn't have continued playing when my initial month ran out.
This is my first post as a rant at a reveiwer here,
{Mod edit}
I have played dreamlords, It is total drivel.
The game is set on the backdrop of 3 competing factions that are at war with eachother.
In game they aren't they can group! Total game greaker!!!!! Man eating Thul playing with the Covenant. That's like lions and antelope hugging and kissing.
Then the game itself.....fucking dire. Web browser is shite. I have posted on their forums about this. No in browser chat! Fundemental requirement for any mmo.
Then the RTS client. Piss poor graphics, poly count and textures is laughable = shit monsters and troops. 6 maps total. 6 monsters total too I believe. PVE is a zerg. PVP is a joke. No tactics. Crap ui. They took the RTS genre and threw out the book. All the good bits and then kept the bad. Total genius there.
And you pay more than WoW to play it.
I would suggest the reveiwer goes and plays C&C3. Then play Dreamlords. Spot the problems inherent in their game design care to compare these 2 new rts games? The game is unplayable. No one in their right mind will play this long term. To get over a lack of content they created a reset function!
The game is already owned by the closed beta players. The entire fucking design is created to punish a player every step of the way.
Lockpick took an amazing genre and moulded it into a pile of shit.
Flame if you like or agree, but to give this game any rating over 5 in any catagory smells like a conspiracy.
I cannot put into words my total and utter frustration at this game and the rose tinted bullshit review it has been given,
You can't give this game a wide enough berth.
0/10 for honesty and the game itself.
Security is often a major challenge for any MMO, but especially for the smaller companies such as the one that runs Dreamlords.
For the poster above, for all you have said is pretty much a joke. I hope your long-term planning is worth to wait all that time like 15USD per month ,and you do pretty much nothing most of the time. and talks to no one , and graphic is really crappy. client lags like freezing..not even lag anymore if you have to discribe it, Freezing is pretty much the right word to say here. Yeah, that's how this game is. I don't know how much money they have gave you the review writer ,you don't address any serious problems of this game at all.
If you gonna argue with me , just ask yourself what kind of game would only have 50~100 active player left there?
LoL not to be rude or anything but have you actuly PLAYED the game mate?
Yes I have nothing against using 15 USD per month if I enjoy a game,its not even a movie+ extra at the cinema´s.
I do alot all the time mate,dont know how you play the game do.
Graphics are standard,nothing hyped but not poor either.
Get your self a new computer instead of that excuse you call one that you apprently have at home mate,I play this game around 4+hours every day and it is NOT lagging in any way.
The only percevied problem with this game is the one you touch upon,the small userbase, but it is not 100 players mate its more much more.
And thanks to this review among others that numbers is growing daily.
MMORPG.com needs to draw a visible line with their reviews. how can EVE Online get 6 and 7 for roleplaying on both reviews, and a RTS game also a 7 for roleplaying? come on, the reviewer even says that a 7 is a low score. if 7 is a low score, and is granted to a RTS, EVE should have a 16 for roleplaying.
one of the two major reasons I stopped playing, was the bland RTS aspect of the game. It wasn't mentioned at all in the review... in this game there is very little you can do if your units are inferior to your enemy. In other RTS you could get better at macroing in order to defeat a stronger opponent, you can't do it in Dreamlord...
another reason was the client needed to play the game. the reviewer probably should have pointed out that the game is divided into two clients, one downloaded from their site and the other is your internet browser. Think of it like Rome Total War, all the campaign related actions are done in a browser, the actual RTS portion is done in the downloaded client. It doesn't sound bad, but you quickly get tired of alt tabing between the two clients, it feels as if my gaming experience is interrupted every time I start a battle because I have to use a different client, and vise versa.
The reviewer probably should have mentioned some cons of the game...
Anyway, has anyone played both games and care to do a comparison?
LoL not to be rude or anything but have you actuly PLAYED the game mate?
Yes I have nothing against using 15 USD per month if I enjoy a game,its not even a movie+ extra at the cinema´s.
I do alot all the time mate,dont know how you play the game do.
Graphics are standard,nothing hyped but not poor either.
Get your self a new computer instead of that excuse you call one that you apprently have at home mate,I play this game around 4+hours every day and it is NOT lagging in any way.
The only percevied problem with this game is the one you touch upon,the small userbase, but it is not 100 players mate its more much more.
And thanks to this review among others that numbers is growing daily.
trying to question me about if I have played the game or not is pretty stupid , my in game name was LiveToWin and StrangerOcean , so what i'm telling you is i have purchased 2 account , and played hardcore about 3 weeks and i've always ranked top 2 while i was playing . my computer is pretty good. My question to you is , have you played enough to discover everything in that game? I've completed the Cov Tech trees to seee every units of theirs. And in the end it's pretty boring game, most of the time i end up single player RPG , hardly needs to say anything in the client really, And when it comes down to PvP , it's pretty much 1 sided stomp most of the time , they ehtier dodge you or they come up and stomp you , that's how the game is. you like the game ? go ahead.
And again what i have to say is , the whoever wrote the review on this site is really BS, not gaven enough info about the game.
THIS GAME IS BAD , period.
I tried the beta, dropped the game and erased it from my hard drive.
Horrible, horrible game, I would give it at best a 3 and that is being kind.
I never trust mmorpg.com reviews... so far from the ratings I've seen on the site and the unprofessionalism displayed by most of the writers it's unreliable at best.
to bad I love rts games and mmo games, maybe one day someone will pull off a good hybrid.
Of course I usually don't trust the community either, always extremes one way or the other, but there's enough consistancy here to see know the truth when I see it.
In short obviously Deamlords fails to deliver.
What happened to Dana Massey man that guy was good and had integrity.
Too bad he left for bigger and better things.
----ITS A TRAP!!!----
AS former tester i must agree with both sides here ...
DreamLords is ~ average game (visual/sound wise) with some above average ideas yet lot of below average parts
(like combination of webbased "anytime" control via browser combined with realtime RTS client)
problem is that GUI is below average, the player to player communication system is terrible
i seriously wonder why developers today must try produce own IM/chat solutions instead of e.g. IRC or opensource Jabber IM
Game itself offers like 50+ (today maybe even more) monsters but theirs AI is mainly based on "if unit in range then follow and attack" yet after some distance AI stop following You and returns to it's original position , so AI logic is below average
i must also note that AI pathing (both Yours and NPC) is quite below average
Visuals in web based interface are quite OK, 3D visuals in RTS client are average to compare with 2005/6 title
Animations of units are below average, Sounds are below average (mainly due to low number of them), Voices are terrible
Story for game is minor and play nearly zero role for any RPG element
RTS client missing tons of real RTS features (tactics and strategy is limited only to reinforcement waves and use of long range weapons/magic)
Another major mistake was pricing scheme for this game, 15 USD ? (5 to 10 at max)
for game where for first 2 weeks most of fun is repeated hunting of same/similar NPCs (well hunting is overstatement as AI is stupid)
If LockPick aimed for free to play game (let say limited army size to 5, limited number of cities to 5 etc) and then pay for play with multiple bonuses like ability to form corvengences etc.
if i write review from my angle
Graphics = 5
Fun = 5
Sound = 4
Community = 6
Role-Playing = 4
Performance = 4
Value = 5
Service = 7
Overall score = 5
and this is fair review comapared to any free MMOs other indie MMOs or profi MMOs
game itself got potencial but it's really up to LockPick to ASAP address these isssues
or they face playerbase "die out" within next 3-6 months ...
i was also suprised when DL was moved to release status considering all these issues and problems (maybe LP ran out of funds)
anyway good luck to LockPick team with DL and theirs next game products ...
Ideas are like ocean w/o borders!
I must say - I was interested in playing this game but now...not so much!
This sux though, seems like a very good idea and something different than the whole WoW/EQ type games. I really enjoy RTS and MMO's both and now I feel at a loss almost, even though I never gave them any of my hard earned centavos.
What should I pick up instead?
What other RTS/MMO combos are out there that are GOOD?
What other MMO's are out there that is NOT WoW/EQ-ish?
Lemme know, I am looking forward to hear from you guys.
Has MMORPG ever given a truely poor review to a game? I'd like to read it.
Edit: Ok, Ive found a few. Dark & Light rated really low.
How are we to know when a game is very likely to disappoint when games like this get scores 7 and up? I guess this game is really that much better than Dark & Light?
I'd like to know what kind of scale that reviewers here use. Something like this?
6 "Poor." [We Try to avoid using this, and certainly no lower because we want to show "good face" to game publishers and developers]
7 "just OK, passable",
8 "Good". [Could be a lot better],
9 "Really Good". [I liked it and you probably will too.],
10 "This is perfect". [Almost never awarded because it means Perfect!]
What the reader typicals ends up with is a Scale of: 7, 8, 9.
THIS IS NOT VERY USEFUL!
I m kind of disappointed not with the game but with the review.... writers and "reviewers" tend to forget that the scale comes from 1 to 10.... when someone say (quote) "Role-Playing:7 This score should not reflect the game as a whole. It is low because... ...but really this is more of a strategy game", how can someone reviewing a game even say such a thing since, first thing first, 7 isnt a low score it's pretty high, second, in a game where RP is almost inexistent by the words of the tester how can it reach a whole 7...
Can we really trust that kind of reviews... I won't.
I'm sorry for sounding so negative, but I'm really dissapointed in the last couple of reviews. I would expect a website like mmorpg.com to give me detailed information about the games. where "normal" review sites such as gamespot and ign review the game in general, I expect a website like mmorpg.com to review the game in more detail. but instead, mmorpg.com reviews give even less information.They are well written, but lack actual content.