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A review of DDO from a EQ1 EQ2 DAoC fan.... AMAZING
scaresem
Member Posts: 2
To describe myself a bit, I used to be an hardcore gamer and also I had always dreamed of a D&D ruleset based game... to remind me of my old kid days playing Dungeon Hack. So I've been lookin forward for this game for a while, kept reading comments about it and sadly, most comments were bad. I still decided to try the pre-order beta and to try it with my friend. A day later we bought another beta cause we were alrdy addicted and would fight eachothers for who would play first.
About the game, what is so addicting? First you start with a character that you think is decent and end up dying 5 times to kobolds. Then move over to the next dungeon and die a few times. Another instance you die again. Then you group and get some exp and your journey has started. Tho you find out that your character was poorly built and create a new one.
That is the first real addiction to this game, character creation. Many possibilities of setup that can make you spend hours to think about. Heck, I was in classroom (master's degree) trying to calculate optimal stats for a class/race... And that was 2 days before my beta account was over... When I came back home I got 4 characters to level 2 to test for best setup...
Back to the game tho, my first feel was hm.. well yeah instances over and over, and I'm WEAK... well I was weak cause of myself and noobish status. This game really starts to get amazing once you reach the Harbor and then, once you reach lvl 2... the first taste of power. That same power we've always dreamed on when we were younger and playing pen and paper version... Your character becomes what you want him to be.
The combat system, amazing. It's not like 5 frogs that are grouped and jump your from wherever and that you can't flee from and that stacks on top of eachothers. The combat system is the most amazing I've seen in a mmorpg so far. The monsters charge you if you attack or get too close yeah, but if you are an archer you can climb up a ladder and shoot them from top without having them to teleport on you like most games. That seems like a bug hm... doubt it is, you actually found the best spot to use your weapon skills to your advantage (bow-crossbow). You can also, if a meleer, run in, do some slashes, backup to try to avoid a few hits if multi monsters. Try to work your way around them so they don't all hit you, actively play with them. And yet, monsters do the same thing, they try to get on your side or even on your back so you can't hit them without moving. Blocking and thumbling... I have ye to try that part but seems a very interesting way to fight also.
About the all instancing, well considering there is no farm in this game, and monsters dont give exp, wouldn't it be pointless to fight in the outlands? And yet you still can, a few higher level zones make you wander accross forest and fight mobs here and there. And the monsters do give exp, but a exp %bonus when you complete your quest so it's all good.
My guess is if people didn't like this game, they didn't play more than an hour or two or they weren't wise enough to optimize their character. Some might also just not like it but then, those are probably PvP fans, that's, so far, the only reason I see to not enjoy this game.
So my review of this game is a 9.5/10. Fully addicting, great game performance and so many options. also can play at any time of the day and have fun. Also don't have to play for 5 hours to do something tangible.
Comments
You sir are a genius, master's degree you say? You deserve a nobel prize. You call yourself a hardcore player and have to recreate your character numerous times because you can't kill the mobs in the first few instances?? You do realize what you described is a first person shooter and not tabletop D&D? 9.5/10 ? I don't know what drugs they experiment with at school these days but it's obviously some highly hallucingenic stuff.
P.S. Welcome to the DDO forum.
You sir are a genius, master's degree you say? You deserve a nobel prize. You call yourself a hardcore player and have to recreate your character numerous times because you can't kill the mobs in the first few instances?? You do realize what you described is a first person shooter and not tabletop D&D? 9.5/10 ? I don't know what drugs they experiment with at school these days but it's obviously some highly hallucingenic stuff.
P.S. Welcome to the DDO forum.
OMG....can you stop harassing ppl who make a good review. If you want to give your opinion...do it politely. You have been rude in every post, yet people continue to post their reviews. May I ask that you take your pathetic influence elsewhere?
Bottom Line: If you disagree with something, express this in a polite manner.
I am so glad that ppl like you won't play DDO. Get over it....some ppl really like that game!!!
As a dedicated solo player I would say that DDO is one of the most challenging solo MMORPG's I have ever played.
You will die a lot until you figure out the best way to deal with each type of mob.
That part of DDO is excelent.
There are so few instances that as a soloist you are very soon forced to repeat a few quests over and over in order to progress.
That part of DDO is poor.
With three or four times more instances the constant ( grinding ) repetition would be eliminated and the other faults could be overlooked making DDO a fine solo game.
My opinion and no doubt I will be flamed for daring to voice it
"Let's get ready to rummmmmmmmmmble"
In this corner we have scaresem.
Likes DDO, feels it's a true represention of PnP, gonna buy it, you betcha.
And in this corner we have fullmetal.
Hates it, thinks DDO is a travesty and an insult to hardcore PnP'ers.
Not sure who I'd bet on, but it's an interesting fight - just browse the forums.
Is DDO an internet facsimile of PnP? No, only PnP is PnP.
Will DDO hold the interest of many D&D fans, yes. But only for those who understand it's an online game and are willing to concede some things to make it "work" in that environment.
I thought I was being polite. I did not use vulgar or abusive language at all. Now if you accused me of being a condescending prick, you may be on to something there, and knowing is half the battle, Yo Joe!
Think i will stay with my current bunch of games
So far i haven't even been able to get to the character creation part, but will try it again
but if i can't even get that far it does not look good.
Here is a quote from an old Ken Troop interview taken from the latedt MMORPG Newsletter...
There's going to be plenty of stuff for the solo player to do, particularly at the lower levels, but the quickest path to advancement will always be grouping.
However, we are aware of the fact that many gamers have busy lives, and may have trouble logging in for more than an hour or so at a time. We have some solutions designed for these players that aren't solo play, but that also don't require them to spend precious minutes looking for a party. We'll be talking about this more in the coming months.
Oh well, maybe they did Some of the things that were in that interview with Ken...
And I wonder what those things were that were designed for the casual player that were noit Solo play...
[quote]Now tell me how close they came to that one...
Oh well, maybe they did Some of the things that were in that interview with Ken...
And I wonder what those things were that were designed for the casual player that were noit Solo play...
[/b][/quote]
Beats me - all I saw was instances geard towards balanced groups and the utterly pointless outdoor areas which were about as entertaining as picking my feet.
As for,
"We have some solutions designed for these players that aren't solo play"
that is awsome.
How do you create content for solo players without it being solo play ?
Perhaps I'm supposed to join a group but turn off the group chat ?
EDIT = messed up editing the quote - not got time to fix it so tough
I am truely convinced emoticons and DDO are the work of the debil.
Here I'll try to say something that is informative, and hopefully bring this thread onto the "right" path since thanks to FullMetalAlchemist's "input" it went down the drain.
*clears throat*
It is possible to solo in the game. You can "grind" the Goodblade quests ( the only soloable level 1 quests) till you get to 2. Then you do the level 1 quests in the rest of the Harbor. It will also be necessary to play a barbarian, fighter, cleric, ranger, or paladin to solo. Otherwise you won't get far with any success. Wizards/Sorcerers can solo but it is much tougher. Rogues/Bards are almost impossible to solo with unless you design them to be effective in combat at the cost of their other abilities, and even then it will be hard.
Since you will have to solo quests that are below your level you will get an experience penalty. This means that you will need to do the missions more often, with quickly diminishing returns, and it will take you longer to do them since you have to be very careful. Soloing in this game is a lot more time conusming than grouping and it is very challenging. It is not a bad expereicne if you like a challange but I find it more fun to tackle really high level quests with a good group.
edit: Ehem, to summerize, this game does not force grouping, but it does penalize soloing.
edit2: Oh and you get the same exp and loot for a qust indpendent of solo or group, so yah, there is no incentive to solo.
Someone who thinks *hardcore player* knows it all might think he's too elitist to be a newbie in a newgame... however about soloin here it goes from my experience and yet I've brought alot of chars to lvl 2 so the way I'm lvling now is propably near to fastest prgoression possible from 1 to 2.
In this game you don't want to solo for a few reasons: Grouping is easy and way faster than solo, each players get his own items from chests (not a split pot), exp is the same from soloin or grouping, way less downtime (inn resting) and people are friendly and seem to play for at least an hour (few exceptions I've met) and they also not all bail after a quest is completed.
Now if you want to solo I'm not too sure how good someone can do but unless you are a healer-fighter type I doubt that you can be worthy solo (but I didn't really try to). The reason is simple, this game is based on d&d system so monsters can roll a 20 too which means they automatically hit you so as tough as you can be, they still hit from time to time. But then you can probably farm lvl 5-6 dungeons at lvl 10 but I haven't made it that far.
As for leveling, the first quests are all soloable if you have some minimums and till you get to harbor they aren't repeatable but yet they give the best exp/min. Then group with a lvl and do his quests so you can get that easy exp again. But basically past that you don't want to solo anymore for the reasons mentionned above.
You scratched my CD, YOU SCRATCHED MY CD.. YOU SCRATCHED MY CD!!!!
I gave the game a really good try, put maybe 30 hours into it and dutifily filled in bug reports. Just couldn't find the hook to draw me in and pay a monthly fee for it. still if you are addicted to character creation (are you for real?
) each to their own I suppose. I felt character creation was flawed actually in that a new player could easily gimp themselves especially if they were new to D&D; since there is no tutorial that gives the basics on that, imo there should be a basic tutorial before character creation (suggested that). Also some skills just didn't translate, jumping srings to mind. I've very familiar with D&D and once was a DM for over 4 years, DDO falls way short of my expectations. I've given my reasons before and if you think the sole reasons to not like DDO is because it doesn't have PvP, that's pretty blinkered.
As a ranger I found it pretty easy to solo in the stress if not time consuming.
Hop on a barrel and shoot away, the enemies just sit there dumbfounded and take it. At least that was how it was in the stress test......
And as for casters/ranged fighters? Thats what spamming health potions are for.
Monstesr will climb up boxes or barrels now, well the majority of them will at least.
Not going to get into all the reasons I'm not buying this game.. if you've only played it for 10 days, or even 20 your not likely to see the vast majority of the problems with DDO. You too will learn however.
Soloing in DDO is possible but its a joke, if you like to solo this game really isn't the one to look at. First couple of levels its not that hard, but after level 5 its nearly impossible unless you want to keep soloing the same low level dungeons for hardly any reward.
FullMetalAlc you are a grade A jerk and I wish you would go somewhere else to spew your hate. Devs?? Can't you get rid of this guy? Search out his posts and you'll see it's just post after post of angry rude comments.
Go away FullMetalAlc. Your not wanted here.
So says you, and you are who? The Quizat Hadarach?? I don't think so, so please put a cork in your hole, either of them.
I've played Euro beta since it started. Here's my honest view. Others may disagree, obviously. This is just my tuppence worth on solo-ability.
Simply forget solo. I you want solo this is not your game unless you are prepared to do the same static dungeon over and over again for decreasing XP everytime. Solo is painful in the extreme. Judging from other posts here, and elsewhere, I did a lot better solo than some others but it is painful. You will die a lot and you will probably find many of the harbour quests nigh impossible at level. That is unless you are a lot better than me, or I suck. Maybe I just suck after ten years playing MMOs coming from an EQ and DAoC background like you. You really have to group to get anywhere without becoming incredibly fustrated very quickly. I haven't met anyone who could solo much in this game and a lot struggle to do even the starter solo quests and easier level one harbour quests.
I fully understand the idea was to recreate the D&D experience of friends sat around playing PnP D&D, and from this perspective perhaps DDO would be just fine, but only if you play with the same friends all the time. PUGs are mostly useless because, and this is a major weakness of the game mentioned many times before, the dungeons are static. Chances are somebody in your PUG will have done the instance before, will know where the traps are, where the chests are, where the hidden doors are, where the mobs lurk. Is it realistic when the fighters are running ahead of the thief or scout character because they know the dungeon layout already? Where's the immersion if you are the thief, or any other character for that matter, running the dungeon for first time and your party members are zerging straight through the instance because they know it like the back of their hands?
If you play with RL friends, or play with the same folks all the time then I could see how DDO could be a lot of fun and a different and refreshing game, however how much of the MMORPG community are able to play with the same folks constantly? It strikes me that this can only be a niche game for folks who are D&D fans and want to recreate the PnP experience with online friends. If that is what Turbine are aiming for then it could be said they have succeeded.
If they are aiming for a larger market they will have to rethink key elements of gameplay in my view. Solo-ability must be added. It may not be in the true spirit of D&D but to be pragmatic folks want solo content in MMORPGs, that's a fact. Even if solo is substantially slower than grouping, which is fine by me, solo must still be an enjoyable option for a game to have long-term wide appeal. Some people do shift work for instance and cannot play at peak hours. They will also have to add content. A lot more content and do it fairly quickly in my opinion or this game may fall away steadily a few months after release. I wont mention the other strengths/weaknesses because they have all been mentioned many times already. I don't wish to rant and I'm answering your question on solo play.
The bottom line is there is a lot to like in DDO but I'm not sure there is enough of a target market out there who will play, or are able to play, DDO the way it has to be played in order to be enjoyed. I can see a lot of folks buying this game, playing it for a month or so and then shelving it. Even starting an alt isn't that much fun because you will run through the exact same dungeons you alreday did with your first toon. Also, like many others I can't see what it will offer over NWN2 which comes out Q2 this year, with no monthly subs and BioWare are pretty good at D&D games, apparently
Maybe I just don't get it? Maybe it's meant to be a niche MMO with LotRO being Turbine's mass market title? Maybe I'm not in the target market? It's definitely not for me however at this juncture, and I won't be buying it at release and not at all unless there are some fundamental changes. Oh well, still stuck in Dark Age of Crackalot looking for that new fix.
“Hustlers of the world, there is one mark you cannot beat: the mark inside.”
― William S. Burroughs
Listen to RedRab... I agree with him completly and I higly suggest people to read his post before buying the game