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Dungeons & Dragons Online: MMORPG.com Review
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
Garrett Fuller files the MMORPG.com review of Dungeons and Dragons Online. Turbine Entertainment's latest MMORPG release is a heavily instanced version of the Dungeons and Dragons universe. Fuller, a long time pen-and-paper player, as well as MMO fanatic, takes a look.
;) Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach is the classic RPG games first step into the MMORPG world. Many people carry the opinion that Dungeons & Dragons started it all as far as role playing goes. With its foundations in the mid-seventies to its height in the eighties, D&D has always given players fun worlds to explore and create on their own. The classic D&D scenario is a small group of players, between five or six, getting together to explore a dungeon filled with monsters, traps, myths, and mystery. Each player selects a character class and race which has become the standard in many RPGs.This pack of travelers meets up and decides to go out and right the wrongs of the realm that have been troubling its citizens. How well does this scenario fit into a video game? Very well, the entire RPG world has been shaped by this type of situation. How well does this fit into an MMO? It works, but there are many things lacking in the Massive-Multiplayer department. Also, the game has almost no solo content; this can be a problem if you want to just play for an hour or so by yourself. The game has its fun moments, but does not offer an expansive world for players to explore. |
You can read the full review here.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
On a scale of 1 to 10 a 6 would be, to me, 'slightly above average' (5 being average).
For a game that offers players less than single player AD&D titles that support multiplayer play (NeverWinter Nights, Baldur's Gate, etc) I really don't feel that DDO rates a 6 in the 'value' department... maybe a 3, certainly not a 6.
Other than that, great review.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
I personally think that the 1-10 rating system goes like this... A 10 is considered the best... (Obviously) But here is where thing go against the obvious... A 5 is considered bad.. So actually, instead of a rating system of 1-10, it is actually 5-10... That puts things more into perspective...
So if you look at DDOs overall rating of 7.3 You can see what I mean... It is actually average to a little below average...
The rating system here does seem to be a little tilted. Many games rate in the 7's despite the fact that many people consider them to be horrible. Now I wish there was some clearer way to make the system so games wouldn't appear to be better than they are. To say that DDO is a 7 out of 10 insinuates that it is above average and in fact rather good. But what the truth is, is that this game is more along the lines of a 5. But even looking at the rating of 7.3, compared to other games the site has rated, is a fairly poor score. Compare that to games like DAoC and WoW, etc. which are rated in the high 7's and 8's, and this game is comparatively worse.
Overall, the description of the game's qualities in the review were accurate. It's not the worst game ever, but it's certainly not worth paying a monthly fee...
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Seems a bit odd to me that the reviewer basically trashed the value in the text, but gave it a 7/10, which he also gave to some other things implying they were "OK". So which is it? Is 7/10 bad, or "OK"? Kind of inconsistent.
Ratings aside, the text of what he said is exactly what I have herad from almost everyone I know who tried the game. I knew some people in early beta who, based on beta, wouldn't go near the live version.
It seems like this game needed way more "in it" before it went live. The whole thing smacks of a rush to production and a hope to just suck $$ out of people before they realize they've been had.
C
Aye bout what i found when i played it, and cancled before i had to pay for this game. The character creation was nice i really like the way to customize your character. but after hiting lvl 3 seems like for the next 3 lvls there was 1 mission that anyone was willing to do. the game got to be painfully boring. Even tho i was playing with 3 local friend and tried some of the other missions. the game has about 10% of the content it should have.
The lvling rate was not to bad, but you still could power level thru it if done right. Graphics were really nice, but to many of us look the same when you start to get past lvl 5. Sound was about what i would have expected from a game. But I found it to be more like a 4.8 in it current state.
Playing EQ2
Quit - LotRO, EQ, EQOA, EvE, FFXI, DAoC, TitD, AO, AC1, AC2, AA, CoH, CoV, D&L, DS, DDO, EA, GW, HZ, IW, L1, L2, M59, UO, MoM, MoUL, N2, RS, RO, RoE, RYL, SB, SO, SWG, MxO, UO, VSoH, WoW
It is not such a shabby game - but it does not in any way justify MONTHLY FEE
"Before this battle is over all the world will know that few...stood against many." - King Leonidas
I thought the review is accurate. The most important thing he points out, that I can confirm from playing DDO for 3 months, is that DDO is best played with a consistant group of friends or guildmates. Some random pick-up-groups can be very good, but the really poorly-cooperative and inexperienced PUGs are the ones that tend to stick in my mind. I think I have been in more Good PUGs than bad ones though. You need to get out of the harbor and into the House quests to begin to see the seperation from the low skill players and the more accomplished ones.
The odd thing about this review is how he uses the number scale. For instance, he says the sound is not all that impressive and is pretty standard. Yet he gives Sound a 7 or 8? Based on what he read I would expect no higher than a 5 or 6. He then makes some other well-stated gameplay critisizms and then rates that area with a 6 rather than the 4 or less that I would expect.
[quote]Originally posted by Rattrap this is really what DDO boils down to.It is not such a shabby game - but it does not in any way justify MONTHLY FEE[/b][/quote]
I agree with that as well, except that is a judgement that I think each gamer should make themselves. I think Ive gotten my money's worth, having bought the box then paying $15 for 3 months after the initial month. I made 5 characters to keep myself busy though, and really only the first 3 of them are the most fun to play because the others end up repeating the limited content more times than I would like. IF the dungeon designs had more random elements to it they would be a lot better. I just spent $9 to see a movie and I thought that was terribly expensive too, but I will do it every few months if I think the experience will be fun. DDO offers at least 2 months of fun.
"This is not a game to be tossed aside lightly.
It should be thrown with great force"
where in the review was the in game audio chat mentioned, bit of an omission id say.
Ingame voice chat was not mentioned in the review,bit of an omission,I enjoy the game and would give it a 9
Its interesting seeing the reasons why people have left ddo,I completely understand there reasons for doing so, however, the things I dig most about the game seem to be the things that drive people off.
I can never remember half the time wether I’ve been through a particular dungeon or not so the replayability is not a issue, I think for the type of game that is ddo there is plenty of content.
Ddo has distilled what I like in a mmorpg into bite size chunks with some long stuff to do if you want ,lack of crafting is a plus as I don’t enjoy that much.
That leads into the level cap,pvp and solo content.
With wow and the like it was always a battle to find guildies of my level to play with as I couldn’t find the time to level as fast as others have. Of course there have been times when no one has been available to group but that doesn’t happen all that often
I like the level cap at 10 as I have a chance now to be near the top content without power gaming.pvp aint dungeons and dragons in my book, same with solo content.
I guess I’m being selfish as far as solo content goes, more people off soloing=less grouping with me
I'm sorry... if your scoring system is 1-10 then you should review based upon that scoring system. Giving it a 7/10 on Value is silly. By no means is it's value above average (5). I would rate it at a 4 on value, maybe even a 3. It's also to think that on a scale of 1 to 10 a 7 is "bad" that's just silly.
I agreed with the other ratings, they were fairly accurate. But the value rating is somewhere out of left field.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
DDO is a solid game if played with a constant group of friends. It kinda falls flat if you try to go it alone or rely on pick up groups. Due to the lack of gameplay options - I feel that the monthly subscription is not a good pricing model. It feels like I'm paying for content that *might* come, rather than content I already have and will get to some point in the future. Paid 'expansions' will work better, imho.
the problem with the review is that the reviewer sounds like he got part of a "reroll" group. They had already done the leveling up on their other characters and he simply went along for the ride.
If he really was going to make a good review, he should have joined the groups out there that listed dungeons he didn't hear off... or listed his LFG flag as "no stk/ww" and then real RP on the servers would have added him. I get asked to do the other quests all the time because I don't want to do the same ones over and over
again myself. I have already achieved level 10 on the server twice and I enjoy rerolling new characters to see how the experience is with the other classes/race combos.
I think the review was ok, but was very 1 sided and sloppy. You would think if you are going to do a review for a gaming site, they would know how to do it.
Simple logic would be, "The problem is, all anyone ever wants to do is this quest. It gets old after running it six times. " , then quit the stupid party, and form your own group... LAUGH
I agree with all the points in the review. Sadly, this game had the potential to be great. If Turbine went with a more traditional approach and avoided the monthly fees, we would be telling a different story. DDO is trying to compete in the MMO arena, but it just is not an MMO. Because of this, my final rating would be close to a 5. The value is a 1, simply because there is absolutely no reason to pay $15 dollars a month for a fancy 3d chat room. There is nothing MMO about this. Turbine should have learned from Guild Wars' success and marketed the game along those lines.
In general I have to agree with with G's overall review. To be fair to Turbine, it isnt so much that there is a lack of content, but that the community (MMORPG community), tends to be grind orientated, how do I get to uber level fastest. In a certain sense, thats the american way, and to be sure, the games have trained people to play that way. As a result, a lot of the DDO content is simply being ignored by the majority of the players, which means in a group mandated game, that even if you want to do the rest of the content, its nearly impossible to do it with a PUG (pick up group).
G also failed to mention the built in voice chat, which I think is very nice, and actually adds to the RP part of the game. One of the things I loved about PNP DND was the bs sessions going on during the sessions which often had little to do with the characters were doing. The voice chat brought that back for me.
I would also note that turbine is adding more solo content with each patch, and in general more content period. This is part of what you pay for with monthly fees and there is some value in that.
However, I have to agree strongly with G's assessment that instances do not an MMORPG make. This could have been offset some with a server wide chat channel(s). I also feel that a few areas that you can go and hunt in with random spawns could have added immensly to the game (can you say multiple cities with a real world in between).
Given the general skew of scores from MMORPG.com in the past, I would say that anything below a 7 is a game with serious flaws, and simply put this isnt a bad game. It's very well done, and deserves a decent score. it came out solid and ready to play, they worked through a few issues in the first few weeks, and since then down time has been minimal. The AI is simply amazing and way better than any other game I can think of. Pets rarely get stuck or lost. Every class is fun to play and meaningful in the game. I mean how many games can you say all of those things of.
Having said all that, I couldnt play more that 3 months due to the limitations. I only got to explore maybe 30% of the content, even though I would have like to have done much more. NPC henchman like in Guild wars would have made this game so much better for me (lets face it, DnD was the game that INVENTED henchman).
Turbine has made some crucial decisions that have flawed a great game engine and system with some fantastic content. It's fixable, lets see if they figure it out.
Wrigghawk
Rigghawk
DDO shows us a simple fact,
If you are going to design a game for casual players, the absolute worst thing you can do is put integrated voice chat into the game.
Because casuals are not the ones who want or need voice chat. The hardcore is the one that uses voice. The casual, recreational gamer in fact are the ones that absolutely loathe the thought of voice, because they enter into games to escape from the real world, not to hear real voices barking orders, and barking in turn.
If you want more data on this, I think Nick Yee at Daedelus has some.
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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.
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.
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.
"...the enchantment of error that you put on me I must wear forever in your eyes. We are not always what we seem and hardly ever what we dream."
I don't understand anything about how it can be ranked so high. I see all these people post about leaving a game because the content is stagnant. The main guy for DDO said that their goal was to make a game where the player needed to do each and every quest a minimum of 3 times but should be trying to play each quest till got a perfect score with it.
WHAT KIND OF MMO REQUIRES PERFECT SCORE FOR A QUEST?????
I don't understand this and though I love pen -n- paper, consoles, and PC RPGs, the idea that I need to go through the same place over and over till I get right. That sounds more like missions in the Space Hulk board game or a tactics game. This game is exactly what I think is able to ruin a person from becoming interested in MMOs. I would never suggest this to anyone and would not rate it above a 3 just on execution and development. Every other category could be 10 and I would still not suggest this to anyone. I might if was free after buying the game but this is why I can't blame some people for not wanting anything to do with a subscription based game.