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Average Overall Rating:  7 Ratings,10 Reviews |
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| Buy the game only if bored |
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By Gamefreak from Iowa 2006-05-28 10:11:01 2 out of 4 found this reivew helpful |
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I purchase this game due to the fact that I played D&D a long time ago. When I installed it. the graphics were very good compared to other games but once I started playing I notice that there was not very much to do. the quests were long and hard.... (Read full review at CompUSA)
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| Pros: Graphics were excellent |
| Cons: Lack of things to do in quest |
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| Bring on the Alchemists Fire!! |
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By Sentinel Marshall 2006-01-25 08:52:15 2 out of 4 found this reivew helpful |
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This game just plain rocks. It is such a huge departure from any other fantasy MMO out there! It's not your typical run up to the mob and click attack scenario. You have to dodge, tumble, climb and jump to survive in combat! The dungeons aren't... (Read full review at CompUSA)
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By chris 2006-01-10 00:00:00 2 out of 4 found this reivew helpful |
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Pros: new concepts, interesting game Cons: lack of support, severely unpolished game Atari and Liquid Entertainment dropped the ball in a most severe and painful way. FOUR MONTHS after launch there is NO multiplayer to speak of. The boxe's... (Read full review at Yahoo! Shopping)
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| Amazon.com |
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By april_bowman47 2004-08-31 00:00:00 0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful |
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Pros: Finally Cons: none I have played Ultima Online for 6 years finally quit cause of the boredom of it all nothing changed and the team play in the game left. Instead of being a rpg its more about the money anyone can make ingame and inrl. The g (Read full review at Yahoo! Shopping)
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-- ,  0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful |
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| We count ourselves amongst the fans of Turbine's Asheron's Call 2, a beautiful and eminently playable MMO that sadly went out of commission last December. Of course, online role-playing games have grown by leaps and bounds since that game's release i ...
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| -- GameSpot Expert, GameSpot 2 out of 4 found this reivew helpful |
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| Dungeons & Dragons Online are four words that go great together, and yet this recently released online role-playing game isn't necessarily the dream come true its name suggests. That's not because D&D Online doesn't do a generally good job in its specific areas of concentration; it does. However, the game's focus on group-based hack-and-slash dungeon crawls comes at the expense of a lot of other elements you might reasonably expect either from a Dungeons & Dragons game or from an online RPG. Hobgoblins, bastard swords, and rust monsters are among some of the compelling reasons to play Dungeons & Dragons Online. D&D Online isn't the sprawling, complicated game that you get in a lot of other online RPGs. It's set in and around the city of Stormreach, so rather than travel to the far corners of a fantasy world, you'll spend a lot of time in dungeons and sewers hidden beneath this seemingly civilized place. It's structured around combat-intensive quests, so rather than blindly exploring an expansive world or countryside, you'll be spending most of your time undertaking meaningful missions with specific objectives. There's no player-versus-player combat and all of the different character classes are combat oriented, as is the gameplay. The combat itself is fairly simple, fast paced, and action packed, occasionally but not usually tactical or strategic. You aren't constantly gaining new skills and abilities, especially since you gain experience points slowly. The point of the game is to play through and enjoy successive quests together with several other players like you. This isn't a game for those who prefer or expect the option to be able to play solo, though it makes quickly finding a player group quite easy. This also isn't exactly the Dungeons & Dragons you may be used to from bygone days of sitting around a kitchen table with your friends, or even from playing D&D computer games like Baldur's Gate II or Icewind Dale. Turn-based, tactical combat from other D&D games is replaced by much more of a frenetic melee, requiring lots of right-clicking by weapon-wielding characters. Sometimes it's hard to tell what's going on until somebody, you or the enemy, drops dead. D&D conventions like saving throws and critical hits are at work behind the scenes, but it's hard to pay attention to the statistics during a fever-pitch battle. As for the setting of Stormreach, it combines the predictable swords and sorcery with inklings of industrial technology. Metal automatons and elaborate arrays of metal piping aren't what you'd typically expect from D&D, and yet this doesn't really succeed at making the game's setting any more inspired or imaginative, since it's been done so many times before. Nevertheless, the game's colorful, often attractive setting is pleasing to the senses and filled with some nice little details, though you'll need a fast system to get the game both looking good and running smoothly, and the character animations leave something to be desired. From an audio standpoint, the game fares similarly well, offering up some good atmospheric sounds, decent musical tracks, and the constant repetition of whooshing weapons. In this dangerous world, you create a character by choosing from a decent selection of races and professions. The professions run the D&D gamut, from fighters and barbarians to wizards and clerics to rogues and bards. However, in the context of the game, it seems clear that standard character classes like fighters, rogues, and clerics widely outnumber other classes like bards and rangers. You might expect for hybrid classes like rangers to be relatively self-sufficient in exchange for not being as adept at one task or another compared with more-specialized classes, but you'd be wrong. D&D Online is strictly designed around players working together in small teams of six or so. No use trying to lone-wolf it through the game's numerous danger-filled dungeons. Thankfully, it's easy to find a group. Thankfully, the game's social interface makes it simple to get into an open player group, and most player groups seem ready and willing to take on new members, since everyone's motivated to go questing. You do have the option to attempt to take on a quest all by your lonesome, but you're liable to fail miserably if you try--something you might have to learn the hard way if you appreciate having the option to do some questing on your own. Go dungeon-crawling all by yourself, and your small number of hit points will quickly be reduced to nothing by various monsters from slimes to the living dead to bugbears, buying you a trip back out of the dungeon and some experience debt--punishment for your foolhardiness, but at least your character doesn't get permanently wiped out like in traditional D&D (though options for hardcore rules might have been nice). After all, you can't easily recover from wounds in the middle of a quest without a healer, and you're vulnerable to deadly traps without the keen senses of a rogue...but healers and rogues can't fight well on their own. ...
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| -- Maxpc Expert, Maxpc 0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful |
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| Dungeons and Dragons: Stormreach The hoary role-players’ favourite has been expanded, and there’s nary a d20 in sight. When we’re talking about online RPGs, there’s an installed user base elephant in the room and you can’t go too far without discussing it. World of Warcraft is the current benchmark, and don’t other developers know it: looking at the forthcoming fantasy games there’s a sense that they mostly realise that they’re not going to be able to compete with WoW on its own terms, so they’re scurrying around to find places where they can. While its 6 million player success has moved the goalposts, it doesn’t mean that the more traditional MMO audiences – 100,000 plus – aren’t profitable. Make a game that can secure a fanbase and you’re away. But finding that fanbase – there’s the trick. Turbine’s solution for Dungeons & Dragons Online is to put Dungeons & Dragons… online. It’s hardly rocket science. D&D is one of those influences that has permeated gaming so completely that we don’t really think about it. Study WoW or Everquest, and mechanics apart, you’ll see that there’s very little that has changed since the original pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons. D&D was about a group of mates going off into a dungeon, fighting a dragon and wishing that someone they fancied would touch them. Fantasy MMOs bring these concepts to life. That said, D&D didn’t make you spend hours traipsing around making sandals, or let another group of players turn up during your quest. So in D&DO there’s only a vestigal living world, where players meet up and form groups. When they head out on a mission, it’s just the dungeon, the monsters and their chums; everything’s instanced. The closest comparison is Guild Wars, except without the PvP angle, greater concentration on indoor dungeons and a monthly fee. Erk. Don’t dismiss it immediately though. The indoor dungeons, for example, are a revelation; far more like a traditional videogame level than any other MMO dungeons. That is, there’s doors, containers, things to climb, secret passageways to find and even fully mechanical traps. This ties in with the more action-based style of the game. While the vast majority of turn based Dungeons & Dragons’ rules are implemented, there’s more real-time interaction than most MMOs. For example, shield blocks, dodges and tactical repositioning can be fired with a click rather than queued. At its best, when the narrator adds a perfectly timed dramatic exposition when an army of humanoids sweep down on your flimsy yet heroic band, it’s a pacy action-drama – this is hack’n’slash D&D rather than high-brow politicking – but the atmosphere adds greatly. It doesn’t always work, though. While nowhere near as repetitive as the door missions in City of Heroes in terms of the variety of tasks, there’s often a sense of “haven’t we been here before?” Early on, there are times when it appears the designers didn’t realise that when people say “In RPGs you spend all your time fighting kobolds” it was a joke. Most importantly, the game is often a little clunky around the edges, with little weight to your characters or actions. Equally, the level design of the dungeons can be distinctly uneven, especially favouring certain character class combinations. Character building And the different character classes are the second Really Important Thing to realise about D&D Online. We’ve got used to the idea of self-contained character classes in MMOs, being able to solo quite happily through dungeons. Except in Dungeons & Dragons it was never like that – characters were designed to require support, and that continues here. Go into a dungeon without a Thief, and expect to stumble foolishly into swinging blade-traps and miss secret doors. Go in without a Cleric and expect to spend a lot of time nursing your health. While the game encourages free thinking – it gives out XP merely for completing missions, not how you completed it – a Thief who dodges all the opponents will get similar XP to a Barbarian who kills them all. D&DO is more reliant on team play than any MMO, and as such works best when you’re playing with friends – much like pen-and-paper D&D. With integrated voice-comms, Turbine is clearly trying to encourage camaraderie. Which leaves us with an atypical MMO. It offers a unique experience – but one which you’ll want to involve friends with. At least with this D&D you won’t have to argue who’s going to be the Dungeon Master: there’s some 1s and 0s dying to do it for you. Kieron Gillen This article first appeared in PC Format Issue 186 - April 2005 Click Here to Shop Format page for printing Email article to a friend ...
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| -- Maxpc Expert, Maxpc 0 out of 0 found this reivew helpful |
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| TurbineÂ?s solution for Dungeons & Dragons Online is to put Dungeons & DragonsÂ? online. ItÂ?s hardly rocket science. D&D is one of those influences that has permeated gaming so completely that we donÂ?t really think about it. Study WoW or Everquest, and mechanics apart, youÂ?ll see that thereÂ?s very little that has changed since the original pen-and-paper Dungeons & Dragons. D&D was about a group of mates going off into a dungeon, fighting a dragon and wishing that someone they fancied would touch them. Fantasy MMOs bring these concepts to life. That said, D&D didnÂ?t make you spend hours traipsing around making sandals, or let another group of players turn up during your quest. So in D&DO thereÂ?s only a vestigal living world, where players meet up and form groups. When they head out on a mission, itÂ?s just the dungeon, the monsters and their chums; everythingÂ?s instanced. The closest comparison is Guild Wars, except without the PvP angle, greater concentration on indoor dungeons and a monthly fee. Erk. DonÂ?t dismiss it immediately though. The indoor dungeons, for example, are a revelation; far more like a traditional videogame level than any other MMO dungeons. That is, thereÂ?s doors, containers, things to climb, secret passageways to find and even fully mechanical traps. This ties in with the more action-based style of the game. While the vast majority of turn based Dungeons & DragonsÂ? rules are implemented, thereÂ?s more real-time interaction than most MMOs. For example, shield blocks, dodges and tactical repositioning can be fired with a click rather than queued. At its best, when the narrator adds a perfectly timed dramatic exposition when an army of humanoids sweep down on your flimsy yet heroic band, itÂ?s a pacy action-drama Â? this is hackÂ?nÂ?slash D&D rather than high-brow politicking Â? but the atmosphere adds greatly. It doesnÂ?t always work, though. While nowhere near as repetitive as the door missions in City of Heroes in terms of the variety of tasks, thereÂ?s often a sense of Â?havenÂ?t we been here before?Â? Early on, there are times when it appears the designers didnÂ?t realise that when people say Â?In RPGs you spend all your time fighting koboldsÂ? it was a joke. Most importantly, the game is often a little clunky around the edges, with little weight to your characters or actions. Equally, the level design of the dungeons can be distinctly uneven, especially favouring certain character class combinations. Character building And the different character classes are the second Really Important Thing to realise about D&D Online. WeÂ?ve got used to the idea of self-contained character classes in MMOs, being able to solo quite happily through dungeons. Except in Dungeons & Dragons it was never like that Â? characters were designed to require support, and that continues here. Go into a dungeon without a Thief, and expect to stumble foolishly into swinging blade-traps and miss secret doors. Go in without a Cleric and expect to spend a lot of time nursing your health. While the game encourages free thinking Â? it gives out XP merely for completing missions, not how you completed it Â? a Thief who dodges all the opponents will get similar XP to a Barbarian who kills them all. D&DO is more reliant on team play than any MMO, and as such works best when youÂ?re playing with friends Â? much like pen-and-paper D&D. With integrated voice-comms, Turbine is clearly trying to encourage camaraderie. Which leaves us with an atypical MMO. It offers a unique experience Â? but one which youÂ?ll want to involve friends with. At least with this D&D you wonÂ?t have to argue whoÂ?s going to be the Dungeon Master: thereÂ?s some 1s and 0s dying to do it for you. Kieron Gillen ...
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| Dungeons & Dragons Online: StormReach Preorder Bonus Pack - Complete package Windows |
| $9.97 - $9.97 |
| from 1 store |
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