Post by Head Mutant on Mar 10, 2006 11:02:44 GMT -5
I gave in and bought D&D Online (DDO) to check it out, even after hearing very mixed -- and heated, in both directions -- reviews. So far general reviews and first impressions on the web have been positive, but that's not the be-all for me.
I am giving WoW a long break, to avoid some serious burnout. The problem with MMORPGs is, as addicting as they are, the repitition will eventually drive you insane. WoW is great in many ways, but I loathe getting to high levels, and I'm not too interested in restarting new characters. Plus, many new games to play!
So, back to DDO. I actually installed this a week ago, got a bit frustrated with how different it is from normal MMORPGs, and uninstalled it a day later. THEN, I reinstalled it to give it a fair chance. I'm very glad I did -- this is a game that grows like fungus all over you, and is so refreshingly different than the typical MMORPG grind that it's making me excited to log back in and experience more.
The rundown: DDO uses 3.5 D&D rules in a modified way to work online. You create a character (9 classes, 5 races), tweak it to your heart's delight, and then go into a massive steampunkish city where you gather quests and team up with others to do them.
This is a big stepping stone for many players: DDO does not encourage, nor really facilitate solo play. This is because D&D as a game is about group dynamics and teamwork, and once you get past the "I wanna SOLO!" mindset, you start to appreciate what they're doing. It's incredibly easy to find a team (they have a slick Looking For Group interface), and journies through the dungeons just end up as much more fun with a group of people. There's integrated voice chat, while not mandatory, is an incredible boon if your whole party uses it for strategy (and in a case yesterday when I was teamed up with a teenager from Hong Kong, hilarity as he kept describing everything we saw or did: "OH! Fireball! Ahh! I don't want to die!"). There's no competition over loot, since the loot chests are already divvied up among your group, and the lack of loot greed works so well in changing a group's focus.
Anyway, here are my pros and cons impressions so far... I'd encourage anyone interested to check it out and see what you think:
CONS
- The user interface is clunky and much-slandered in the DDO community. It's functional, but not moddable.
- No serious solo missions
- The persistant world is just one city, which is pretty much a hub for quests (like Guild Wars in a way). Very little exploration outside of quests.
- No auction house or mailbox for trading.
- Many staples of MMORPGs are missing (for good and bad), such as crafting and PvP.
- As of right now, there are only 128 quests in the game. That's actually a lot, considering that they're varied and you can repeat them (with different difficulty levels), but the game certainly needs more.
- A cap of level 10 right now, with 5 ranks per level (each rank gives you enhancements, mini-feats for your character).
- Leveling takes a LONG time. This is a D&D thing -- you're supposed to be level 1 for a while, and level 1s are very functional in many ways. But it took me most of yesterday (5 hours or so) to get to level 2.
- Some classes, to me, don't seem very sexy -- paladin, wizard in particular.
- Druids and monks have yet to be announced or implimented. Also, no half-elves, half-ogres or other Eberron races.
- Different game play mechanics, such as having a limited and non-regenerating hit point/spell point bar (you have to find "rest shrines" in dungeons to get these back). This promotes strategy, but it can be very jarring to only have 20 hit points and no easy way to get them back at first.
- Horrible dance emotes. Really, really bad.
- I find the characters to be kind of bland to look at (player characters, the monsters are really well-designed).
PROS
- According to Turbine, who has a good track record with this sort of thing, the level cap will be increased soon (eventually to 20, I assume) and more quests will be released monthly.
- Gorgeous. Everything's so atmospheric, from weather to traps to level design.
- Most importantly: THE QUESTS ARE FUN. These aren't just hack-and-slash dungeon crawls that you can turn your brain off -- each quest area is different in design and feel, boasting secrets and traps and puzzles and stories. Loads of scripted events and the omniscient Dungeon Master voice spice things up (I do so love his cheesy voice).
- Quests are fun to repeat and challenge yourself in the harder versions.
- No grind. Well, no monster grind -- some people "grind" out quests over and over instead of moving on to new ones. But the fact that this game only gives you xp for quest completion means that it's not always the best thing to do to kill everything or to stay in one spot hacking away for three hours.
- Very mobile characters -- climbing, jumping, running, dodging, blocking... you have a load of more platformish options for your characters, many of which are necessary to master to survive.
- Voice chat. Should be standard in all of these games.
- A really nice community spirit that has more mature players and far fewer griefers (really, there's no way or reason to grief in this game).
- Quests can take as short as 5 minutes to 45 minutes to complete. This makes it a perfect game for any play session.
- Outside of quests there are "danger zones" and "adventure zones" for a party to do -- sort of like bigger challenges of an arcade nature. Last night a party I was in did a danger zone where we had to defend a small castle keep from 200 attacking kobolds. It was a glorious slaughter.
I'll keep on trucking with this, just was bored at work here and thought I'd share.
I am giving WoW a long break, to avoid some serious burnout. The problem with MMORPGs is, as addicting as they are, the repitition will eventually drive you insane. WoW is great in many ways, but I loathe getting to high levels, and I'm not too interested in restarting new characters. Plus, many new games to play!
So, back to DDO. I actually installed this a week ago, got a bit frustrated with how different it is from normal MMORPGs, and uninstalled it a day later. THEN, I reinstalled it to give it a fair chance. I'm very glad I did -- this is a game that grows like fungus all over you, and is so refreshingly different than the typical MMORPG grind that it's making me excited to log back in and experience more.
The rundown: DDO uses 3.5 D&D rules in a modified way to work online. You create a character (9 classes, 5 races), tweak it to your heart's delight, and then go into a massive steampunkish city where you gather quests and team up with others to do them.
This is a big stepping stone for many players: DDO does not encourage, nor really facilitate solo play. This is because D&D as a game is about group dynamics and teamwork, and once you get past the "I wanna SOLO!" mindset, you start to appreciate what they're doing. It's incredibly easy to find a team (they have a slick Looking For Group interface), and journies through the dungeons just end up as much more fun with a group of people. There's integrated voice chat, while not mandatory, is an incredible boon if your whole party uses it for strategy (and in a case yesterday when I was teamed up with a teenager from Hong Kong, hilarity as he kept describing everything we saw or did: "OH! Fireball! Ahh! I don't want to die!"). There's no competition over loot, since the loot chests are already divvied up among your group, and the lack of loot greed works so well in changing a group's focus.
Anyway, here are my pros and cons impressions so far... I'd encourage anyone interested to check it out and see what you think:
CONS
- The user interface is clunky and much-slandered in the DDO community. It's functional, but not moddable.
- No serious solo missions
- The persistant world is just one city, which is pretty much a hub for quests (like Guild Wars in a way). Very little exploration outside of quests.
- No auction house or mailbox for trading.
- Many staples of MMORPGs are missing (for good and bad), such as crafting and PvP.
- As of right now, there are only 128 quests in the game. That's actually a lot, considering that they're varied and you can repeat them (with different difficulty levels), but the game certainly needs more.
- A cap of level 10 right now, with 5 ranks per level (each rank gives you enhancements, mini-feats for your character).
- Leveling takes a LONG time. This is a D&D thing -- you're supposed to be level 1 for a while, and level 1s are very functional in many ways. But it took me most of yesterday (5 hours or so) to get to level 2.
- Some classes, to me, don't seem very sexy -- paladin, wizard in particular.
- Druids and monks have yet to be announced or implimented. Also, no half-elves, half-ogres or other Eberron races.
- Different game play mechanics, such as having a limited and non-regenerating hit point/spell point bar (you have to find "rest shrines" in dungeons to get these back). This promotes strategy, but it can be very jarring to only have 20 hit points and no easy way to get them back at first.
- Horrible dance emotes. Really, really bad.
- I find the characters to be kind of bland to look at (player characters, the monsters are really well-designed).
PROS
- According to Turbine, who has a good track record with this sort of thing, the level cap will be increased soon (eventually to 20, I assume) and more quests will be released monthly.
- Gorgeous. Everything's so atmospheric, from weather to traps to level design.
- Most importantly: THE QUESTS ARE FUN. These aren't just hack-and-slash dungeon crawls that you can turn your brain off -- each quest area is different in design and feel, boasting secrets and traps and puzzles and stories. Loads of scripted events and the omniscient Dungeon Master voice spice things up (I do so love his cheesy voice).
- Quests are fun to repeat and challenge yourself in the harder versions.
- No grind. Well, no monster grind -- some people "grind" out quests over and over instead of moving on to new ones. But the fact that this game only gives you xp for quest completion means that it's not always the best thing to do to kill everything or to stay in one spot hacking away for three hours.
- Very mobile characters -- climbing, jumping, running, dodging, blocking... you have a load of more platformish options for your characters, many of which are necessary to master to survive.
- Voice chat. Should be standard in all of these games.
- A really nice community spirit that has more mature players and far fewer griefers (really, there's no way or reason to grief in this game).
- Quests can take as short as 5 minutes to 45 minutes to complete. This makes it a perfect game for any play session.
- Outside of quests there are "danger zones" and "adventure zones" for a party to do -- sort of like bigger challenges of an arcade nature. Last night a party I was in did a danger zone where we had to defend a small castle keep from 200 attacking kobolds. It was a glorious slaughter.
I'll keep on trucking with this, just was bored at work here and thought I'd share.
