Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach

[Arep]

I took the free trial out for a spin to try and find out why interest in the game died out in TOG. I found a solid game with some promising features but ultimately didn't have enough to set it apart from the crowd. Please use this thread to discuss my article.

[DaBing]

If you think DDO is a game that will let you avoid the grind, you'd be wrong.
The crafting is not aimed at casual players at all.

2 years after launch they are introducing the Monk

If you want to see the high end content, you must perform pre-quests, and then:
- If you are lucky you can join a group who is doing the final in the quest chain.
- If you are really lucky the group you do it with will explain what's happening
- If you are really really lucky you can participate in the final quest
- If you are unlucky, you will be told to stand in a spot for up to an hour whilst someone does some things that you can't see and won't tell you what they are doing. A TOG member joined a "pug" for the Titan finale and managed to read 12 chapters of a book.

[neimad]

Solid write up. I remember considering chucking WoW to check out DDO but decided to hold out until it had been played out by other gamers. The reviews at the time meant that I never bought it and from your review I'm still patting myself on the back for that foresight

[RedlineJunkie]

A bit late, but I just read your review Arep. I played DDO for about a month last year so I wanted to chime in. At the time the game was about $8 on Amazon, so it was pretty cheap to play for a month. I took a fighter and cleric to around level 6, so I didn't get too terribly far into the game.

I played DDO during beta, but I was pretty turned off by all the instancing. It's still entirely instanced, but Turbine has added some outdoor adventure areas that are pretty fun if you like the more "open world" feel MMOs. If you are a completist, you end up running these over and over until you defeat all the "bosses" who don't necessarily spawn each time the instance is created. So it does become a bit grind-y.

Where I think DDO shines is the combat system. It feels very much like a 3rd person action game, complete with jumping, dodging, avoiding traps, etc. No need to target enemies, just run up to them and swing away. However you do have the option to target, and an auto-attack skill is even available. As far as combat systems go for MMOs, it's probably the best I've personally encountered.

The class/skills system is also pretty deep. You don't have to stick to a single class with class-specific skills. You can mix and match your classes if you'd like. Multiclassing with 2 or even 3 classes is pretty common. Another thing Turbine got right is the LFG tool. It's so simple to find a group for your quest, and if there wasn't one available I'd create my own group which would fill up within 5 minutes or so. It's something they should have carried forward to LOTRO.

In all, I think the game is worth trying for those on the fence about it. And with the retail box being so cheap, a month of play time should give a pretty good feel for the game.

[brohawk]

I played DDO from the start and lasted for awhile after the raised the lvl cap to 12, but at that time I was in another guild that just died and so I left and came here.

Having said that, I still liked the game aside from the nearly non-existent solo play, and the very limited content. The combat is the best in an MMO imho. I loved tumbling, spinning and getting back shots, that really was cool stuff.

The built in chat was very good and the character design was very good as well, but then it was based on D&D that had about 30 years of playtesting already, so I think the ruleset was pretty solid.

I also loved their dungeons as they really felt like dungeons, there just wasn't enough of them. I don't mind instancing and tbh, I like instancing better so you don't have to worry about asshats stealing your bosses and the like.

I did go back a few months ago, my characters were still there, but I didn't know anyone and it just seemed the same to me. I did delete one character and lvld up a guy to about 6 but quit and went back to SWG for some more memorable pain. I guess I was in a romantic period. ;P