I’m not sure if anyone knew that there are still MMORPG games around that don’t involve initials that imply an expression of amazement. Yes, there is more than one game in town, they just don’t get as much love.
Last week I admitted that I’d been dabbling in a few MMO’s, and at the urging of a co-worker, I downloaded and did a trial for one that I expected to be pretty decent, but didn’t have a lot of high expectations going into it.
So how did my actual experience compare? Has my level of Geek gone too far? Find out after the link-clicking thing.
I realize I can’t pretend that I’m going to shock you by telling you that the MMORPG I’m talking about is none other than Dungeons and Dragons Online – Stormreach (DDO-S). It’s not a new game, but its one that I feel deserves another look.
To me, D&D name brings up several images and stigmas: a room full of sweaty nerds eating pizza, drinking Dr. Pepper and listening to Rush/Dragon Force while arguing about line-of-sight rules, or how about the numerous video game titles over the years that were precise on D&D (or AD&D depending on the timeline) ruleset?
The world of MMOs has helped bring RPG games and gaming in general into the mainstream media, and DDO-S has done the same for me regarding what is possible in a D&D game. I’ve played the games for PC and Nintendo, and was usually so frustrated by the slow pace that I gave up. With the introduction of DDO-S, the game rules have changed slightly, and it’s for the better.
For starters, movement is not relegated to your class or race. Huzzah! Instead, is it very similar to other MMORPG’s, with a few exceptions—there is no “run” button, you just run all the time, and you can not only jump on objects, but your character can also grab the top of boxes, wooden beams, or anything else that you can climb on (your character class and proficiencies determine things like how high). This can be a big advantage if you’re a ranger or wizard with low hitpoints and a low Armor Class, as you can climb onto object that make it more difficult for enemies to reach you and fire arrows/spells until you’ve defeated everything.
Another big change on movement relates to combat. In other MMORPG’s, I got used to the fact that if an enemy shot a spell at me, even if I dodged to the side, the spell/arrow/thrown object would “track” and still hit me. This brings up the question of, “what’s the point?” If it doesn’t matter if I move around when fighting CPU enemies (twinked out Rogues in PvP are a different story where you’re competing against a human trying to track you with their mouse), why bother moving at all? With DDO-S, however, your own interaction counts. Missile objects can be dodged, and the tumbling feat allows you to move from a blocking stance into dive-rolls or backflips to avoid the enemy. With the right moves, it is very possible for a single warrior to take on a group of enemies and not get hit. What? A game that behaves like an actual game and not just a statistics counter?
That being said, combat is also where dice rolls come into play. You might cast your spell or swing your sword in real-time, but you will see an outline of a 20-sided die from time-to-time with the number rolled, plus or minus any additional enhancements. Weapons and spells have the same 1d8+2 type of stats that you may have seen in pen-and-paper D20 games.
CONTINUE TO PAGE: 1 2
| Related Posts:
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
interesting post, wasn’t sure wether to try out everquest online or this one, I think i’ll go for D&D first then, who knows!
@lars: EQ2 is an excellent MMORPG, just saying.
I actually beta tested DDO back in the day and even played it for a few months following its release. A bunch of my guild mates from SWG and EQ2 were playing with me, then they all bundled back to EQ2 and I was left all alone. So I cancelled and went onto other things. It was a great game though. Extremely good, in fact, if you’re familiar with the 3rd edition D&D rules already (or at least that was the case when I last played).
Alongside City Of Heroes I’d class DDO as one of the more underrated MMORPGs of recent times, ie. Deserving of high praise despite its less-than-formidable subscription numbers.
Rules for DDO-S are based on D&D 3.5. City of Heroes and EQ2 are also great MMOs, I can agree with Krelith on that. I’m also looking forward to Champions Online.
The subscription numbers are appealing in DDO, as I attribute the community to the idea of “quality over quantity,” although more quality members is always a plus!
It’s great that more people are checking out DDO. I’ve been playing since it launched, and have enjoyed it since. If you played it early on but stopped for whatever reason, give it another go. The game has REALLY matured, and from what we have seen of Mod 9 (they do a lot of free updates), the game has been given quite a lot of polish. There is supposed to be some big secret thing coming as well, but we just don’t know when or what it is. Keep an eye on this game. It’s a lot of fun, and there seems to be big news on the horizon.
I’ve wanted to try this game for a while but all my friends at school absolutely refuse to switch away from World of Warcraft and so I’m kinda stuck…
@Gameguy94
None of my friends are on WOW with me, and I still enjoy it. Just go ahead and play it on your own.
Thanks for writing the article! Sounds like you had fun. DDO’s a great MMO, fer sure. I love it! Good to see DDO getting some press as well. Whenever Mod 9 gets here, it’ll be a very nice addition to the game.
Careful once you try a game with active combat other combat forms will pale in comparision.
DDO is quite a bit different from other MMO’s. I enjoy it quite a bit and have been playing since beta in the fall of 2005. The combat and character development are second to none, as are the dungeons.
You forgot to mention one other feature unique to DDO: the traps. There are traps in the dungeons from timple spikes and fire traps to much more sophisticated ones. In some dungeons there are none, in some there are a lot and in some they are random. Many traps can be avoided by the right timing and skills (mostly jump) and almost all can be disabled by a rogue.
Dungeons in DDO have 3 difficulty settings and traps deal way more damage in a higher setting. A wizard with low hp can easily be killed by a single trap in elite difficulty.
I don’t know why this feature isn’t in any other MMO (afaik) and for me it’s also one of those features i never realized they miss in MMOs because they simply weren’t there.
The game is indeed underrated and it had the potential to be the best MMO ever but it was left behind Lotro in development. Modules are rare and lacking in quests anymore. The other aspect that killed DDO for me was when grind was introduced with Mod6 … too bad
DDO is a great game. I’ve tried numerous others, and between the unique combat system and the AWESOME character customization, DDO is unparalleled.
I’ve also sampled the buffet of MMOs, and found DDO to be my favorite. I am an avid FPS player, and DDO is the only MMO that gives me a similar experience. I love the feel of the dungeons – some are quite large and epic. The players are, generally, more grown up, and it means that you can usually get a group of random people together and still succeed.
Lastly, I can’t over-emphasize the fun involved in combat – I’ve never seem an MMO support the kind of horde-of-enemy dynamics that you get out of DDO, and the resulting chaos and tactical response is jaw-droppingly amazing. Especially when something goes wrong, and you have to work hard to recover the situation. And because of the die rolls, it’s always possible for something to go wrong, and it’s almost always possible to pull the situation back together with some well-timed crowd-control spells and combat moves.