D&D Online Preview

[Melbosa]

Source: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/ddonline/news.html?sid=6139504

Hands-On Impressions - High-Level Characters, Group Adventures, and Hack-and-Slash



We get our hands on a high-level adventure in this upcoming massively multiplayer game based on the classic fantasy tabletop series.



Traditional massively multiplayer games usually require you to create a single fantasy character before venturing out in a persistent world with other players to beat up skeletons and goblins by turning on an "auto-attack" option and waiting until you, or your enemies, fall over dead. Tradition itself may be on the way out with a new breed of massively multiplayer games that try to engage players by offering fast-paced real-time combat and a gentler learning curve for beginners. One of the most prominent examples of this new breed is Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach, the upcoming game that will take place in the fantasy world of Eberron.



....

[Thorin]

Years of trying to tweak D&D3.x to give Wizards more leeway with spells tells me they're gonna have trouble balancing Wizards and Sorcerers, given that they each now get a "mana pool" and can cast a spell more than once even if they only memorized it once.



I wonder, too, if you're going to be allowed to have a team bigger or smaller than four characters.



Now, would you give up playing D&D on weekends to play this game instead?

[Lazybones]

Now, would you give up playing D&D on weekends to play this game instead?

At the moments I have no interest in this game what so ever.. I enjoy the weekend games.

[Shayne]

The weekend games are less about the game and more about the company; personally that is.

[Lazybones]

The weekend games are less about the game and more about the company; personally that is.

And that is why I like them.



Hang out , little role play, little battle.. = good time. Battle in D&D is not really all that interesting if you ask me.

[Thorin]

Yeah, I heartily concur with what you both say.  I'd much rather play D&D once a week than D&D Online five times a week.  If I could do both, I might, but well...

[Melbosa]

http://www.fileplanet.com/promotions/ddo_stormreach/preview/



Open Beta this weekend.

[Melbosa]

So I tried this out on the weekend.  Combat is very similar to an adventure game crossed with an MMO style specials... that's the best I can describe.  So you actually have to hit the block button to block, attack to attack (although there is an auto attack selected target), and jump to jump.  Not sure if this will be a good thing or bad, had to really pay attention in battles - and my reaction time did impact how much dmg I took... just was weird compared to the other MMO styles.



They are pretty true to the D20 system and the D&D feats.  Find it hard to tell the distance Search has; never did understand if it was to be used on just objects or on the area as a whole (in terms of this MMO).  The DM narration is neat, adding an eliment of story telling not seen in MMOs that I have played to date.  He pipes up as you tranverse the instances of quests, as well when your passive skills (Listen, Spot, etc) come into play.



But as for an MMO I'd be interested in... na, I like the paper version a lot better, and this does feel like a Balder's Gate, Never Winter Nights, or Knights of the Old Republic (yeah I know last one is not the traditional D&D universe) type of game - yeah its an MMO, but it didn't grab me the way those games did.