Dungeons & Dragons Online

[WarLocke]

I installed the DDO trial that came with my copy of Neverwinter Nights 2 on a whim (as a sidenote, I found NWN2 underwhelming, the interface feels clunkier than NWN1 and it runs fairly poorly) and was extremely surprised.

I can't remember the last time I played an MMO that actually had traps in dungeons - or at least ones that were bad enough that I thought to myself 'Man, we really need a rogue.' And instead of having large zones of wandering monsters a la the EQ/WoW mold, DDO has city 'hubs' with instanced adventures you go into, complete with Dungeon Master narration (one of the coolest additions to the genre, IMO). You can actually play a REAL rogue-type character in it, stealthing through to objectives rather than being forced to kill everything.

Combat is nice though, don't get me wrong. Unlike mainstream MMOs where you might have to hack at a single mob for a minute to drop it, most monsters in DDO go down in 3 to 4 hits (at least up to where I am at level 4) but come at you in groups, so you've got to manouver to keep your flanks protected, maybe block those kobolds up in a doorway for the wizard in the group to drop a Web, or pull back behind the fighters long enough for the cleric to heal you. Heck, the other night I was in a group that ran into a giant (and I mean 12-foot+) on an adventure and the only way we could kill it was to have the fighters and my cleric shield-blocking in front of the sorceror (keeping the giant from reaching him) while he nuked it down. Built-in voice chat is another nice touch.

It's really refreshing coming from other MMOs, and there's a ton of variety in the adventures. If anyone is already playing or wants to try it, I have two buddy trial codes (though you'll need to get the client somewhere) and play on the Sarlona server as Weylan Tor.

[Alrin]

I also enjoyed the free trial I got on a download as well immensely.
While I'm sure it - like most mmo's - will suffer after a while from the same 'grind feel' it felt different. I liked the fact your toons actually had substance and not just something mobs could run through in a blink of an eye. I liked that you could repeat quests in order to get multiple rewards from the same quest-chain, that was a neat little nugget. I tried both a fighter and a cleric and both were enjoyable in their own ways.

There's still a rush mentality for dungeons but I suppose that can depend entirely on the party. "pug stupidity" is the same as people still blunder headfirst into traps that annihilate them, but hey.. thats what the shrines are for hehe. ^^

All in all I thought it was a cool game, but my time is completely engrossed in WoW and I dont really see that changing anytime soon.
BUT, if I were to step away from wow raiding, I would definately consider picking up DDO for the fact that (as it stands right now) it doesnt require the same super-raid dedication in order to enjoying yourself. In that regards, it feels alot more 'casual' than WoW.

[Bun-Bun]

BUT, if I were to step away from wow raiding, I would definately consider picking up DDO for the fact that (as it stands right now) it doesnt require the same super-raid dedication in order to enjoying yourself. In that regards, it feels alot more 'casual' than WoW.

I played in the beta for a bit, and found it just the opposite. Soloing is just plain not possible. The world seems much more static than WoW, and the food pellets just didn't drop from the chute very fast no matter how I pushed the levers.

That's all from the beta, of course, they may have improved things since. Regardless, I don't think it's my kind of game.

[Raelynn]

I played in the beta for a bit, and found it just the opposite. Soloing is just plain not possible. The world seems much more static than WoW, and the food pellets just didn't drop from the chute very fast no matter how I pushed the levers.

That's all from the beta, of course, they may have improved things since. Regardless, I don't think it's my kind of game.

I played back in late beta and I felt basically the same. Without a steady group to play with, you couldn't do much at all. Also, as much as they tried to add in the extra steps between the 10 levels, it didn't feel like you were advancing very much during that time. That's just how I felt though :)