If I say 'Dungeons and Dragons,' does your mind instantly conjure up a group of huddled teenage boys and girls over a white board, piles of books and little figurines representing elves and other fantastical beings? Do you hear the plaintive cry, "Roll for initiative!" and cringe away, your mind reeling with numbers and die?
If the sheer numbers, character sheets, books, figures and other D&D paraphernalia have always kept you away from the game itself as well as the issue of paying to play the DDO MMORPG-fear not brave citizen! On the 9th of September of this year (2009) DDO released a major change to their MMORPG based on the beloved pen and paper turned visual MMO game.
Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited is the recent, free to play upgrade to the original DDO using the 3.5 D&D rule set. Now you can play a large chunk of content, quests, and classes for the low, low, low price of absolutely free. Think of it akin to an almost limitless trail of a game you may have been hesitant to play before.
The Good, the Bad, and the Beholders-A review of DDO UnlimitedGraphics, Good
- DDO Unlimited graphics are not changed or hindered anyway from those who might decide to pay to play the game. What you see is the same as what others see, only dependant on your computer and how high or low you can adjust your graphics.
- From the standard, expected dungeon crawl, to wide open spaces filled with D&D classic monsters, the areas in DDO Unlimited are dripping with fantasy inspiration. A mix of deep, worn, well weathered wooden buildings and white washed taverns, gorgeous forests with thick trees stretching up to the forest leaving dappled light on the green floors, dark and dank dungeons with twisted evil NPC's fitting-DDO Unlimited graphics is what you should expect from a game with its particular title.
-There are many panoramic view points, interesting environments that mix magic and traditional architecture.
-The armor sets and items is what I truly loved about DDO. The detailing of chain mail & leather, metal studs, head gear as well as weapons were very well done with the current graphics engine DDO is using.
-You should be able to run the game decently with a computer using video cards or components a few years behind the current system requirements newer games need.
Graphics, bad
-Overall, DDO effects remind me of a step or two above WoW, though not at all as cartoonish or brightly colored. DDO offers several anti-alias levels plus bloom/glow effects which soften the look and improve the overall blockishness almost-WoW feel the game graphics had.
-There isn't much in the way of customization. Yes, you can choose sex, faces, eye color, lip color, hair, hair color, height and facial markings....There really isn't much by way of making your avatar distinctive from everyone else's. You'd be forced to look for rare loot drops or visit the item shop to pay real-life $ to get unique in-game items.
-Even though the game was originally released in 2006, after such games released recently, comparing their graphics to DDO reveals that four years seems to be a wide gap in comparison.
Game Play, Good
-'Dungeon Master' voice over's at the beginning of instances, zones, quests or during special moments in play adds that flavor of playing table top for those familiar and not with the concept.
-Say good bye to trailing behind another group or three in an instance, watching them mop up the baddies, take down the named, and waiting six hours for everything to respawn. Instances in DDO online 'copy' themselves to every party or individual the moment they zone through. Meaning your group, or your character, becomes the sole habitant(s) within the single copy of the instance spawned when your party enters. This gives you or your group sole access to uber fat loots, items, monsters and quests without the hassle of overcrowding, waiting for respawn or kill stealing. AKA: No one else but you and your party are in the instance
-Instances can be run through solo and if solo isn't available, "normal," has been scaled back enough that certain classes should be able to pass reasonably. A player just has to choose it via the instance entrance before zoning in. Unlimited sees a lot of changes from the Original DDO: Stormreach, which was nearly impossible to solo.
-You're adequately rewarded for the difficulty level you chose for an instance and what level range you and your party are. If you are a level or two below an instance's level, you can earn a little more xp than being at the same level, less if you or your party member are higher than the instance's level. Choosing Difficult or Epic will net you higher rewards and better gear.
-Older players, or players who originally signed up in 2006 to play the game will note that DDO has entirely changed the starter area. The Starter area explains a bit more, gives the player a much better sense of all that can be done in the game and how, and unrolls more of a story aspect to the game right from the get-go.
- You can generally do many of the quests to get you from point A to point B at low level, and there are plenty of quests for free players to whittle time away on.
-By finishing some quests you may earn a limited amount of points to spend on hirelings and other items to help you through ought your quest. Admittedly, not as many points are rewarded that you earn that you could purchase via Cash shop.
-Originally, Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach had a level cap of only 10. It was reached rather quickly in the beginning and many players complained. With DDO Unlimited, the level cap has been raised to 20 with added content brought to the original game.
-Voice chat is built in with the game. No need to download Ventrilo; you can plug in your head set and adjust your mics settings right within game and use voice chat with your group mates.
Game Play, Bad
-As expected, as a free player you are limited in where you can go. There are some quests and quest lines as well as dungeons that you can do without worry. However, there is exclusive content reserved to paying customers. If you are the kind that must finish all quests and pick them all up, then you'll find yourself hitting a wall pretty quick.
-You're confined to a level range.
-Playing Solo and choosing Solo as a difficulty level for dungeons/instances most often net you very little or no loot at all. Given DDO is a gear centric game where the better gear you have the better chances of succeeding-it goes without reason that if you don't have time to group, or aren't the grouping sort you're still sort of the odd man left out in this game.
- Playing for free, either without paying the monthly or purchasing in game items for real life money in the cash shop leaves you at a disadvantage as well. The cash shop does not seem to offer flaming kick-butt swords of awesomeness +5, but they do offer experience buff potions and underlings for purchase. (NPC party members to help you through tough instances)
-The higher the level you are as a free player, the more sparse game content is for free and the more quests and the like cost Turbine points-points I mentioned earlier that they reward you with by doing quests.
-As a free player there are no free shared bank slots, space always becomes an issue with any MMORPG, at least for me and if you wish for a shared bank slot you will need to purchase it with points.
-If the servers are busy enough for a log in que, you're at the bottom of the barrel and must wait.
-You only have TWO character slots. To get more...you guessed it, you've got to pay points, or purchase points and spend them for more character slots.
-A few character races and classes are not available: Warforged, and drow cannot be played for free, Warforged Rage, Favored Soul and Monk are two classes that you cannot play either, unless you ...yep! That's right, purchase them!
-Being as you're the only group in an instance seems to fracture the sense of community somehow. This may be a personal preference, but I do enjoy the extra hand and company knowing there are other groups around you despite the issues that may crop up.
Classes, at a glance
There is the usual standard fantasy party classes for the Unlimited version of DDO: Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Fighter, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer and Wizard. All of these classes satisfy the general want or need for archetypes; healer, buffer, nuker, tank and DPS.
Certain classes outshine the others in their ability to solo, Tank types tend to do well and appear to be the the favored class for those who enjoy soloing.
DDO Unlimited in my opinion is worth the try. Despite the large limitations on a free account, first of all we must keep in mind the key word here: free. Second, with the MMORPG market as it is currently, not terribly stable and with few games currently out there-if you're tired of WoW and other games that have been on the market for several years, DDO Unlimited might give you a welcome break.
If you're familiar with table top D&D at all, it might also just be fun for you to see your favorite game brought to life in a rich, MMORPG world with various quests.
There will always be some aspects of a free MMORPG that make a few things off kilter, but given that its free and that it really is a well done fantasy game, I give this game two geeks up and do urge you download and try it today.