So I landed in the preorder beta, and tried the game out for a bit. Try as I might I could not get myself to like this game and ended up canceling my order. If this is considered a "bash" I apologize. I am going to list some pros and cons I noticed about the game.

Pros:

1. You can run around town swinging your weapon at nothing.

2. Very robust character creation with hundreds of options for characters. No two characters should be alike, as long as people don't copy the same template. Which, of course, they will.

3. Good graphics that are decently customizable in options. Too brown though.

Cons:

1. The combat simply does not make the player involved. I didn't feel like I was hitting anything. I felt like I was swinging my weapon and things were taking damage. I understand that other MMOs' Auto Attack may not be the best for some people, but I feel like when I use skills and attack in other MMOs it happens quickly and feels quite responsive. In DDO, I feel like I'm clicking the mouse and things are dying.

Also, the combat itself is rather awkward. Using melee skills while spamming mouse clicks to swing didn't seem possible. It would not queue up my skill usage, for example if I was swinging and wanted to do a Sunder or Trip, I would have to stop swinging to do so(it would ignore my buttonpress otherwise), and then resume after I saw the skill light up. This in itself makes the combat less fun than it should be. The combat in DDO is supposed to be one of its strong points, but I feel the way it is set up makes the player feel less involved than other games such as Diablo 2 or even WoW. In those games skills are responsive when you hit the button, or they at least give you an error message if the skill cannot be used. DDO simply ignores your keypress. This is probably the biggest problem I had with the combat.

Overall, the combat is just not as fun as I expected. This is partly due to the problem I just explained, probably also partly due to the fact that mobs die so fast, and the rest of it is a general lack of immersion/involvement.

2. The progression in DDO is linear. There is only one path of quests to take as you start a new character in DDO. This hurts the replay value. Also, from what I have heard, the game forces you to repeat quests at some point. This IMO is inexcusable for an entirely PvE game with a monthly fee attached. There needs to be different paths and options to progress.

3. The interface in DDO feels like it should

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about Video game reviews: Dungeons & Dragons Online (PC)?
We want to hear your view. Write now!