yeah, Dungeons and Dragons Online has been out since February, and we're just now getting around to doing a proper review of it. We are horrible, horrible people, I know. But, due to this lapse in time, we also have an opportunity to review how the game has progressed from launch, in addition to the modules that have been put out since its release.

DDO: Stormreach was put together by both the guys and gals at Wizards of the Coast (the current publisher/owner of the tabletop game, and, you know, those Magic guys) and the folks over at Turbine, who are also responsible for the Asheron's Call titles. The title utilizes the 3.5 rule set from the tabletop series, and there are a lot of elements involved in the online game that will be pretty familiar to your typical D&D fan.

Because the game is a Massively Multiplayer Online experience, I'm opting to break this review into two parts, both for your sanity and my own. I'll be focusing on the early game content, character creation, all that fun stuff. There's quite a bit that goes into making your character, and a lot of classes to pick from, so I could probably spend a hell of a lot of time on that alone. I promise I won't though, just bear with me.

Two things to get out of the way early with this review: DDO doesn't involve any type of PvP elements, and it's not an MMO along the lines of World of Warcraft or Everquest. If you wanted to compare it to anything, the easiest would be Guild Wars, or even Phantasy Star Online, but only because of the instanced dungeon questing.

The look and feel of the game is very Dungeons and Dragons inspired. Character models are all very realistic in proportion and size, and the same can be said for armor and weapons. There is a TON of items in the game, not only when it comes to weapons and armor either, there are multitudes of potions and trinkets with varying abilities that you'll come across, even early on in the game.

Everything takes place on the continent of Xen'drik, in the world of Eberron. Those familiar with the tabletop game will recognize the world setting as the one created by designer Keith Baker, introduced into the series back in 2002 as the result of being a winning entry in a “Fantasy Setting Search”, a contest designed by WotC. However, the main gut of the game takes place in the city of Stormreach (hence the title) and when you begin the game you'll do a large deal of your questing inside the city walls. Character creation is pretty standard, but you're given quite a few cosmetic options when it comes to the look of whatever race/class you pick. There are a total of 9 classes to pick from, Warrior, Barbarian, Paladin, Cleric, Wizard, Bard, Sorcerer, Ranger, and Rogue. Anyone that's every played an MMO of any kind will be able to pick up on exactly what each class is good for in a matter of minutes. Even if you're not too familiar with these archetypes, there are tutorial areas available to test out the classes before you even advance to Stormreach and begin the game proper. Along with your class options, you can pick from 6 races, only 5 of which are available at the very start of the game. After gaining fame with one of your characters, you'll be able to pick a race called Drow. I haven't honestly reached that point, so I have no clue if there's anything particularly special about them.

After picking your race and class, you can simply name your character, create their looks (you can alter almost everything except for weight/height/mass) and jump in with the pre-built stats. Or, if you're feeling a bit more bold, you can alter the stats and pre-set abilities of your character. I don't suggest doing this unless you are already familiar with the mechanics, because it can be a bit daunting to get into. Oh, one other thing, and its something that I like to see, is that you can give your character both a first and last name. It's a minor quibble in most games, but I like being able to have that option, it always irks me when I can't (coughWoWcough).

Once you get past all that, you'll be dropped off at small port that will eventually lead to Stormreach. Think of this as your tutorial area, where you'll start to familiarize yourself with all the basic commands available, how to interact with both NPC's and other players, and you'll get your first samples of questing. Everything involved here is pretty basic, but there's some nice additions to DDO, like being able to post to a virtual board when you're looking for a group, and for what quest specifically, that are nice to have. Everything you do in this beginning part can be handled all by your lonesome, and I couldn't fathom a reason to want to group for any of the tutorial quests, but I suppose you can if you want.

One thing to note about quests: DDO is an instanced dungeon game. You basically treat each non-instanced area as a hub of sorts, where you can meet up with other players, or do your “OLOLZ AMIRITE” chatting to your hearts content. Once you're inside a dungeon, it's just you and whomever you brought along. I'm all for instanced dungeons, it prevents farming experience disasters, aggro'd mobs, and general jackassery. If you prefer a bit more multiplayer in your MMO, then it might not be for you. They've also tried to add a little bit of replayability to each quest, by giving you a solo option, or advanced difficulties (normal, expert) etc. You have to gradually make your way up the ladder to unlock the hard difficulties, and whether or not you feel like doing that, or that it's a worthwhile experience, is entirely up to you. Personally, I'm not going to mess with it (mostly because I'm working within a certain timeframe).

After completing the tutorial area, you have the option to hop a boat to Stormreach and begin the meat of the game, or you can stick around a bit longer and get more comfortable with the mechanics involved. All of this takes about an hour to do, give or take for your experience in the genre. After arriving in Stormreach, you'll meet a few more NPC's, take on more quests, and go from there. That seems to be the formula so far, enter a new area, do the quests, and move on to the next place. Later on you'll be taking on missions that will actually take place outside of Stormreach, (I haven't quite hit that part yet) but for the beginning stuff you'll be entirely inside the castle walls.

I'm going to leave off here for the time being, and in the next week or two we'll finish this up with a final grade, and a bit more information about leveling, end game, and the additional modules that have been added since launch.

Review: Part 2

With the first part of this review (which you can find directly above), I covered some of the basic back-story of the world of Eberron, including gameplay, classes, and the like. What I'd like to cover with this second and final half, is a few of the additions that have been made to the game since it launched, exactly what end game looks and feels like, and how well the leveling system works.

The first thing to cover? Leveling. I could easily sum it up with one word: Slow. Seriously, if you come into this game after playing something like World of Warcraft, Everquest, or the like, you're going to wonder what the hell happened to your experience bar. Granted, there are only 10 levels so far in the game, but it's a long, long haul to those 10 levels, at least for the casual gamer. Each level is divided into 4 tiers, and once you complete a fourth of your experience bar, you gain a point to build up/attain a skill. However, you only get experience from quests, not from enemy kills. In each quest you encounter, there are a few optional goals that you can complete that will add a bonus to your overall experience, but its nothing substantial. Even though the dungeon layouts are well designed, it can become quite a long and slow grind if your goal is to hit level 10 as fast as possible. It nearly becomes impossible to do so later, as most of the quests you'll encounter require a group of some sort to complete.

Unfortunately, once you hit level 10 there's not a whole lot to do. There are no trades to learn of any sort in DDO, so you won't be supplying or building or doing any worthwhile community contributions. There is new content added frequently, but most of this content won't take much time to experience and blow thru. You won't find yourself grinding thru dungeons over and over again for a particular piece of loot either, the drops are all balanced fairly and you'll easily acquire whatever it is you're looking for. You do unlock an additional race a bit later into the game, which is an incentive to replay the game, but then you'll just end up doing the exact same line of quests that you already did.

So far 3 modules have been released for DDO. In order they are: Dragon's Vault, Twilight Forge, and Litany of the Dead Part 1. Coming up we have Demon Sands, which promises to raise the level cap from 10 to 12, introduce some PvP elements, and include larger areas to explore. There's also talk of an Auction House being thrown in as well. All of this is supposed to hit at some point in October. The first module, Dragon's Vault, introduced a few patches to fix some initial launch problems, as well as a Red Dragon battle (which I've not done but does look pretty nice). The second, Twilight Forge, introduced the unlockable Drow race. And the third, Litany of the Dead, is the first part in a series of quests that look to deliver some more episodic content into the game. Not all of these modules are end game based either, in fact, most of the quests in Litany of the Dead fall into the level 5 or 6 range. It's nice that Turbine isn't leaving out the lower level characters with these updates; however, they should be applying some focus into making the end game a bit more satisfying (which in theory Demon Sands might do).

All in all, Dungeons and Dragons online is a nice way to whittle away some time, and it also serves as a nice alternative to a lot of the MMO's available today. If you're not hung up on PvP and crafting, and prefer to engage in quests over exploration, there's a good chance this game will definitely appeal to you. I would definitely suggest this to a more casual crowd than some of the level grinders out there. If you're only planning on putting in an hour or two a day (or less) than you should easily get your money's worth out of this title. The more "hardcore" types won't want to bother though, because in a month's time you'll easily be able to experience a large, large portion of what DDO has to offer.