DDO: First impressions

Gythe1st

First of all I'd like to state thst this is only my opinion of the game at a first glance.

So if you don't like my opinion thats cool too.

Character design: just ok

Narator guy: Somebody please kill him, The monotone bastard is just... so... exciting...

Class balance: None

EXP/money economy: Might as well have been done by a 3rd grader, I kill a tough boss mob and I get 30exp. And I'm still lvl 1 rank 2 and I have 13 plat. 13 PLAT PEOPLE never in the history of DnD have I ever seen anyone with that much money at lvl 1. Oh, and a cure light wounds potion costs almost 60 gp WTF?

Quests: Well I haven't seen any consequences yet for dying except for a little money loss. But thats ok cause unless your a cleric your going to die alot.

The game seems very stale at first but then you kind warm up to it a bit once you ge the hang of things. The lag isn't too bad coincidering everything is instanced. The only time I saw lag was when I died and popped in a tavern with 100 other people all on the same spot and it was choppy for a whopping 5 secs ooo so all in all thats not bad. Lots of interactive things in the world. Like barrels, vases, stone coffins, just stuff in general to break everywhere. I don't hate the game as I will probally play more tomorrow but no more tonight. The game is not very permissive in the sence that if I haven't talked to a certain individual I cannot go thru a certain door, crypt, archway, sewer cover or heck even into another room from a house thats abandoned.

I believe it would make for a great single player game.

But as a morg the way it is right now. No thanks I'll give my money to someone else for now.

Oni

 

Tyrgris

Well, I played PnP D&D ever since the 70's. played the PC version ever since the boxes read "IBM Compatible" and still play all D&D games. Yes I am an avid D&D enthusiast.

I am even in the Beta and have been since Nov last year.

To top that off, I am also a big time lover of AC and played that since day one and quit when Decal became more important than just playing the game. So you can say I am even a old fan of Turbine

As for DDO. No, I won't be purchasing it when it comes out. I just hope that LOTRO will be different and I pray that the DDO devs were just the same dev guys that did AC2 and that the LOTRO guys are the same that did AC1. If not I don't have much hope for LOTRO . Then I can stand with the torch and tell all. The grand father of RPG's have been beheaded. or casterated.

Sum up DDO in short length. Imagine being trapped in a town and your only options are to visit in door areas within the city, however image you can go out the city gates, BUT it is more like a backyard that is fenced in where you have to come back through the gate to go out! The BIG let down. Ebberron is like being at the state fair. You talk to the guy and give him your ticket (tag in DDO) so you can get on the ride (instance in DDO). That is all it felt like to me. Every quest you go on there is a guy typically standing in front of the instance (door and/or etc..) and before you can go into any instance you must first talk to the man at the door.

Now I can see Turbines concept about it being like PnP and a quest is like a campaign, but to me this is the  BIG problem and something I think Turbine will Learn the hard way from....PnP is PnP, it isn't ment to be played on the computer and the reason why PnP is setup as it is, is because of how it bneeds to be handled at a "TABLE TOP". D&D needs to evolve and it has so far with many other games that are already electronic games and they don't try to mimic PnP, but just try to bring the world of D&D to life. Not the session. That is where they will fail at. I would rather play a PC game that TRIES to make me feel like I am really in the world and not trying to mimic a board game that tries to mimic I am in the world. I am surprised that Turbine doesn't have a Floating DM come out visually and hand your virtual self (2) 8 sided dice and ask you to roll them on this table he has appear in the sewers with you.

Too bad the original CEO of Turbine left before AC2 even was a project. Maybe they wouldn't be heading in such an unprofession way they are. I am just worried now that they are going to destroy the world of Middle Earth as they are doing with DDO. I rate DDO the same as the D&D movie. Both are ruining the name of the title. I just hope Turbine doesn't make J.R.R Tolkien roll over in his grave. They ruin LOTRO as well it will kick me back into only SP/MP RPG's to abandon the whole MMO community as a whole. All I have seen ever since DAOC is watching the MMO community ruin the genre of RPGs.