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Platform: PC
Related Articles: Review: World of Warcraft (PC) Review: Star Wars Galaxies (PC)
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Dungeons
and Dragons Online
For Dungeons and Dragons being one of the longest running role-playing franchises ever, it’s quite surprising that it has taken so long for it to get a MMORPG of its own. Sure there has been Everquest, Ultima, World of Warcraft, and so many others, but where was D&D, the franchise that likely played a pivotal role in developing an interest in RPGs for the creators of each and every one of these games? Well, there’s nothing we can do about the past, we can only look to the future, and Atari’s upcoming effort Dungeons & Dragons Online.
Taking
place in Xen’drik, in the world of Eberron, it looks like Dungeons
& Dragons Online is going to be trying some new, and different
things with an online RPG. One
such feature is that the game will not give experience points for
killing monsters. Instead, players will have to complete quests in order to
advance their character. It
has been mentioned that at lower levels the game will be quite soloable,
but as players increase in levels, they will have to group more often if
they want to accomplish their goals.
With only quests granting experience points, and an increasing
need for grouping at higher levels, it will be interesting to see just
to what extent forced grouping comes into play in D&D Online.
More importantly, it will be interesting to see how willing
gamers are to embrace this slight tweak to a traditional formula in
MMORPGs.
Since the game will be based on D&D 3.5, the races and classes players can choose from will largely be reflective of that rule set. As such, players will be able to play as humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, or the warforged, while being able to choose from the classes of barbarian, bard, cleric, fighter, paladin, ranger, rogue, sorcerer, and wizard. In addition to this, players will have plenty of skills and feats to choose from while molding their characters over the course of the game. One of the other class-types that D&D is known for is the multi-class which combines the aspects of a more than one class, giving a sort of jack of all trades, but master of none quality to these characters, which will also be implemented in D&D Online (likely maxing out at three or four classes that can be combined). Interestingly, players will also have a variety of prestige classes available to them as they reach higher levels in the game. Relatively speaking, though, the level cap isn’t very high in D&D Online, at least compared to other MMORPGs. As such, players will cap their characters at level 20 in this game. Looking at past, offline D&D games that have come over the years, this is not really surprising since other games to use the license have also capped at level 20, only having higher levels become available for expansion packs and sequels. However, considering that most other MMORPGs on the market usually cap at around levels 40-60, one has to wonder how readily fans of the genre will accept an initial level cap of 20 in D&D |
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Online.
Character stat improvement will work on the point buying system, so
when a character reaches a new level he or she will get a certain number
of points that they can spend on improving their characters stats.
In terms of combat, it would appear that Turbine Games is trying to ensure that the title stays fairly interactive, instead of hitting the attack button, going to the kitchen to make a sandwich, then returning to the computer and saying, “Yay, I won!” The developers have yet to go into much detail regarding just how much involvement will be required of players when |
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engaging in battle, but it’s nice to see more companies trying to break away from traditional combat in MMORPGs. At this point, there will be no PvP play in D&D Online, as Turbine wants to emphasize cooperative play for the time being. Also, there are hints of penalties being handed out when characters are killed. There’s no word as to whether this will involve corpse recovery, experience point penalties, damage to equipment, or something else entirely, though.
What
will likely stand out in D&D Online when the game is compared to
other MMORPGs is the title’s magic system.
The D&D approach to spells has always been quite different
from other RPG, and that fact will remain with D&D Online.
Basing the game’s spell point system on the Unearthed Arcana
rulebook, characters will have spell points that are determined by a
number of their character’s stats.
Sorcerers and bards will be to cast any spells they have so long
as there is enough spell points for them to do it.
However, wizards and clerics will have a limited number of spells
that they can have memorized and ready to go at any given time, though
they can cast these memorized spells as much as they want so long as
they have enough spell points. As
such, players who choose one of these two classes will have to think a
little more carefully when prepping spells for quests and what not.
Also, regardless of the type of magic user one might be, several
spells will also require reagents in order to be cast.
One other thing that players will need to be wary of is the
presence of instant death spells such as Finger of Death and
Disintegrate. They won’t show up often, but some of the boss-like enemies
may have these sorts of spells in their arcane arsenals, so players will
need to make sure they have the proper wards cast on them at the
appropriate times.
With
alpha testing right around the corner, hopefully we’ll be seeing this
game hitting store shelves by the last half of this year.
It certainly appears that Turbine is trying to make a different
sort of fantasy MMORPG here with its combination of uniquely D&D
game elements, and attempts to step away from what has become the norm
for the genre over the last five or so years.
Will fans of D&D and MMORPGs like what they see when the game
is completed? Only time
will tell.
Mr.
Nash (April
8, 2005) |
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