Dungeons and Dragons Online Review

On Friday, after deciding not to reinstall “Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor”, I started playing “Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited”. I’m not really a MMORPG kind of guy and have never played in Eberron, so I was expecting to not like it. But the price was right so I decided to give it a chance.

With a free account you have two character slots, access to most of the races and classes, and a couple of dozen missions. You can either pay money to unlock more races, classes, missions, etc. or, after building up enough favor points, your account will be credited with points to spend in the store. As near as I can tell, if you are a dedicated – and patient – player, there is not a huge incentive to expend any real currency.

The game-play is decent, but the controls take a bit of getting used to, and there is a moderate learning curve. For instance it was difficult for me to control whether my character swam forward or down the first few times I entered the water; because of this, I almost drowned several times. The forward key controls both movements and which way you end up going is determined by whether your character is looking forward or down. Another oddity is that ‘L’ brings up the quest list instead or ‘q’ as in many other games that I have played.

The quests have a mix of combat and puzzles so most players should find some aspect to enjoy. When viewing pending quests in the log, a summary of the quest, directions to the starting point, recommended character level, difficulty rating at that level, and relative length of time to complete are all listed. This information makes it extremely easy to plan an order for undertaking the quests (easy first, nearby first, etc.).

The engine feels much like the engine for “Neverwinter Nights”, which is not surprising since Atari worked on both games. The graphics are extremely well done and the appearance of your character is very customizable (including eyebrows, noses, lips, and other facial features). The game mechanics feel like a tweaked combination of 3rd and 4th edition.

Each mission can be completed multiple times at greater difficulty levels for more rewards; and one of the in game tips encourages this practice. I would suggest at least doing the easy quests multiple times for the quick loot. I cannot give a rating on how well this works in multi-player mode as I have been playing solo. I prefer to play games with people I know, and I do not know anyone else who currently plays. However, some of the missions can only be undertaken in solo mode, so I feel like I am being rewarded for being anti-social. I assume that the feel of the game is not much different with a party, but many of the missions become more difficult (as you would not be able to select solo difficulty).

Overall, this has been a great game and definitely the best free game that I have played quite a while. I would recommend downloading it and at least giving it a chance for a few hours.