It might just be me and my actual D&D 3.5 experience, but I believe this game has no right to be truly called Dungeons&Dragons Online. The reason I loved D&D is because I made the choices, and my neutral/chaotic could just take this cash and run. I got to call the shots- not a dev I've never met. Maybe suggestions could be available?

Don't get me wrong- this is a great f2p MMORPG. It just doesn't amount to the intense creativity of true Dungeons and Dragons. It's close , but the end- player crafted ideas and even quests- has yet to come.

If it ever comes, please PM me and tell me where. If you do, you have just found the game I'll always play, provided it has good scores in everything other than an "editor" system.

Nice review, by the way. Keep it up!

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Originally posted by wiseguy21
It might just be me and my actual D&D 3.5 experience, but I believe this game has no right to be truly called Dungeons&Dragons Online. The reason I loved D&D is because I made the choices, and my neutral/chaotic could just take this cash and run. I got to call the shots- not a dev I've never met. Maybe suggestions could be available?

Don't get me wrong- this is a great f2p MMORPG. It just doesn't amount to the intense creativity of true Dungeons and Dragons. It's close , but the end- player crafted ideas and even quests- has yet to come.

If it ever comes, please PM me and tell me where. If you do, you have just found the game I'll always play, provided it has good scores in everything other than an "editor" system.

Nice review, by the way. Keep it up!

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WiseGuy21,

Since you are obviously a fan/player of the original D&D P&P game, there is no way a production MMO based on that game is going to satisfy your more sophisticated appetite. I will make a suggestion though; the Never Winter Nights (NWN) series. Perhaps you've heard that already but it remains a viable MORPG (minus the first "M" for "massive").

I can say this, in both NWN 1 and NWN 2 there are active communities and the game allows players to be a DM, host a game, take over their own NPCs and even invent custom creatures (not to mention entire story lines) from scratch. If immersion is what you want (with more control), NWN is the way to go. It's not technically an MMO per-say, but it is an RPG based on D&D 3.0 (NWN 1) and 3.5 (NWN 2) rules.

As an MMORPG based largely on D&D rules, DDO gives the old P&P players something to tinker with while not being too difficult to attract your standard MMORPG player.

I've always wanted to play D&D in it's classic form, but I just can't resist 3D graphics . . . and I'm sure you can relate.

This is an excellent and fair review. For the first time I have little to say other than perhaps this post should be stickied somewhere on DDO's forums for new players, lol.

One things that was hinted on that does hinder my play-time is DDO's lack of open terrain. The game's environmental foundation is indeed much like Guild Wars in that everything is instanced except for the "main" communal areas of Stormreach. In fact, most dungeons in DDO are quite confining as well and really don't allow for the nonsense exploration that draw many MMOers "in". Couple that with the rush of veteran quest runs and you've got an MMO that's not only impossible to just explore in general but that also flies by before what little open area that DOES exist can be explored before your dungeon partners move on.

This isn't the case all of the time, as no one situation typically is, but it does occur. My suggestion is that players should keep in mind that D&D is a complex system and to implement its many varying facets it would be largely difficult to leave the world "open" and yet remain playable.

That's really my only complaint though and for the most part the game offers players options that no other MMORPG has truly implemented to DDO's extent, such as: trap detection/disabling, hidden passage detection, lock picking, sneaking through a dungeon instead of fighting through, objects that require strength or wisdom to open . . . it's all good stuff.

DDO is free, it IS fun, and although the restrictions can be a bit confusing at times (like having to get a "pass" to progress past certain levels), it's not too difficult to figure out and achieve and yet still offers Turbine a small hope of eventually getting paid for developing, maintaining and updating what is truly a premium game.

A very good review, both for its impartial comment on the pro's and cons of this game.

I have been playing the game since a month after initial release on the european servers and then on the US servers and the changes within the game have been quite vast.

I would encourage anyone to play, the game might suck you in like it has me and many others, but it also might not tick any of the boxes and push you away.

I cannot see myself ever leaving this game.. except for when they pull the plug on the servers.. hopefully many years away. I love the hectic combat, the team strategy, playing with friends..

My only concerns with the game at the moment is the impending arrival of guild sky ships (housing).. from what I have read, if you are in a newly formed guild with small numbers like myself you will be at a disadvantage from playing in an old elitist guild with large numbers.. This seems to remove another layer of individuality.. and so i expect to see a lot of the smaller guilds merge with the bigger guilds to get the benefit of enhanced spell dc's, etc..

My only other concern is with raid lag... caused by dps, not game breaking in any respects just frustrating

On the flip side you get to play inside a community that actually cares about other players, in the main always willing to help.  You get to create a character with probably the most vast customisation / character building option then in any other game (just from my experience)

For those of us who love this game, creating a crazy new build or adapting a tried and tested forum build to suit ourselves is one of the highlights.

My main relief is that there is none of the lotro/wowisms in this game.. D&D is epic adventuring.. how epic would a merry band of adventurers feel if they had to run across a massive map to kill 6 spiders just to run back and be told that the next "epic adventure" is to go back to where you just were to kill 12 more spiders and take 12 fragments of web..  not very epic at all.

I will stick with having to enter another plane of existance and defeat a selection of bearded devils, orthons, horned devils and  a pit fiend (Thats EPIC)

This game wont suit everyone.. but for me.. it rocks :)

Awesome comments. I am glad there are players out there that can actually give an opinion without turning it into some sort of rant. I have yet to try this game and really hadn't given it a great deal of thought till I was just messing around on MMORPG.com and came across this review. I am glad you actually have experience playing WoW and other titles without just making assumptions and dissing something because its a cool thing to do. I think I may go and download DDO so that I can experience what its like so I too can say hey I tried this and I really liked/didn't like this or that and actually have a valid opinion.