D&D 4e has 30 levels, not 20.

Granted, the epic tier is pretty hard to play in any meaningful way, but it is there if you want to have a go at it...

Honestly, at this point, I don't think Cryptic COULD release a game where you had to purchase the client...... at least not under thier own name.

Who would be willing to take the risk and fork out $$ for a box they produced sight unseen after thier track record?

Much as I hate the F2P model...and as much, on paper, as this combo sounds like a train wreck waiting to happen.... releasing the client for free probably was the right move for THEM.

At least at this point...the only thing people have to lose is a little bandwidth and a couple hours of time to try it out. Heck, I might even risk trying it out myself...if it doesn't get completely panned in the USER reviews here.

But yeah.....at this point..... I believe it's not a total train-wreck when it stands up and smacks me in the face....and not before.

I wasnt interested in this project at all because of PWE and Cryptic, even though I love Dungones and Dragons games generally. Now I am interested. Everything sounds quite nice about the game, and for the first time F2P does not ring my alarm bells so loud. I'll be sure to give Cryptic a third chance now that it costs me nothing, initially at least :)

I played the demo at PAX East. It was more of an action oriented type of mmo that kind of played like TERA as far as combat. I played through as a fighter (depended on which computer you got put at). You had 4 abilities at your disposal in the demo. One on the left mouse button, one on the right, one set at Q and one at E. You also had a set of healing potions.

I will have to reserve judgement to see how deep the game is and what else comes out for info, but to me the demo was meh. There wasn't anything really exciting about it. No story, no real dungeon puzzles, traps, or anything, just a couple of chests, some trash mobs and a boss fight at the end. Obviously, it was designed as a quick demo of the game, but they should of included more rather than just showcase the combat, especially when the combat wasn't anything special.

What will make or break this game I think is going to be story. If the quests are interesting and there is an overall story that lets you feel like you are playing D&D in an epic campaign then I think it will do well. If it follows the same old MMO mold, it will fail.

I don't know if the authors of this article saw more than we did at PAX East, but I wouldn't have been so gushing in the praise of this game, not at this stage. I definately wouldn't have given it "Game of Show".

Cryptic has to get it right first time out.  It is only by the grace of WotC that they are still working on the game.  Atari was the license holder, not Cryptic.  So when Atari sold Cryptic to PWE, WotC  took a wait and see approach by granting a temporary developmental license.  Depending on how WotC thinks they are treating the IP, there is still a real chance that they can pull the game.  Especially since they are tying in their newest pen and paper Module, Rise of the Underdark, with Turbine's DDO and their expansion, Menace of the Underdark.

As for DDO, would it have been more successful being initially set in Faerun?  Sure, but the Eberron setting was WotC's call, not Turbines.  At least they are now allowing Turbine to foray into the Forgotten Realms with Menace of the Underdark.





http://www.wizards.com/dnd/drow.aspx - The WotC campaign intro and location

 

http://underdark.ddo.com/en/info - Overlaps with the above.

Wish I could say I was excited, but it's Cryptic and it's F2P. I will try it because it is free, but after their last few releases I can't say I am going to get pumped up about this. 

Its Cryptic, buyer beware. not only should that be enough to warn people off but its going to F2P which means in another language P2W. bots and hackers paradise.

5-man raids doesn't sound bad at all. 5 mans were the reason I played WoW for several years. Lets hope there will be traps and secret doors in this game, as they kind of belong to D&D.

I put Cyrptic in the same boat as Funcom (and SOE for that matter) these days. To much hype and not enough delivery. At this point they have to release a final product and then I need to try it before I fork over any money. I will not preorder anythings from these two companies.

I hope they can make something lasting for once.

Looks really nice unfortunately with PWE as their partner the cash shop will most definitely be pay 2 win.  If not at first as soon as pvp is put ingame the cash shop will have pay 2 win items.

ALL OF PWE"S GAMES ARE P2W

I think many of you are missing the fact that Perfect World f2p games are expensive to play.  Mounts start at $20 and go up in many of their games.  Get ready to fork over the cash to play this game, it most certainly won't be free, just that you won't have to pay for the client.

Hard to get hyped because of cryptic....but Bill Roper is gone so hopefully they are a better company.

To be honest I only thought the video and description were so-so.  I am probably in the minority because most people seem to be really excited about it, but this doens't look any different than a lot of MMOs coming out lately.  I got excited about SWTOR because of the Star Wars franchise, and I got burned.  I am slightly skeptical this time around.   I love the whole D&D universe, and played tabletop AD&D a long time ago.  I would use the "It will be F2P in 2 months" statement but I think Cryptic beat me to it.

Originally posted by BillMurphy

Originally posted by MikeB

Not Bill, but I know that a lot of D&D folks aren't so hot on 4th edition, and a lot of it has to do with (from what I understand) how MMO-like it is. That may suck for P&P but obviously works great for an MMO if the ruleset is already similar.

What he said. 4th Edition is MMO-like, and that's personally why I liked it for my friends and my own campaigns.  We're all MMO nerds primarily, and this brought the table-top closer to that.  I know not everyone likes it, but I do and that's why I'm a fan of it being in Neverwinter.

But World of Warcraft has already done that.  Really, DDO already did the "action combat" thing and that turned off the AD&D players.

I am hope that PW and by extension Cryptic understands the market better than I do - but for me, the action based combat is a turn-off.   I want to roleplay a fast-twitch rogue, not simulate one.   It's not like when you play AD&D with your friends, you hurl the dice at them and only let them attack if they can snatch them from the air. 

Tactics, lore and imagination is what made AD&D such a phenoenom, it looks like Cryptic is going to get two out of three right.

I do have to say, they've really nailed the dragons from the couple of shots we've seen.  It just looks beautiful.  I probably won't be able to play it, because I don't want to get home from 8 hours of typing at work, going to the gym, and then mashing buttons as quickly as possible for three hours, but I'll certainly give it a try (probably just to make adventures).

Good lord, I can't believe how you people on MMORPG, continue to be so nieve, and Buy into all this PR BS we have been hearing for the last 8 years from every single new "MMO" that comes out.

Firstly they claim that the game is "Open world" ... now that in itself I know  for a fact is a complete and utter lie because the game is not open world. The only part that is open world are the Parts of the game were you see other players in the game and were you can communicate with other players and group up in the city.. There are also instanced dungeons. The game is more centred around story. Like SWTOR Focuses on story.

Secondly the guy completly dramatizes how amazing it is to play his Rogue Trickster and how amazing it is to go stealth and go behind them and backstab them... oh lawdy lawd like in every other MMO we have seen since the dawn of time. Come on, it's not that dramatic. The guy makes it sound like it's the second coming of jesus.

If you want to know what a Open world MMORPG is. Look it up. It's usually referred to as a "sandbox" do your research people.. really...

not a fan of PWE. they really neglect there forums. this game does look utterly amazing though. i cannot wait to play it!