There once was a man named Gary Gygax. He had some cool friends and some awesome ideas, and with them both made a game that has been insuring enough abstinence to make the Pope jealous. Along the way, he horrified fundies, caused the death of countless dice, and indirectly inspired a way to roll d100 to find the circumference of your, um… nether bits (link mostly SFW… mostly). Gary passed away not too long ago, but DDO keeps his and many others’ legacy and imagination alive. Not with the rolling nether area circumferences, though. Oh hey, and it’s free to play.
For those not at all familiar with this game, DDO is an MMORPG and was developed by Turbine, Inc and released by Atari in February 2006. It had a pretty standard subscription based set-up, and it kind of puttered along. If Turbine sounds familiar, it is probably because they also developed a slightly better known game called Lord of the Rings Online. Lots of problems with the game, including alleged lack of promised support by Atari and lagging development schedules kept the game from being as successful as it might have been. Oh, and there’s also this other big MMO that’s kind of popular.
Visually, it’s a gorgeous game. It uses the hell out of DX9 and has a high resolution client that adds all sorts of gorgeous DX10 effects. The game is instanced, which means no ridiculous queues while you all take your turn waiting for a mob to pop so you can eviscerate it and make off with its intestines. What a horrible reincarnation cycle that must be. At any rate, there are all the standard amenities: in-game mail, auction houses, gold farmers, ridiculous arguments in a fantasy world chat room about politics.
What sets DDO apart is really the game play. Magi don’t spam attacks, and rogues actually really for serious disable traps and unlock doors, in addition to their normal back stabbing behaviors. Strategy matters, as you get flanking bonuses, and gear plays a much smaller role than do tactics and good judgment. Attacks have cumulative enhancements to make sure that at some point in life, you’ll actually hit things. Recently, the xp tables were redone to make sure that it is possible to level your characters without ad infinitum (or is that ad nauseum) repetition.
I’ve been playing DDO on and off for two years now, and am pretty committed to the game. I love the fact that it’s extremely true to Keith Baker’s original vision of Eberron (an alternate setting for the Dungeons and Dragons pen and paper game) and to the 3.5 game system. A caveat, however, is that there are several changes made which make the online game much more real time friendly and less like pen and paper. It seems to keep hard core D&D fans satisfied (as evidenced by my significant other’s constant love of the game) while still being accessible to d20 virgins like myself. DDO actually got me interested enough in the pen and paper game that I now enjoy debating franchise D&D fiction.
The story lines in the game actually make for some fun role playing, if you’re into that sort of thing. There are some extremely ethically and morally distasteful choices that you make, in effect choosing between advancement in the system (reputation, loot, and leveling) and killing innocent people just because they worship differently than the quest giver. Seriously, you have to kill innocent homeless elves because they take charity from a rival church, or murder bookies because they don’t provide kickbacks to the city’s authorities. For hard core Eberron fans, this sort of moral ambiguity or outright immorality is a vital part of the setting. It’s a welcome change from the Forgotten Realms concept of harsh delineation between good and evil.
As of September 9, 2009, DDO is free to play. You can play entirely free up to level 3, and earn random leveling sigils to advance your character past that point. You may also pay cash for points on the Turbine store (which incidentally opens up other in-game features, such as the auction system) with which to purchase adventure packs, level advancement, gear, potions, new races, and new classes. Finally, you may still subscribe to the game, giving you access to most races and classes, all adventures, and full character advancement. This transition has breathed some serious life into DDO, with a surge in both server population and subscription. Hopefully, it will prove a good enough decision to keep the game afloat for years to come.
If you’re looking for a more challenging combat system than most other MMOs on the market and would like to try it out before shelling out the cash, Turbine’s Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited might be the change you seek.
Incidentally, this is my second article for gamerroad, and the traditional second blog post gift is a comment. Don’t ruin this momentous occasion for me.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Congrats on making it to number 2; now, if only I had the patience for a new MMO, I’d be more tempted to play this after reading your review XD
Excellent review! I’m a console person, but this makes me curious about online games.