I have tried to enjoy my time in the game, but several issues prevent me from enjoying the free 30 days I received.
Let me list some Pro's first.
- I like the dungeons and the quests once you enter.
- The combat is fast and fun (though weak right now)
- The models look 100 times better than LOTRO
- DX10 looks good and is smooth (the launcher though is another problem all together
But, something does not feel right
- No real atmosphere (Music is far and between not to mention boring as all get up, sound effects sound like tin cans hitting each other)
- Grouping is not fun due to the veterans being all for "race through and finish quickly" attitudes. Hardly any newbs to play with.
- Populations is quite small..I only saw one major group (3 others) and two other people playing from the amount of time I logged in
- I see no real need so far to use a skill...just smack, smack, smack and with combat being so frenetic and running around, with models sliding along the floor as they fight...it is unimmersive.
That last word says it all. Immersion is non-existent in this game....period. I do not feel like I am in another world when I start playing. WoW is even more immersive thanks to it's stylized look. AoC makes me feel like I am in the desert or snow capped mountains. Even some zones in EQ2 worked (but, also was not immersive...luckily they made up for it with a fun game inside the trappings)..
Also a point that DDO fails on.
It just does not feel fun!
Uninstall for the last time I guess
On list of NEVER to load again...Vanguard, LOTRO, DDO.
Next up....I bought myself a 9.99 copy of EQ2 Shadow Odyssey, so I will go back to EQ2 as a newbie for 30 days. Also, purchased a wireless headset for Vent for raiding in AoC while I was on my trip.
And finally bought a copy of Drakensang (even though it forces me to downgrade my PC to Vista from Win7...thats another story...)
Let the games begin, so I may protect myself from the UV Cancer Rays of the Sun..
9 comments:
I am sorry that you couldn't get into the game. I played it for about a year as my primary and kept it installed as a casual for longer.
I also had a decent guild with long running members so even when we zerged something we still had a lot of fun.
I agree and second your list. I just cannot get around the controls in DDO. I like the idea, but I think it is better off left a console game, and even then I will just play Oblivion
Thanks for the info. I'm still going to try it when it goes free though :) I'm just curious like that hehe.
Everyone has different tastes. The fact is that DDO's combat and quest design is amazing - it's very different than our standby WoW clone. Because of this, many people struggle with the controls.
Stormreach feels like a lobby, I agree, and if you have roots in SWG or other sandbox MMO titles, you might feel a little constricted.
DDO is a great "second" game, and now that it's F2P it makes this even easier to balance.
I hope the title to your blog post doesn't turn anyone off from trying it. DDO has the best PvE level design I've ever seen, and there's something elegant about swinging your weapon anytime and having a dice roll resolve the result "under the hood".
I did love the one or two times I grouped in DDO, but I just would have to really rewire my brain for the controls. I wont destroy it, I would rather save that for another game (I think Vanguard is actually WORSE than DDO to be honest but the explorer in me cannot stop logging into Vanguard every now and then)
Man, I am bummed out to see you signing out just as I'm giving it a try. I'm hoping the F2P relaunch gets more newbies taking their time in the dungeons instead of speed running.
I see a lot of people are torn over this.
I agree with the questing being better than most MMO's, and the combat is different enough to warrant it's playability by those looking for something new.
But, the game is so cut and dry, that it does not feel like a world to exist in...while most other MMO's feel like a real world.
Free is the right price for this game. The game store should hold enough interest for some to try it out, and overall Turbine will make more money on the game this way.
For now, I just did not feel like living in Eberron. Others may not either...
Totally agree with you. When I played DDO, it felt like one big raid fest with a serious lack of immersion. Honestly I've never felt the grind more in an MMO.
What's the deal with being able to replay every instance on 4 difficulties? When I play D&D table top I don't force people to replay every quest over and over just to gain a bit of XP. I feel sick just thinking about it.
On a side note, I was impressed with the combat engine. They did a great job of making the D&D combat engine real time. If only they could take the combat engine and move it to Never Winter Nights, we might have a winner.
It's very odd you would list DDO as being the most grindy MMO you've played. I don't know what other MMO's you have played, but DDO is the only MMO I have ever played that has only optional grind. You CAN grind, but it's never helpful as the game punishes you severely for grinding. The fact that individual monster kills are meaningless (worth no xp or loot) means that there is no reason to sit in place and kill the same thing over and over for an hour like in practically in other MMO.
It's like it's hellbent on cracking you upside the skull if you so much as think about doing something more than a couple of times. There is a massive and permanent penalty to XP for repeating a quest, something that is unheard of in... anything else at all. There is even a penalty for looting the same treasure multiple times. This means that you have to keep trying new quests and going new places all the time for you'll never get anywhere. As a side-effect this means that all those weird, awkward quests that never get played in other MMO's are run all the time in DDO, it really mixes things up for you. (whether you like it or not)
If you actually get far enough in the game to see some of the fun spells and effects you can have a really good time. I mean, in what other game does a blindness spell literally turn your screen solid black? I mean, how cool is that? You're actually blind. Many of the effects are like that in DDO... something that isn't just a statistic changes when you get hit with a nasty spell. Things like Air Elementals lifting you off the ground and tossing you through the air so that you fall flat on your face all the way across the room (or directly into a lava pit) just add the to the excitement. I've never played another MMO with so damn much ACTION in it. It's all very fast, and very intense. You can actually manually move yourself out of the way of fireballs, lightning bolts and arrows. It's pretty much the opposite of the usual sit-there-and-throw-your-stats-at-each-other fest that most MMOs feature.
As a final note, casting grease under your fellow Rogue while he's inching up to disarm a trap so that he slips into it and explodes is the funniest thing that can happen in ANY game.
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