Simolean2
03-06-2006, 12:13 AM
Well its finally come out for all of us deprived gamers lacking groups or just looking for a new taste at the MMO RPG franchise. The game has alot of promise but lacks an overall long term interest. Theyve eliminated all travel outside the city which is something most enjoy the actual exploration of a living world. Rather your set in the semi - large city of Stormreach in the Eberron campaign setting (3.5 ed). Where you run into quest after quest which transports you to the place. So far all quests are dungeon crawl. Playing to an undermountain kinda atmosphere from Waterdeep. They eliminated alot of the things that caused conflict in other games like WoW or FF11 like chest with items reserved just for your character rather then having to fight over who gets what. Also most of the equipment you get in the game is randomly generated as a prize for completing a quest. So its more about the game and not the gear. Cause you get it as you go.
You can solo alot of the quests but get the most enjoyment from playing in a full and diverse team where everyone contributes like the rouge that scouts for traps, disableing them as you go, or the cleric behind healing the members that foolishly ignored the trap warning from the rouge. Levels are broken down by rank so in order to reach a new level you have to hit 5 ranks in one then you can train up to the next. The cap is 10 soon to be 12 then 20. Prestige classes are rumored to soon be added to the mix. The overall graphics are decent. You can only make a sewer look so good lol. But the character models are stunning. They have just about all the standard classes minus monks and druids. And have even added a kewl feature most MMO RPGs have yet to have which is a mic compatible realtime voice chat. Which eliminates most typing that slows down an adventure.
Another kewl feature I have to mention is the DM voice narration as you enter and travel through zones. It really makes you feel like your in a D&D session. "As you enter the room you can see what appears to be humanlike footprints running along the ground leading to the door across the room, alarmed voices beyond" etc.
So far the game has yet to live up to the potential it posses but Iam hoping soon with a few good patches and updates and an expansion pack or 2 that this will prove to be a great MMO RPG and a new level of dungeons and dragons.
You can solo alot of the quests but get the most enjoyment from playing in a full and diverse team where everyone contributes like the rouge that scouts for traps, disableing them as you go, or the cleric behind healing the members that foolishly ignored the trap warning from the rouge. Levels are broken down by rank so in order to reach a new level you have to hit 5 ranks in one then you can train up to the next. The cap is 10 soon to be 12 then 20. Prestige classes are rumored to soon be added to the mix. The overall graphics are decent. You can only make a sewer look so good lol. But the character models are stunning. They have just about all the standard classes minus monks and druids. And have even added a kewl feature most MMO RPGs have yet to have which is a mic compatible realtime voice chat. Which eliminates most typing that slows down an adventure.
Another kewl feature I have to mention is the DM voice narration as you enter and travel through zones. It really makes you feel like your in a D&D session. "As you enter the room you can see what appears to be humanlike footprints running along the ground leading to the door across the room, alarmed voices beyond" etc.
So far the game has yet to live up to the potential it posses but Iam hoping soon with a few good patches and updates and an expansion pack or 2 that this will prove to be a great MMO RPG and a new level of dungeons and dragons.