When you enter a dungeon, you have an objectives screen appear, showing what the main goal of the adventure is, what level it is intended for, and how lengthy the adventure is. Many are short (approximately ten to thirty minutes) mini-adventures, for those looking for a quick stretch in the game between real-life obligations. A good number are long and sprawling tales of heroics with separate villains and multiple locations, bringing the full D&D spirit out to the forefront. These adventures can sway your reputation up in the eyes of a house or two, and down in the view of others.
MMO veterans will be surprised by how slow advancement can be, but every gain is worth the effort. Instead of quickly gaining the first dozen or so levels and then hitting a difficult wall to gain each subsequent level as is the standard recently in MMOs, Turbine made sure the game retains the rich element of advancement felt in the source material. In the pen and paper model of D&D, levels are something strived for and worked to achieve for long periods, often across multiple play sessions. When they are achieved it shows a great deal that the character has gone through and experienced, making him or her able to face greater challenges based on this knowledge gained. D&D Online kept this element, finely adapting it to the MMO structure. Characters gain ranks, several of them per level, and each rank represents one topic or achievement that the character has mastered. Upon gaining this rank, a character can return to their trainer and learn a new ability or improve a previous one by use of the Action Point they gained. When all five ranks have been gained for a given level, the character achieves the ascent into the next level, bringing more life and spell points, more abilities, and an improvement in trained skills.
Turbine did have to change some elements a bit from the source books, but most of it was handled very well. Combat, for example, is no longer turn-based. While this sounds shocking and appalling to most D&D players, take it from a fellow player: they handled it pretty well. In exchange for not having all the time in the world to ponder actions and to plan attacks, Turbine did at least let you have the freedom to attack the way you want to attack. Individual attacks can be done on a swing-by-swing basis, with a mouse click. You can also dodge or block in real-time with a tap of a button causing your character to tumble out of harm's way or throw up their shield. Instead of gaining more attacks per round, characters' recovery time between swings is cut down to show their experience handling the weapon. This constant barrage of actions can be toned down to turning on auto-attack and simply worrying about blocking occasionally, but why cut out so much fun?
Magic, also, is a little different. Your favorite spells are here, but instead of having a certain number of spells per day in a given level, Turbine went the route of Spell Points (think Mana). This works out almost exactly the same, because each spell has a specific number of spell points it requires to cast, making for a total number able to be cast each day. Metamagic feats are very much present, making both arcane and divine magic much more potent or much more useful, but they cause each spell cast under their influence cost a bit more of your spell points for the day.
Often forgotten or severely weakened, Rogues will finally have their day in the ... shadows. Turbine has made sure that all of the intricate and exciting elements of the rogue are not only present, but vital. Stealth is an ability all players can attempt to use, but only rogues can master. The game has a shadow meter, to show how well your character believes he or she is hidden. Of course, at lower skill levels, you might think you're a ghost's shadow when you've forgotten you're still holding a lit torch. Traps are in nearly every adventure, and often times they are widespread and deadly. This is the sole territory of rogues, making them a very well liked member of any party.
Frankly, this is one of the best experiences a role-play fan can have. It retains all the great elements of D&D while adding the ability to connect with a pool of thousands of players and a constant influx of new adventures and dungeons to explore. Aesthetically it's one of the most pleasing games to ever hit the market, and stylistically it retains the flavor of a living world while spicing it up with players from across the globe. Anyone looking for an alternative to the standard thoroughfare of MMOs or old school fans of D&D that haven't made the leap to electronic entertainment should definitely take notice. Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach is a call to adventure that should be answered.
Bottom Line:
There has always been a feeling of something lost when a role-player must move to the PC to get into a game. A feeling that something is lost, and that they are somehow removed from the fun when it is displayed for them in digital display. In MMORPGs, the community element is there, but all of the high fantasy and deep plotline are lost to the wilds of grinding the same mobs for hours. With the release of Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach, role-players can breath a long-held sigh of relief. That rift between tabletop gaming and MMORPGs has just been bridged.
Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach