Previews at UGO

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UnderGroundOnline has done a coverage of upcoming Atari games, including the three Dungeons and Dragons titles. While the preview of Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone is quite long with lots of gameplay info, the articles on Dungeons and Dragons Online and Dragonshard offer little or nothing new. Here's something from the Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone preview:

When not repeatedly dying, players will also appreciate that Demon Stone has a lot more to it than just brawling. What would a Forgotten Realms game be without at least some modicum of character building? For those trembling, don't worry. You won't have to make complicated decisions about where to spend stat points or anything like that. In fact, you don't even have to worry about experience. See, when you level up, you actually gain gold. With this gold, you can purchase new items which will, in effect, determine the direction of your character for you. The example we were given was while one player might go and buy the most expensive armor for his fighter, making him all but indestructible, another might focus more on buying new weapons, and therefore dealing more damage (though perhaps taking more, as well). Even cooler, items that you purchase will actually change your character model for the rest of the game, so if you bought that dragon armor at level five, you'll see yourself wearing it while you fight and even during cutscenes. As easy as character building is, though, for players that just want to keep fighting, there's an auto-buy feature that chooses a some suggested equipment and gets you on your way as fast as possible.

From the preview of Dungeons and Dragons Online:

Despite its young age, D&D: Online is looking extremely promising. Of course, the game will feature some of the classic D&D staples, like orcs, sorcerers and elves. But where the game differs from the pen and paper obsession is in execution. See, instead of the turn-based, slow-paced combat that the original game is known for, D&D: Online features real-time combat. And I don't mean the quasi-real-time combat of Galaxies or EverQuest. I mean, when you click, you actually swing your sword! No longer will you be able to run up to an enemy, click the auto-attack button, and go off to make a sandwich for a few minutes.

From the preview of Dragonshard:

But we've seen this before, haven't we? Take a popular RPG series and turn it into an RTS. Unfortunately, the idea hasn't really come off in the past. Lords of EverQuest was a poorly implemented attempt to reinvigorate the franchise. Even Liquid Entertainment's own War of the Ring came out pretty rough around the edges. So what makes the D&D RTS Dragonshard any different? Well, time, for one thing. War of the Ring was a notoriously rushed title, and it offered very little innovation for the RTS genre. Dragonshard, on the other hand, features a bucket-load of gameplay concepts that really set the title apart.

[ August 25, 2004, 22:00: Message edited by: Mollusken ]

 

What? No XP in Demon Stone? No stat points? I think I'd rather have level-ups that improve my character, rather than just enabling him to have better gear.

 

Actually, the Demon Stone approach could be interesting, if they also implemented a way that you could buy training in various fields of expertise, eg. weapons, thieving skills, etc.

Edit: also in the news, this is my 1900th post.

 

It's a bit capitalist though isn't it? Money talks. The one with the most money wins. It'll never sell amongst those global anti-capitalism types. Maybe they need a socialist version where you get more power just by helping others. Or a communist one where you have to share the loot with everyone.

 

Sharing?!? Never.

But seriously, yeah, I hope you get gold for doing more than just killing enemies; but then, the gold appears to be awarded for leveling up, so there must be some kind of XP system to determine when those level-ups happen; maybe that's where non-combat sources of XP will come into play.

 

It doesn't sound very DnD-ish to me. How could WotC have let this get through?

As far as "global anti-capitalism types" go, maybe this is an attempt at re-education?