Many games claim they are akin to a pen-and-paper D&D game. Many bank on the D&D ruleset, but when Turbine went out to create a faithful D&D experience, the development studio did want to be very faithful to the series and to the ruleset.

It could be argued that they were a little too faithful, and that may hamper the gameplay, but give credit where credit is due – Turbine created a team-based game that is linear, but is for hardcore D&D gamers, right down to the 10-sided die and dungeon master.

Set in the kingdom of Eberron, DDO: Stormreach bases most of the content out of the city of the title, where players can gather to find teams, pick up quests and then head into instanced zones on a path that is linear.

Those looking for the typical MMO (massively multiplayer online) gaming experience will find little of it here. The level system is rather tough and while there are only 10 levels, the grind (which each MMO has) is apparent in that you have to undertake missions over and over, and can actually run multiple missions for low experience rewards and level slowly … at least in the initial moments. Get into a group – which seems to be the intent of the game – fight well and you can level cap within a month of play.

But more about that in a moment.

Launching the game is relatively easy; with frequent updates that only hinge in the equation. There are currently 14 servers in play, with Turbine online support often recommending servers that are less populated.

The game has five races to choose from and nine character classes – including fighter, paladin, barbarian, rogue, ranger, cleric, wizard, sorcerer and bard. There are 10 customizable tabs in character creation, and once you create the name, you can also pick an alignment. When it comes to skills, you can allow the game to create skill sets to begin with, or customize them yourself.

The game is rather simple in design: create a character, do a couple of early solo-able mission, then get into a group and continue questing. Warforged, one of the character classes, are healed by mage classes, so making certain you have a nice balanced group is essential.  

During the course of a mission, players will come across rest shrines, which are one-time heals. Using them wisely is recommended. The shrines can also resurrect characters; if you are in a party, and die, teammates can take your resurrection stone back to the shrine to revive your character. The death penalty, overall, is very light.

The game also makes it easy to find a group, and submit the missions you are looking for help with. A nice touch, Turbine. The downside, though, is no group often means waiting to find one. You can solo early in the game, but later on, the game’s difficulty and dungeon crawls ramp up in difficulty.

The controls take some getting used to. Right click on the mouse is attack and left click is free look but you can keymap controls in the options menu as well as tinker with your graphic, audio and UI settings. The game does have load times with each building loading as well as each dungeon. Each mission will show you the difficulty and length of time to complete it. That is a very nice touch.  Combat is either through left or right clicking a target, or using the hot keys to initiate an attack. The missions also have some puzzle elements that can run the gamut of ridiculously easy to tough.

Graphically the game is solid, with dynamic shadows and lighting and decent texturing. The game does have some minor clipping problems, and rubberbanding seems to be common. The animations are serviceable, but can also be somewhat stiff. The sorcerer can conjure up a celestial dog at the early level to fight for him or her. The dog moves very stiffly. The special effects, though, are good.

When it came to the graphics, a problem was encountered on a machine using an Nvidia GeForce 6800 card. The machine was a Pentium 4, 3.4 gig processor with a gig of RAM. The problem was that the game simply would not run. It would get to the title screen, pixilate and lock up, requiring a hard shutdown of the machine and a reboot. On a machine with an AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 processor, one gig of RAM and an Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT card, the game ran fine. Nvidia was contacted and was at a loss in regards to why the better card would have a problem.

The game’s sound is hit and miss. The musical score is well done, but the dungeon master speaks in somewhat of a monotone and after running through missions several times (with different characters) the repetitiveness gets to the point where mute is the order of the day. The game does support voice chat, though, making it easier to discuss what is going on in a dungeon crawl.

The game has no crafting system, no housing, and no player-versus-player combat. It is a dungeon crawl and one that requires a group. Players in a group can run through the levels quickly and there is no ‘end-game,’ per se. Once you level cap, that’s all there is. You can create a new avatar and go through it all again as a different class, but that is about it for replayability. Turbine does have plans to launch new dungeons on a regular basis, though.D&D Online: Stormreach is a niche MMO. It certainly won’t appeal to World of Warcraft fans looking for that quick and satisfying experience and if you have no idea about d-numerical standards that describe weapons and armament, you may find yourself not selecting the best items for your class of character. This is a game that requires forethought when making character choices. And even then, the game does not have a lot of depth in terms of in-game time. Yes, there are a wide array of dungeons, and a lot of missions, but the forced grouping aspect, and with good players, you can run through these all in a relatively short time frame.

Gameplay: 7.0
There is a learning curve and players will be forced to group as they progress down the path. With only 10 true levels, but several ranks of each level, players will find themselves running the gamut of missions to level. It can be done quickly if you get in with the right group, though.

Graphics: 7.2
The animations are not all that compelling, there are some minor clipping problems though the character models and environments look solid.

Sound: 6.8
The dungeon master’s voice can get annoying (due to repetition and somewhat monotone delivery), though the music is fairly well done.

Difficulty: Medium
If you have done a mission, and then team up, you can unlock harder settings for the same mission for teammates. And this is not a game that is solo-able.

Concept: 6.7
While this is a pen-and-paper game come to life, in the current age of MMOs, the grind is firmly in place and with the linear nature of the game, the replayability is knocked way down.

Multiplayer: 8.3
The community is much like any other MMO, with some players that are less enjoyable to be about and those that are helpful and ready to team up.

Overall: 7.0
Linear mission structures and forced grouping – with no crafting, housing, PvP or end-game – make DDO: Stormreach a short experience. If you have done the missions once, you will know what to expect the second, or even third time through. Filling up the character slots, or experiencing every class may be viable, but without a continuous story, or even worse, waiting for a group, really bogs the game down. Stormreach is the most faithful game to the D&D pen-and-paper history, and while that translates to a somewhat unique experience in the MMO space, it will only cater to the more veteran crowd.