Choose my Adventure: Goodbye, Eberron

Join me as I brave my way through lands unknown in an adventure dictated entirely by you, the Massively readers! Vote for everything from game played to character creation to ultimate goal and watch it unfold in a series of journals and galleries here on the site. Then, as our two months is up, we'll do it all over again in a new game!

As our final week in Dungeons and Dragons Online for the Choose my Adventure series, I decided to do something special by creating a video of the last day. The previous week's vote decided to make one large video -- showing one long quest as a walkthrough of sorts -- but I cheated a bit there. Since we ended up playing over four hours that night, in multiple dungeons, I went ahead and compiled two long quests in a 16-minute video I hope all DDO (and Choose my Adventure) fans will enjoy.

So follow along after the jump for my final thoughts on DDO from levels 1-7, the finale video and the poll to vote for our next game!

With this being our last week in Dungeons and Dragons Online, I can't help but reminisce on how far I've come with the game. Previous to this, my only time in the game was spent over a year ago and through various dev tours. This is the first time I've really been able to sit down and dedicate real time to the game, and most importantly, play with a good group.

When I started this part of the Choose my Adventure series, I didn't really know what to expect. So much had changed in DDO, and with the release of the free-to-play aspect of the game, I knew that it would be important to show as much as I could to the readers.

At first, I must admit I was a bit overwhelmed with the game. But after a few levels, and the help of the new guild, I was able to quickly find my way around. The controls that confused me at first were easily customizable (although I really learned to like the right-click sword swinging), and I got the hang of the UI quickly.

I wanted to take the opportunity, here on my final DDO post, to explain a bit more about what new players should expect from the first few levels of DDO.

- Despite the unique combat, this game is not a hack n' slash. The combat is very action-oriented, but you also have many factors to consider in choosing and using the right weapon. Staying true to D&D rules, there are certain tools for every job. You can't just play the whole game looking at the next weapon's DPS and believe you're fine picking the highest number every time. I found myself a bit spoiled by other MMOs, and it was nice to get back into that type of intelligent combat that I enjoyed from the old tabletop days.

- Speaking of intelligent, be ready to think in this game. Between strategic traps, randomized puzzles and multi-level mazes, this game keeps you on your toes constantly. Hint: if you see a chest at the other end of the room, and there are no baddies around to guard it, let your Rogue go first.

- The world of Eberron is heavily instanced, so be ready for that. When you're in the main common areas (i.e. Stormreach), the quests you get from NPCs will almost always point you to some door or sewer grate for an instanced dungeon. This makes the game very specific in its goals. You enter your dungeon, kill the main dudes, open the chests and receive your rewards. Of course not all of the dungeons are the same setting or rewards, but that's the general principle behind how these instances work.

- I've said it before, but I can't get over how perfect the new business model is for this game. If you're a tabletop D&D player, you realize the importance of campaigns. DDO is set up so well for those people who just want to get together with some friends and run a campaign. If there's a new one they haven't tried yet, they can purchase it for a few bucks in the DDO Store. This way, no one feels obligated to grind away for points (although they can if they choose) and you can play whenever you feel like it. Forgot a potion? Grab one from the DDO Store in the middle of the dungeon. Your Cleric had to run because he forgot tonight was supposed to be date night with the wife? No need to restart, just grab a Hireling from the DDO Store.

The only problems I had with the game are common to most MMOs. A group size of six is a bit restricting, and I wish I could have played with everyone who wanted to join us each night. We usually ended up picking the first six who got there on time, letting the others fend for themselves. This happened to me in Guild Wars and LotRO as well, so it's certainly not unique to DDO. My only other minor complaint is the heavy instancing. This is ironic coming from such a huge Guild Wars fan, but I felt like I was coming back to the city just to meet up with my group, and other players were simply in my way. Then I'd spend the next three to four hours playing exclusively with my six-person party. That's not very massively multiplayer to me.

Of course, this may also be something you enjoy. And again, like Guild Wars, there is no monthly fee for DDO, so you're actually not paying any recurring fees for the "opportunity" to see hundreds of other people running around on your screen.

Although we don't rate games here at Massively, I still have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time in DDO. I highly recommend it to anyone with a group a friends looking for a new game. If you're a solo player, you might want to spend the first few levels looking for good people in the game to group up with. Even with Hirelings, I get the distinct impression that the game isn't really meant to be played alone.

So with all of that said, it's time to move on to another game. As always, I've included the games I have available to me, which is a growing list each time we do this. Since I mentioned last week that I'll be doing these in six-week increments instead of eight-weeks, it should give us a bit more of an opportunity to explore more games, while newer ones keep launching.

This poll will be open throughout the holidays, and the votes will be tallied on December 29th. In the December 30th edition of Choose my Adventure, I'll announce the next game and start the polls for character creation.