The manual stated that for the Midgard Realm the kobold race would make the best rogues, due to their natural dexterity. All this is fine and dandy until you realize that there are no sword weapons in Midgard that make use of this stat. Granted, Midgardians get bonuses like the ability to wield two-handed swords with no penalties, but who has ever heard of a two-handed sword wielding rogue? Midgard is supposed to specialize in melee combat, yet it is somewhat surprising to see an almost complete absence of dex-based melee weaponry with staves being an exception. Dual Wield is an option that is supposed to be available to Midgard rogues but I was quite disappointed to learn that it only amounted to using an off-hand (left hand) axe. On top of that, you appear to do only 50% of the damage that you would normally do for each weapon, if you had equipped it normally. Finally, in what can only be regarded as a very puzzling design decision, backstabs are possible with both two-handed swords as well as staves.
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Speaking about backstabs brings us to the topic of how skills are handled in the game. Admittedly, Ive only fiddled around with the ability skills that pertain to combat, and not any of the trade skills, so my discussion will be limited to combat. Training your character means speaking to an NPC trainer in order to allocate the skill points that you earn every time you level up. Similarly to Anarchy Online, the player distributes his/her hard earned skill points according to the various skills that they want. Obviously, the higher the value, the better the skills. For most skills, being more proficient unlocks special attacks or other handy abilities (like stealth and distraction for rogues). Unfortunately for Shadowblades there may be too many skills that they need in order to function properly, thus making them somewhat fragile since skill points are spread out over too many skills. Skills can also sometimes interfere with other skills with one prominent example being that of Envenoms damage over time effect prevents a rogue from re-Stealthing simply because of the rule that a rogue cant re-Stealth immediately after a combat move and Envenoms damage counts as a combat attack. I believe Mythic is working on the solution, but I was somewhat disappointed to have chosen a class that wasnt tested thoroughly enough for balance and playability before being released.
Graphics for this game are great and compares favourably to other new MMORPGs out on the market right now, being only slightly less flashy than Anarchy Online. The sky and weather effects are quite well done and I have to admit, add quite a lot to the atmosphere in the game rather than being just background graphics. Players, NPCs, monsters, and objects in the game tend to be a bit on the blockier side of things but this is probably a good thing since the developers appear to have decided to strike a balance between looks and playability (less polys = less lag!). Magic effects are especially well done and look amazing, especially during the night cycle. Sound is done nicely but since the focus is on multiplayer interaction, there really isnt much need for it beyond the usual ambient, combat, and music sounds that a player usually hears during any session.
And multiplayer is what this game does best and worst at the same time. The design of the game appears to guarantee more success for group-minded players rather than lone wolfers even before you consider the fact that grouping up gives everyone in the party XP bonuses. Grouping up dramatically reduces the downtime that people would otherwise have while soloing and makes it easier for players to chat and make friends when downtime does occur. When strong bonds are made, guilds are naturally formed and its not too uncommon to see most of a guild running around the countryside in a pack hacking up monsters or sitting down in a town for a meeting. These positive social aspects are unfortunately countered by the same problem that plagued EQ. An inordinate amount of time is spent spawn camping simply because there really isnt anything else better to do in the game for guilds other than to fight and chat during downtime. Sure, designated guild members may be assigned to concentrate on any of the trade skills in order to equip their guild with a supply of weapons and armour, but on top of that there arent really any other professions to take up. Despite its flaws, the beauty of a game like Ultima Online was that you didnt absolutely have to engage in combat to get a name or get ahead. As it stands with DAoC, players will eventually settle into the kill-loot-sell-repeat routine, with or without the support of a guild. Admittedly the large scale battles and monster hunting parties are fun but doing this day in and day out for several hours on end eventually wears thin once the novelty wears off, even when you have the company of fellow guild members to chat with. In addition, players tend to want to keep at the same level as their friends when they play so that they can always group together. As a result, players have to stick together and play all the time in order to level up at the same rate. Failure to do so would result in falling behind and helps perpetuate the I must play in order to keep up attitude. In my honest opinion it is not an attitude a game should foster, since it means that the player feels almost obligated to play, instead of playing for fun.
To conclude, Id have to say that I have some mixed feelings about this game. DAoC is actually quite a well made and stable game for an MMORPG. Lag is almost never a problem unless there are massive numbers of players in your vicinity and, although individual experiences may vary, I have never had the game crash on me (honest). There are some really great, genuine advances to the genre like the fair death and XP penalties, the improved ability to customize their characters skill stats and their anti-griefer game design (the choice of making the game RvR makes it almost impossible to kill someone on your own side except through leading a large pack of monsters into your intended victim). Unfortunately, on the other hand, the reasons that made me leave EQ after a month are probably the same reasons why I will probably cease to play DAoC despite its strengths. Unless you are prepared to spend a lot of time (in the magnitude of a couple hundred hours a month) and money (about 10 dollars US a month in subscription fees on top of the price of the game), I cant really recommend this game in its current state to most people unless theyre either someone with a lot of time on his/her hands, or an MMORPG fan looking for his/her next fix. Keep in mind however, that games of this nature tend to be updated fairly often with patches and add-ons so improvements will almost definitely be made to the game in the future.
Overall Score: 80% for MMORPG fans, and 69% for everyone else.
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