I’ve said some pretty negative things about DDO, and Turbine in general lately. Here, and elsewhere, I’ve been snotty about the plans the company has for the game, and about the game itself. I’d feel more remorseful, but I kind of feel like I’m justified.

In any case, it’s rude to concentrate on the negative, especially considering all of the effort the team and Turbine have made to bring the game to market and keep it going for the players. I’d like to talk a bit about some things that I do enjoy about Dungeons and Dragons Online. In fact, (like elements of Prey), I’d love to see some of DDO’s core elements show up in future games.

Combat is a very different animal than almost any other title in the genre. In a word, DDO combat is realtime. Instead of hitting fight and using abilities as they become available, or simply watching as your avatar fillets a bunny, DDO is a click-fest worthy of either Diablo game.

Slashdot | Dungeons and Dragons Online Impressions

Fighting is still one of the best parts of DDO. I wish that other titles would take the hint and at some … any interactivity to fighting. The days of ‘hit A and walk away’ are long past, but even WoW seems like dance night at the geriatric hall compared to DDO’s combat. The other element of this that I love is the pure physicality of your avatar. Mantling over objects, actually climbing up ladders; it makes the experience seem somehow much more ‘real’. Innsmouth’s discussion of how important animation is in God of War really hit home. Most MMOG characters lack anything like the presence of Kratos, to their detriment.

Traps, for example, are deadly challenges that affect the world in real-time. More than just kicking open a chest and being set on fire, razor-sharp blades swing from the ceiling. Splashes of acid fly from spigots in the walls. If you don’t have a rogue with you, some traps can be avoided by using your platforming skills to time the gap in a trap’s movement. If you do have a rogue handy, the trap mechanisms can be searched out and disabled.

Slashdot | Dungeons and Dragons Online Impressions

Tying in with the physicality of movement in combat, the traps are a blast. If networking code and animation continue to get better, I hope that the simple timing traps we see here in DDO are the origin of Prince of Persia-like play in our online games. The puzzles, too, are a great touch by the DDO team. Most of them are fairly simple, a requirement of being a mainstream title. You don’t want people complaining to the GM that they couldn’t finish a module because the puzzle was too hard. Just the same, future titles should take note. Even a simple minigame of Pipes can make for an experience more fulfilling than ‘whack the foozle #444′.

You’ll note I’ve usually said ‘you’ when talking about gameplay, but that’s misleading. I should be saying ‘you and your party’, because in order to play DDO you’ll have to be grouped. I’ll say that again so you can be clear on this: It is not possible to play Dungeons and Dragons Online solo.

Slashdot | Dungeons and Dragons Online Impressions

Thankfully, this is no longer true. The ’solo’ level of difficulty for modules was added back in May, and made one of the biggest frustrations I had with the game moot. Despite their best intentions, they had to face up to the reality that MMOGs are not like table-top gaming. Melt the dice and burn the paper; it’s just not the same kind of game at all. Adding the ability to have fun by yourself to a product where the players are paying a goodly sum of money is just a wise assessment of the market.

I won’t soften it: I still feel somewhat cheated by DDO. Just the same, I’m trying to move past that to see what lies beyond. I, my wife, and a friend who just moved to the coast are going to attempt to do a regular play session every week … as, I assume, the designers intended the game to be played. Maybe with fresh eyes, I’ll see the beauty in DDO that was previously hidden. Heck, I’m even starting to enjoy the background fiction.

Sort of.