Darkness Rising in PC Zone

[Aadia]

Dark Age of Camelot: Darkness Rising (Review in PCZone, issue April 2006)

" With the user-friendly likes of Guild Wars and City Of Villains almost giving online role-playing a veneer of respectability - within the gaming community, if not the world at large - the defiantly old school DAOC limps into its sixth expansion pack with a hey-nonny-nonny and a pint of Olde Peculiar if you please, stout yeoman of the bar.

In it's defence, the game does do a good horse, and this is one aspect that has been elaborated upon Darkness Rising. Become a level 45 Champion of the Realm (by which time you're probably already dead) and you'll be eligible for a so-called advanced mount. Majestic steeds, one and all, these include such equine treats as Nightmare, Unicorn, Warhorse and the Undead Phantom, all of which can be given a pet name and fitted with saddlebags and armour. My Little Pony for dungeon-fanciers.

At the very least graphics have been improved and a huge high-level quest has been added, but elsewhere, there's scarcely any improvement on the original. It's a largely impenetrable world, crippled by an arcane interface and almost bereft of human contact.

Four years after the game launched, a small band of merry adventurers are seemingly prepared to accept this nofrills apporach. That said, with barely 15,000 online on a bleak Wednesday night during Match of the Day, the battle of the abbreviations is unlikely to see DOAC usurp MOTD in the nation's hearts any time soon.
(Steve Hill) "

PCZone %: 46 (Flogging a dead horse)

 

[Himse]

lol
well said, tbh

 

[Tesla Monkor]

A bit harsh, though. They interface might not be quite as programmable as WoW, but who cares? It gets the job done and it suits me fine.

Perhaps Mythic will point it's attention at that part of the game in the future, but to me it really is a non-issue. The reviewer basically shoots the game down on the interface and the low player numbers.

The latter part is fair, I suppose, though that really only goes for the starting players. At the top there's still plenty to do and there's enough players. My guild has grown quite a bit lately, and there's no shortage of PVP/RVR (something that DAOC is still hands down the best game for in existance.

 

[Kaun_IA]

that dude can fuck himself.... daoc isnt cov or wow... or what ever

 

[DocWolfe]

lol "With barely 15,000 players online"

 

[MadsKaizer]

seems to me he aint a very experienced daoc player, but merely asked people on VN boards for their oppinion

 

[old.Whoodoo]

Hes a wow player (I asked), but tbh I think hes right, poor publicity, lack of advertising and Mythics latest expansion with little more than "my little pony", weapons that look bling but do little, quests that were over and done with in a week by most and a few graphical updates, which I find a piss poor excuse to obtain more cash from us loyal to the game, very bad indeed.

I will say the score is only for DR, which on its own is very lacking, and most of whats in it should not havebeen in a pay for expansion, as all it did was drag DAoC up to more modern MMORPG standards. I am finding it harder to promote this game to others, whereas a year ago I sung the games praises, now all that keeps me going is my friends, when the last of them go, Im off too.

I also asked the BBC why WoW got more praise on their site, and got 2 answers from their gaming guy, firstly he played DAoC for a year and fell asleep, and secondly because Mythic have replied poorly to players feedback regarding issues like transport (horses), balance and gameplay, I tend to agree, I dont give a stuff about how bling Jord looks, I want to have fun.

 

[Vell]

Oh my god. DAoC sucks because you actually have to use some intelligence to play it! Make DAoC easymode, and it might get better ratings!

That said, I don't really think this expansion has brought much to the game. A few new zones for a few new quests. And a horse. That's pretty much it. To be honest, I think it's more in line with the previous free expansions than the one's we've had to pay for.

 

[Roalith]

In it's defence, the game does do a good horse, and this is one aspect that has been elaborated upon Darkness Rising. Become a level 45 Champion of the Realm (by which time you're probably already dead) and you'll be eligible for a so-called advanced mount.

Waddel fack?

I started playing again about 5 weeks ago now. I've not even been pushing particularly hard, and within 6 days /played I've managed to hit level 50 and ding Champ Level 5. This guy really needs to look at his own playstyle before slating a game, tbh!

 

[Rellik]

that guy is just after some easy mode hit maximum level in 2 days play time ftw...

but something’s he writes are somewhat true

 

[Lejemorder]

i make it sound like DR was suppose to bring new players whice is not true, DR was an expansion for current gamers and maybe to get some old players back.

and i just looked at camelotherald, daoc have 25k players playing all time, but daoc is not wow or CoV (both games whice you can solo in compared to daoc)

 

[Elitestoner]

bias ftw :/

 

[Zebolt]

I think he is quite right tbh.. He is not talking about DAoC as a whole cuz' if he were then he would be very very wrong but this expansion as itself isn't much to brag about imo.

And I don't think any expansion holds up very good against WoW or CoV PvE wise. Those games have crappy PvP instead but I definately think they own DAoC PvE wise. No game atm though come close to DAoC RvR and that's the reason I think most ppl are still here.

 

[Raven]

the expansion was nothing more than a patch that you have to pay for, it didnt actually have much to offer, was done with it in 3 days

 

[Himse]

He is promoting WOW tbh too

 

[GReaper]

A bit harsh, though. They interface might not be quite as programmable as WoW, but who cares? It gets the job done and it suits me fine.

Perhaps Mythic will point it's attention at that part of the game in the future, but to me it really is a non-issue. The reviewer basically shoots the game down on the interface and the low player numbers.

The DAoC interface can be very illogical, for any new player it can be a very big issue. Some examples:

- Mouse buttons are confusing. To interact with an NPC I have to right click, the Castle Sauvage Gate door handle I have to double click, the frontiers portal stone I have to right click, to interact with a keep door I have to right click, to enter a house by the door I have to single left click. C'mon! Left button should be for selecting, right button should be interact with anything.

- The 'OPTIONS' button list is awful. The release button should be on the release timer. Players should pray once they interact with their grave - not a seperate button/command. Keeps/relics should be part of the realm war window. Anything which controls if part of a UI should be on/off (friends/compress/clock/etc) should be part of a general UI menu. I could go on and on here.

- Spellcrafting has no ingame calculator or ingame menu to select gems easily. A player has to remember the name of a gem from a calculator outside of the game. Enchanting an item as a spellcrafter is the exact same.

- Too many slash commands. I don't mind having a slash command for everything, but they should ideally have a button/option somewhere else in the UI. Why can't I rightclick a member of my guild in /social and have a menu with promote/demote/remove? Instead I have to /gc promote, or use one of the many other slash commands. I was expecting something similar to the housing UI when they introduced the social window, sadly it isn't as good.


It may get the job done, but it isn't exactly great.

 

[Pirkel]

That is one of the most horrible game reviews I have ever read ... some journalists really need to get their head out of their arse.

Sure there is loads wrong with DAOC but he so obviously played this game for what 2/3 hours and doesn't know shit about it.

It would have so much more impact if he actually spend some time playing it and then made valid, well supported points. Mythic might learn from reviews like that and improve on things ... they can't improve based on a review based on how few people are playing on a frigging game night rofl.

 

[Aadia]

Well the guy is talking about the Darkness Rising expansion on it's own. The other reviews PCZone did on the other expansion you can find on their website in the archive.

Personally i have to agree with him that you don't get much for what you had to pay for!

 

[cHodAX]

The only thing he really got right was the UI, the simple fact is that the UI was poor in 2002 and is very very poor by modern standards. The game has a fantastic combat engine that is badly hindered by the UI and it's ridiculous 10 slot bar system. Yes they added the ability to have 3 bars up at once, it still doesnt work half as well as WoW's implementation and it looks like a peice of crap. For all the great work done with player made UI's the game is still stuck in the dark ages when it comes to it's interface.

 

[Raven]

That is one of the most horrible game reviews I have ever read ... some journalists really need to get their head out of their arse.

Sure there is loads wrong with DAOC but he so obviously played this game for what 2/3 hours and doesn't know shit about it.

It would have so much more impact if he actually spend some time playing it and then made valid, well supported points. Mythic might learn from reviews like that and improve on things ... they can't improve based on a review based on how few people are playing on a frigging game night rofl.

he wasnt rating daoc, he was rating the near worthless expansion, though with daoc players if you give them loads of new content with loads to do they QQ about it.

 

[Raven]

also with wow each time you patch which is far to often, you have to hope that someone has updated each and every part of your UI, there arent many good all in one UIs around for it. Crap communication system, though i do like the fact you can ahve a perma CG that exists even when everyon ein it has logged. WoW is good if you like pve, crafting and resource gathering but thats pretty much it. i would really like something inbetween wow and daoc, hoping warhammer gives us that

 

[Rediknight]

I played CoH from beta - it got really dull really quick.

I played CoV from beta - it got really dull really quick.

I'm a Superhero fan but these games are just poop - reptative tasks, childish community (game community, the forums are only worth it during beta, imo), boring zones, badly planned quest paths... the whole thing just feels like it was a rush job to me.

I think the impenetrability of camelot was true after ToA, but with the intro of the classic servers and the obvious numbers that have migrated there have really given new players a chance to start on something much closer to a level playing field than the classics, but at the same time new people are reaping the benefits of grouping with, and levelling with the experienced players who have moved over.

He's a Disney Online pla.. sorry, World of Warcraft player - what you want?

 

[Flimgoblin]

sounds like a biased wow player doing the reviews

"omgz daoc expansion released, better slate daoc or it might make people realise how wank wow is!"

Wonder if blizzard pay the reviewers playing their game - probably don't need to actually, I'm sure MMORPG loyalty does it all itself (not that I've got that at all).

That aside DR is a pretty poor expansion in the scheme of things - it's got some nice stuff in it but it's nothing like ToA or Catacombs. However this guy ain't reviewing DR he's just going "wahh daoc sucks, play wow"

 

[Bahumat]

the only reason i keep playing daoc is because of the friends i've made plus the combat system, all these other games look really nice but are simply boring when it comes to combat.

i hope the warhammer game has a good combat system

 

[SoulFly]

lol "With barely 15,000 players online"

wow has around five million.

 

[santacruz]

It has gotten better reviews elsewhere at http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/666/666443p1.html
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?...meId=11&fp=1280,1024,704124171,20060227064300

I think it's a good expansion love the CLs and the mounts.

 

[old.Whoodoo]

wow has around five million.

Not in the UK it doesnt, he spoke only of UK figures. But yes, we still dont have that many players these days.

I think it's a good expansion love the CLs and the mounts.

You seriously think it was worth paying for? transport is standard in other MMOs, and the CLs are really just glorified quests that should have been put into the game alongside Catacombs which introduced the instances (that again other games already had).While I agree its all nice to have, paying for it and more importantly, waiting so long for these features was far from worthy.

 

[Mey]

His writing it in the POV of a new player.

 

[Bahumat]

Not in the UK it doesnt, he spoke only of UK figures. But yes, we still dont have that many players these days.You seriously think it was worth paying for? transport is standard in other MMOs, and the CLs are really just glorified quests that should have been put into the game alongside Catacombs which introduced the instances (that again other games already had).While I agree its all nice to have, paying for it and more importantly, waiting so long for these features was far from worthy.

I agree about that.

 

[Rediknight]

If he thinks that it's an impentrable community from being a new player after DR release, it's a good job no-one let this Wow-ophile write a review before...

I think Glasto has opened the game up for new players and it reflects in the numbers - whilst we're not hitting 3.5k daily, i'm seeing regular numbers of 2k+ on there...