STORMREACH: Dungeon and Dragons Online

Rating Teen Genre role-playing Publisher Atari External Links Offical Atari Website

Well it finally happened, as it was always destined to. I have gotten tired of playing World of Warcraft. Not that the game is unenjoyable, nor have I come even close to finishing everything I need to do. Quite simply I no longer enjoy spending my evenings running around, farming for items and equipment while I wait for an instance run or, gods above, an End Game run to occur. So I have placed my account on hold, saddled up my horse, secured my blade, and grabbed my bag of holding in search of my next great addiction. First stop, Stormreach!

Stormreach is a MMORPG set in the fantasy world of Eberron, part of the Dungeon and Dragons line of pen and paper style game play. Players are allowed to create any of the basic classes, minus monks, with the basic fantasy races (Humans, Dwarfs, and Elves). Customization is limited, as each race comes with the standard body type and only a handful of color and facial options. Customization for the rest of the character follows classic D&D rules, providing you with a basic score for your Abilities and a number of points to distribute among them, allowing the player to personalize their characters to their own specifications. Starting Feats (Special Abilities) and Skills can also be selected during Character Creation, and all information is stored in a modified D&D Character Sheet.

Players can also play the Warforged race, which is one of several races native to Eberron. Unfortunately, none of the other Eberron races are currently available for play, and while Drow (Dark Elves) are a playable race, they must first be unlocked by playing other characters through the game. This is just one of several issues that occur during the transitions from pen and paper to online gaming. Eberron has been declared the most versatile of the D&D worlds as it has no limitations based on race, class, or deity. It’s perfectly acceptable for an elf to be a paladin in worship to a neutral deity while being chaotic evil themselves. That’s what Eberron is all about. Sadly, Stormreach follows more closely to standard D&D rules, forcing alignment requirements on players based on your race and class. While newcomers to the D&D universe will find nothing out of the ordinary, pen and paper veterans will continually come across these changes to a preset world and rulebook.

One interesting change from the pen and paper set is the use of the Action Point system. In the pen and paper game, Action points were used to enhance your dice rolls for various situations, to give the feeling that you’re playing a heroic character. In Stormreach, Action Points are spent to give your character unique enhancements based on race, class, and level. These work much like Talent Points in WOW and can be re-spent for the cost of gold and a waiting period before you can re-spec. Leveling has also been changed, requiring you to gain much more experience to level than in traditional D&D, and I am still unsure as to why this decision was made. Still, you gain a new Action Point every 20% increase in a level, for a total of five per level, so you still have a sense of accomplishment as you continue questing.

Unlike its current competitors, Stormreach does not offer an entire world in which players can explore and adventure in. Instead, players exist mainly within the city of Stormreach, accepting missions into sewers, dungeons, homes, and various other locations. While this leaves the landscape rather limiting in nature (How many different ways can you model a sewer?), the experience is still pleasing even at lower graphic levels. The background music of the game is exactly what one would expect from a fantasy adventure, and blends well into each environment. To add a little bit of the pen and paper touch to the game, each quest is narrated by the voice of the Game Master, who provides additional ambiance to each level of the adventure.

Stormreach will make you work for your kills. Instead of an automated system of combat, combat is based on the classic “button crunching” style of play, requiring you to repeatedly press the mouse buttons in order to swing your weapons into your enemies. Hold the shift button while pushing in the direction you want to move to tumble out of the way. Spells and special abilities can be placed on toggle bars, but still require constant physical activation and manipulation. These elements help to bring the player into a more active role with their characters, instead of making you the silent observer of an autonomous sprite.

Stormreach also sports a feature that is both unique and brilliant in its conception. Each quest generates its own personal dungeon for the player to explore in, either alone or with a party. No more dealing with farmers camping a spawn point for a month while you wait to complete your all important class quests. If that wasn’t enough, loot within the dungeons is reserved for each character that enters in the quest, and cannot be picked up “accidentally” by your helpful party.

Don’t think you can solo play this one though. Stormreach only allows for the player to solo for so long before you have to begin joining groups of individuals to complete your quests. Maybe it’s a good thing that Stormreach hasn’t gained the popularity of World of Warcraft. The limited availability of servers ensures that if players are online, they’re probably willing to party. Fr those of you who like PVP combat, don’t bother. PVP does not exist in Stormreach.

Not yet, anyways.

While Stormreach is a wonderful experience for any RPG fan, its lack of expansions, races, and prestige classes, especially those based in Eberron, is key to its lack of success against heavy hitters like World of Warcraft and Guild Wars. Still, the design teams are continually creating new content for the game, and I see only good things coming in Stormreach’s future. Stormreach currently supports free download and a 10-day trial to give players a taste of what their world has to offer, and I highly recommend everyone giving this game a chance.

INFO:
  Based off of the Dungeon and Dragons 3.5 rules
  Play as the Warforged, Sentient Construct created for battle
  Private instances for every quest
  Limited Solo play