D&D Online Unlimited, Turbine's new Free-2-Play MMO. I've first played D&D Online (DDO) when it came out in Feb 2006. Back then it was okay I like certain things about it but it never caught on with me. So I played the free month and that was about it. Sometime a few months ago Turbine announced that they were converting DDO into a Free-2-Play MMO. Sept 9th 2009 it started up. Free players can create 2 players and play all but 2 races and 2 classes. I've only been playing for a few days but I like the game much more than I did when it first came out. The starting area is much more fleshed out and feels less like a tutorial and more like a D&D adventure. It feels a lot like a D&D game to me much more so than it did before. Needless to say I'm hooked.
On the Free-2-Play front you can get a monthly subscription that unlocks more player slots and all the races and classes in the game as well a good supply of Turbine Points (TP, the micro-transactions currency) each month. I checked out the store and so far I haven't seen anything that would break the game if you didn't spend any money. The interesting part is Turbine will actually give you TPs as you play the game. It also looks like if you wanted to you can buy all the unlocks that the subscribers get not sure how much it would cost you but thought it was a good idea. Just so you know you can buy weapons and armor but they don't seem to be more powerful than what you would find just playing the game.
Hard to say if they improved the graphics in this game as the computer I have now can't compare to the machine I had when DDO first came out. I would have to say the game looks great on High settings guessing they updated the graphics over the time cause it doesn't look any worse than current games that are out. They game play feels the same, for those who don't know DDO using a more action type of combat. Inside of hitting a button and auto attack until the baddy is dead you swing or shoot when you click the mouse. You can also block attacks with a shield or your weapon if you time it right. This gives a nice feel to the game and makes it a little more fun. Understand this is still a random roll and in DDO you will actually see a d20 roll with the attack. One complaint with the attack system is when you try to interact with something in the game, like picking up treasure, you can start attacking instead of picking up an item. When you are wielding sword this really isn't a big deal but if you are using a bow this can waste arrows. Yes you actually have to buy arrows and ammo. Its doesn't cost that much was can be a pain if you are in the middle of a dungeon and run out of arrows.
Stay tuned I plan on doing a follow-up article after 30 days of playing the game. A game like this just playing a few hours in a starting area doesn't give you the whole picture. I rather tell you all the bigger picture if possible.
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