Bedlam Talks Daggerdale

I've played Baldur's Gate, both Neverwinter Nights, and even gave D&D Online a shot, but when it comes to the digital front I can count on one finger the number of Dungeons & Dragons games that have captured my attention long enough for me to complete them. So given this track record, when I heard that a few new games were coming through the pipeline, I didn't my hopes up. Mostly this is because they're centered in Forgotten Realms--a setting that I haven't cared about since before 3rd Edition--and the fact that they're multiplayer, which means among other things, that a monthly fee might be involved.


During a kind of mini-interview, Bedlam revealed some additional information about one of the upcoming games,  Daggerdale. What I already knew is that it's a download-only game that allows you and up to three other buddies tour around dungeons, kill shit, and keep the loot. What I didn't know was that you only get to pick between four pre-gens, a human fighter, elf rogue, halfling wizard, or dwarf cleric, none of which sound particularly interesting. No word on whether you can at least pick gender and customize appearance, which wouldn't surprise me if you couldn't (but would be no less disappointing). Players can jump in and out, and the game adjusts the difficulty based on this, making it similar to Left 4 Dead.


Players will also be able to go through various scenarios with some flexibility, giving the game a minor sandbox element; there's a set of primary adventures that help push along the plot, with a bunch of side-quests for those with the time and inclination. On the surface it has the kind of game play I'm looking for, but D&D games have rarely delivered an interesting, developed plot that maintains my interest for long. Bedlams claim that the game will feature in-depth character development, but I've heard that before. I'm also not thrilled by being able to choose from only four characters...perhaps more will be added as expansions? DDO gave us more flexibility at the start, and that came out years ago.

The game comes out sometime this summer, but I think I'm going to hold off and see how the reviews go.

4 comments:

  1. Daggerdale is a dungeon-crawl, casual social game. It's not supposed to be deep or really involved or sprawling. You go in, kill monsters, and take their things. If you're expecting the same things of it that you got from DDO, of course you're going to be disappointed. They're not trying to be similar.

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  2. The only thing that I'd expected from Daggerdale that DDO also delivered, would have been more customization in terms of characters. Four pre-gens isn't what I'd expect as the bare minimum. At the least, I'd have liked to be able to pick from the four classic classes (fighter, cleric, wizard, rogue), and match it up with a race.

    That being said, from a gameplay point it sounds like they're doing something that appeals to me by giving you adventures to go on (instead of WoW-style kill/collect x thing quests).

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  3. I don't think the character customization is a big deal. There are games where I want to be able to tweak my character to my exact specifications, and there are games where I just want to play. I think this is going to be the latter. They're definitely reaching back to D&D's video game roots like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons:_Tower_of_Doom

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  4. However it could very easily cater to both with barely any fuss at all, by providing some pregens AND the ability to do it yourself. I enjoyed Tower of Doom myself, and only having four characters to choose from isn't a deal breaker by itself; I'm going to wait and see how the game plays, character options, graphics, multiplayer support, etc.

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