DDO....the good, the bad and the ugly

[Red October]

The Beta for DDO ends tommorow (for me at least), so I decided to give my impressions of the game.

Good:
LFG system is very nice, love the ability to list a quest your lfg for.

Colorful and not too draby like EQ2, but not to cartoony like WoW.

Dungeons are instanced...NO Camping! *roaring crowd cheers*

Quests are very interactive. Traps, puzzles, etc. VERY GOOD IDEA. I almost would leave EQ2 for this.

Bad:
EVERYTHING (save intro quests) requires a group. Granted groups should be the main-stay, but sometimes I'm in such a pissed mood, I don't want to group, for my sake and the sake of everyone else.

Combat system is not interactive enough. In EQ2, I'm breaking a sweat, mashing buttons when health is red or orange and so is the mob's. DDO, I hit the auto attack button...and a few more buttons and before the fight is over I pretty much know if I'm going to survive or die. Rolling a d20 on PnP is not the same online (you at least felt like you were involved when you roll the die).

Nothing to do while your LFG. In EQ2 I throw the LFG tag up and work on either crafting, solo quests or old group quests that I leveled and never got around to.

No place to heal in a dungeon except the "Shrines" and potions. I would just assume to be rid of the shrines and allow us to eat food and drink in the dungeon and recharge, even at a slower pace. Whats the point of food when you can only use it in the Tavern when your recharging there already?

The Ugly:
They really need to stabilize the chat server. Communication is essential for groups.


Conclusion: If they fix the "bad" parts I would drop EQ2 for this game. And here's the clincher, EQ2 is moving towards more instances (less camping) and more interactive quests. So eventually, the advantages of DDO over EQ2 will no longer be there.