Dungeons & Dragons Online

Branding, circumstance and strange luck are all part of Dungeons & Dragons Online's history. Its timing was horrible; it leapt head-first into an MMORPG market that had just realised that it didn't want to be quite as hardcore with a game that, by its very history, was hardcore. While other games were encouraging you to fight on your own, occasionally grouping to high-five and key-tap your way to level 60, DDO told you that you needed to group and you were only getting to, at the highest, 20 - which it didn't even support initially.

But while you might expect it to have skidded to an abrupt, bloody-kneed halt, it has, in fact, grown - not least with this month's huge Module 9 update, and the launch of a free-to-play version, Eberron Unlimited, in the US.

DDO lies somewhere between World of Warcraft's hotkey-focused fighting and a twitch-based action RPG with functions similar to the dodging and blocking from Fable. The average goal of a DDO session is to romp through an instance, completing sub-objectives to reach the end of the dungeon and usually a narrative of sorts. These are voiced over by the bizarre baritone of the Dungeon Master, who adds a campy flair to proceedings.

The thing to remember about DDO is that you don't usually get experience from singular kills. Completing quests, dungeons, and tasks net you your level-ups, rather than the monsters that make up those quests. Content is predominantly instanced, forcing players to socialize only in the public areas. These range from a simple marketplace to the gigantic floating island introduced in Module 9.

That's the scene set for DDO; one of slight melodrama and dungeon-crawling that didn't exactly set the world on fire on its release in 2006, due in part to its inaccessibility and quirkiness. For every bit of slick hand-holding that World of Warcraft and EverQuest II offered, DDO threw the player into the midst of demanding encounters and complex statistics that, even to those accustomed, were at best irksome, and at worst bewildering.

The new Eberron Unlimited store is a tad slow, and is much like opening a web page ingame.

For the most part, that's changed.

DDO has acquired a new look and feel over the last three-and-a-half years. Creating a new character is still as customisable as before, encouraging multi-classing (using the functions of both a Warrior and Wizard, say, is still very much possible) but also giving clear class "paths" to those who don't really know what they're getting into. This sounds obvious in the context of generic MMO archetypes of damage-takers, healers and damage-dealers, but DDO and D&D itself were not and never will be built on hard-and-fast roles. However, the game now offers an encouraging level of guidance to new players. Each step of character creation gives clear descriptions of what you're starting as; as you progress, you can effectively change class and choose a more complex path.

New players begin on the island of Korthos, which functions as one of the most exhaustive tutorials in MMO history. This isn't to say that it's like EVE's bizarre mishmash of text and monotone, but if you choose to stay there (and I'd advise you do), you're going to be on Korthos some hours. It's packed full of quests, items and dungeons, and serves as an introduction to the wilderness areas of Eberron.

These are open areas that reward you for exploration, killing an increasing number of different enemies, taking part in rare encounters, collecting items and various other tasks. According to Turbine they exist as an alternative to the dungeon crawl: places that you can spend 15 minutes in and get some real progress through the 80-odd ranks (sub-levels, effectively) that make up the game. Like most of DDO's content, they're instanced - these areas are purely for you or your group. In reality, they become addictive little meta-games that sap your time even when you assure yourself you'll only spend 15 minutes playing them, a time-sink addiction more in line with Diablo II than other MMOs.

Furthermore, Turbine has added the Solo option to most of the world's dungeons. On release, DDO was mostly scaled to be dealt with by a groups of up to six, with added difficulty levels for the more cerebral and dedicated players. The new Solo quests are as you'd expect; enjoyable, but lacking the meat and challenge of grouping up and taking on the Normal and Hard modes. However, Turbine's triage for the solitary gamer is more extensive, with the introduction in the last two modules of Hirelings. Much like Diablo II, these AI-driven players can fill out your group in return for in-game money, and can play most of the game's roles - yes, including healer or tank.

This means that the usual pitfall of any MMO - soloing as a support class - is mitigated for anyone who can afford to take on their hirelings. They operate relatively intelligently, and can be controlled much like a pet in WOW using the hirelings bar that appears when you summon them; and while they're not quite as dependably adaptable as a human counterpart, they can fill out a group as much or as little as necessary. It's a nice addition to a game that still plays best when surrounded by other players (even if they are a bunch of ones and zeros).

This is only amplified when you enter the later content, as some of it is rather brutal. The Plane of Battle, brought in with the Module 9 upgrade along with an increased level cap of 20, includes some of the most difficult DDO content yet. Even the wilderness area, Amrath, is a difficult slog, resembling WOW's Blasted Lands mixed with, well, hell. As far as scene-setting goes, it rules the roost; Angels, Daemons and Devils (a rather blurred line to define) are in an eternal war, and you've been drafted to help keep the war un-won and the plane in balance after the Devils take an untimely strategic victory.

My entire arsenal is made up of sprite-dandruff.

Your quests, dungeons and raids all have you fighting for or against one of these factions, culminating in some great story-driven raids laden with deceit and intrigue. The raids are a lot more intricate than DDO used to be too, following the lead of WOW's Onyxia. One particular encounter against a Pit Fiend Jailor and its Devil master is fast-paced and exciting like nothing DDO did before.

One thing that must affect any verdict on the current state of Dungeons & Dragons Online is the free-to-play version Eberron Unlimited, recently released in the US. It isn't officially available on Codemasters Online's European servers yet, and it's unconfirmed for release here. [However, UK-based players have reported that they're able to access it direct from Turbine's US servers - Ed.]

The DDO Unlimited experience is rather different to the normal game. It's technically free-to-play, with no upfront cost or subscription, but requires you to buy a lot of the content that would otherwise be part of the subscription, along with many additional consumable and permanent items, using Turbine Points. Anything ranging from extra character slots to different races or classes - the Drow Elf and the Monk - are charged for, and it can be a little hard for new players to understand what you're meant or not meant to buy. Those that don't quite get it can opt to pay a subscription every month to become a VIP and receive all of the content, the ability to have more hirelings than "free" customers, and a monthly stipend of 500 points, amongst other things. It's an interesting business model, and for the most part makes sense, but the amount of things you can buy is intimidating.

For the European crowd, DDO is a lot simpler to grasp. The game retains the same subscription model as ever, and houses a great deal of genuinely rich, charming content. It's not quite as epic in size or scale as Lord of the Rings Online, WOW or EverQuest II, and doesn't have the former's gloss. Combat still lacks the sharpness and crisp sense of contact that would make it a truly real-time RPG, and occasionally you'll see the cracks in encounters.

However, DDO is solid to the core, sticking to a clear mission statement of letting people get into a dungeon and kill things until they're too tired to do it any more. What Turbine wants DDO to do it does, for the most part, exceedingly well, scratching a Diablo-esque itch with social gameplay leaps and bounds beyond that of the current Battle.net.

Scorpion-man: a deadly combination of venom, claws and no opposable thumbs.

While those who understand the DDO rulebook (3.5, detail-fans) may flourish, those who just like a good old RPG romp will too, appreciating the new character facilities and the ability to survive without the need to stake out Craigslist for like-minded men and women to play with. Though it may lack the glamour of some of its peers, it makes up for it in sheer complexity and size, and those with a head for numbers (and the time to read) will be able to create the most individual RPG characters in an online game.

The question is, ultimately, what kind of gamer you are. If you're very much part of the casual RPG crowd you may want to play DDO Unlimited and pay (and play) piecemeal. In bite-sized chunks, DDO's new model flourishes, with a few casual hours here and there and the occasional $5 investment into a content pack proving a fun diversion. If you have the time to invest - and we're not talking 1999-era-EverQuest, but just a little more than WOW's current demands - learning and questing in DDO is worthy of your attention and a subscription fee.