Dragonshard

List Price: $19.99 Discount Price: $11.21

Features:

• Dungeons & Dragons real-time strategy experience
• RTS war above ground and critical RPG-styled battles in dungeons below
• Players command armies using magic, weaponry, and skilled maneuvers
• Hostile environments include jungles, snowy mountains, and arid wastelands
• Co-op and head-to-head multiplayer modes; for 1 to 8 players

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

Very innovative, ambitious game [Posted on 2007-01-02]
It's always refreshing to see a game developer go out on a limb and try something new. Taking such chances has resulted in both great games and bad ones. However, Dragonshard is definitely a good game which nearly measures up to its ambition. It's a convincing mix of Dungeon & Dragons-style roleplaying and real-time strategy (RTS) base- and army-building. It's not a superb game, but it pulls off innovative concepts that distinguish it from all of the unimaginative, run-of-the-mill RTS and RPG games out there.

Gameplay: The game comes with two single-player campaigns and a skirmish mode. There are three races (Order, Lizardfolks, and Umbragen) available in skirmish, but only Order (humans) and Lizardfolks get their own campaigns. Both campaigns are well done with seven full missions and many quests in each mission. You have to explore two maps--one above ground and the other underground--during each mission. The above-ground part generally plays out as a RTS game, with base building and army construction. There are only two resources to gather--dragonshards that rain from the sky and gold that you get from defeating monsters and taxation. Base construction is a bit different from most games. You have preset slots in which you can choose what kind of buildings to build. You get certain bonuses from building certain buildings alongside each other, but you have to choose wisely which buildings to build (you can't build everything). Each unit that you build is a captain who can spawn up to four additional attached units, depending on its level (and the level of the building it comes from). Buildings and units are upgraded with experience points that come from fighting opponents. The system is fresh and works very well. It encourages you to explore the overland map in search of dragonshards and the underworld map in search of gold. Either way, you'll be fighting both monsters and opposing armies. The only thing lacking in this system is that gold can become scarce, and you may have to sit around and wait to accrue enough tax income to build more units. Otherwise, the base-building in this game is a welcome departure from the traditional systems found in many RTS games.

The underground part of this game feels like a separate experience all together. It has a very D&D roleplaying feel to it, and the atmosphere can be very creepy. You can only take your captains underground; their attached units reappear only when the captains emerge from the below ground areas. Everything that you would expect in a D&D-style adventure is there--traps, treasure chests, tombs, spells, and no less than 30 different kinds of monsters. The campaigns add several quests to these areas, but the skirmish mode still maintains the dungeon-crawling atmosphere.

In addition to this dual gaming experience, Dragonshard has other things going for it. AI-controlled opponents are pretty good at posing a challenge. Pathfinding is decent, though occasionally a unit will take the long way to a destination. You can quickly view underground and above-ground areas with just a click of the mouse button, and there are hotkeys for most commands. There is a wide variety of units, abilities, and items available, although the roleplaying system is a bit lightweight due to restrictive leveling limits and an inability to truly customize hero characters. Overall, this is a very worthy game for both RTS players and RPG gamers.

The shortcomings of Dragonshard are mostly minor, except one. The game comes with only 10 skirmish maps (although the second patch added 2 more). This is inexcusable and will limit the replay value of the game. Unfortunately, no modding community developed around this game, and thus there are no player-made maps that can be downloaded. The fact that the skirmish maps are so packed with things to get into, both above ground and below ground, helps keep the game interesting, as well as the fact that there are various victory conditions that can be set. Also, the single-player campaigns run about 30 hours all together and are probably worth doing a second time since you'll probably miss a lot of side quests during the first time through. Still, this game should have shipped with at least 20 maps. (There is a map editor that can be downloaded from the Dragonshard website if you want to try your hand at it.) Other minor flaws include the inability to set unit formations (though you can hotkey melee or ranged units), a backpack that carries too few items, and a few campaign missions that are rather tough and require repeated efforts.

Graphics: The game looks pretty good. Environments evoke the appropriate feelings of dread, wonderment, and so forth, and the models are decent, though reminiscent of Warcraft 3. Spell effects and other visuals look good. I think that the underground areas are done especially well, and classic D&D monsters are convincingly rendered. The introductory movie is excellent.

Sound: The music is very good, as is the voice acting. Other sounds are appropriate, including the underground ambiance, combat effects, and cutscene dialogue.

Technical issues: With the second patch installed, this game was very stable on my computer. There was one hard freeze during a massive fight and a bit of lag during other big fights. However, overall, I haven't had any problems with the game.

Replayability/Value: The two campaigns are worth replaying a second time at some point, though I wish that the Umbragen had their own campaign as well. The biggest obstacle to replayability for Dragonshard is the unfortunate lack of maps. The dozen that come with the game and the second patch will keep you playing for a good while, since each map is essentially two maps (again, 1 above ground and 1 below ground). Still, if this game had shipped with 20-25 maps plus an Umbragen campaign, I would have been hard pressed to give it an outright 5-star rating. Anyhow, at the current price of less than $20, you'll easily get your money's worth. Nonetheless, this is pretty much a single-player game at this point, since I don't think that there's much of an online community.

Last thoughts: I'm a big fan of RTS and RPG games, and it is not uncommon to get a mediocre game in either category nowadays. However, Dragonshard does both genres well and blends them to make something truly special. For the current price, I can only highly recommend it. I just wish that the game had been popular enough to get an expansion or to produce a modding community.

Rating: 4.25 stars (out of 5)

FROZEN IN TIME [Posted on 2007-01-03]
Game is frozen most of the time. You get maybe 5 minutes of playtime per hour, the rest is spent waiting for game to unfreeze.

Great game, but... [Posted on 2007-01-10]
I love the game and the gameplay, but I haven't been able to get it running on all computers.

I had purchased 2 copies of this game and installed 1 on my computer and 1 on my son's computer.

It won't work on my son's computer at all.

But other than that... It's a great game. :)

We hardly knew you... [Posted on 2007-02-03]
I was really excited to play this game. Imagine a realtime experience in the D&D world. I couldnt wait to get it on my pc and start playing for months, right? Wrong! I had all the required specifications on my pc, the game loaded just fine but, it will not launch. Woe is me... No fun at all. Back to Neverwinter Nights for its endless expansions and flawless plotlines. Eberron just doesnt feel right after this!

"Short but enjoyable" [Posted on 2008-01-06]
Dragonshard turned out to be a rather short but enjoyable RTS, with graphics similar to Warcraft III, there's already a cool background for the world if you've read the Eberron fantasy books. Though even if you're not familiar with the world of Eberron it doesn't hinder enjoyment of the game, since a few of the more interesting facts of the world you learn throughout the game, usually via load screens.

One of the parts I liked the most was the well integrated underdark. Throughout each map their's a layer of ruins, side quests, monsters and gold beneath the surface, with several access points scattered about the top.

The storyline was pretty generic D&D fair, stop bad guys from getting super powerful incredibly old artifact thing, but it did it's job, managing to keep you wanting to stop them from acquiring super powerful incredibly old artifact and completing their nefarious schemes.

The characters were cool though sometimes cliche, with bits of humor injected into their cutscenes, the different personalities of the heroes at your disposal kept their exchanges interesting.

The item system was also a nice departure from the average RTS, letting you carry around permanent items, that you can use, let refresh, and use again, as well as summons, potions and items that permanently buff your hero or one of your captains.

Along with the item system the way you made squads was cool too, much in the spirit of Warhammer 40k, you start a squad by building a captain unit and after upgrading the building they came from the captain will automatically recruit up to 3 similar but a bit less powerful units by standing near your home base.


My only complaints would be:

1. It was short, clocking in at only about 8 hours if you blast through, longer if you take the time to explore and play with all the side quests, or if you suck :P

2. There are three factions in the game, you only get to play through the story of "2" of them, despite the third faction having all the models, buildings, balancing and abilities in place to be played by a person. Which is a real shame since not only could they have made the game 1/3 longer by letting you play as the third faction, but by the end when you realize you can't, it becomes a bit of a letdown.

All in all, it was a fun game that implemented some cool ideas, if you enjoy fantasy RTS's or the world of Eberron, I think you'd enjoy this too. Though since it's only 2/3s of a game, I'd suggest nabbing a cheap used copy.

Cheers.

Click here for more details and discount information...