PC Gamers Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard Review

PC Gamers Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard Review
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Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 don’t have this unique game

A unique combination of RPG and RTS game elements

The Game Play (4 out of 5)

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Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonshard successfully combines the Dungeons and Dragons role-playing aspects of the original dice-rolling inspiration of Gary Gynax and Dave Arneson with real-time strategy game play into a seamless video game action/adventure.

Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonshard has an interesting, engaging and highly satisfying D & D world, with immersive settings and environments within an amazing universe to explore.

Outstanding graphical presentation with monsters straight from the Dungeons and Dragons universe I played in for years all beautifully re-created for role-playing fun.

Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonshard is unfortunately a pretty short adventure composed of 2 campaigns and only contains three different factions, so, the variety of these aspects is very limited.

Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonshard doesn’t allow you to carry over your weapons from the first campaign to the second, which is unfortunate, since this ability would have added opportunities for many fun and satisfying game play elements.

The game universe and game play of Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonshard is balanced between the underworld and surface world of Eberron and wonderfully mingles all the fun and entertainment of previous RTS video games with D & D role-playing concepts.

The underground monster slaying, quest-completing, trap-disabling and loot-gathering feeds off the surface-actions of levelling-up, creature-recruiting, and hiring of additional captains to lead the troops.

The single player is only 2 campaigns long and only took me about twelve hours to finish. Multiplayer was the best fit for the combined game play and this mode is really engaging and fun to play.

The Game Graphics (4 out of 5)

Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonshard has a very pleasant graphical presentation that is similar to War craft III’s bright and colourful surface maps. It has nicely detailed and reasonably textured areas with drab, dark dungeons that create a disturbing subterranean atmosphere and environment. The smaller units can occasionally be hard to distinguish from a distance on the surface maps, but you can zoom in for a view with better texture and detail.

The graphical effects are stunning to view, with amazing colors and intelligent use of shadows and light to produce an eye-catching environment and create an atmosphere that really engages the imagination.

Sounds in the Game (4 out of 5)

The orchestrated sound track included with Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonshard contains a few nice tunes that are entertaining to listen too, but the tempo and pace of the music sometimes didn’t match the action occurring in the game very well. Light rock and up-tempo electronic tracks that are generally light-hearted and not over-bearing added to the experience and entertainment value of the title.

The Story Line (3 out of 5)

Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonshard is a D & D game at heart, a mingling of new and innovative technology with an interesting, engaging and popular concept that has weathered the test of time. .

Set in the popular D & D Eberron universe, Dragonshard tells the familiar tale of three powerful factions fighting over a powerful McGuffin; the naive but powerful Order of the Flame (alliance of the good races); the Lizard Folk; and the dark and mysterious Umbragen, denizens of the vast and dangerous underground of Eberron.

The Last Word (3 out of 5)

Dungeons and Dragons: Dragonshard is a unique game that combines two game play elements into one balanced and entertaining game, but is a short affair for the money you pay. I recommended this title for gamers who love RTS adventures and Dungeons and Dragons fanatics who want to put a different spin on their old adventures.