Sword Coast Legends Reviews
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A number of websites are offering up final or near-final reviews of n-Space's Sword Coast Legends this evening in preparation for tomorrow's launch, which conveniently places them front and center for a last-minute purchasing decision of the multiplayer-focused RPG.
VentureBeat sticks with a "Pending" score for now:
Sword Coast Legends, at this point, is proving to be a challenge with a story that's keeping my interest, touching on some of my favorites parts of Forgotten Realms lore. I'm enjoying leveling up my characters and outfitting them with the gear and loot I find in dungeons. I especially enjoy how it's linking its story to events that originated long before the misbegotten Spellplague and are happening now in D&D's (Rage of Demons) event. I just hope the designers at N-Space and Digital Extremes can carry this expertise in Realmslore through to the story's conclusion.
MMOHuts gives it a 4/5:
Honestly, I love this game. It's basically everything I've wanted in a Dungeons and Dragons game since Neverwinter Nights. In a lot of ways, I view it as a spiritual successor to the series, taking place in the same world, with many of the same important NPCs likely still alive and influencing the world. Are there things I hope I see in it? Yes. Lots of Drow, Beholders, perhaps Obuld Many-Arrows, the Orc Chief-turned Diety. You know what I hope I don't see? Drizzt. But that's not relevant to this review. I'm looking forward to seeing the community explode with scenarios at release, and there's one thing really ticking in my head about it. It has (Modules, as I said above. But with that in mind, is Wizards of the Coast going to release their own Modules/stories on Sword Coast Legends, and if so, will they be free? Will they give players a chance to use this game to publish their own created campaigns? There is a lot of potential to create/share terrific stories, and I've seen some real winners so far. Dungeons and Dragons: Sword Coast Legends is the real deal.
RPGFan does the impressions thing:
The combat formula is nothing new, which is perfectly fine by me. Hotkeys for skills/items, first/secondary equipment switching, point and click assignments to auto attack enemies, skill cooldowns instead of point consumption, SCL has your standard action combat mechanics, but with a interesting change. Your character's preferred skill or cantrip can be mapped to a second slot on your menu, allowing you to auto-attack with that skill. For example, this mapping allowed my Cleric to switch from a holy melee strike to a ranged holy fire spell for retreating enemies. In single player, you can pause the action and assign commands to your characters. Unfortunately, they cannot stack, so you have to pause again if the strategy needs a change.
PCGamesN goes with an impressions piece, too:
This is really what I want from a D&D game the tabletop game crammed into my PC, not an RPG inspired by, based on or set in a D&D realm. The build we've been playing with, which is not the launch build, feels like it's missing some user friendliness when it comes to designing dungeons, and there are a few things I still can't figure out, or am unsure if they're either bugs or I'm missing something. But despite all of that, God it's fun.
Bammsters goes scoreless:
The toolset allows for creating story-modules of almost any length, and hosting them as an engaging Dungeon Master, where you can truly tell stories of epic scope, while quickly setting up the locales, friendly peasants, and hostile Mindflayers. However, the moment you want to step away from the Dungeon Mastered gameplay, you find that the toolset is limiting you in ways that I can only describe as naïve. it is the way that the game is focused on the dungeon mastered play-sessions that results in a simpler, more accessible game, but also one where the complexity required for truly in-depth stories, is simply not there.
