Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale Reviews

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Written by WorstUsernameEver on May 26th, 2011

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It's not a matter of Daggerdale botching the fundamentals, as the goblin-slaying and loot-collecting are solidly intact throughout this short adventure. But if you're seeking something a bit more modern and inventive than a retread of the years-old (and arguably more enticing) Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance and/or Untold Legends, Daggerdale feels a bit flat. The quest to free the titular region from the grip of the evil Rezlus by clearing mines and caverns of repetitive beasts offers few peaks, aside from the minor thrill of scoring choice new gear or seeing a dwarf's face melted off by a dragonlike creature. Otherwise, the familiar D&D classes (cleric, fighter, rogue, and wizard) and locations come across as unremarkable fantasy archetypes, which aren't helped at all by the dull, dialogue-heavy storytelling, lack of in-game voice-acting, and clunky character models. It's dry from start to finish, so if you need any sort of aesthetic encouragement to battle through near-identical waves of enemies, this quest may feel more like a test.

Where the game falters, though, is in the lack of polish and production. The soundtrack is mind-numbingly boring, with drone-like loops that I quickly muted. None of the dialogue is voice-acted, which would have been tolerable if it wasn't accompanied by dwarven grunts and gurgles. The rewards for quests, which are usually basic fetch-all-this, escort-all-that, or kill-all-those missions, are paltry, and the respawn rate for enemies is high enough that backtracking usually means facing the same enemy groups twice. There are also a few all-around flaws here and there, like when the game sells an item you didn't select or being disoriented after a tutorial cut-scene.

But for a $15 downloadable title, Daggerdale is a fine example of why we need more multiplayer action RPGs and, really, more Dungeons & Dragons. Though it may not be a technical powerhouse or gain any marks for innovation, it's a decent, party-friendly adventure that lasts a good 12 hours for one playthrough and it will likely be patched within the first week. The only thing you might really miss is the sound of rolling dodecahedrons.

Saving often is required in this game, because there is a spike in the difficulty curve, and autosaves/checkpoints are few and far between. Be warned, however, that saving your game doesn't do exactly what you would expect. If you manually save your game and you have an active quest, reloading your save game starts you at the physical beginning of your current active quest rather than at the location your save was created. If you die, you start at the physical beginning of your current active quest rather than a convenient checkpoint location. Another odd location issue is when you're doing a quest-chain, with multiple conversation pit stops within a main quest. If you complete a small battle, and a conversation pit stop lies somewhere ahead, you are automatically thrust into the conversation, and your character is automatically moved to the location of the NPC. You then have to backtrack to your previous location to complete looting and exploring.

Dungeons and Dragons: Daggerdale is a fine, if unexceptional, game. It mostly stands out for being a reasonably solid loot-collecting game on a console where those are few and far between. The plot, characters and setting are completely forgettable, and the visuals are unimpressive at best. Despite this, there's still something addictive about the game. It's undeniably fun to build and customize your characters and dive into the depths of dark caves and nasty dungeons to find rare items and neat gear. For 1,200 Microsoft points ($15), you could do a lot worse than Daggerdale. However, if you're not a fan of collecting loot or just plan to play the single-player portion, you may want to reconsider. This is a multiplayer game through and through, and it's best if you have friends along for the ride.

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