Dark Age Of Camelot
Optycal Illusion
Blysster rate 3.
This game was so cool starting out, newbie friendly and easy to learn.
The GM’s were very nice, attentive and extremely helpful. Mythic tried
hard and succeeded in creating a game that captures the imagination. The
look and feel of the game was a refreshing change, but why didn’t it hold
my attention longer?
Dark Age Of Camelot is a MMORPG set in medieval Celtic, Norse,
Briton area. You play humans, elves, trolls and other mythical creatures
battling one another for control over the keeps and the surrounding lands.
INSTALL/SETUP: Installation of
DAOC was very easy. The program took care of most of the issues itself
with very little input from me. Setting up took just a few minutes, choosing
an account name and password and registering online. Mythic has a
fairly low minimum requirement so those of you on a budget should still be
able to enjoy the game:
PII 450 256mb RAM
600mb free hard drive space
32mb 3D accelerated video card
OR
Pentium III and IV: 450 128mb RAM
600mb free hard drive space
16mb 3D accelerated video card
GETTING STARTED: After installation
you are faced with your first big decision. Which realm will you be a part
of? DAOC is different from other MMORPGs in that you must choose a side.
You cannot be a Troll who lives with Elves for example. While this seriously
hinders roleplayers such as myself, who enjoy mixing things up with an
“Evil” character hanging out with the goodie-two-shoes, it adds a new feeling
of camaraderie within the realm. You no longer are battling one another
for no good reason; you are now in an alliance with all the other people
in your realm to destroy the enemy. You must chose to be from Hibernia
(Celts), Midgard (Norse) or Albion (Britons); each having it’s pros and
cons.
You cannot communicate with the other realms. When you hear someone
from another realm speak, it is garbled, as if you speak two different
languages. Again, this is a double-edged sword. On the one hand it helps
to keep the realism of the game, while on the other hand seriously limiting
your choices. I ran into a particular problem with my friends who played
the game with me. I wanted to be a Troll in Midgard and some of them wanted
to be in Hibernia. Hibby eventually won out and I ended up being a Furbolg
Druid. While the time I spent in Hibernia was fun, I still wish I had stuck
with my feelings of being a troll shaman.
You can choose to be in all three realms, but never on the same server
(With the exception of the test server.) So if you have pals who will be
playing with you, make sure you set it up to be on the same server with
the same realms!
The fun part is making your character. You have many choices of heads
and bodies and what sort of hairstyle you want to have. It’s not nearly
as extensive as AO
, but still offers a decent selection. You can choose to be small,
medium or large but no choices on fat or thin. You then divide up your
attribute points and finalize your decision. Choose wisely, as you will
not be able to re-roll the stats later! A neat part in this game is your
ability to choose what path you’ll follow. You start out with a basic idea
of what you want to be but then as you level up you must choose which specialized
path you’ll take. So a Druid choosing “nature” will be a far cry from a Druid
choosing “Nurture”, both adding a valuable role to a party.
Myself as Ravynwolfe the Furbolg Druid, casting my
pet when I was still a very young player.
LEARNING CURVE and GAME PLAY:
Once you’re in the game with your newborn character you will have to learn
to fight in order to make it anywhere. You’ll start in your newbie city,
right next to your guild leader. You must speak with him or her and find out
your path. He or she will send you on simple quests or give you hints. You’ll
get some very basic items to start you out.
Money is hard to come by in DAOC. You’ll get pennies for your
hard work in slaying the beasties, but luckily the shops don’t stiff you
too bad for items. If you can find an older and wiser player hanging out
in the newbie area, it’ll do you some good to kiss their ass and spit shine
their boots. BEGGING is annoying, but if you offer something for them, a
dance or making a fool out of yourself…. Or even reciting poetry you may get
some money or items. Don’t be a pest though, if the seasoned warrior is resting
up and declines your offer of entertainment, back off and get the hell out
of there. DO NOT pester the big guys, you’ll end up on the shit list and
get yourself shunned from any guilds worth being in and make lots of enemies.
Politely say thank you for the time and back away.
It’s fairly easy to learn the game basics. You should
spend a few minutes getting familiar with the controls before you run
off and kill frogs or ants. You will have to be quick with some of the
tougher moves. Learn to hotkey your spells and special moves. As you advance
in levels it will be of the utmost importance to learn your hotkeys! A split-second
mistake could end in your entire party being slaughtered! It’s also a tragedy
when the game screws up and for some reason your whole list of hotkeys
gets erased. If you constantly make your hotkeys the same way (healing on
one, trade skills on another, special attacks on a third) you won’t have
to spend hours trying to rearrange and figure out the mess. As you level
you will be offered increasingly more difficult and devastating attack moves
(fighter class) or powerful heals and buffs (Healing class.)
It should take you from 5 minutes to 30 minutes to be comfortable
with the moves and the controls. I suggest changing the
defaults when you first begin. I personally changed mine to mimic my AO
settings. When I switched from AO to DAOC it was no big deal, I didn’t
have too many times where I mistakenly attacked a guard instead of sitting
down.
You can go solo and specialize in all your needed skills
to care for yourself, or you can go group friendly and spec in everything
a group would need. While grouping is faster for leveling and you get a
lot of social interaction from it, you also are at the disadvantage of being
with morons. We have all had to group with an idiot before, resulting in
our demise. You lose all that hard work you put into your level, all the hours
of getting xp and items is flushed down the shitter if you end up with the
missing link as your group leader. If you find yourself in that situation,
simply remove yourself from the group with an explanation that you don’t
feel your play-styles match and wish them luck on finding a replacement. There
is NO reason you should dread your gaming time because of some dumbass that
is trying to get you killed.
I personally played a Solo Furbolg Druid, specialized in nature. My
pets were powerful allies and I was a formidable opponent. I was still
group friendly, being a “Heavy Combat Druid” made me a sought after partner.
I was not only able to heal, but I could dish out a fair amount of damage
and had a faithful companion pet with me. It’s a matter of opinion though,
how useful you are to which groups, don’t let anyone tell you how to spec
and what to do with your char. Follow your gut feelings on what you SHOULD
do.
Ravynwolfe beating down a MOB. I think he looks an
awful lot like the Lucky Charms guy!
One of the potentially cool aspects of DAOC is the RVR (Realm
v. Realm) capability. This game is geared toward Realm wars. While
the casual gamer can still enjoy the game, it is mostly pushing you towards
defending your keeps and claiming enemy land. If you don’t have a few hours
to spare while your guild or group is defending your keeps, perhaps a different
game is for you. While the RVR is a good point of the game, it is also a
bad point. So much emphasis is put on the RVR aspect that it left the rest
of the game lacking meaning. I found myself bored after a few months. I
gained levels quickly and soon reached my plateau with nothing to keep me
interested. I only slightly enjoyed RVR, and the trade skills seemed pointless
to me. What I needed was some silly things to do. For example, in EQ when
I was bored I would grab my pole and go fishing, then bake some fish rolls
for my companions. Or I might go and get drunk and sway into battle laughing
as I got beaten down. There is nothing like that in DAOC.
Mythic rewards those who choose to RVR by giving realm points and
subsequently rewarding high realm points with new items, titles and goodies.
While this is a good thing for those who choose the RVR routine, those
who choose to simply play against the MOBS are left with a sense of being
“less-than” the guy with all the RP’s. It’s no longer fun to play when
you feel forced into RVR. I think the game would have been more attractive
to me, had it offered an alternative to RVR. Perhaps by providing supplies
or heals near the borders we could have earned some sort of reward. Levels
1 through 35 are great fun, after that it becomes a chore.
Loot is a subject we are all interested in. The MOBs often
drop nice stuff when you least expect it; the problem with this is if you’re
in a group the loot system is really strange. I have gone as long as an hour
without being allowed to loot anything! It’s a little crazy and doesn’t
make an ounce of sense to me. Sometimes I’ll loot every third drop, and
sometimes not for 30 or more. If Mythic had implemented a better loot system,
I would have stuck around longer.
XP and levels can be gained the old fashioned way by killing
mobs and hunting, or by quests. There are many NPC’s throughout the land
who will offer some quests rewarding you with XP and money and sometimes
items. Mythic did a good job providing lots of small quests for the casual
gamer and some pretty tough epic quests for the hardcore players. You are
given the opportunity to earn about 50% of your XP through these quests.
It’s a nice change of pace when you’re just tired of the drudgery of killing
all the time.
Tang has got to be the most sexy creature on the planet.
Co-founder.
GRAPHICS: DAOC has a nice new
look, much different than the usual MMORPGs on the market. It seems almost
cartoonish at first, but easily overlooked. The lines are smooth and well
defined, giving each character a fresh healthy look. Each creature has a
specific appearance easily identifiable from far away, you know what you’re
coming up on and can engage in combat or run like a pansy-boy.
My dear friend and co-founder of Army of Darkness,
Iceburn. We lovingly call him "Fatty-goat"
The game was developed with a detachable camera, which
can be swung in all directions including above and below, first and third
person views and using 3D accelerated graphics. I prefer the third person
view, looking over my own left shoulder. I get a better sense of the game
and my surroundings. It’s very nice to be able to pull the camera far away
and watch myself travel through vast fields or mountaintops and enjoy the
scenery while I run for my life.
Each area of DAOC is inhabited by unusual creatures, both agro and
friendly. You have to be careful where you step, as some of the critters
are pretty small, don’t let their size fool you though, those spraggons
pack quite a wallop when you’re low level.
The scenery in this game is very pretty. The areas are clearly defined
by changing trees and vegetation and the general feel of the land; each
has it’s own climate. It’s nothing like EQ where you have to “Zone” into
an area; it is a vast and continuous world that brings the player deeper into
the fantasy world. Looking out at the ocean from a high cliff gives you the
feeling of really being there, you can almost feel the winds blowing your
hair.
By far one of the prettiest and most original looking worlds, Mythic
put a lot of time and effort into making a game that can be enjoyed from
a graphic standpoint as well as a gameplay view.
Kochida is a good pal and master of graphics, co-founder.
SOUND and MUSIC: The sounds of
metal hitting your skull, weapons bashing your shield and screams of agony
will fill your ears when you play DAOC. Its sounds are well placed and
obviously had a lot of work done on them. The environmental sounds are
nice and the vocalizations of the mobs are quite entertaining. They cries
your characters make will get irritating though. After awhile they grate
on your nerves, especially the women. They sound almost orgasmic, and that
can be a bit distracting while you’re trying to kill her. Music in this
game is light and in the background, battle music is upbeat and appropriate.
No complaints for sound, it may not be earth shattering and spectacular
but it is well done and obviously thought out.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Dark Age of Camelot
had great potential when it was first released. I was quite excited when
Tang brought it home during his lunch break for me. I raced onto the game
to reserve my names and played a little bit. It was not as addicting as
other games are right away, but it eventually grew on me. Through trial and
error I learned the important steps in growing a mighty character, helped
some newbies and gained a lot of knowledge of the game. I was constantly impressed
with the high quality customer service and the kind attitude of most of the
players. The in-game help provided by volunteer players is valuable and wecomed,
anyone with a certain amount of playtime can volunteer to have their name
listed as a helper, newbies can private message these helpers with questions.
The look and feel of the game was new and refreshing to be surrounded by.
As I leveled though, I was faced with the horrifying truth that
there was no more excitement after level 35 or so. It stopped being fun
to hunt the same creatures all the time, to be given the same kinds of
loot for my hard work and to be forced to RVR when I was not interested
in that kind of thing. The game became a chore, like washing dishes or
laundry. It felt like something I HAD to do each day in order to keep our
realm safe and secure. Once a game becomes a chore to me, I stop.
RECOMMENDED: A great game for
those who enjoy PVP and RVR combat and have a LOT of time to spend waiting
around in the frontiers for something to do. It’s a good game for those who
like to make just weapons and armor. If you are looking for a game with a
lot of meat and hidden treasures (Like fishing and getting drunk) you will
need to look elsewhere. There is a certain breed of gamer who will enjoy
this experience immensely, and then there are gamers like me, who need more
than just hack’n’slash to keep me coming back. Recommended for sure, it’s
worth a shot!
Alas, nobody wanted to play with fiery because he always
got us killed. Co-founder and close friend.
Official Website
Blysster.com Home
Email the Webmistress
Forum