Dragonshard Review

Posted by Mark E. Hengst II October 02, 2005

As somebody who has followed the Dungeons and Dragons brand through nearly every available medium, I certainly found the idea of a D&D Real Time Strategy (RTS) game to be very enticing. Certainly when Warcraft was first released I remember thinking of it in terms of D&D, from the different races, to the incorporated stories. In reality, Warcraft likely owes the folks at D&D some thanks as I question whether we would have had a Warcraft if we didn't first have our d20 (That's RPG nerd talk for a 20 sided dice).

Now outside of my questionable D&D playing youth there are some very serious and telling questions remaining. What type of RPG experience would this game offer? Would it follow in the resource gathering Blizzard style? Perhaps the game would instead take the Battle Realms or Battle for Middle Earth style of a more tactical, less involved city-making process. Would the game even be any good? When the game was first announced, I knew next to nothing about the new Eberron setting. As a more traditional type of guy, I would have much preferred a Forgotten Realms based RTS, something I was more familiar with.

On top of all of this--let's face it--the RTS genre has been stagnant for some time now. I hesitate to say the genre has peaked, as games like Sacrifice and Kingdom Under Fire for the XBOX are certainly exceptions to the oft-formulaic RTS games. Warcraft 3 and the Kohan series had already started the process of incorporating experience and leveling, staples of the RPG market, prior to the release of this game. While I certainly appreciated the attempts, I always felt that they never truly made the process similar to an RPG. It always seemed half-finished and I certainly was always at least a little disappointed with this fact. Would the folks at Liquid release a game as epic and fun as Warcraft 3 or Warhammer 40k Dawn of War, or would this game be another Armies of Exigo? By that, I mean fun to play and good in it's own right, but not truly innovative.

Dragonshard takes place, as mentioned, within the newest D&D setting of Eberron, a vast and semi-dark setting to say the least. It is said that the world is formed from the ancient and mighty dragons, with one dragon being the vast underground areas, one dragon becoming the overland where much of the normal races reside and one dragon becoming the shards that rain down upon the lands. When the order of the Flame begins a quest to recover a mighty shard--the Heart of Siberys--they vow to go though any and all forces on their way to destiny. In their path are the mighty armies of the Lizardfolk, chosen to guard the Heart and the armies of the subterranean dark elves, a recurring evil from most D&D settings. You may choose your side, the Order of the Flame or the Lizardfolk armies, but make no mistake: a vast adventure awaits you within. Steel your courage, for only the bravest and smartest will survive to take hold of the mighty Heart of Siberys.

“...make no mistake: a vast adventure awaits you within.”

Gameplay
Despite having RPG elements, Dragonshard is an RTS at heart so brace yourself for a thorough explanation of the gameplay elements.

Dragonshard begins with a helpful, if somewhat demeaning set of 6 tutorial missions. They range from showing you how to click on objects, to the setting up of a town and the exploration of Khyber, the underworld regions. These tutorials are always somewhat of a mixed bag, however in the case of this game the new functions bear some explaining and practicing. Having participated in the open beta for Dragonshard, I know first-hand how confusing being thrown into a game with no explanation can be.

The standard RTS staples apply in this game, from left-clicking to select a unit or structure, to right-clicking to issue orders or auto-commands. The same goes for the ability to set up rally points, patrol areas and issue multiple commands to your units. The game also features dozens of hotkeys for those who prefer the one button action often available in these types of games, including hot keys for each specific army that you control.

The in-game camera allows you to zoom in and out with some ease, although it took me some time to find out how to rotate the in-game camera, and even then it still doesn't feel like a true 3D camera. Fortunately, this never seemed to interfere with my enjoyment of the game, and sometimes you just had to zoom in and watch the units engage in combat up close to truly appreciate the combat underway.

From the camera we proceed to a discussion on the types of units in this game. While each of the 3 playable armies features different units, each of whom has different strengths and weaknesses, it bears noting that in essence each army features 4 types of actual units, Champions, Juggernauts, Captains and finally Soldiers.

Each army has four playable champions, who all basically have different abilities. For instance, one is a melee fighter/tank, one a rogue, one a sorcerer and one a cleric or healer. These champions cannot gain levels and already possess full use of their abilities. These can range from breathing fire, to more passive abilities like raising the regeneration rates of all nearby allies. Each champion also features a very powerful ability which can only be unlocked after it has inflicted a certain amount of damage; my favorite ability is Lady Marryn's Mass Heal ability which can easily turn the tide of a battle by restoring her affected units with healing power. The other advantage to Champions is that their damage cannot be deflected with armor or spell resistances, so don't be afraid to use your Champion in the thick of battle.

One step down from the Champions are the Juggernauts, the true powerhouses of the battles you will face. Each army has one Juggernaut, a supremely powerful, yet very expensive ally to bring forth from your forces. These beasts are the Phoenix , fighting for the order of the Flame, the War Felldrake fighting for the Lizardfolk and the extremely deadly Umbrascarred Beholder, capable of disintegrating an enemy with one look.

The Captains are by far the most common units used and seen in the game and certainly the most fun to use. The Captains range in professions, to name a few, from rogues, melee fighters, healers, wizards, ranged fighters to the flying units which can only be attacked by other flyers. Each of these captains can be leveled up, all the way to fifth level. Each Captain also gains abilities as they level, from passive abilities to the clickable kind. These abilities can vary from melee boosters, to using such skills as lock picking or healing. Captains are leveled up by gaining experience and clicking on the proper icon on the structure used to produce them. Each Captain also gains new abilities as he levels up, the fifth level abilities being the most powerful. This leveling serves another purpose, explained below.

The Soldier units are your most basic units, each Captain you possess has the ability to create and command soldiers in battle, something done automatically and for free. Each Captain is allowed to control more Soldiers the more levels he attains, which makes leveling your Captains a very crucial undertaking. These soldiers take damage before their Captains, which also helps you keep your Captains alive longer in battle. These Soldiers will follow whatever orders you give to their Captains, making them one of the easier, less bothersome units to have in-game.

All of these units vary slightly based upon what army you are using. For instance, the Lizardfolk are not as heavily armored as the Order of Flame units, however the Lizardfolk tend to be much faster on the ground and therefore much better at hit and run tactics than the Order of the Flame armies. Each unit contains various strengths and weaknesses, something important to pay attention to, as exploiting your enemy's weaknesses can turn the tide of any battle. It becomes a form of rock paper scissors to determine these strengths and weaknesses, but proper understanding can make the difference between winning and losing a battle.

In addition to these abilities, you will find various items scattered throughout the maps, from potions of healing, to swords and armor that can permanently boost a unit's stats for the entire game. However you can only carry a certain number of these items, so be careful what you hoard and don't be afraid to use them when you need them.

This game is unique in that it contains two completely separate playing areas: the over world, where the majority of the city-building and resource gathering takes place and the Khyber portions, where most of the quests are solved, experience is gained and gold is found. Learning to balance the time you spend between these two areas will decide your fate in battles, especially if you neglect one to focus on the other.

The above ground portions of the game are where the true RTS city-building takes place. Each city consists of a main headquarters, city walls and gates and sixteen pads where building may be constructed. Due to the limited number of buildings, you are forced to be very tactful about what buildings to construct, which ones to duplicate for leveling up, as well as what units don't fit into your battle strategies. The levels can be leveled up to the point that they will attack invading enemies. Building structures is actually rather quick and easy, taking only a few moments and then gold and shards for payment. This system, called the Nexus system, makes the placing and location of your buildings important and will add yet another layer of strategy to city building.

There are essentially only three collectible resources that need to be gathered in-game, and one of them is not a true resource. The first resource is called dragonshards, a mystical energy supply that although only located on certain spots in-game is a renewable resource and will often arrive in the form of massive meteor storm explosions. Anytime in-game you see the screen go from sunshine to darkness, this is the warning that a dragonshard storm is on the way. These storms can injure or knock around your units, so be careful. Gold is found in a variety of ways, from killing random monsters, to searching the Khyber ruins for treasure chests. This resource is very important, so be sure to find as much gold as possible and continue to explore the Khyber in search of more. The more gold your army finds, the less there is for your opponents. Finally, the last resource is experience points. These are earned from the quests you undertake in the campaign mode, as well as killing monsters in the Khyber or random monsters above ground. These experience points are then used to level up your units and are crucial to having a strong ground force. The resources in Dragonshard are collected by your Captains and Champions. Yes, no more creating peons or resource collection minions in this game. When you go looking for gold or dragonshards, you will now be ready to fight and defend yourself.

Also in many of the larger maps are expansion nodes, these areas, typically indicated by purple spots in the map, are where you construct outpost like structures. On these expansion nodes, you can create up to four new structures, often good for extending the influence of your armies, as well as helping to control the various areas of strategic importance found in-game.

The single player campaign has a few differences from the multiplayer games and bears further explanation. For starters, you will find various NPCs in-game that will send you on various quests of the fetch or kill variety, which will grant your army bonus experience points. These truly add to the RPG feeling for the single player campaign and are often good for advancing the storyline. In addition, you have access to the Reward Shop, where you are able to pay for armor, weapons and potions for your champions. This is also a good place to store items not needed for later in the game. You will also find mention in the shop for the fabled Champion artifacts, powerful artifacts unique to each champion and found where you often least expect them. Be very thorough in the single player campaign or you may miss out on these artifacts.

Graphics
Dragonshard features a robust graphical engine, one robust enough to test those who fall on the minimum side of the graphics card game. Even with my X800 Pro 256mb, there were moments when I experienced slowdown, something I haven't seen in quite some time either. Still, from the beautifully crafted units and the explosive dragonshard storms, it was easy to see what was actually testing my computer. Dragonshard could best be described as Warcraft 3 meets Kohan 2, only this time the graphics in-game easily match if not exceed both.

“Dragonshard could best be described as Warcraft 3 meets Kohan 2, only this time the graphics in-game easily match if not exceed both.”

The opening cut scene is an excellent indicator of the time and effort spent by Liquid to make this game, and certainly the gorgeous environments found and seen in Khyber are also quite impressive. One level in the single player that stick outs, is this above ground box canyon found only through the Khyber, that contains a waterfall and a small body of water. This a very pretty and unnecessary addition and is one those little intangible things that I love to see in an RTS, particularly given how stingy many RTS game makers are when it comes to the graphics. This is an incredible fact for a genre where almost 95% of the game is about the way it plays, it is refreshing to see that time and attention was spent on the graphics engine.

As I mentioned, expect some slowdown, even on high range systems, as there is often quite a lot going on in-game. Of course I also had the game on at high resolution and all the graphical whistles and belles (anti-aliasing) selected for good measure. I am confident that those with less powerful graphics cards will be able to play as long as they don't aim for full options.

Sound
As attractive as the game is, the sounds are not quite as impressive. While the in-game music is certainly suitable, it is nothing on the scale of Warcraft 3, where you end up seeing the game soundtrack and score available. Outside of the somewhat standard in-game score, however we see more substance.

“As attractive as the game is, the sounds are not quite as impressive.”

The sound effects in the game are very well-done and certainly help add to the sense of urgency that many of the battles bring out. I particularly enjoyed the dragonshard storms with their explosions, which at times completely covered the sounds of my approach when attacking my enemies. The rest of the effects include the standard array of fighting sounds and spell casting sounds, as well as the blessed sound of gold being pocketed, something you will learn to recognize in Dragonshard.

The voice acting is rather well-done, but nothing truly cinematic. The slightly overzealous Order of the Flame certainly come across as rather self-righteous and I was glad to see that while wild, the Lizardfolk were still portrayed as intelligent-sounding. One thing the voice overs do accomplish, from the tutorial to the in-game conversations, is establish an underlying sense of humor that I found rather refreshing. Seldom does an RTS, particularly a game found in the oft overly self-serious Fantasy genre actually show a sense of humor.

Multiplayer
Well finally, only this week, I was able to get in some multiplayer action. Dragonshard was in some stores last week and most stores this week so there was a gap between when the majority of gamers owned the game, as well as when the online community got started. Like many games these days, Dragonshard makes use of the Gamespy program for online multiplayer matches, which while I am not a huge fan, didn't interfere with my online gaming. Due to the unique strategic elements of this game, this is easily one of the more challenging Multiplayer RTS games I have played in some time and even as of writing this review I am struggling to learn better strategies.

“Due to the unique strategic elements of this game, this is easily one of the more challenging Multiplayer RTS games I have played...”

Currently there are just under a dozen maps created especially for Dragonshard ranging from 1-on-1 maps up to the larger 8 player maps. This is definitely a game meant for larger battles and cooperative team play is one of the more exciting forms of gameplay available. Currently there is really only one type of match, that being your standard multi-player army-versus-army mode. You will be able to set the victory conditions from total raze of the enemy, expansion whereby you control over 50% of the expansion nodes for a set period of time, artifacts where you collect 4 seals of light and bring them back to your base in order to win and finally the control condition, whereby if you control over 50% of the places of power for a set amount of time you win.

The multiplayer mode I found to be relatively lag free, although finding games was sometimes difficult and slightly annoying. Sadly you will still deal with those who get angry and drop out rather than finish a game, trust me I got beat enough times to desire to do so, but managed to play the right way in the end. This game has a slightly steeper learning curve and will require a lot of practice to become good, so never forget about playing the computer in a skirmish once in a while to help hone your skills.

Replay Value
One of the best trends of RTS gaming is multiple campaigns and this game makes good use of them. With the Order of the Flame and the Lizardfolk, you will find 2 solid campaigns with enough missions to not only teach you good gameplay tactics, but also tell a story and give you the chance to go on quests for money and experience. You will also be able to make use of the Umbragen army, but only when playing multiplayer or skirmish games as they sadly do not have a campaign included (expansion anyone?). Each army is also unique enough that it will feel like a different experience regardless of which side you play. Online I even made use of the random function and played matches with all three armies. If I had to choose a favorite, I think I would stick with the Lizardfolk, with their great speed and life regeneration.

Any game with a solid multiplayer component, especially in the RTS genre has its own built-in replay value. No two games will likely be the same and with different AI levels for the computer opponents and the variability of skill levels for human opponents, you should find enough in Dragonshard to keep playing long past completion of the two single player campaigns.

Conclusion
RTS games like Dragonshard are not entirely original. Certainly games like Warlords Battle Cry 3, Warcraft 3 and Kohan 2 lead the way for RTS/RPG hybrids some time ago. Still, Dragonshard is the first attempt at an RTS/RPG hybrid where you truly can make use of dungeons for gaining experience and treasure, where the simplified resource gathering doesn't necessarily take way from the gameplay.

I would be remiss not to mention the variety of bugs that many gamers have reported at the Dragonshard Forums. A patch is already available and likely more will be on the way. Atari has a spotty record when it comes to facilitating patches with their D&D games. Still having said that, other than some initial installation issues which seemed to sort themselves out, I was able to play and full enjoy the game minus any crash to desktop errors.

While the story is not quite up to the standards of a Blizzard story, it was written by Keith Baker, the creator of the Eberron setting. Eberron is a completely new gameplay setting and Dragonshard certainly did a good job of making me want to read the novels related to the game. One thing I did notice is difference between the attitudes of the two main campaign armies. I couldn't help but dislike the order of the Flame, from their self-righteousness and borderline arrogance, to the way you never seemed able to truly relate to or sympathize with their plight. The Lizardfolk had managed to protect the Heart of Siberys for quite some time without the help of the Order and ultimately this reminded me of some of the our world's similar historical events.

RTS games are not for everybody, certainly they typically have steep learning curves and some people just flat-out aren't good at them. By the same token, when crafted properly, a good RTS can be immensely fun to play online against others. The above- and below-ground portions of Dragonshard in the end are what makes this game unique and helps it stand outside the dozens of similar RTS games already on the market. With a solid graphics engine, decent sound and innovative gameplay, Dragonshard is easily recommended to fans of both the RTS and RPG genres.

“The above- and below-ground portions of Dragonshard in the end are what makes this game unique and helps it stand outside the dozens of similar RTS games already on the market.”