Review of Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale by Atari

I wanted to mention that my buddy Tizzbin, which I talked about in the review, managed to get through the game, and posted his own review - I've gone ahead and added on a link as an addendum to my review here on En World.

Regrettably I picked this up sight-unseen at Gamestop and loaded it up. It's not a horrible game by any stretch, and the price point was low enough that I didn't feel too badly ripped off, but I already have much better games like this on the PC (Torchlight, for example) and a few others that would have been more suited to what I thought Daggerdale might be about (Eschalon). Anyway, the problem is I mainly bought it for the "Dungeons & Dragons" label and this game has absolutely nothing to do with D&D, as the review indicates. That, plus a below average UI and overall game design leaves this game an annoying dud. Wish I had thought of waiting for a demo to become available on the PC...! Would have saved me $15.

EDIT: All this game has done is insured I will not be picking up Neverwinter Nights 3 until I read some glowing reviews. Shame on Atari for mis-using the D&D license like this!

Darkoverlord said:

While playing the so called Daggerdale for 1 hour(oh god i am a hero) before unistalling it the word disgusting comes to my mind .

Truly this game is an insult to D&D how dare they even to think that this vile of black pudding is even worth playing , it is a disgrace to all veteran D&D players the fact that this abomination has been released to the gamers as an awesome D&D game from Atari is preposterous .

What simpleton DARES to make such game of ZERO role playing crappy scenario and Diablo cloning senseless slaughter am i living in a age of IDIOCRACY now seriously Gygax died and this is the crap that some retards are selling as D&D now (not to mention 4th edition as a genocide).

Click to expand...

I think....I think this game was marketed specifically at the Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance crowd, that apparently Atari thinks is lurking out there, patiently waiting for some variation on the franchise to show up on the 360. As I recall they had both Dark Alliance and "D&D Heroes" on the Xbox.

My guess....actual D&D gamers were not the target demographic for this game. But the fact that all the ad copy for this thing was aimed at us suggests that either Atari doesn't have a clue anymore or they really don't care if they misrepresent their product so badly, as long as it rakes in a few dollars.

I downloaded the demo on XBL just to see what it was like. Even at the low price I do not trust low prices (crazy I know).

Now I am someone who since my inception into the world of D&D in the 1970s has played every game that came out that was remotely D&D related. If it had a D&D official logo on it so much the better.

I have even played the console D&D games that came out on the Genesis.

So it was to my eagerness to play Daggerdale. I had not read any reviews, nor had I seen any gameplay videos except for the trailer.

To my great disappointment I can only state that THE GAME SUCKS!

Although it reminded me of the XBOX D&D Games, those games came out a while ago and had more customisation and feeling than Daggerdale.

So anyone reading the review - BELIEVE IT - download the demo first if you can.

D

I felt the game was worth the $15 - playing it with a friend was actually quite a bit of fun. But that was on the XBox, and being able to play on the same screen. It sounds like the PC version has quite a few more errors and problems, and was a bad port in general. The down arrow = selling item thing? On the Xbox controller, that is the 'right button' tab, with the game using the 'right trigger' for actually scrolling. Here, it sounds like they mapped it to the down button, resulting in a completely unintuitive way to sell items.

As for the complaints about D&D realism, that honestly didn't bother me too much. Numbers were inflated due to the combat system, no healing surges, etc... not a big deal. D&D isn't defined by specific mechanics, but by the archetypes and tropes and such - and those elements remained. Clerics heal, and can either punch people in the face or blast with light. Rogues shoot people in the back. Fighters get in your face. Wizards blow everyone up and teleport away from danger.

The other concern, about cursed items... that's just a level based things. Low level items are flawed in various ways. Which is silly, when some items end up worse than no items at all (thus resembling cursed items), but goes away once you are past 1st level or so.

The real weaknesses of the game are the presentation - the still images, lack of voice acting (using the dwarven groaning instead), and those are the signs of a low budget game. The bugs are problematic, though I didn't run into any major ones myself.

The biggest disappointment was the lack of customization, honestly.

Overall, definitely not a great game. But I got plenty of hours of fun out of it with friends, so feel like I got my $15 worth. As a gauntlet style hack-and-slash, it worked, as long as I didn't walk into it with false expectations.

I played it on XBLA....didnt have all the problems of loading it, but it was disappointing. I am not even a huge 4E fan, but expected more, even though it was only $15.
Since they are pregen chars essentially, it also sucks that you cant join someone elses game at their same level. All my chars are now level 10, so if anyone plays a lower level game, I have to start as a level 1.

If you lik a tactics style D&D Game, thre is D&D Tactics for PSP...very true to 3.0/3.5 license, except that moving your party (i.e. just walking to get to an encounter) can take forever because everyone has to have their turn, even when not in combat.

Darkoverlord said:

While playing the so called Daggerdale for 1 hour(oh god i am a hero) before unistalling it the word disgusting comes to my mind .

Truly this game is an insult to D&D how dare they even to think that this vile of black pudding is even worth playing , it is a disgrace to all veteran D&D players the fact that this abomination has been released to the gamers as an awesome D&D game from Atari is preposterous .

What simpleton DARES to make such game of ZERO role playing crappy scenario and Diablo cloning senseless slaughter am i living in a age of IDIOCRACY now seriously Gygax died and this is the crap that some retards are selling as D&D now (not to mention 4th edition as a genocide).

Click to expand...

Hey, dont disrespect the Black Pudding!