Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance reviews are out

[Sacrosanct]

Yeah, it's getting killed. Even by reviewers who are huge D&D fans. Luckily I have friends to play with (as the consensus is that playing solo makes the issues stand out even more) so we can chat and have fun and not pay much attention to the (lack of) story. Lots of reports of major bugs though, which is disconcerting. And personally, I'd like to see more actual monsters instead of just variations of the same humanoids over and over.

 

[Undrave]

Now, that's actually not abnormal from another perspective, because WotC are the studio owners, i.e. effectively the publisher (possibly literally, I forget). So it's more like when Electronic Arts comes to BioWare and says "We need you to make this game more action-y!" or the like, or "This needs to be a Game-as-a-Service!" or "Keep flying in this game at all costs!".

I mostly meant it that way... When a creative endeavour goes through multiple, late-in-the-process, revisions, it's because some higher ups decided they wanted to stick their fingers in the pie and get some credits.

Like how WB execs can't seem to stay out of the editing room...

IGN gave it a 4/10.

Too much ice?

 

[Mercador]

I don't know the man. But as a CEO, it's also his job to say these things. This is an industry built on hype before you having anything to show. And this is a studio that massively ramped up in the last two years.

Yes, I'm not casting too much judgment. I just heard there was a lot of interventions from WotC; was it warranted because the project was really not doing well? Or were the interventions themselves part of the problem? Can't say.


It's not an excuse. It's something that I heard happened and didn't help. The full story is obviously much more complex than this. Most people severely underestimate how video games are insanely hard to create. No matter the reason of a project failing, it almost never comes from malicious intent or lack of passion. Almost all failures are sad tragedies, people work on these projects for many years.

The issue here is it was written with 200 feet fire letters in the sky from the start that would fail.

I know it isn't a lack of passion or anything but a guy that said its studio can create AAA games and only delivered a shoddy mobile game, it doesn't feels right from the start.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Ugh... That is a shame. Can't say I expected it to get great reviews, but I at least wanted a larger data set to judge from. After the relentless hype from Wizards' social media, this thing is falling flat.

But I'll admit it, I'm still going to pick it up at some point.

IGN gave it a 4/10.

 

[Hurin70]

Ugh... That is a shame. Can't say I expected it to get great reviews, but I at least wanted a larger data set to judge from. After the relentless hype from Wizards' social media, this thing is falling flat.

But I'll admit it, I'm still going to pick it up at some point.

PC Gamer gave it an 82, which I think is the highest of any reviewer I've seen. So perhaps there is some hope.

Overall, though, the critic reviews are mediocre to outright bad, and the player reviews on the whole seem similar.

 

[payn]

Im still baffled by reviewers saying, "nothing like the TTRPG..." its like any video game with D&D on the label must be a direct TT port or it sucks. DA wasnt anything like the TTRPG and that was 20 years ago.

 

[Dausuul]

I mostly meant it that way... When a creative endeavour goes through multiple, late-in-the-process, revisions, it's because some higher ups decided they wanted to stick their fingers in the pie and get some credits.

Alternatively, the project was going off the rails and the higher-ups stepped in to try to push it back on track. The thing is, in all the cases where the higher-ups actually succeed in getting the project back on track, we never hear about it.

(I'm not claiming to know what actually happened here. But the assumption that late changes are always unwarranted interventions by clueless or credit-seeking executives is hardly correct.)

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

That's something! Hopefully they aggressively patch the thing until it's at least decent.

PC Gamer gave it an 82, which I think is the highest of any reviewer I've seen. So perhaps there is some hope.

Overall, though, the critic reviews are mediocre to outright bad, and the player reviews on the whole seem similar.

For me, it not being like the TTRPG is a big plus. I tend to dislike games that involve managing adventuring parties and turn-based combat. I really tried to like the Dragon Age series, but I keep running into that same wall. No matter how pretty and nuanced and well-told, I get sick of having to manage the loadouts for multiple characters.

Im still baffled by reviewers saying, "nothing like the TTRPG..." its like any video game with D&D on the label must be a direct TT port or it sucks. DA wasnt anything like the TTRPG and that was 20 years ago.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Im still baffled by reviewers saying, "nothing like the TTRPG..." its like any video game with D&D on the label must be a direct TT port or it sucks. DA wasnt anything like the TTRPG and that was 20 years ago.

We all knew what it was going in, so that's a weird comment to make. I've made the comment the other day how I'm not a fan of many games that don't play like D&D at all just slapping on the D&D IP because most often, those games are not good. But we all knew what the playstyle was of this game so it shouldn't be counted against it.

All the gameplay issues? Yikes. I hope the console version is more stable than the PC version though. I plan on giving it a test run in a few hours

 

[wicked cool]

was this release rushed to get young people who just finished school and want a fresh online activity? theres lots of dlc etc in the works such as couch coop (how is couch coop not included in the base game but yet you have it coming it out for different platforms on different dates)

some of the end boss fights are super glitchy and goblins are 1 shoting the heroes? enemy AI looks like a bad monster skyrim mod.

I feel bad for people who got excited and preordered it.