Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance reviews are out

[cmad1977]

Feels like vermintide PG. it’s fine.

 

[Aldarc]

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.

“Getting killed” implies it was ever alive in the first place.

 

[Imaculata]

The Steam reviews for this game, which has been nicknamed Derp Souls, are absolutely devastating.

One reviewer described how a boss continued to attack him and a friend during the load screen, crashing the game.

The game also apparently has only 2 difficulty settings: too easy, and 1 hit kill.

A live stream by Eurogamer confirmed the many bad reviews. A buggy mess that is incredibly repetitive, and has terrible enemy ai.

To give you an idea of how bad the ai is: enemies often don't react when shot at. The only way Eurogamer got enemies to hit them, was to stand still and wait patiently for enemies to figure out how to path to the player, and then allow them to attack. It was just utterly broken.

No amount of bug fixing is going to make this a game worth paying for.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Looks like WotC put their money on the wrong horse this time and will lose big time.

They should have bought Larian Studios instead, yes it would be more expensive, but its actually worth it, the investment would pay off over time, instead they are trapped having to make DLCs for a game they'd likely prefer to dump right now.

I mean expecting an independent company with 1 minor game to its name and expecting it to turn out an AAA game was absurd.

This is going to eat into their profits and Chris Cox is going to have to answer for this sadly, if I was him I'd be looking for a buyer for Toque studios right now. It was just a really bad bet. There were many better investments tthenlike a small fantasy publisher that could have helped fix the disaster the D&D and MtG fiction lines have become, or Larian Studios, or Tactical Studios (makers of Solasta), etc...

I mean buying the studio before the game was out yet, why would they take that risk?

 

[Hurin70]

Looks like WotC put their money on the wrong horse this time and will lose big time.

They should have bought Larian Studios instead, yes it would be more expensive, but its actually worth it, the investment would pay off over time, instead they are trapped having to make DLCs for a game they'd likely prefer to dump right now.

I mean expecting an independent company with 1 minor game to its name and expecting it to turn out an AAA game was absurd.

They seem to keep making that very same mistake.

D&D should be a flagship videogame franchise. Instead, we get this. I had the chance to play it for a few hours tonight, and it is terrible. Repetitive gameplay, poor animations, laggy, clunky action... wow, it is really not a good game. I loved the old Dark Alliance games; this is very far from that.

I still have hope for BG3, as I liked DOS 1 and 2, and Larian at least has a good track record. But wow, was this ever a swing and a miss.

 

[Zardnaar]

When was the last great D&,D game? 20 years ago?

When was the last one that was good ten years ago?

And yet people here thought it was AAA+ because they said so.

 

[pukunui]

The real question is: how does it compare to Sword Coast Legends?

 

[Imaculata]

I had the chance to play it for a few hours tonight, and it is terrible. Repetitive gameplay, poor animations, laggy, clunky action... wow, it is really not a good game. I loved the old Dark Alliance games; this is very far from that.

I can confim this. Heck, even the main menu does not run smoothly. What is it with stuttering flags in this game?

And the animations, and animation blending, look just terrible. Everything from simple running animations, to attack animations, looks really bad. When your character gets knocked down, there is a whole lot of jittering as you scramble to your feet.

The game never seems to run at a decent framerate, the online multiplayer is laggy due to poor netcode, and nothing about the gameplay feels satisfying.

At its core, this game should be a hack and slash dungeon crawler with lots of looting. But the loot is terrible, the fighting is terrible, and the dungeons constantly repeat the same enemies and puzzles.

You'll grow sick of fighting goblins and trolls, and of fighting the bosses... which are just reskinned goblins and trolls. There just isn't any enemy variety what so ever. The "puzzles" quickly become an annoyance too, because its the same damn puzzle over and over again.

Some people have praised the visuals and the level design, but no, they must have been just desperate to find a glimmer of positivity. Lets be brutally honest, the graphics don't look that great either. The character models don't hold up well from up close, hair on characters looks terrible, and there aren't really any great character designs. It all just looks very bland and uninspired.

The level design is boring. Everything is lit the same way, and is made to look like it was copy pasted together. There are rarely memorable landmarks or interesting sections. It feels like a machine cobbled them together, although that is being unfair to machines. Diablo had randomized dungeons and they were great... these dungeons were handmade!

Of all the characters you can play, I don't think the archer was tested at all. She is just broken. The gameplay is clearly designed for melee, and for multiplayer. A lot of enemies don't even react when you shoot them, allowing you to pick them off with no effort. Even the sound effects for firing your bow feel unsatisfying!

Oh, and there are parts where you can get an ai-npc to assist you! Hahaha. Prepare to revive them over and over and over again.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

They should have bought Larian Studios instead, yes it would be more expensive, but its actually worth it, the investment would pay off over time, instead they are trapped having to make DLCs for a game they'd likely prefer to dump right now.

Larian isn't for sale though, the company is the CEO's private project to let him make the games he wants to create.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Larian isn't for sale though, the company is the CEO's private project to let him make the games he wants to create.

True, but there is still Tactical Studios, compare the reviews and popularity of Solasta to DA. If I was WotC I'd fix DA, cancel any DLCs with refunds, buy Tactical Studios, and merge Tuque Studios into it.