Turbine has managed to renew some much needed life into DDO

User Rating: 8 | Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited PC
If you are a returning player the first thing you will notice is the Tutorial is a great improvement over the original. It moves you very quickly into the starting area, with some armor and a weapon. New Player no problem, the tutorial moves you very quickly through the basic mechanics of the game. If you have played any other online game the controls are very straight forward.

This game is about crawling dungeons, while there are some wilderness areas; don't expect to spend a lot of time wandering about on your own. While you can solo many of the dungeons, this game shines best in group play. There is a good LFG tool, basically open the tool, select a group that is looking and double click. Most groups are pick up groups through there are guilds.

Dungeons are much like you would expect, they are instances and each group enjoys their own instanced dungeon. However, running dungeons multiple time does see a decreased amount of XP each time you run them. This discourages farming to some extent, Dungeons range from Short to Very Long duration. So you can be 10 minutes or 2 hours depending on the dungeon.

There is lots of sound and things to see, kill, break and manipulate. There are puzzles and traps to keep you entertained in the dungeon. The Dungeon Master (DM) keeps you well informed of what you need to do next. So no worries about what you need to do and when you need to do. Overall the game is entertaining at least in the early levels.
One weakness see is that if you like to solo, this game may be a bit of a disappointment in that respect. Don't get me wrong you can solo; however, you are pretty much penalized in xp and loot. So don't expect to see big drops when soloing. Grouping is your best bet, and typically there are groups around so just watch chat and the LFF tool.

This game is about crunching numbers, read the forums; the game comes with lots of classes and races that you can play. But the game shines in its flexibility to create your own unique combination of classes. Want a Warrior who can cast Fire balls, No problem (except spell failures for that heavy armor). Want a Cleric who can pick locks and backstab go for it. You can mix and match your 20 levels anyway you want. But, beware you can be shorting yourself by making the wrong choices.

The DDO store is interesting you can buy points to spend or earn them through Favor. Favor is earned pretty quickly; I was able to accumulate 200 points in a week. So you can unlock or purchase goodies in the DDO store. You can become a VIP member or play for free, but you have to earn favor to get beyond level 4 or find items that unlock the next set of levels.

Overall I think the game is good, if you are a D&D fan you will want to check it out. If you are a player that gave up on the game early on like I did it is worth a second look.