User Reviews (31 - 41 of 90)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Masterful and Horror combined = ToA

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: January 25, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Trials of Atlantis Expansion from Mythic Ent. as added cd and addon world to the original game Dark Age of Camelot is both a game shaping magnificent experience and profoundly will change gaming in all MMorPgs forever and the worst horror story you'll be part of at the same time.

1.) Discovering these new lands and creatures and people will expound your gaming experience to an unmatched level of amazement. Based on the background of the lost city of atlantis an underwater world with thick rich and complex story lines.

You will need and want tons of time to do this. This new expansion almost and is entirely designed as an extension for level 50 characters who earned 50 in DAoC (orig game).

2.) The 2nd aspect of ToA are "Master Levels" or "Trials" themselves where characters complete a complex sequential series of "tests" encounters with monsters and npcs etc.. to achieve a final success of completing a "Trial". 10 tests per Trial, Nine trials. The final encounter is a massive challenge requiring superior numbers of characters with powerful talent and discipline and tons of time in real life (irl).

3.) The Trials grant the successor member (character) a "master ability" which will assist them in facing the enemy. The enemy is the other two realms from which DAoC was based. It's called RvR, Realm verses Realm where your character and realm war against the opposing. These new abilities range from ridiculously useless and inconsequential to grotesquely over powered and war altering.

The only compare I could offer you is if a nuclear weapon had plunged to earth in 1200 bc and it had a "fire" trigger that was labeled with the caption "kill another nation pull the trigger".

Whats the problem? DAoC is based on RvR (end game). The time it takes to complete a single Trial is approximately 4-6 hours contigously with approximately (and intermitantly) 1-5 groups of characters dedicated to performing that one task or test when your online and specifically able to attend for the full 4-6 hours. Now these tests and trials are not easy unless you have alot of organization, leadership, disciplined, kindhearted quiet people who follow and execute direction with little animosity or attitude and have the patience of a redwood tree in California.

4.) Another unique aspect to ToA expansion are "Artifacts" these are legendary powerful rare unique weapons and character wear (clothes jewelry etc.) that embue and enhance your character inorder to prepare for war with the enemy. How do you get these?

Glad you asked.

a.) you must find and obtain 3 scrolls per artifact. Usually by killing creatures who will eventually "drop" the scroll so you can pick it up. After 2 weeks of killing these creatures (yes I said 2 weeks) you finally obtain a 2nd scroll the third is so rare of a drop that some members have camped spots for 30 days killing enmasse nonstop to obtain. Do you have that kind of time? If not, you going to be a naked ham with kill me on their back when facing the enemy.

If your a casual gamer and your about to roll a level 1 character and ultimately want to kill the enemy (someone at their computer who rolled a similar char) your going to be busy preparing for this event for about 2 years irl. Sound like fun?

If so, buy the new expansion and go hog wild.

If you dont have that magnitude of free game time and want to kill the enemy in a reasonable 4- 6 months after ingame preparation (hunting, questing etc.) I would seriously suggest you buy another game.

Oh and let me add in several instances you kill the monster with the artifact and the monster doesnt drop it. Sometimes the monster only drops it after 12 tries or more. Did I mention it usually takes 1-3 groups of people (8 per grp) to kill this mob?

Like I said, if your new your doomed, if your not...../shrug buy 30 new computers and 30 new accounts from Mythic and cram them into your spare bedroom because you'll need all of them to achieve a Master Level before year 2010. Apparently some people have this magnitude of time because their rampaging the war zones and enemy areas wiping out hordes of people who are basically cattle and die with a glazed look on their face.

Desperate expansion to milk money

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: February 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This felt like an EQ release, all the bugs, long hours, camping, etc. If I wanted all that, I would still be playing EQ. Mythic went against everything they were saying from day 1 and turned into another verant.

The content isn't even unique for the 3 realms, smallest expansion in terms of content and crappy programing/quests. Makes the item system like EQ, the haves always win and the havenots always lose.

They went from equal footing in RvR to the people that play more will always win because they have more items/abilities. Endless grinds and camps are the norm in ToA, offers 0 content for the casual or low lvl player.

I quit after playing ToA for a week and many others have done the same. Good job mythic, now you are just another failure.

Simply awful

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: February 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Master Levels and artifacts sounded fun, but the implementation was terrible. You spend 5+ hours on a raid with your realmmates, who get tired and cranky. By the end of the raid, people are snapping at each other, or worse. Then you don't receive credit from an encounter that took 2-3 groups and was done flawlessly. You spend 5+ hours online waiting for a customer service rep and you get this form email instead:

"This is in regards to the recent appeal you submitted to in-game support for Dark Age of Camelot. You may view your appeal text below.

Unfortunately, In-Game Support is unable to grant encounter credit to players who did not receive the expected credit for that particular encounter. There are several possible reasons this transpired, many times because players aren't meeting certain criteria for the encounter, whether it's a geographical/locational requirement, an XP/MLXP requirement, one requiring that you've previously completed prior encounters, etc. There are also instances where players perform specific actions that preclude them from receiving credit, OR NOT performing certain specific required actions.

Additionally, players who have gone linkdead prior to encounter completion cannot be awarded credit due to their absence at the time credit is awarded to the applicable group and/or battlegroup, etc.

As such, we cannot grant any such credit, regardless of the situation. You are encouraged to attempt the encounter again, perhaps rechecking to make sure that you're meeting the designated criteria.

If you feel that an encounter mob is, in fact, bugged, then you are encouraged to submit a detailed [bug report] to our Bug Team including all appropriate information. You may also email them at cambugs@darkageofcamelot.com, should you require more space than the text delimiter ingame will allow.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you for playing DAoC!

**** Please note: any response to this e-mail will not be read. Please

reappeal in game if you need further assistance. If you wish to dispute
the way in which this matter was handled, please e-mail
dispute@darkageofcamelot.com with your concerns or visit the Camelot
Herald feedback form at www.Camelotherald.com/feedback.php ****

Thank you,
DAoC Support
Dark Age of Camelot Customer Support"

Get used to disappointment if you buy this game.

Don't waste your time

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: February 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This expansion took what was left of a possibly good game, and ruined any chance of DAOC ever being balanced. It's just another time sink that's now an absolute requirement to be able to play the game like you used to. In the past, casual players and die hard gamers could compete somewhat evenly in realm warfare, but that idea is completely dead with this expansion. If you don't put in countless hours getting the new items and abilities only offered with this expansion, you are at a significant disadvantage. You also have to go through and put in all that time for _every single one_ of your characters if you want to stay competitive. Don't waste any more time on this game, it's just going to go more downhill from this point on.

If you enjoy a sledgehammer to the privates, you'll love it

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: February 11, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This will do down as the worst expansion in online gaming history. Not only did Mythic(a) impart a campfest when they introduced TOA, they alienated a huge portion of their player-base. Many of those people quit. Then, they have angered the remaining loyal who played by Mythic(a)'s rules and nerfed the crap out of the Master Levels and Artifacts so that after many many days, they are useless. Please do yourself a favor and wait for World of Warcraft or even Everquest 2. Do not but this garbage game.

Only for diehard DAoC fans

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: April 11, 2004
Author: Amazon User

As many others have previously mentioned, this expansion is mainly for high level players, ranging from level 45-50.

Essentially this expansion deals with the Master Levels, acquiring various artifacts, as well as other drops from the many quests available..and all these are geared towards helping the player to be supposedly better in RvR. Most of the artifacts and drops do give pretty good bonuses (good resists against various damage during combat for example). Unfortunately, Master Levels are mostly not soloable (there are 10 levels in the Master Levels, and about 10 tasks to each level: usually, one of the task per level is soloable, the remaining 9 require at least a group or a battlegroup). As for artifacts, first, the player has to acquire a number of scrolls (usually 3)for the activation of the artifact (otherwise the artifact (e.g. shield or a weapon) can't be used by the player). Then the player has to get the artifact. Following that, the artifact has to be activated, and then leveled in order to unlock the bonuses available from that artifact. Needless to say, a lot of kill tasks are involved, and again, most of the kill tasks do require a lot of people to help the player out. The same thing can be said for the various quests too.

Apart from that, the graphical details and graphics in ToA are absolutely stunning...the beautiful underwater architecture in various parts of the Atlantis (e.g Oceanus, Mesothalassa) to the rich, fertile, lush riverside land in Stygian Delta (check out the wonderful pyramid!), to the dark, lava-laded, treacherous, desolate land of Volcanus, are just some examples. That said, it may seem that this has been done with a toll on the server as there have been complaints that usually ToA is quite laggy as compared to Shrouded Isles expansion or the classic game.

In the final analysis, this game isn't a fun or enjoyable game for me, because acquiring MLs and artifacts is such a slow, tedious and a painful process (for example, ML3 can take 8-10 straight hours just to complete without any hitch). If it wasn't for the graphics, I would have rated this game one star because the game does seem to come across as placing a heavy burden on the player to achieve the status of a Master or to be a better RvRer.

Worst expansion ever

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: November 21, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Let me start with the good part. The graphics engine update is nice looking.

Now the negative:
1) New graphics engine is a memory and processor pig, and may impact your playing experience.
2) Requires high level characters to do anything. You need to be level 40 to even bother loading the expansion.
3) Don't expect to do anything solo. This expansion is all about finding lots of other players to perform the same tasks. Group delays are mind boggling (hours in many cases)
4) Quests (and MLs) are hard and often very frustrating.

Over all, if you have money to burn and want the better graphics, then buy the expansion. Just don't expect the same fun experience in the module as previous offerings from Mythic.

This expansion is the death of daoc

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: December 07, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Absolutly horrible. Almost everything is bugged quests, master levels, and artifacts. They decided to beta test it on the live crowd i guess. Just try to get some help from a CSR when something goes horribly wrong.
Seriously i canceled my accounts and im not comming back unless they do something spectacular. Dont buy this expansion!

Search elsewhere for your MMORPG fun this holiday.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: December 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Why no option for 0 stars?

Trials of Atlantis (ToA) should not have been released yet. The expansion is filled with countless broken quests, non-working artifacts, as well as many other bugs and problems. Master Level abilities seem as if they were rushed out the door, as evident by the recent changs to the various Master Level abilites. However the problems do not stop at the game play. Mythic's poor in-game Customer support further frustrates gamers. It almost seems as if ToA is still in Beta, except it's an open beta test where you are paying $9.99, plus $12.95 a month, to help Mythic test ToA. I'd say wait it out a few months and wait until the bugs have been worked out, otherwise purchase and invest time at your own risk.

How a Expansion Pack can kill a good game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: December 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Camelot was a fine game. The game was geared so that a normal players or fanatics could compete on an even playing field and enjoy the game whether they played for an hour or 8.

This expansion pack has introduced an environment that is totally unenjoyable to the casual player and has replaced 'tedious and time consuming' tasks for what was once fun. You will need the expansion pack in order to compete.. however my idea of fun isn't time sinks.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Next 

Actions