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Dreamcatcher Should Be Ashamed

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 119 / 123
Date: May 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is a game I eagerly anticipated and truly wanted to love. But they released it at least six months before they finished it, and I think it is truly insulting. Maybe Dreamcatcher is having cash flow problems, and they decided to sacrifice the sales of this game to stay afloat, but that's pure speculation. But the bottom line is that the game is unplayable in it's current state, and it's a long way from being playable.

You start the game up and go into the character screen. There are the usual tabs to change character appearance, but when you click on them, nothing happens. Why? Because they weren't done. They quickly released a "patch", and the patch removed these options altogether!

Press "M" to show the map (automap or minimap). Nothing happens. Why? They removed it from the game (but not from the key mapping screen). And they had the gall to out and out lie to everyone and say they never were going to include a minimap because it was "more fun without one". But if they had planned to NOT have a minimap, then why can you map a key for the function?

These are two of the most glaring examples. But it doesn't stop here. The world is very sparsely populated, there are almost no side quests, promotion quests work regardless of whether you are actually eligible for the promotion, advancements and "heralds" seem to have no effect, and magic is very nearly useless.

The experience and advancement system is well thought out, and would be a very fun system to use for a character, but you'll never get far enough in the game to see any results.

The combat system was nearly impossible for me to use. You have to circle and click repeatedly, there's absolutely no strategy involved unless you're extremely adept with a mouse and keyboard. The game also spawns monsters at an extreme rate, so there's lots of combat. But it quickly gets frustrating instead of fun.

I tried to play this game and got through about ten hours. I had finally got most of the first area cleared out, but you have to backtrack through to get out of the area. There aren't any places to rest in this level, so you can't recharge magic at all - no magic help. Anyway, I started to work back through and just kept getting hit with dozens of monsters continually, more than when I worked through it going the other way. And I wasn't getting any better as I pumped points into combat skills. Finally about two dozen low level rats overran my character and I gave up.

I know this is a little rambling and unfocused. I don't normally try to write reviews, but in this case I just had to warn you about this game. Don't waste your money. Wait for six months and see if they fix it, but don't hold your breath. Dreamcatcher should be extremely ashamed at having released this game as it is.

Bugs and lies

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 20 / 21
Date: May 28, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Whenever you buy software, there is an expectation of a certain number of bugs, and we've all gotten used to that. Dungeon Lords doesn't have a huge number of bugs, but it does have a TON of unfinished features. There is no automap, despite it being in the free download demo and in the manual. Graphics often look as if it was an early development version - ie, charaters face the wrong way in a fight, get stuck halfway up walls, appear to float in the air, etc. The AI is mind-numbingly weak. The easiest way to kill a tough boss monster is to walk around a tree - half the time the big monsters can't figure out how to get on the other side of a tree, and are thus easy pickings for with a bow. I don't think I've seen this sort of nonsense in a game in five years or more.

It's fairly easy to get in a situation where you complete a step of a quest but the game doesn't realize it. The game balance is WAY off - it's essentially impossible to have a magic user sort of character that can actually use magic as his primary attack mode. It's almost traditional in this style of game that you make the majority of your cash by selling weapons and armor you pilfer off dead bodies, but the game prevents you from having more than one of any weapon or armor - thus, all those swords you picked up off of the thousand or so goblins you just killed can never be traded in for something you need.

The game has a "random encounter" engine, which is fine, but it doesn't EVER stop. You may be in a big battle with an end of quest boss, and the game keeps spitting irrelevant little bands of goblins or spiders or something at you. It even does this inside of walled, fortified towns!! There is literally NO safe place to stand.

Oh, and my favorite way to kill a goblin is to get the fighter goblins to stand between me and an archer goblin. The archer will happily nail all of his buddies in the back of the head.

So, bottom line, the developer wants your money now, but they want to finish the game later --- much later. The only way we're going to get game publishers to quit ripping us off is to quit buying their unfinished CRAP. There are developers out there that work hard to build trust with the consumer by consistently putting out quality stuff (Bioware comes to mind). These jokers don't deserve your money.

I would be ashamed if I tested this...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: May 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

First let me say that I am a professional software tester, so I know how software development works. From experience it looks like they had trouble making this game stable and/or had to cut things at the end to make it shippable (both from the push-backs and missing features that are still referenced in the game like the map). More concern to worry, how about that the development company removed the user forum for 'maintance' because they were getting hammered for releasing in this condition. I will not purchase another product from this company or their afflilates again and would recommend the same for other quality oriented people......

What were they thinking ?

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 17
Date: May 18, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I don't understand the positive reviews ? ... I backup all the negative points already stated ... the only only game that comes to mind as being this buggy was Sacred(...but it's fixed with the latest patch) ... to remove, instead of fix problems tells me: they rushed this out and didn't want to put in the time to fix it = or just don't care ? ... the fighting system = poor ... so, that means you got an incomplete, buggy and poor attempt at a "game"play ... was given the game(..free) by a friend who pointed out what most have stated ... I really didn't want to belive it was that bad = YES; it is as bad as the poor reviews state ... I gave it to charity = maybe they can get a few bucks for it ... been really disappointed in most games out the past 12 months or so ... seems either graphics/multiplayer/anti-piracy hoops to jump through are the main concerns of game developers ... so, I've turned to looking for overlooked older games and replaying favorites ... games don't have to be complicated to be fun = this isn't an endorsement, but I've had good luck with Groove Games(... relatively inexpensive war shooters) ... I'm not asking for much: decent graphics + decent storyline(...if RPG) + good gameplay

just plain awful

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 14
Date: June 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

so bad... where to start?

Lots of buttons and keyboard commands that don't actually do anything. NO AUTOMAP FUNCTION EVEN THOUGH THERE IS A KEY. The one positive review mentions a "poster size map"- try a pithy glossy foldout roughly the size of an opened magzine. Does it help at all in the game? no- the map merely marks squigly borders to the interlocking corridors of wilderness.

Combat? horrible. click till your finger is sore or your voice is hoarse. If you like being mobbed by 12 rabid rats repeatedly every 2 minutes you will like it. Using the bow, you can't actually aim your shots- even though the options menu has a setting for crosshairs, they do not appear in the game.

I spent 40 dollars on this and tried really hard to enjoy it. It left me utterly disappointed. I want my 40 dollars back along with the 15 odd hours I wasted trying to enjoy this piece of rabbit droppings. Do yourself a favor and avoid this stinker even when it is in the $5 bin in 6 months.

Caveat emptor

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 18
Date: May 15, 2005
Author: Amazon User

While Dungeon Lords is on shelves, it is unfinished. I don't mean the usual unforeseen minor bugs and occasional quirks. I mean Dreamcatcher has, quite deliberately, released a game that is a minimum of 8 months of intense work away from being a viable product. Some of the features didn't work from the CD install, so Dreamcatcher REMOVED them in a patch. Other features (such as the map) are documented, but STILL not implemented.

The bugs are too numerous to catalogue here, but they are game-breaking. The issues are too severe for Dreamcatcher to not have known this product is nowhere close to completion, much less ready for retail. So I must urge the reader: DO NOT PURCHASE THIS PRODUCT.

Unfinished doesn't even begin to describe it

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 18
Date: June 25, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Like most other people who bought this game, I was bamboozled by the pretty box telling me of all the wonderfull features and the list of companies endorsing this game saying things such as "E3 Game of the Year". However, after paying $40 plus tax and bringing this turd home, I was appalled to find that everthing on the box was a FLAT OUT, BLATENT LIE! Almost nothing in the game works the way it is supposed to, with several of the features either not working at all, or simply just not there. I myself, thought there were laws against false advertising, enstated and enforced by the Better Business Bureau, but I guess we are living in a day and age when Big Business can get away with whatever they want.

I laughably read one review (I expect it must be from a kid) that said we are lucky to even see a this type of game. That just tells me how far the industry has gone downhill, or how gullable some people are, if they actually feel "lucky" to be getting screwed over this badly.

This game is unfinshed, the people who published it are obviously more than willing to completely lie to the consumers, and if people continue to buy this kind of drivell instead of suing the A$$es of the companies that make them, then nothing will ever change, and everyone will have to fell "lucky" as they happily bend over for Big Business again and again.

Waste of money

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 15
Date: June 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I was appauled after playing this game to find missing features and a schwack load of other bugs/exploits/annoyances.

It's like they didn't even beta test it at all. I like running from one objective to another and getting mauled by 40 things that I cannot possibly kill.

This game has great potential though. But visiting their forums and seeing the support the community is getting from the developers, I would not be suprised if this game was dead in the water in a couple months.

What a waste of money

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 15
Date: January 06, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Wow - spent about six hours trying to get things adjusted for myself and playing correctly. What a waste of time and money. Graphics are good, but its nearly impossible to manipulate let alone do so easily. Enormous disappointment. Even my teenage son can't figure this crappy game out. Too bad.

There is no God.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 20
Date: May 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game blows. Seriously. I'd expound on it more, but I have to go hit my head with a hammer, which coincidently is a lot more fun than this game.

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