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Addictive, Engrossing and Downright Fun!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 17 / 20
Date: October 23, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I purchased this game a week ago and have been totally entertained for the past several nights and look forward to many, many more nights of enjoyment to come!

In the past I have played Ultima Online, Everquest and Asheron's Call. Also I have played several of the games from the Final Fantasy Series and the original Ultima series before it went online.)

The Dark Age of Camelot is one of the newest releases in the genre of MMORPG's (Massively Multiplayer Online RolePlaying Games). It features a massive simulated world environment encompassing three kingdoms or realms which are essentially at war with one another. Players team up online to protect their kingdom's relics (holy objects that confer special abilities or powers upon all the players in a realm) and to capture competing kingdom's relics. The game is very flexible allowing for many different styles of play, allowing those who wish to join others to form groups or guilds and those who prefer a more solitary style of play to solo on their own.

The graphics are extremely well conceived and executed. (Their rendering of a night sky is breathtaking, not to mention the way the clouds travel across the sun at sunset and sunrise.) The interface is fairly easy to learn with an hour or two of experimentation. The interface features a point and click system as well as a series of keyboard commands. The keyboard commands are fully cusomizable and even allow for the creation of macros if the player so desires.

It is obvious that the creators of DAOC (Dark Age of Camelot) studied previous and current MMORPGs that are on the market to enhance and improve gameplay. Of particular interest to me was the loot autosplit feature that automatically divides monetary and item rewards among group members after a battle. The game is level-based with players being awarded skill points that can be spent to improve current abilities each time they increase in level. This allows characters to specialize in specific abilities making them unique even in their own play. (For instance- Wizards can be either Earth Wizards, Ice Wizards or Fire Wizards- specializing in spells of this nature- or they can choose to spend their points equally and gain power in all three areas!) (I currently have a Theurgist who specializes in Air magic.) There are also healer/priests, warrior/fighters and thief/rogue/minstrel types of characters. Each class or type of character has many options that can individualize their style of play.

The game story incorporates elements of Celtic and Norse Mythology. It seems to ignore the Christian elements of the King Arthur legend- although there is much use of the Holy Grail in the game. Perhaps the developers were trying to avoid controversy, choosing to focus more on gameplay rather than on weighty theological issues.

The chat features are layed out in a single window with tabs allowing you to specify which chat channel you would like to speak in (Main window, Group window, Guild Window or a basic Chat window that is not specifically related to ingame action). They are supposedly going to add an Auction window for players to buy, sell and trade items in the future.

I highly recommend Dark Age of Camelot for both the veteran and the newbie Online Gaming afficionados!

See you online!

SingerSpell

Current state-of-the-art in Multiplayer Online Computer Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: October 17, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Having played all of the other major Multiplayer Online Games (Ultimate Online, EverQuest, and Asheron's Call), in my opinion "Camelot" is the best.

It is clear that the designers spent a great deal of time studying all the other games, especially EverQuest (the most popular in the U.S.) and came up with real improvements in every area that EverQuest was weak.

Example: "down time" (when you are recovering from a fight) is a maximum of 90 seconds, and usually a lot less. Having been in large groups, down time is usually less than 30 seconds.

Example: trade skills. It is fun to make things in Camelot, you can become a master of one skill without doing any fighting, and the items you can make are better (and cheaper) than you can buy from game-controled merchants.

Example: player graphics. You can customize your look to a huge degree (even more than in Ultima Online). You can easily create a visually distinct look for your character that makes you different in the game from the vast majority of other players.

Camelot looks great, the buildings are very "accurate" (for their time period which is Medeival England and Viking era Scandinavia), the player races are all great looking, the animations are smooth.

Down side: Some realms (Hibernia) are not "finished" in that large areas are not well populated and very few "dungeons" can be found. However, the company is committed to adding more content to the game from here on to the future. Also it is hard to know how to price items that you make (minor nit).

I could go on about what a great game this is and how well put together it seems but I won't. I will say that I haven't been this happy playing a game in years.

Stable, well-thought out, and lots of fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 14 / 15
Date: October 20, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I've played other massive multiplayer online RPG games (MMPORPGs), like UO, EQ, AC, and AO, and this is the most smooth product so far. The first thing I noticed was how very stable this game was from the first day of release. I only got booted out of the game once in my first five or so hours of play. (Those of you have tried the other games on launch before will appreciate how rare that is!) and I have experienced minimal lag and disconnects since then. Overall, I'm having great fun with it, and it's now my MMPORPG of choice. Breaking down by feature:

Graphics: Always a very personal choice, some people find the graphics slightly weak, but I like the spell effects, and overall the graphics are the equal of the other games out there (with the exception of Anarchy Online, which has other issues.)

Sound: Music is good, other sounds are minimal but usually nicely done. (Though I *hate* the footstep sound my character makes.) The sounds characters and monsters make during combat are well done.

Player vs Player: By far the most well-thought out of any MMPORPG out there. You choose one of three realms, and can either stay within that realm and avoid PvP altogether, or go to the borderlands and engage in realm vs realm combat.

Non-combat based play: There are lots of quests and tasks that, unlike other games, are truly rewarding when done. The trade skills also are much deeper than other games, and can be fun to engage in. It's finally possible to role-play a non-violent character who will actually level-up!

Character options: Based on the old Rolemaster RPG system, which I loved, your character development is skills-based, and the character classes have lots of variety and are very well thought out.

Overall, this is a wonderful, fun, and STABLE addition to the MMPORPG field.....I think you'll enjoy it if you get it.

The best MMORPG out there...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 15 / 17
Date: March 19, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I've logged well over 100 hours on this game since I started playing it about six weeks ago, and let me tell you, it has been fabulous! I've barely even looked at any other games since this one came out. I had never really played online role-playing games much before this, although I am familiar with several. I decided to try out Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot to see which one was better. After trying them both out, I feel that DAoC is definitely the way to go. I chose to play a Paladin in the King Arthur-based realm of Albion. But, there are many other choices of characters in the game, with two other realms, a couple dozen character classes, and unique specializations within each class. In fact, taking realm, class, and specialization into account, I would say that you have well over 100 career options open to you, each of them unique.

My experience playing the game has been very enjoyable so far. I am not yet high enough to venture out into the PvP-dominated frontier areas, so I will leave that for others to comment on (it sounds like a blast, though...) I have been spending my time adventuring around within the "core" realm of Albion, fighting monsters, doing quests, learning tradeskills, making friends, and just generally immersing myself in another world. The game has EXCELLENT graphics (much better than EQ), the sound effects are nice and realistic without being too annoying, the music is pretty good (it only plays when you are fighting or entering a city or town), and the combat and spell animations are top-notch. There are a lot of quests contained within the game, with worthwhile rewards and a good return on money and experience.

The game, being new, naturally has fairly stringent hardware requirements. If you have the required hardware, though, I have found that the game will run just fine on a plain old 56K modem (though I have encountered some lag in large cities). And of course, since it is an online game, there will be the occasional crash. However, crashes have been few and far between. Loading the game, setting up my account, and running the game have all been problem-free.

The manual included with the game is a little skimpy, and the map, while useful to beginners, isn't really all that great. But, there are many, many player-run online sites that have up-to-the-minute information on the game, excellent maps, monster locations, quest information, guides and advice for playing the various classes, and much more. By all means, use these resources, they will enhance the gameplay tremendously.

Another thing I like about this game is that soloing is a viable option, whether you are playing a "tank" class like an Armsman or a Paladin, or a casting class like a Theurgist or a Sorceror. Each class has its own strengths and weaknesses, but a player who knows what he is doing can solo succesfully in each of them. That's good for players like me, who doesn't always feel like finding a group to play with.

Of course, if you are interested in grouping, that is a lot of fun, too. A team of players can take on monsters that none of them could handle individually. Most classes have special skills and abilities that are geared specifically towards grouping, such as group heal chants and spells, resurrection spells, and such.

DAoC also has done away with a lot of things that, to me, make EQ annoying to play. My favorite advantage is, you don't lose all your armor and weapons when you die and have to make a long journey to retrieve them off your corpse like in EQ. You get a penalty in experience and a temporary constitution loss when you die, you return to your last bind point (usually in a keep or a city), and a gravestone is erected at the spot where you met your grisly end. You can, if you choose, return to your gravestone and pray at it. This will regain some, but not all, of the lost EXP. In addition, a character cannot lose a level due to dying. So, while there are penalties incurred for dying in DAoC, they are not nearly as crippling as they are in EQ.

Mythic, the game's developer, is committed to supporting and expanding the world of DAoC for the foreseeable future. They are listening to the feedback from those who play the game, and they periodically release patches aimed at fixing small player-discovered bugs in the game and also tweaking the various classes in order to improve the overall gaming experience for everyone. Bear in mind, this game has been online less than a year. As good as the game is, there is room for improvement, and Mythic obviously has plans to keep upgrading and improving their creation.

I know there are a lot of people out there who have been playing Everquest (and Ultima Online, Asheron's Call, etc.) for a long time, and they have invested a lot of time and work in building up strong characters. I can see why they would not be interested in starting that process all over again in a new game. I respect that. After all, we play these games to have fun, so we should do what we enjoy. However, if you are new to this genre of games, or you are looking to make a switch, then in my opinion, DAoC is the only way to go.

See you out there! If you are defending Albion, may the light of Camelot shine on you. If you are defending Hibernia or Midguard, well, all I can say is, see you on the frontier! I hope you are ready to taste Albion steel!

Apprecative Beta Tester

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 13 / 15
Date: October 05, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I won't go on about the set up of the game here as previous reviews have summarised that very well.

I started beta testing DAOC straight out of playing AC and the grouping feature really drew me. Even when all there was to the game was combat and a few quests I easily spent 6-8 weeks addicted to it.

The addition of trade skills really perked my interest up again. Suddenly the game wasn't just about running around and killing things...you could have a break and go into a City and learn the trade skill appropriate to your class. Running consignments (mini-tradeskill quests) within the city to pay for the materials you needed to practice your craft and become a Master of your trade. When you'd sewn too much then you could go into the countryside and kill a few things. The treasure from monsters was an alternative way to pay for raw materials.

Since then it has been revealed that there will be a Role Play server. A number of my friends from both sides of the Atlantic have expressed an interest in playing on the RP server a few nights a week as a casual and entertaining gaming hobby. So I find myself coming here to import the game as the European version won't be available for a number of months.

DAOC is a computer game; it has a few bugs but they are invariably fixed quickly and thoroughly with the regular smooth updates to the game. If the good management of the beta test is anything to go by then the released product will expand smoothly with new many features and updates in the future.

This is not my ideal MMOG but it's a good one. The two words that come to mind for me are 'Quality' and 'Entertaining'. If you want to try playing in a massively multi-player game and meet people from all over the world in a quality entertaining game that has monster killing, levelling, questing, trade skills, guilds, horses, and realm vs realm player combat, many character classes; then go buy this game and have a play.

How about pointing out the "small monthly fee" before we buy

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 45 / 84
Date: December 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

$10 a month is not a small fee when there is no warning about it when the purchase is made. The thing should be free, not $30. I checked again and found no reference to the fee, only that "an internet connection is required". My 12 year old is pretty dissappointed in Amazon for this.

Finally, a game to dethrone EverQuest...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 19 / 27
Date: October 12, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I played beta 4 for about a month, and I can't say enough good things about this game. My first impression of the game was that it ran incredibly smoothly even in beta. No crashes to the desktop, easy character creation, and no noticeable lag to speak of. The learning curve is extremely shallow, especially if you have played other online role playing games. The addition of an /advice macro allows new players to message more experienced players who volunteer to answer questions. I never found myself wondering how to something for more than a few minutes. Another advantage Camelot has is that it utilizes player vs. player combat on a massive scale to make playing a high level character worth the extra time you put into it. All this in addition to a friendly, supportive community make this game a winner.

Camelot, the only cure for EverQuest!

Same old same old

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 19 / 27
Date: October 13, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I am surprised game companies these days cannot come up with more original gameplay.They must beg and borrow off older games and still in the end give us the same old stuff just wrapped up in better graphics and a little less downtime.

This game is a blatant rip off of EQ and AC ,it takes the the better elements of these two games and came up with a system that does the following.

1) the downtime in this game is very low .Compared to EQ it is a breath of fresh air.Compared to AO it is definately longer but still low.

2)The game allows for soloing far more than EQ ever did but has made grouping much better experience wise.

3)Game took experience penalty and made it worse by making you spend money on constitution points which as you level to higher levels become a horrible pain.The good thing is you never lose a level but you still need certain classes to Rez you a feature from EQ that was much detested and brought to DAoC.

4)The game has some interesting moves one can execute called styles in battle but as you level you will realise you stick to a couple and let the others slide as the endurance is one big issue in the game and using too many styles deplete it.So basically you end up hitting a few hot buttons for variation in gameplay.

5) Graphics for a game released when graphic engines these days can handle such beauty as AO has shown is quite lousy just passable definately better than EQ but surely that is not a standard to aspire to.

6)The water surfaces look like a horrible science experiments gone wrong and swimming well forget that ,you have no option for underwater exploration and hence no excitement of drowning.

7)There is no sense of excitement and I left the game even before beta ended and 2 weeks later can honestly say I do not miss it because I could not get into the groove.The game could not hold my attention,it lacked something I cannot but simply say was innovative gameplay and exciting effects.I found after playing close to 20 classes the game was nowhere as engrossing as EQ or AO was.AO even with all its bugs managed to hold my attention far longer than this game.

8) Game companies should realise that gamers want more than rehashed gameplay with nothing but hours of levelling to look forward to.The problem is furthur compounded by as of yet succesfully tested Realm versus Realm aspect which is what all this levelling is building up to.At least in EQ you could graduate to killing beast of awesome power but what do we look forward to here but some poorly organized RvR which is still in its infancy since that aspect was easily interupted by a few people who refused to play by the rules.

For me this game is nothing at all to write home about let alone spend money on except if you want something to entertain you for a couple of months .

Ex-Uo,EQ Fan...surprizingly!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: December 17, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Camelot is a true delight to play..Not only a great story..awesome adventure(no orcs for a change) and graphics that will take your breath. I have dial up and ISDN and even with dial-up networked I experience very little lag...Wow! what a change..I have been back to UO and EQ and the lag at both make me want to spit!
For me it is Camelot..until Shadowbane arrives!My family has 4 accounts of each of these games and our PC's seem to only play Camelot at this time...The Game Junkie!

On-line only games not for me

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 13
Date: January 21, 2002
Author: Amazon User

DaoC has lasted about 6 weeks for me, which is a very long time for a game to stay interesting. But I doubt I'll be playing it much longer. The main problem is more with the type of game--online only--than with the quality, etc. I can't imagine what Mythic could do, really, to make the game worth-while for me. In-group voice communications is one improvement I recommend, but I doubt that would be enough to make the game really worth it.

For me, playing DaoC is too much like work. I play games to escape reality, and dealing with other people is the hardest, most frustrating part of reality that there is. While I've met lots of nice people in DaoC, I've also met plenty of not-so-nice ones. And it only takes one "bad" person in a group of 8 to destroy, in 10 minutes, what it took a hour to organize.

Lately, I've found myself being more and more bored playing the game. The pace of advancement is very slow, moving from place to place is slow, forming groups is slow. And now I've discovered that even being in combat is boring. Now that I'm no longer oggling over the fireballs and other effects, I've discovered that the most exciting part of the game involves, mostly, sitting and watching the computer do things for me.

As I said, I doubt there's anything Mythic could do to fix this. I think it's the nature of the game. And for me, the single-player computer game is still king: something I can come home to, depend on, and know that if the power's on at my house, I can play. I don't have to worry about my ISP being down or the servers being down. And I don't have to sit around for a hour waiting for a party to form--when I only have 2 hours a night to play.

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