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The Beta has been awesome for months!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 71 / 80
Date: September 24, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Unlike the last several MMOGs to come out, this one actually works and works well. I've been in the beta and it has been rock solid for months. The game is beautiful, the 3 realms couldn't be more different from each other, the number of choices you have for your characters is huge.

Hibernia is a 'magical' realm, most of the races have pointy-ears and the feel is a bit "irish" While it's my least favorite of the 3 realms it's still fun to play. Most classes were fun but I'd avoid playing a Hero, choose the Champion and get a few spells instead. The enchanter is also a pretty nifty class that gets overlooked a bit.

Albion is the human land and while it's areas and classes are some of the best it still sits second with me. They've got a good mix of aspects but I'd avoid some of the support classes until you've tried something else. Both magic and melee classes work well but perhaps the Scout, an archer is the best. I'd again avoid a pure melee class and go with one that has a few spell add ons (or at least the highest possible armor if you're going pure melee)

Midgard is easily my favorite realm. I love it's stark land and all the lakes that you come across. The players are the most visualy distinctive with just one human race, 2 small races (blue kobolds and little dwarves...and I have to say those litttle dwarf girls are cute!) and one giant race of trolls (the look very little like 'standard' fantasy trolls more like big rocks.) Each has it's advantages. I've played several troll melees and just love the way they look and move. Here I'd avoid the Berzerker and go with the very flexible hybrid fighters. I'd also avoid healers for Shaman. The healer is just a bit to easy to kill and even in realm combat the less group oriented shaman is needed because he's just a bit more likely to be around at the end of an attack. While billed as the darkest of the realms I actually find that Midgard players tend to be friendly and ready to help out new players even more often than the other realms. Hibernia seems to attract the 'power players' who's main goal selfish advancement. A bad strategy when they enter realm wars and find that solo tactics lose to the better coordinated teams.

This is easily the most fun I've had playing computer games in my life. This is a must have game if there ever was one!

BOOYAH!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 50 / 61
Date: September 25, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I've been BETA testing this game for a month now and I have got to say it's been extremely stable and very playable. My friends just got into the BETA last week and we have been in groups every night since. How good is it? I just pre-ordered it. I'm definitly going to play this game. My EQ guild is wondering where I am. Spectactular graphics, great gameplay. They say that they are concentrating more on RvR than on PvE, but man, PvE is very nice. There won't be any 'grief players' in RvR because you won't know who is who in RvR.

Camping? No! There is no reason to camp specific mobs. Everyone doing the same quest and needs the same mob. Group up, everyone gets the quest item on the kill. Quest items and loot items are on seperate tables. THAT ROCKS. You can do low level quests that you haven't done, that you have found and still be able to complete them even if you are too high for the level intended.

Rain? Sure it rains, but it's not all fog and can't see, heck there are even breaks in the clouds.

There is so much I can say about this game I would definitly run out of room. But this game, look at all these reviews, this game ROCKS.

Review focusing on character differentiation

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 39 / 40
Date: November 05, 2001
Author: Amazon User

There are many other reviews here and elsewhere on the net that talk about all aspects of the game. Here, I'm going to focus only on how Dark Age of Camlet allows me to make my character different from others who are the same class and race as mine.

For me, one of the most appealing aspects of an MMORPG game is the ability to make a character as unique an individual as I am in real life. In an online RPG, most of us are known by our name and our class - "Hi I'm Brach, level 16 Armsman" - and this is usually the extent of individuation. Furthermore, since most MMORPGs cannot provide more than a handful of character facial and body models, most player avatars look fairly similar (especially once people playing your same class being acquiring the same quest items as you have).

In Dark Age of Camelot, however, the game artists and designers have provided a great number of ways to make your character not only look and feel different, but even play differently than others of your same class and race. Here's how:

1. Realm and race selection. You can choose to be from one of 3 different realms on any given server. Each realm has four different racial types, so you have essentially 12 different races to choose from in the entire game. All are visually distinct, even the four human races of Albion.

2. Body type. Each character can be short, average, or tall.

3. Face and hair. Each gender of each race has about 10 different faces and 10 different hair colors to choose from.

4. Class and Skills. Each realm offers about 10-11 different classes to choose from. Within each class, you receive a set of basic skills which all others of your class also receive. However, as you advance in level you also receive specialization points to spend on advanced skills. How you spend these points is up to you. This means that even if another player has chosen the same realm, race, body, face, hair, and class as you, you might have a completely different set of strengths than that other player. This is true across all classes - for example, one tall blonde Highlander Armsman of Albion might specialize in polearms, while another tall blonde Highlander Armsman of Albion might specialize in using a shield and a slashing weapon.

Furthermore, you might choose to develop crafting skills - adding yet another way to make your character more unique.

5. Weapons and Armor. The choice of weapons and armor is simply staggering. Each realm has its own look and feel for armor. While there is only one kind of cloth armor, there are three different kinds of leather armor, three kinds of studded leather, chain, mail, and plate armors. Visually all are unique, and armor can be mixed and matched among six different pieces (helm, sleeves, gauntlets, jerkin or breastplate, boots, and leggings). There are also a number of different shields available in varying styles, sizes and materials. The two Highlander Armsmen described above could very well look quite different depending on the kind of armor each is wearing.
Weapons add another amazing choice. Even if both characters specialize in the same weapon type - Slashing, for example - there are half a dozen different slashing weapons available, all with differing but balanced damage and speed ratios. Your choice of slashing weapon will tend to suit your style of play - do you want a weapon that is quick but deals less damage, or one that is slow but really packs a punch? The visual models of the weapons are outstanding and people use them - it is entertaining to see some people using short swords, others using scimitars, others axes, while others prefer morning stars or great two-handed swords. And given all other things being equal, no one suffers for choosing to use one weapon over another - all are effective.

6. Cloth Dyes, Leather Dyes, and Armor Enamels.
Right from the beginning of the game you can easily dye your clothing and enamel your armor with colors available from local vendors. No special skill is required - but the richest colors are also for the richest characters - and this allows you to "show off" your wealth, because most players know that if someone is walking around in a royal purple cloak, they must be quite wealthy or have a wealthy patron.

7. Guild emblems.
If your guild is successful enough and powerful enough, they may have enough money to purchase an emblem which can then be emblazoned on cloak and shields. The emblem consists of one of three patterns, a primary color, a secondary color, and one of 40 symbols (each realm has 40 different symbols, unique to that realm). The combination of pattern, colors, and symbols means that there are over 5000 different possible guild emblems. Nothing quite screams "prestige" like a guild emblem.

With so many different ways to visually distinguish your character from other characters, Dark Age of Camelot provides an excellent foundation for creating your own unique avatar and experience of the game - all that's left to do is for you to add a dash of personality and live it up!

If you enjoy creating a unique individual in an MMORPG, Dark Age of Camelot provides all the tools you could hope for, on top of an extremely fun to play game.

Everquest without the crappy parts

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 34 / 42
Date: September 04, 2001
Author: Amazon User

If you liked Everquest, you will absolutely love this game. It is similar in premise, but better in execution. Like EQ, DAoC is a fantasy multiplayer role playing game with a huge world, plenty of interaction, lots of monsters, spells, quests and things to do. However, they obviously learned from EQ's mistakes. There is no twinking, no camping and a well developed pvp that you can choose to participate in or not as you wish. There are three distinct worlds, each with their own classes, spells, items, mobs, etc. that border on each other and compete against each other in pvp on the borderlands. And unlike Anarchy Online, this game actually works. All reports from beta are that the game runs smooth and lag free. You will not be disappointed in this one.

If you play EQ, your EQ days are over.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 27 / 53
Date: September 23, 2001
Author: Amazon User

As an avid EQ player, I must say DAoC blows it out of the water. The graphics are phenomenal, the quests are a blast, very user friendly, the PvP has been well thought and controlled, I can go on and on. This is a definite game to buy!

The BEST MMORPG!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 16, 2001
Author: Amazon User

Let's see... the only game possible to compare this to would be Everquest.
While I'm not a big fan of EQ (I play AC mostly) I find that DoaC has taken all the good parts of EQ - and then improved them dramatically!
In addition, whilst I've not yet been able to actually take part in PvP - it is increasingly clear that there is no better PvP game on the market or in the near future market!! Choose a realm: Hibernia, Albion or Midgard, then defend it from attackers, or try to gain territory by attacking the enemy.
With a somewhat standard number of races to choose from, each with their own weaknesses and strenghts, and a varying degree of classes - everyone can enjoy this game
Throw in a easy to use grouping system that makes finding a group seem like childsplay. In fact, it's so easy that it only took me about 10 - 15 minutes to learn nearly every function available to me at a low level (us testers don't have much of a manual). If you're completely new to the online gaming market it may be a bit more difficult and require a few minutes in the manual that will be shipped with the game.
So far this game has the right direction, speed and curve to come out on top!

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!

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

Excellent

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 17
Date: October 19, 2001
Author: Amazon User

I've started to be pretty pessimistic about games. When I go out and put the plastic down to buy one, I figure if I play it a few weeks to a month, I've gotten my entertainment value. Sometimes I play it a few times and it doesn't appeal, well, that's a shame. (And sometimes it's Anarchy Online, the installer bluescreens my PC, and the company is so unresponsive I issue my first complaint ever to a Better Business Bureau.)

And with luck, you find a game that you play day after day, week after week, month after month. Everquest was that game, since I started playing 6 months ago, I have probably averaged playing 5 days a week, almost every one of them pure pleasure. I bought DAOC figuring I'd play a month to check it out and then it would probably join the other games on my shelf. Instead a week later I find myself cancelling my Everquest account in favor of DAOC.

Dark Age of Camelot is, by far, the best MMPORPG on the market today. It has taken the best aspects of Everquest, Asheron's Call, and Ultima Online, taken out all the things that people hate about the genre, and combined them with a very responsive and customer friendly company to produce a game that is clearly the industry leader.

The specifics about gameplay can, at this point, be found on dozens of sites. It's not hyperbole. This game is addictive and enjoyable. It's not hype. If you're a current MMPORPG player, this is the game you've dreamed of. If you're not, don't bother with the others, start out with DAOC, it's the best.

That's not to say that there aren't problems, but one of the biggest pleasures of DAOC is the company's attitude. Customer Service stats posted for the public. Apologies for problems. Explanations of future plans. It all equals a company that makes you feel like you're valued as a customer and that they will do what it takes to keep your business.

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!

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