Dark Age of Camelot Review
Submitted by Tralmek on March 5, 2008 - 1:44pm.
Final Score: 4/5
Replay Value:
Once the quests are done, there seems to be little end-game value for PvE players
Role-Play:
There are few animations or roleplay tools available, I see no ability for wide-spread RP
Visuals:
I was stunned by the water effects. Other graphics features were sub-par for today's MMO. Very few animations
Presentation:
The tutorial threw me right into the action and the character. Lots of subtle, but entertaining touches
Solo Play:
Solo play is very accessible
Learning Curve:
The interface is less-refined than more modern MMOs, but easy enough to use
Community:
The community is helpful, but sparsely distributed
Content:
Some of the quest lines are quite entertaining, if a little long in the dialog
Customization:
It was a pleasant surprise to have sliders for some facial features. Unfortunately other selections were quite limited
Player vs. Player:
I did not engage on a PvP cluster so did not experience much PvP, but the idea of cross-server PvP arenas is excellent
Dark Age of Camelot does a lot right. Its interface, graphics, and presentation are easy to see as building blocks in the most modern MMO. But this game itself, released in 2001 is aging fast. The graphics and animations, despite upgrades over the years are sub-par. They had some very nice polishing touches though, things that are just ignored in other games. I was impressed with the opening movie. It was well-executed, and the narration was compelling and appropriate. It would have been easy to go just a little further and make the narration cheesy, but they walked that line and succeeded in making an excellent introduction to the game and its world.
Smaller touches that really made the world come alive were things like the rats running around some places and horses flicking their tails when idle. Even having a necromancer trainer in a crypt area. My avatar bowed to me when I selected him upon login. Some loading screens held tidbits like "If a Troll wants to take you drinking. Don't." and "King Constantine's favorite color is not blue." These touches lend a bit more to the sizzle of the whole game and provide an entertaining milieu.
The quest lines are also fun if you want to spend time reading the dialog. Minus the dialog it's much the same old experience of "go here, find this, return that, and kill these." It was nice having mission points and quest givers highlighted on the map, but I would have found life much easier if the map allowed more customization of viewing--panning, zooming in and out, etc and had featured an arrow representing my avatar and his orientation as opposed to being just another dot on the map.
As for roleplay value, I saw very little in the way of tools for roleplayers. However, the set-up for your role from the tutorial was a good jumping off place. I also loved that the game has a marriage and surname system available--for players of a certain level willing to pay a modest fee. It's a system more games could use. There may well be enough there to support small communities of roleplayers.
Overall the game is fun and playable despite its age and limitations in graphics, roleplay, and customization. I cannot, however, recommend its trial unless you believe you'll be serious about continuing with the game. The trial requires personal info, including credit card information. Additionally, the trial can require several hours of updating to the current client with the launcher's upload speed ranging from around 20-120 kb/s. My upload was also interrupted by launcher errors which required a lengthy full-scan to bypass.
