F13 has a very good review of Dungeons & Dragons Online, one of the two most powerful licences (the other is the Lord of the Rings) that Turbine was able to bring home.

From the sound of it, it’s more a D&D-themed version of Gauntlet than a game taking advantage of innate qualities of the genre where it pretends to sit. There’s no “give life to a world”.

Without any sort of sandbox mode or potentially interesting endgame, I really don’t know where it is trying to go. If this is the game that they were trying to make, it could have been more appropriate as a single player one with an online extension, like Dungeon Siege or Diablo. Instead I’m believing they stuck it in the “mmorpg” genre just to leech the trend and be cool. The whole game just taking place inside dungeons could also bring to a rather tiring, claustrophobic experience.

Port those controls to Guild Wars and we would have a way better game. It will be hard for DDO to justify a monthly fee and maintain a reasonable subscribers retention with that complete lack of worthwhile hooks and community focus.

My opinion is still the same. Expect a complete lack of coverage here.