This little gem seems to be slipping below the radar, so I thought I’d bring it up. Memories of the old arcade title, D&D: Tower of Doom flashed through my head when I saw it in the store, so I had to snap it out. To my delight, it’s like BG: Dark Alliance, only with real D&D rules and races, a classic story, and four player simultaneous co-op mode. I cannot WAIT to try that. Has anyone gotten a chance to run the co-op mode? How’s it play?
It looks more like Hunter: The Reckoning than BGDA. I saw it at EB and thought about picking it up, but I think I’ll rent it first.
I might give it a rental as well. Speaking of the old D&D games (which I loved!) I still own the Sega Saturn version of the D&D games (it’s called Dungeons and Dragons Collection). It has Tower of Doom and Shadows over Mystara (full games). Unfortunately, it’s a Japanese import so it might be hard to find (and expensive). Still, you don’t need to understand Japanese to play it, since it is an action game. It’s also loads of fun even today!
I have Heroes. My wife and I have played the first bit of it, getting through to the castle whatchamacallit. I’m playing the Dwarven Cleric, she the Elven Wizard or whatever. The other classes are I think a Human Fighter and some sort of Rogue.
It’s pretty fun. It’s not as slick as Dark Alliance IMO, but it’s pretty decent. Control is ok, but we end up fighting between having to zoom the camera out all the way to see the enemy for spell casting (the wizard) and having to zoom it in for hammer whacking (my cleric). Zoomed out you don’t get much of the detail on the characters and it’s hard to tell Drow from Hobgoblins. Zoomed in it looks pretty decent, but you get blindsided from spell casters and archers you can’t see.
Targeting of spells and thrown/hurled weapons is a bit iffy, as in combat things happen really fast. But that’s probably just because I’m a bit un-consoley in my skills. The leveling system is similar to Dark Alliance in that you get points to spend on things like powering up your spells, and gaining special “feat-like” abilities, so with enough points your mage can wear plate and kick ass with melee weapons (though you’ll have no spells to speak of), though your fighter type can never hurl fireballs, etc.
Overall a fun co-op title, worth it if you have a regular gaming partner or three. Haven’t tried it solo; seems a bit “meh” in that regard, but who knows?
It was on my games to watch list but reviews have been generally poor so I avoided it. The other two games in that same vein are Gladitor: SOV and Champions of Norrath (by the same people who did BG:DA). I am hoping at least one of them will be good. I may rent D&D heroes though just to get a look at it.
– Xaroc
Virtually all the reviews I’ve seen that have bad things to say are talking about the solo game, which is probably pretty lame. Pretty much all of them say it’s much better as a co-op game, which seems about right.
I’m going to get the Norrath game and eventually Dark Alliance II when it’s out, and maybe the Fallout one as well–can’t have enough of these co-op titles. Gladius I’m more interested in terms of solo play.
The game is out? When did this happen…?
It came out last Friday, maybe?
I was really looking forward to the PSX version of that game. I loved playing the arcade version of Tower of Doom, and that the collection had that and a new one, I was sold! Then Capcom had to go and cancel it. Bastards.
Bleh… color me disappointed. I guess it’s an ok hack 'n slash, but I can never seem to find a comfortable zoom level. Too far out and everything looks tiny and nondescript. Too far in and things look great but you can’t see far enough ahead of you.
I’m also finding it very boring. I’ve played through the first few areas and I already feel like I’ve had enough of this game. There’s just no incentive to go on. All of the environments have that “built on a grid” feeling. Rooms and halls littered with generic boxes and barrels. I’ve already played Diablo thank you very much. Although I do like how they slow everything down when you go to switch your abilities and items. That’s pretty cool.
It’s a snoozer for solo play, agreed. It’s pretty fun for short sessions in co-op, but not terribly addictive. Less fun than BG:DA for sure. I got it cheap on trade-ins and am happy with it for co-op diversions, but it’s far from a must have.
It’s a good co-op rental. Single player isn’t really worth it. We are just about to the end and haven’t faced a hard fight yet. Fought a beholder as one of the bosses and it just sat there while we pounded on it. We came out of the fight with no damage done. Plus side though the upgrades to abilities are fun, the magic effects work really well.
I was really looking forward to the PSX version of that game. I loved playing the arcade version of Tower of Doom, and that the collection had that and a new one, I was sold! Then Capcom had to go and cancel it. Bastards.[/quote]
Yeah, me too. That’s why I picked up the Saturn version. Unfortunately, I just checked ebay and one is going for $93 and the auction still has 3 days on it! It’s a good game, but I am not sure it is worth THAT much. Maybe I should sell my copy :).
Greg417 wrote:
[quote]Robert Sharp wrote:
I might give it a rental as well. Speaking of the old D&D games (which I loved!) I still own the Sega Saturn version of the D&D games (it’s called Dungeons and Dragons Collection). It has Tower of Doom and Shadows over Mystara (full games). Unfortunately, it’s a Japanese import so it might be hard to find (and expensive). Still, you don’t need to understand Japanese to play it, since it is an action game. It’s also loads of fun even today!
I was really looking forward to the PSX version of that game. I loved playing the arcade version of Tower of Doom, and that the collection had that and a new one, I was sold! Then Capcom had to go and cancel it. Bastards.[/quote]
Actually, Capcom’s not the reason the game got canceled, that and a few other games were scheduled to be released on the PlayStation, but just as Sony blocked several of Capcom’s games from coming to the US, they started stopping them from porting more 2D games to the PSX in Japan eventually too. This, under the pretense that it was ruining the PSX’s image and such. In their defense, Capcom was porting each NES Rockman game separately to the PSX and selling it full price, so they were being kinda too port/milk-happy. In any case, its Sony’s and gamers’ losses.
Of course, there is a way to play the English version at home, but I assume you already know it. ;)
BTW, did you know that Capcom did one other game under the D&D license? I bet you anything you can’t guess what it is, though it came out in the States! :P
It is by far, the silliest D&D game ever.
-Kitsune
What do you mean English version? You mean it will have English language and such? What is it?