GameSpot editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
stars
Outstanding
Detailed editors' rating
- Reviewed on: 10/26/2001
- Updated on: 05/17/2006
- Released on: 09/01/2001
- Originally published on GameSpot: Dark Age of Camelot (PC) Review
You don't need 20/20 hindsight to see why the successful early-October launch of Dark Age of Camelot was such a significant event in PC gaming. It's safe to say that this impressive online role-playing game marks the dawning of a new era in a gaming genre that has steadily gained prominence since Ultima Online made national headlines in 1997. Developed by the experienced but heretofore little-known Mythic Entertainment, Dark Age of Camelot squarely takes aim at other popular online role-playing games--namely, Sony and Verant's definitive EverQuest, Microsoft and Turbine's Asheron's Call, and Funcom's recent sci-fi-themed Anarchy Online--and, by and large, it blows them away. Even if you've already invested hundreds of hours into one or more previous online role-playing games, you'll find that a brush with Dark Age of Camelot--let alone countless sleepless nights with it--will justify making the switch to Mythic's game. That's because, through and through, Dark Age of Camelot is solid, well designed, interesting, and rewarding. It's not for everyone--like most online RPGs, it demands much more of your time than the average game, and you won't enjoy it as much if you can't commit yourself to spending hours on end in its sprawling world. Regardless, Dark Age of Camelot has a great concept, is already teeming with tens of thousands of players, and promises to keep getting better.
See what remains of Camelot in the realm of Albion.
Those thousands have no use for this review--they're enjoying the game already. This long review is best suited to those who've yet to decide whether Dark Age of Camelot is worth its retail price, the time commitment, and the monthly fee (approximately $10, payable by credit card or numerous other methods) for the service after the first free month. Based on extensive research and play time, this review is intended to empirically evaluate every significant aspect of Dark Age of Camelot, and, in doing so, to imply the broad scope of the game. Rest assured, you wouldn't have spare time for too many other games if you get into Dark Age of Camelot--but we'll suggest that such a sacrifice would be worthwhile. Furthermore, note that this review is based on Dark Age of Camelot as it exists to date--less than a month after its release. The nature of online games is one of constant change, which means that, over time, some of the following statements may no longer be applicable. In light of this, it's important to try to anticipate how a game like Dark Age of Camelot might change over time, using all available evidence to support the predictions.
Dark Age of Camelot takes place during a period of turmoil after the death of the legendary King Arthur. The people of Camelot are being called upon to defend their nation against its encroaching foes. Interestingly, the game presents this conflict from three different angles--not just Camelot's. That is, in addition to the realm of Albion, whose capital is Camelot itself, the game focuses equally on her two rivals: Hibernia, a magical land based on Celtic folklore, and Midgard, a harsh land based on Norse mythology. Dark Age of Camelot invites you to play as a character in any one of these three realms and eventually grow so powerful that you can invade the lands of your opponents.
Hibernia is home to elves and other magical races.
To become powerful enough, you'll first need to gain a lot of experience by defeating countless evil creatures in your own realm. And regardless of whether you choose to be on the front lines against enemy players, Dark Age of Camelot's unique setting still creates a real sense of camaraderie between players in the same realm, who know that they have a common foe. Furthermore, the inclusion of features designed to help you find groups of other adventurers (or other adventurers to join your group) and organize large player guilds means that there's a very strong social framework in Dark Age of Camelot. It's easy to meet friendly people in the game, and playing with them generally makes the game much more enjoyable.
When it launched, Dark Age of Camelot offered 10 different game servers--sometimes known as shards--for players to choose from. These host several thousand players at peak hours, and Mythic has already added no less than half a dozen more servers in the few weeks since the game's release. Take note that if you wish to play the game with some of your friends, then you all have to play on the same server and within the same realm. As it is, in Dark Age of Camelot, the only thing you can do with players from other realms is to try to kill them. The game features an innovative, interesting player vs. player (PvP) system centered on the conflict between the realms. The dramatic notion of realm vs. realm combat between armies of players is completely realized in Dark Age of Camelot. If this notion sounds intimidating, it is. But it's important to emphasize that Dark Age of Camelot isn't strictly about PvP combat--not unless you want it to be. Though there's no penalty on players that get defeated, PvP combat is still best suited for seasoned players of higher experience levels, and it's relegated to discreet (but large) frontier areas on the outskirts of the realms. It's a very intense and carefully designed part of the game, but it's completely optional, and it isn't the focal point of Dark Age of Camelot. You could just as easily play and enjoy the game for hundreds of hours and never take up arms against another player.
Likewise, you could easily spend all your time in just one of the game's three huge realms. Dark Age of Camelot really is like three online role-playing games in one. Granted, many of the differences between the realms are superficial. The realms themselves are also rather spare--all lush, rolling terrain with scattered landmarks that are far apart from each other. Unlike EverQuest's various colorful zones, the realms don't have distinctly different environments. Still, the superficial differences within and between Dark Age's realms are plenty interesting, and playing in the different realms invariably leads to different kinds of experiences. You'll undoubtedly want to at least take a look at all the realms. They're equally appealing, though their respective mythological source material doesn't always come across--at a glance, they all seem like traditional high-fantasy worlds.
Midgard's trolls are among the best fighters around.
If you've ever played EverQuest, you'll find that much of Dark Age of Camelot will be immediately familiar to you. The deliberate pacing (it takes lots of time to run about the expansive environments), the emphasis on combat and gaining experience levels, the various character classes, and even some of the graphics are reminiscent of Verant's groundbreaking game. That doesn't mean Dark Age of Camelot is a copy--it simply acknowledges that certain aspects of online role-playing games are already well defined and doesn't try to reinvent the wheel in these cases. This is much the same as how brand-new real-time strategy games or shooters still tend to use certain conventional mechanics that make these games intuitive for players who've played other games like them. This also means that Dark Age of Camelot isn't an outwardly innovative game--it's clearly inspired by the games it's competing against, and offhand, it bears a striking resemblance to them. But as you delve deeper into Dark Age of Camelot, you'll take notice of and gain appreciation for both its subtler features and how generally refined it is.
Dark Age of Camelot lets you play as many different types of interesting characters, and it offers a streamlined character creation process so you can jump right into the game without delay. Each of the three realms has four different playable character races that vary in physical appearance and in their natural talents. You can choose male or female versions of any of the races, and you can select from several different faces and hair colors for variety's sake. Each realm also has four or five starting character classes you can choose from, not all of which are necessarily available to each race. These classes roughly fall into the typical archetypes for high-fantasy adventurers: You can choose to be a basic fighter, magic user, healer, or rogue.
Death literally takes its toll--it's a part of life in the realms.
Later, based on your initial choice, your character will be invited to join one of various specialty guilds. For instance, Albion characters who begin their lives as fighters may go on to become paladins, who can use holy auras to bolster themselves and their brethren in battle; armsmen, who can wield deadly polearms; or mercenaries, who are experts in using weapons ambidextrously. In this fashion, every basic class of every realm branches off into at least a couple of different specialized classes distinct to that realm. This gives you some room to grow into a character you'd like to play, and it also helps make character creation a simple process initially. Still, you'll have best results starting out with a specialty class already in mind--you probably will, since the game tells you up front about which of these will be available to your race/class combination. The three realms' respective classes are in fact all different, though some of them are analogous--for instance, Albion's minstrel, Hibernia's bard, and Midgard's skald all fill the same supporting roles in their respective realms.
Dark Age of Camelot is a deep, complex game that can take a while to learn. Still, the game does a fairly good job of holding your hand through the first several hours of your character's life. You start out right in front of a trainer character who will send you on a series of simple quests that are basically the same for every class. These will teach you a little about the lay of the land, how to form groups with other players, how to converse with non-player characters, how to fight, and so on. You might get killed in your initial encounters with enemy monsters, but for the first few experience levels, there's absolutely no penalty associated with death. You just reappear at the last area where you "bound" your character--typically some sort of friendly town or outpost. Later, the penalty for dying starts to get more serious. You'll lose up to 10 percent of the experience points necessary to get to the next level (though you can never lose your current level due to death), and you'll also lose a few of your character's constitution points, which can be restored by paying an NPC healer. The price for recovering constitution (which influences your total number of hit points, among other things) starts to get very steep as your character gains in levels. Fortunately, healer player characters can resurrect dead players, thus saving them the high cost of restoring constitution. This is one of the reasons healers are so important in Dark Age of Camelot, and it's also one of the many reasons it's not really a good idea to venture out on your own.
Many character classes in Dark Age of Camelot can viably fight foes of similar experience level throughout their lifetimes. The fights are fast and the action looks good, and your hit points, endurance (used for executing special melee attacks), and power (used for casting spells) all recover quickly when your character is at rest, which means there's little downtime. Unfortunately, throughout your character's early levels, the fighting won't seem very dramatic--you'll have to hack at various weak-looking beasts before you'll be powerful enough to take on anything imposing.
Midgard's capital of Jordheim is an impressive sight.
To get through the early stages as quickly as possible, you should bear in mind that the game gives tremendous advantages to coordinated, efficient player groups. A group can consist of up to eight players--a nice big number, though especially in realm vs. realm combat, you'll want to be a part of even larger teams. The game gives significant experience bonuses to groups of players, which can join forces to defeat foes much more powerful than any individual member of the group could handle. Dark Age of Camelot also actively discourages "camping," a common style of play in other online RPGs where characters simply mill about in the same place, fighting the same old monsters for experience. Dark Age circumvents this by giving you experience bonuses for such things as fighting more than one monster at a time, fighting monsters in their native territory (that is, where you can be ambushed by their brethren), and fighting types of monsters that haven't been fought recently. All this effectively encourages--but doesn't force--an active, adventurous style of hunting that can be very satisfying.
The combat itself is quite fun, too. Monsters smartly pick their targets, and sometimes they call for help. It's hard to flee from battle, but it's possible if you've reserved your endurance for a good sprint. You'll gain a good sense of your character's increasing strength as you gain experience. Each character class has many different combat options, many of which are designed to be useful to other players. Melee characters learn what are called "combat styles" as they grow more specialized with particular weapons. Combat styles use up endurance points, but they're generally much stronger than normal attacks and can also debilitate the foe in various ways--cause it to slow down, to begin bleeding (which causes damage over time), to be stunned, and more. Some combat styles can be used in combinations, others must be initiated from the flank or from behind the foe, and others are only effective in situations like after parrying a blow or after the enemy fumbles its attack. Combat styles make the melee classes in Dark Age of Camelot more complex than fighter-type characters in most role-playing games, although you'll find yourself relying on certain styles much more often than others, which diminishes the sense that melee classes in fact have a lot of combat maneuvers.
You can travel quickly from town to town on horseback.
Dark Age of Camelot (PC):
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