Dreamlords

Dreamlords presents a unique game play experience for MMO players. The game has been called the RTS-MMO. For those who do not know, RTS stands for Real Time Strategy. For fans of strategy games, Dreamlords definitely gives you a chance to try your wits in an online world against other opponents. You do get an avatar to build up and select abilities for, but the real punch in the game is building and battling with your armies.

Players can choose between three races to fight it out in a world that becomes one giant battlefield. The Thul are a beastlike warlike race that relies on their brute strength to fight off monsters and other races. The Covenant are the clerics or holy warriors who rely on their faith in battle. The Nihilim are also humans who rely on magic to do battle with their foes. Each race offers a specific type of game play. The Thul are the primary fighters, the Nihilim compare to mages, and the Covenant are the faith. If a player enjoys one of these areas then the decision on which race to play is easy.

Game play is similar to most RTS style games. You can build resources on your Patria (main area) and explore the lands on this floating piece of earth. As your army grows you will send expeditions out to search for resources and monsters. These expeditions are a great way to manage a group of soldiers to achieve your goals. Players who enjoy moving their armies around the areas to explore and fight in out with monsters will enjoy this part of the game.

When you are not playing the game, you can still manage the resources and armies on the Patria by using the web client. All you need to do is log in and use the interface to check out how your race is doing without you there to lead it. This is definitely a great feature to the game, although bad for those of us at work. You can manage your entire army and colony using the web interface. So if you want to stay in the game, but will not be able to get into the client for a few days, simply log into the web and start working on your resources.

Starting Dreamlords is not very hard. The in game tutorial helps players a lot with game play and using the management system. Getting resources and building forces come naturally to any veteran RTS player. If you are new to this style of game play, walking through the tutorial will give you a great foundation to begin playing.

PvP combat in Dreamlords can get very fast and furious. Like in many other games, once you fight another play, the game can totally change. We were only able to do a small amount of PvP combat, but it was definitely fun. Charging your troops across the battlefield is great for commanders in any RTS. Here, you know you are going head to head with another player and have to think quickly to win the day.

If you decide to join a Convergence (guild), talking and planning with your friends is made easy through the game interface. You can plan who wants to specialize in areas to maximize the time you spend building your forces and resources. The Convergences work together to fight it out in the era and hopefully conquer the game. We did not get to play through an entire era, but saw the Convergence game play. Working together is a great feature and the Convergence is not limited to one race, so any of the three races can be part of the team.

The Dreamlord itself is a great avatar for players to build upon. Starting off with your spirit quest, the Dreamlord grows in abilities to help the race you have chosen as your own. Players can enhance their Dreamlord through traits and items similar to other forms of character building.

Overall Dreamlords has a lot of unique features for an MMO. It certainly falls into the RTS category of game play. Players can develop strategies throughout the game and continue to play through different eras. I was unable to play long enough to see an entire era go by, but the system seems to work well and allow players to fight it out on the open fields. For fans of strategy games, Dreamlords is a continuous opportunity. Unlike most RTS games, it does not end when you beat it on difficult mode. This game continues to present new challenges to the player.

Graphics: 7

I think the graphics are good in the game, but not necessarily state of the art. For an RTS you simply need a clear screen on which to move your units around. Dreamlords does deliver that. If you are a graphics junkie, this may not meet your standards, but it does do well in giving the player a landscape view of the game world.

Fun: 8

The game is fun, especially if you are a fan of RTS games. There are a lot of areas to build up your patria and Dreamlord. The only down side is that there are three armies to choose from, hopefully as the game grows there will be more. I enjoyed playing the Thul because they were the savage race. The races definitely fit game styles for players who enjoy different sides of characteristics. The game is also competitive and gives you plenty of opponents to fight against. The expedition part of the game is something that will also hopefully expand as the game grows. It seemed a little limited, but worked well at the start.

Sound: 7

The sound was well done. Again nothing spectacular, but it worked very well for the game world.

Community: 8

The Community in Dreamlords works well. Players are serious about the game and Convergences must work to fight it out over the era. This style of game play not only pushes competition, but also teamwork.

Role-Playing: 7

This score should not necessarily reflect the game as a whole. It is low because there are certain parts to the game that allow you to role play, but really this is more of a strategy game. The Dreamlord can be built upon and the opening quest is great for setting the stage of your army. The game really comes down to strategy and planning. In that department the score would be much higher.

Performance: 8

The performance of the game worked well. I know some areas have reported having problems, but none were found on this end. The interface is easy to use and allows you to work through whatever plans you have for the armies. Using the Web interface is a huge bonus and a great innovation to MMO game play.

Value: 7

The game does have great value for casual players and RTS fans. We should see the game grow more over time and I know they are planning updates between eras for players. This is a game that works over time; it is not an immediate type of satisfaction for players. There are loads of areas to build and that does not happen over night. Overall though winning an era seems like it would be very satisfying.
Service: 9

The customer service is great for this game. The web interface and game client both can be used to maintain in game information. That being said, the people at Lockpick Entertainment do a great job of taking care of their customers. This was nice to see from an MMO company.