Dragonshard Singleplayer Demo

[RainOfTerror]

Dragonshard will incorporate classic role-playing themes, a powerful and dynamic real-time strategy engine all woven together with a rich storyline involving a global conflict for an immensely powerful artifact with the power to change the fate of Eberron itself.

Atari has released a Dragonshard singleplayer demo, featuring part of the first two campaign chapters of the Order of the Flame campaign.

Grab the Dragonshard SP demo (http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=27177) (370mb) over at WorthPlaying.

Mirrors:
3DGamers (http://www.3dgamers.com/games/dragonshard/downloads/)
Fileshack (http://www.fileshack.com/file.x?fid=7474)

Release Date: 09/20/2005 (PC (http://www.gametab.com/pc/dragonshard/3190/))

[Heretic Machine]

This is a pretty good game, I was in the beta. Definetly has some original attributes. I'd recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Warcraft III.

[Crushyerbones]

What the hell is wrong with Worthplaying? I never managed to get anything out of that site... the download just wont start... EVER! (2 years experience on this, btw)

Any mirrors? possibly torrent? :D

[Justin_McElroy]

Why create this game when the Dragonslayer license is just SITTING there?

[Doctor Setebos]

Anyone have system requirements for this game (or even just the demo)? Or is the fact that I have to ask reason enough to not bother. =(

[Kefkataran]

I'll grab this demo tomorrow along with that F.E.A.R. demo. Mmm.

[balamoor]

More shit form Atari...... yes anyone who enjoyed WC III...oh wait why not just play WC III?

Right now I'm thinking the shit to decent game ratio is around 99 to 1

[The Radical Cleric]

Try this link to Atari's website - it's moving pretty fast and was fast to connect.

http://www.atari.com.au/news/details.do?newsId=449

[Klade]

Anyone who doesn't have some sort of pre-concieved prejudice against or for this game have an opinion on this demo? I usually don't like RTS games, I play stuff by blizzard and thats about it. But I do like Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms, is this something worth downloading?

[Kefkataran]

I usually don't like RTS games, I play stuff by blizzard and thats about it. But I do like Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms, is this something worth downloading?

I haven't played it yet, but from all I've heard it's very similar to Warcraft 3. So if Blizzard RTSes are your game, I'm guesing it's worth at least checking out the demo. A mix of Bliz gameplay with the classic fantasy settings you love? Rock.

[Librum]

Well, Dragonshard is set in Eberron, WotC's new 'edgier' fantasy setting, so if you're a big FR and Dragonlance fan you may find Eberron to be a bit too steampunk for your tastes. But at the very least, it's something less-Tolkienesque. I remembered thinking that the demo I saw at Gencon 2004 looked promising.

[Crabby]

I think the game is just poop after experiencing the beta material for a few months.

[PIPBoy3000]

Huh. Might be interesting. It sure is demo season, first with Dungeon Siege II, now this, and FEAR tomorrow.

The tricky part for me will be deciding if I really have time to play anything other than Oblivion and FEAR, as those are the two must have games in my book.

[Crabby]

Well, FEAR is a FPS afterall. How long is it really going to be?

[DevDict]

It's a fun game most of all and more RPG than RTS to be honest. You get a half-dozen of units so you could go quest and hunt for formidable foes (and some foes are REALLY formidable: I've never seen a daemon so huge in a computer game). I usually suck/don't like RTS but Dragonshard seems to be fun in the same way Battle Realms was (Liquid's previous game). Wouldn't buy it, though. It has a few Warcraft 3 elements but the world is original. As a Steampunk fan, I prefer this to Faerun.

Rant: The proportions kill the immersion for me: the buildings which produce units are smaller than the units themselves.

[Everlost_MI]

The demo isn't too bad. Haven't touched a fantasy RTS since Warcraft 2. Yeah yeah yeah, I suck because I haven't played Warcraft 3 but normally RTS aren't my thing. But this was fun. Now, the big question I have is - how many damn bug is this D&D Atari game going to have? Last time I bought a D&D game, Pool of Radiance, produced by Atari it was broke and I got so fed up I never finished it .

[bean19]

Anyone who doesn't have some sort of pre-concieved prejudice against or for this game have an opinion on this demo? I usually don't like RTS games, I play stuff by blizzard and thats about it. But I do like Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms, is this something worth downloading?

I've played it and I'm also not a fan of RTS games. Here are my thoughts:

-Lots of simplified RTS elements but no more RPG elements than Warcraft III. Heroes have special attacks that can be leveled up by completion points after beating scenarios. Meanwhile, the RTS elements don't really come into play (at least in the first 2 stages in the demo). You CAN collect resources and build more units, but you don't need to do so. While, personally, I'm GLAD about the low RTS elements, I think they might be dumbing down both sides in a way that will reach neither of the audiences this hybrid is marketing.

-UI is hard to read.

-Voice acting only appears before and after stages in cutscenes (Oh, and at the Frost Giant). While it is good that they have voice-acting, why not go whole hog and add it to all the quests? Maybe there is more in the final version, but the UI boxes that display text differently than voice-acting is shown make me think the addition unlikely.

-Very cool opening video. I really enjoyed this.

-Sound was really lacking. I didn't feel like my units or the impressive monsters they faced were hitting hard . . . Shouldn't swords clash and mobs let out death screams. The sound is disproportionate to the action (which is incredibly repetitive like other RTS, but very active at least).

-Worth downloading if you have a decent connection. . . only 374 MB (or thereabouts). However, I am not going to pay for it.

Another demo that serves me by telling me NOT to by a game. Then again, I probably wouldn't grab it anyway since I don't like RTS. Fans of RTS may enjoy the Warcraft III reminiscent story-telling elements with graphics that are much better than those in the aging Warcraft III. However, hardcore RTS fans may be turned off by the weak RTS elementss and RPG fans may not find enough here to lay down $50.

Edit: Attrocious grammar. . . I did this post on the fly from work with interruptions.

[Jukey]

Excellent review bean19

[if76]

I thought this demo was only OK but I'm more of an RTS guy than a Diablo/Baldur's Gate clickfest RPG guy.

There were a few annoyances though. First off there was no way to remap your hotkeys (at least that I could figure out) thus I couldn't implement the shift+1, shift+2, shift+3 etc. way of adding units to existing hotgroups. The default setting for this action is shift+ctrl+1, 2, 3 etc. This is just awkward and unnecesary.

Another annoyance was that the graphics settings are barely configurable. Apart from setting the resolution and color depth, you can only turn on or off a few settings like antialiasing, antiosotropic filtering etc. It'd be nice if I could adjust the model and texture detail like I can in most games. I ran the game on 1024x768 with all the options turned off and the game still stuttered in big fights. I have a mid-level desktop and I should be able to get 30fps on a game like this.

The demo itself is ok but didn't really wow me. I guess I prefer a little more strategy in my RTS. The aformentioned easily-fixable annoyances lead me to believe there will be many more such annoyances in the retail game and thus I won't be buying it.

[MightyZug]

Couple of quick responses to your comments:

RTS vs RPG Gameplay -
It's unfortunate that we are unable to include more missions in the Single Player demo. Given that, in the Order campaign, you begin by slowly building your forces, the first two missions tend to have much more of a small-scale feel, and don't build up to massive, epic battles with Champions, Captains, Soldiers and Juggernauts all mixing it up on the field of battle until Mission 3 and 4.

As you progress through the campaigns, the scale and scope of the missions increases, and in addition to the quests that you see in Missions 1 and 2, you will be placed in more familiar RTS territory, competing with fully enabled AI adversaries in the pursuit of common goals. Similarly, the quests become more complex and specific to the Champion you have chosen, such as a series of unique Trials each with branching paths that each Lizard Champion must undergo to acquire their first Artifact weapon early in the Lizard campaign.

Sounds -
Many sounds (combat sounds, unit response dialogue, etc) were trimmed and/or cut from the Single Player demo to decrease the file size footprint. As such, the demo isn't truly an accurate reflection of the final product in that respect.

Appreciate the feedback!