TMC Player Reviews: Dark Risings

Review Submitted By: Maaz
Author Status: Player
Started on Dark Risings: Late 1999
Submission Date: Sep 17, 2005
TMC Listing: Dark Risings

The following review is the opinion of the review's author [Maaz] and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.

I've been playing Dark Risings for a long time. Probably anyone who 
plays a MUD is going to get fed up and try something else once in a 
while, and DR isn't for everybody. It's a DIKU, so if you've played 
a DIKU before you're going to find some of the areas familiar. DR's 
real strength, and what sets it apart, is simply not doing a lot of 
things that make other MUDs lousy:

Stats! You don't roll stats on DR, so don't worry about submitting 
to a dodgy stat-rolling program or hitting enter a thousand times 
for the magic numbers. It's pretty hard to mess up your first 
character.

Human, Dwarf, Orc, Mage, Warrior, etc. You don't need to have read 
an obscure fantasy book for the races and classes in DR to make 
sense. Even your grandma knows what an orc is, right?

You ever play a MUD that used too much ANSI color? Or none? Dark 
Risings uses ANSI a little bit, conservatively, tastefully, and it 
can be turned off.

New players' hands are not held if they don't want them held. You 
don't like scripted tutorials and neither do we, so take all the 
time you need. The 'real' game is only one room from the start.

Noobs have diplomatic immunity until they choose to turn it off. 
Dark Risings has a guild devoted to helping new players get settled 
in the game. You can certainly get a character to the highest 
mortal level without getting beat up before you decide whether or 
not DR is for you. 

I know it's been said, but the players and the staff really pull it 
together. Dark Risings is foremost not a MUD run by dopes, which 
for what I've seen during the times I get fed up and try something
else, is pretty uncommon. Come and take a look around, if you want. 
Get to know the players. Put something cool in your title. If you 
can dig it, we'd be glad to have you.