Review Submitted By: Charles J.
Author Status: Player
Started on Dead of Night: September 1997
Submission Date: Nov 24, 2007
TMC Listing: Dead of Night
The following review is the opinion of the review's author [Charles J.]
and in no way represents the opinions of this website or its staff.
Normally you would read a review about a game, and the
review would start out with, 'Game-X starts out looking
like every other blah blah blah.'. That's not true with
DoN. It is a mud like no other. At least no other mud
I've played.
Immediately upon stepping into the game, you're surrounded
by a TRUE fantasy setting. Your racial selections, and class
selections are limited to a small group for both, but that's
what makes this game great. It doesn't need eight million
races, and half a million classes in order to get everyone
and their brother to play.
But unlike other muds I've played, when you create your
character, you don't create a general pc you see in most
games nowadays ie; Gnome-Bard, or a Dwarf-Fighter. You
create yourself a Vampire druid/psionicist/mage/fighter,
or a Lycanthrope Shifter/Mage/Rogue.
What I'm talking about is multi-classing. Not your basic,
'Well, I want to be able to hit really hard AND toss
fireballs so I'll take warrior and mage.' sort of character.
There are detriments to multi-classing, such as much larger
experience requirements per level, a training cap on
certain skills, and even gear restrictions due to certain
things such as one class not being compatible.
Now you may think that this would make the MUD too hard for
the casual player, but it's not. Yes it does require some
strategic placement of practice points, and a good
understanding of what your race/class combinations can do.
But once you learn the system, (which contrary to my seeming
endless ranting) is extremely easy
You'll be able to have a three member party, where a dwarf
plays the role of Warrior, and alternate support Cleric,
and a half-elf plays ranger/druid main support, and your
third character is a Half-Orc Pally/Mage capable of tossing
out some heavy spellwork, for both offense and defense.
But enough of the characters, and on to the environment.
You may not normally hear someone describing a text based
online adventure game as beautiful. But once you 'step
foot' inside the realm of DoN, you'll realize that beautiful
is just the word to describe it. Every room is detailed down
to the 'hardwood flooring with scuffs'.
You first start out in Pangea, the basic 'Newbie town',
but aside from being a beginner's town, it seems that most
of the player base, when not off questing, and leveling up,
can be found withing a 10 room block of town. Whether it
be the temple for recovery, or the pub for a bit of rest
and relaxation, tossing back a cold one.
The playerbase for DoN isn't as ridiculously high as
it is in some other muds, but that allows for more
personal interaction between players. That personal
interaction allows for better sessions when a group of
characters want to get together and 'roleplay' a little.
Speaking of RP, DoN has some of the best, long-term,
ongoing roleplaying I've seen in a while, with a very
flexible and intelligent character base, that allows for
more intellectual conversation and less. 'I swing my
sword at face/Argh you hit face'
The system isn't that hard to pick up either. Simple
mud commands such as kill/alias/get/drink, are all
there, but unlike some other muds, they're not muddled
up with the extra commands that are sometimes vague
and are never truly explained anywhere other than the
'newbie channel'. It's a your basic 'cast fireball worm'
command system, it does allow for greater command
customization, but is by no means required to have in
order to fully enjoy the game.
All in all, DoN is an excellent game, that has been
around for a while, and unlike others on the internet,
even after 10 years of playing I still come back,
check on my old characters, hang out with the same
people I met when I first logged in back in '97, and
generally have a great time, without feeling pressured
to do something I may not want to.
-Charles J
