Last time I was talking about Everquest and how far MMORPG’s has come since then. If you haven’t read that yet, click here and read that first

Dark Age of Camelot was a game that I really liked but for outside reasons I never got a chance to really sink my teeth into it. I did however get to play several characters. My main character, I got to level 32 or so. Compared to the things I mentioned about Everquest, this is how I DOAC fared for me

The good

Combat

I felt like the actual combat mechanic in DOAC was an improvement when compared to Everquest. There was still your basic auto attack, but for meelee classes, a somewhat new look on combat was added. Special meelee attacks were introduced with a casting feel. You gained skills that would allow you to do special meelee attacks that had different effects added to them. But those attacks were “cast” instead of an auto attack. So there was a casting and recover time. You also used up stamina when using those attacks in the same way that a magic class used up mana when casting spells. Another addition was combo points. Some classes had attacks that let you build up combo points and those built up points enables you to use even fancier attacks. The only problem I had with the new combat in DOAC was that it felt clunky. I remember the first time playing feeling like me pressing buttons and the action on the screen not lining up right and it felt awkward. Didn’t take long for me to get use to it though.

The world

The world in DOAC I felt was a step back, and I have to say, just about every game since followed suit and all of the games have became a minor step back in this category. Yea things looked better, but the immersiveness and wonder that I had with Everquest just wasn’t in this game. Some things were done different that did improve on things. Roaming monsters, instead of groups of standing monsters. That did make better sense of things but when you go into the cities, it just felt dead. Felt like there were a bunch of “quest vendors” with no life standing waiting for you to ask them to give you a job. The areas in the game didn’t feel “lived in“.

The Dungeons

Another thing that became a trend from every game post EQ was the lack of dungeons. This game just didn’t have dungeons, well they had a few, but none were anywhere near the fun and emersiveness as the dungeons in EQ. One of the major complaints people had about EQ was camping, and people training monsters to kill everyone. The way games dealt with this issue post Everquest was by making most of the combat outdoors and dungeons were minimalized. I really missed getting in a group and sitting in some cave killing kobolds over and over again while chatting. Maybe Im wrong here.

Armor/stat counting

I have mixed fillings about this. Like I said, in EQ, the early days, Armor was almost a separate way to configure your character. Later on the game got loot happy and it ended up where you had to have X armor if you were X class. Everyone were gunning for the same thing to be viable and with all the camping and low drop rates, people complained. DOAC handled this by making Armor less important. You were always getting new pieces, you had to pay to keep your armor and weapons repaired, and every 5 or so levels, you had to get a newer set. Also it played less of a factor on your character than it did in EQ. I’m not sure if I like this way better or not.

Factions

I don’t even remember if there were factions in this game, if there were it wasn’t set up like EQ, but it wasn’t missed. The Realm vrs Realm battles kindof replaced faction grinding in DOAC
So far, comparing what I liked about EQ to those same topics in DOAC. Over all, I think DOAC improved on those things for the most part. Other than the lake of dungeon play, DOAC I felt made some decent choices. Along with those decent choices, they also left out some of the good.

Now on to the bad

Random Instant deaths

I don’t think this was an issue in DOAC. The monsters that you fight in this game felt pretty balanced, Id dare say a little on the easy side. There was no Giants hanging out in the newbie zone to make you frustrated for hours on end. When going to RVR areas, this would happen, but it really isnt the same cause you went into the RVR areas knowing that you may get attacked by anyone.
Death penalty- another area where DOAC improved. You still had an Exp hit when you died, and you still had to do a corpse run, but it was in no way as brutal as it was in EQ. I honestly felt it was pretty balanced
Leveling- Leveling in DOAC was a little less time consuming than it was in Everquest. The goal was that you leveled to go battle in RVR (PVP) battles. Which was ok if you were into PVP (which at the time I wasn’t). Id say improvement

Balance

again, Id say DOAC was a lot more balance than Everquest. Of coarse you had the class that was a tad more powerful, or a tad less powerful. But just about everyone could go out and kill the same monsters. The balancing issues were more of a situational thing all associated with PVP. I remember rangers being able to kill people in RVR battlegrounds without you ever seeing them (with a bow) but if you got upclose, you may kill the ranger without him seeing you.

Forced Grouping

This was a thing of the past post EQ, except or a few games. You could pretty much solo the whole game, and grouping was an option.

DOAC improved on all of the things I hated about EQ. Actually, DOAC was a pretty good game. And many games took lessons from it.

Next I’ll take a look at Everquest 2, Check back soon.