Genre: RTS/RPG
Publisher: Atari
Developer: Liquid Entertainment
Release Date: October 2, 2005

Buy 'DRAGONSHARD': PC

I've been a D&D player as far back as I can remember, so when I heard of Dragonshard, I was rather excited. This promises a mix of real-time strategy and role-playing game, much like Warcraft 3, and for the most part, it doesn't disappoint. However, don't be lured in just because it says D&D on the box, as this is standard RTS/RPG fare, and in some places, it falls short in the latter genre. That is not to say that this title should not be played, though, as I will endeavor to show.

The game is set in the land of Eberron, which consists of two parts; the upper part is where you build your armies and collect dragon shards (more on that in a moment), and the lower levels are sprawling dungeon crawls filled with traps, monsters, and, most importantly, gold. When you are above ground, you start with a supply of shards nearby. When they have been mostly depleted, a storm comes and meteors bash themselves against the Earth, and some of these meteors become harvestable piles of shards. Any of your units can collect them, but certain units are better at it than others.

The lower levels can be entered by a number of gates around the landscape and are where the title feels most like an RPG. When you are on the upper level, your units or "captains" bring along a number of recruits depending on their level, but when you enter the underground, these recruits disappear until you are on the surface, thus lowering the amount of clutter along the dungeon halls. The most important part of going down below is to collect the gold that can be found in vast reserves inside of treasure chests, but make sure you bring along a rogue, as some of them are locked.

The most strategic element of the game is how you set up your city. Whenever you start, you have 16 grids divided into groups of four within your city walls that surround your main building. Each four-grid section can help you upgrade your troops. If you want, you can level five captains, and then all of the buildings inside that grid must be of the same type. Having four buildings of the same type spread across your 16 grids does not count. Of course, if you want to level up, you'll have to start killing things above or below ground, or you can find experience scrolls that are usually surrounded by a sizeable group of creatures.

There are also monuments you can build inside these grids that can add to a captain's stats; the monuments can be built in any of the adjoining grids, but they take up potential building space. This leaves you to mix and match to get the best amount of levels and/or upgrades for your units. Recruiting your units costs gold and shards, and if they are of a high enough level to have soldiers under them, then you can leave them near your city for a few moments so they can summon their recruits.

There are three races in Dragonshard: the Order of the Flame (church-ordained folk), Lizardfolk (self-explanatory, really), and the Umbragen (dark elves). In the campaign mode, you cannot play as the Umbragen, even after beating story mode with the other two races, but you can play as them in multiplayer and skirmishes. The story modes play out as expected, with main quests to accomplish and side-quests scattered above and below the ground.

Combat plays out like your standard RTS and doesn't offer up much innovation. Your units all have abilities that increase with level, and your champion has rather powerful abilities that charge up as they do damage. Speaking of champions, these are your most powerful units and the main characters of the campaigns; you can select from four such champions at the start of each chapter of story mode. They all have unique skills. For instance, Kael is a human rogue with the Order of the Flame, and he has the cloaking ability, which renders his invisible until he is around a de-cloaker unit. He also has the capacity to rain down a multitude of blades in a certain area, and a skill for inspiring your units to keep fighting, even if their hit points are in the negative (only useable when Kael has caused a prerequisite amount of damage). The other champions for the Order are Lady Marryn (human paladin), Amathor (dwarven wizard), and Bastion (war-forged fighter). The Lizardfolk have Wowen (slaad druid), Silverblade (yuan-ti rogue), Redfang (half-dragon fighter), and Blackclaw (yuan-ti wizard).

Between missions, you will get a rating on how well you did and be awarded with a medal and reward points, which are granted for feats like not losing 25% of your army size, not spending more than 2,500 on each resource, etc. These reward points can be used to buy equipment for your specific champions or items, like healing potions, that they can all use. This is, sadly, the only bit of permanence you can get with your character, as most items do not carry over from missions and you cannot level-up your character. It is this lack of customization that detracts from the role-playing side of the game and serves in my greatest reservation in giving it a high score.

The game world itself, Eberron, is a wonderful backdrop to play in. Traditional D&D monsters, like the Minotaur, make their way rather stylishly into the game, along with some unique additions from the Eberron world (war-forged golems spring to mind). The core of the story is that there were originally three dragons, and two of them became the world itself while the last became a ring of crystals around the world, which supplies you with the magical dragon shards.

The graphics are fairly good, although they pale in comparison to some newer titles like Age of Empires 3 and the like. With bright colors and ruggedly strong character designs, the visuals are highly representative of a D&D game. One of my favorite parts of the graphics was the loading screen, which consists of many cogs and springs, and the storms that rain down the dragon shards are a nice detail. The Lizardfolk champion models seemed less detailed to me, although I have to say that Redfang is definitely my second-favorite champion (narrowly beaten by Kael) in the way he looks.

The sound was a nice fit with the environment, but unremarkable otherwise. The audio portion, with battle noises and buildings being impacted, sounds sufficiently brutal, and the voices of the champions are usually done well.

However, there were some issues with the brevity of story mode. There are seven chapters to each of the two campaigns, and they can be breezed through in two or three days by even a casual gamer. The plot also seemed a bit empty at times, and the characters of the Lizardfolk campaign did not seem as fleshed out and distinct as the Order.

All in all, Dragonshard was a nice romp through a D&D universe, but at times, it felt like I was playing through what I have done before, most likely because the mechanics are a melting pot of aspects from various preceding games. The upper and lower dynamic was probably my favorite part, especially when you enter the underworld and you have to start looking out for traps and ambushes. Sadly though, there is no sense of permanence with your character, as they are basically a blank slate when you start a new chapter. You cannot upgrade your champions in any way, which is the game's single biggest deficiency. Regardless of these negatives, Dragonshard was a rather solid experience, and I feel easily justified in giving it the accolades it deserves.

Score: 7.8/10