Aah, Dungeons and Dragons... just thinking about the hours spent at the ol' gaming table brings a nostalgic tear to my eye. I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. Yes, there are legions of Cheeto eating, Mountain Dew guzzling, dice rolling nerds out there just like me, and we can't help but get excited every time we think of enjoying all the fun of our pen and paper gaming sessions while still getting our daily dose of monitor radiation. So was I excited as I sat down at my desk and broke the seal on Dragonshard Of course I was. Apparently the “Suspension of Disbelief” skill that I spent so many years practicing in the world of DnD carries over into a real-world ability to ignore previous disappointing titles sporting the Dungeons and Dragons license. I suppose that's why the legions of gamers I mentioned above can actually exist.
Dragonshard takes the RTS genre and creates a genuine RPG flavored experience using the adventuring and advancing elements that made Dungeons and Dragons so popular. No longer are you building your hordes of minions to destroy your enemies simply for the sake of the slaughter, now there is an engaging storyline to help rationalize the bloodbath. Keith Baker’s Eberron campaign setting really comes to life over the course of the game. You are placed in the midst of a dark world filled with attitude, high magic, and what Wizards of the Coast describes as “swashbuckling adventure.” Eberron is a harsh world, but luckily your heroes are harsh enough to match it.
Your heroes are a large part of what makes Dragonshard fun. Rather than commanding named units that remain the same throughout the extent of your journeys, you are guiding DnD heroes through their challenges and watching as they grow stronger just as you would expect from an RPG. The element of character advancement lends a connection with your heroes that you won’t find in what most would consider a ‘normal’ RTS.
The modus operandi of a ‘normal’ RTS game is to build structures, mass-produce units, and climb the tech tree as quickly as possible. Any break from this is usually complained about, but this is Dungeons and Dragons. Dragonshard’s missions that don’t involve unit production are an engaging adventure, rather than a lull in the action. The dungeon crawls are packed full of dangerous encounters with everything from Monster Manual classics such as Beholders, to the Constructs that joined the Dungeons and Dragons family with Eberron.
Don’t take my praise of the RPG element of Dragonshard as a reason to ignore its RTS experience. While you are on the surface of Eberron, you play a game that’s fundamentally the same as most others of the genre. There are a few key differences that give Dragonshard its own style, and I’m in favor of the majority of them.
First, rather than expanding like a plague across the map, your bases are restricted in size and you are only allowed to build on certain areas. Each base has four sets of four slots in which you can build structures. Your choice of buildings sets the types of units you build… pretty standard right? Yes, until you take it a few steps further. Your buildings also determine what level your units can achieve. If you want level 4 units, you will need three buildings of their type. That’s three of your allowed sixteen. This gives the game a much larger element of strategy than most RTS games that I have encountered in the past. Why? Because the units that you produce aren’t just grunts, they are captains. Captains gain followers as they advance in level. This means that higher level captains make for larger overland armies. If your captains go below the surface however, they leave their followers behind and are basically mini-heroes.
Gathering resources in Dragonshard differs as well, instead of pulling from a limited pool of gold, lumber, ore, oil, etc… you technically have unlimited gathering potential. Your gathered resources are dragonshards, which occasionally fall from the sky and restock the world. Another interesting element is that in Dragonshard, your military units and heroes are not above harvesting these shards for the good of the cause. Gold is not mined; instead it slowly grows in your resource pool. To gather the gold needed to achieve victory however, you will need to adventure below the surface and find treasure.
This means that quite often there will be actions requiring your attention both above and below ground, but the two layered system works seamlessly. The underground is a means of experience, resources, and even travel. It can also effectively double the size of a map, making reconnaissance very important.
Dragonshard released in late 2005, and the visuals are on track for a game competing in our current ‘era’ of graphics. The level of detail in the game exceeded my expectations, especially in the underground adventuring areas. The random objects strewn about to give the game its “Eberron” flavor don’t feel forced at all, and the dark, mysterious aura of the campaign setting is maintained throughout.
My biggest gripe with Dragonshard is possibly a compliment in itself… the game is too short. There are only two single-player campaigns of seven missions each, one for the Order of the Flame (the goody-goody humans) and one for the Lizardfolk (a race mutated by a great power.) The third faction, the Umbragen, was not given a campaign of its own. The Umbragen are only available for play in Skirmish and Multiplayer mode—the lack of symmetry caught me a bit unawares.
Overall, Dragonshard is a must play for anyone who is a fan of both the RTS and RPG genres. If you are only a fan of one or the other you may be stepping onto new ground, but I don’t believe you will find yourself disappointed by the title. I am comfortable giving this game my approval, if only because I am rushing the end of this article so I can get one more multiplayer game in before bed.
