We brought home a copy of Dreamlords from GDC 2007 last month and had a lot of fun playing it for this review. Lockpick Entertainment set out to create the first truly hybrid MMORTS game with Dreamlords, and Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and Cody "Micajah" Bye team up to evaluate the game in our latest review!
"You'd be tempted, therefore, to guess that the RTS client battles are fairly straightforward paper-rock-scissors affairs based wholly on who has the biggest, baddest army and are decided before the first bowstring twangs. And you'd be glad to learn that you guessed wrong. Jon Selin and crew have woven standard MMORPG concepts like aggro management, pulling, and kiting into the AI. It's entirely possible to pin a nasty between two fast ranged units ("kiting") if you're fast with the mouse clicks and have organized your interface well (the standard RTS "order of battle" method of selecting and "naming" units with CRTL+1, CRTL+2 etc. to quickly select them later is a big part of successful gameplay)."
MMORPG.com has updated their site today with this review of Dreamlords.
Game play is similar to most RTS style games. You can build resources on your Patria (main area) and explore the lands on this floating piece of earth. As your army grows you will send expeditions out to search for resources and monsters. These expeditions are a great way to manage a group of soldiers to achieve your goals. Players who enjoy moving their armies around the areas to explore and fight in out with monsters will enjoy this part of the game.
Stratics has updated their site today with a review of Dreamlords.
The Dreamlord, you, are lord of your patria. You are the head man, the big cheese, the one in charge. You make the decisions. Your patria lives, dies, or thrives based on your decisions. What skills should you develop? How big an army should you create? Where should you build the cities? How fast should you expand? Who do you battle? Decisions you make for the people of your patria. Decisions you make in common RTS games.