Old Dominions I. reviews....!

[Particle]

..and another user review:


Introduction
I had never heard of this game before, a multiplayer RPG I was told, vast lands, control armys, use magic, sounds good? So is this the game to beat Baldurs Gate II, or was it more along the lines of Shogun:Total War. I was looking on the website while waiting for the game to wind its way onto my PC and I saw that it was neither really, it reminded me of WarlordsIII which was a turn based strategy game around about 3-4 years ago, Warlords was a good game if you liked turn based games, but it was tainted by the computer cheating. Dominions could build on this and make epic battles, the turn based style would mean that you can use cunning strategys and watch the battle unfold. Oh how wrong was I.


Graphics (1/10)
In the old days of computing there was a game called Angband (similar to Moria), this game was an RPG but as it was old it didn't have graphics, it used the character set, so a capital Red 'A' was a dragon or so (Angband nerds, please dont mail me saying the its really a giant ant or so). Later Versions of Angband redefined the characterset, but basically it was poor. Take a guess what the graphics in Dominions looks like. They're very poor, blocky and uninteresting, limited in colour. Infact my mousepointer has better graphics than this game. The landscapes are repeated, which is fairenough, but they're repeated every five pixels, so its basically just green. Imagine Zelda, on the gameboy except at a lower resolution. All of the Gods look the same just different colours. The menus are the best thing this has to offer, but even these are animated badly and jerk as they move.


Audio (1/10)
I didn't experience much in the way of sound from this game, there is a beep everytime you do something but even that single sample has some crackles to it. There are various other beeps and thats about it. Essentially all you're doing is clicking menus and options so maybe I'm being silly expecting for more. But even when its game over it could play me a tune to wake me up. I want to hear the battles, hear the screams, I want the sound to draw me into the game not crackle when I click, and that is only occasionally.

Gameplay (1/10)
Well this is what counts really, a game of this style could live without graphics and sound if the gameplay cut the ice. I had an old turn based strategy game on my old Amiga that just had a tank a plane and a boat and I used to play that for hours, but this... I even considered just getting rid of it, forget the review its not worth it, but it was either this or work. The game is full of menus, and they're badly designed for instance when choosing your castle you have a screen with various castles on it, but then what do you do? There is no 'Back' button no 'Ok' button, where do I click? For those wondering, you right click near the bottom of the screen... I played a while and then I did something which I'm still not sure what and it came up 'Game Over' with the only option being to Quit. But the Quit didn't put me back to the mainmenu, it just threw me out of the game (maybe this is a good thing!). So I go back in and start a game just to be presented by the game over screen and the Quit option just popped up, silly me, I had to go and create a new God and then create a new world before playing a game.

Concluding Thoughts (1/20)
The game has a small footprint on your harddisk and it's easy to see why, there are no graphics or sound! This game is truely aweful, I'm sure there is more to it than I saw, when you get powerful armies (rather than my collection of peasants) and you have some mystical magic there may be some enjoyment, but I saw none of this.
I want to be drawn into the battles, I want the fights to remind me of fights in Braveheart or Gladiator, not Horrace Goes Skiing.
I couldn't recommend this to anyone, not even my pet cat.


Total Score 4/50

[Particle]

...and another:


Introduction
Wow. This game sucks. It really does. Maybe if you are the developer and you know exactly what to do, well then MAYBE it could be fun. It does look as it is a long game to play, since you will spend 2-3 hours trying to figure out how the damn crap works. Man this is a really disappointing game. I don't even know what to write, so don't complain if this is a really crappy review, but its for a crappy game. Sigh, if this was only a once in a lifetime release but we see more of these. Oh well, at least if you read this you won't spend $50 on it. And if you really want it wait until its in the bargain bins for $2.


Graphics (1/10)
The graphics for Dominions suck, with muddy little characters that look like pixels slopped together, and even the loading screen is a horribly rendered spinning cube. I have it on screenshot, I would like to you take a look at the shadow. Well, you might be asking why I am flaming the loading screen, its because everything else is just menus, menus, menus, menus! And when you actually get to the gameplay, then it sucks. All you see is red blips moving and it takes hours to complete. I'm sorry, but this game is just horrible. I didn't know what the hell to do, so I left it running, went to the TV and waited for something to happen. Is this the way a game should be?


Audio (0/10)
What audio? The only sound I found was the sound your mouse makes when clicking on a menu. That's it. No speech, no music, no FX when in battles. No fanfare when you win a battle! This is appaling.

Gameplay (1/10)
The gameplay just shows that this game is one of the most confusing released for a very long time. I don't know what to do, didn't know what to do, and probably never will know what to do. All it shows is browsing through menus, menu after menu after menu after menu. The only cool part was the ability to play over email, as this is a rare feature in games. But even that will suck when the game you try and play is horrible. You get to make your own god, then try to become a Pretender. you make an army, which I found was just clicking through some more menus. I had to get through some menus to finally get to the quit button.

Concluding Thoughts (1/20)
This is a bad game. Maybe it could have been better, but now it is too late for maybes. Confusing and boring gameplay will fend off all of the RPG enthusiasts, and the bad graphics and sound just isn't good enough these days. The only plus side is the email gameplay system and the fact that you can create your own gods. Other than that this game is pretty much worth a demo download, but other than that just get a different RPG that will be much more fun. Lets get the TGTB over with quickly.



Total Score 3/50

[johan osterman]

The first dominions review that appeared on the net, which I unfortunately cannot find anymore, was even more off mark. That particular reviewer failed to realise that dominions was a TBS and wrote in his review that he left the game to get some food, and hoped that something would have happened after he returened, unsuprisingly nothing had. If I recall correctly he gave the game a whopping 4/100.

If anyone is still interested there are a few Online reviews collected at: http://www.illwinter.com/links.html. Of these I understand that CG Online at least is also a major magazine in the US. These reviews are for the most part fair and accurately descibes both the games strength and weaknesses.

*Edit particles third posted review is the one I was talking about.

[ October 20, 2003, 13:16: Message edited by: johan osterman ]

[Particle]

I am still shocked by these bad reviews.

[Pocus]

the more generalist is the site (or mag), the less he will likes Doms I suppose. I just hope that this time big dedicated sites, like the Wargamer, will get a copy of dominions II, and pay him his due appraisal.

I suppose this PR stuff is handled by Shrapnel anyway

[johan osterman]

Well, both CGW and CG Online which I understand are the two biggest gaming magazines in the US gave Dom 4/5.

[Pocus]

Originally posted by johan osterman:
Well, both CGW and CG Online which I understand are the two biggest gaming magazines in the US gave Dom 4/5.

didnt knew that. If the review on these mags were positives, then it is even stranger that Doms I sold so confidentially. Or perhaps it means that Online mags arent a big factor in changing the buy/no buy decision of customers.

edit : time for a new poll

[ October 20, 2003, 14:10: Message edited by: Pocus ]