![]() ![]() Environments fare much better than the character models, which look and move like rigid action figures. The vibrant colors do help to offset this, but it looks as though it could have come out in the mid-2000s. It really doesn’t help that Sword Coast Legends looks so completely dull. Moments like these show the promise of more open tools, and give me hope for the game’s future. Of course, I made half of them mimics, and all but one of the rest disappear. I quite enjoyed surrounding my players with treasure chests as they tried fighting a demon spider, tantalizing them with untold riches if they could survive the battle. You can place traps, enemies, and all sorts of weird little objects just to be strange. Dungeon Masters play as small wisps visible to the other players, mischievously whipping from room to room. Most player-created modules can be played without a Dungeon Master, but it’s more fun when one is present. I finished in about 25 hours, which felt too long by half. You’ll have plenty to do if you want to finish all of the side-quests and find all sorts of fancy loot, but the core combat isn’t compelling enough to warrant a replay. Hommet, the cordial, sarcastic Necromancer, is a highlight. Plot beats are predictable, but the cast of characters are entertaining enough to keep you going. Your character is a member of guild that’s been plagued with bad dreams, and you’ll battle monsters and demons across Faerûn and the Underdark. The single-player campaign isn’t especially exciting, but the story is serviceable. Did we really have to do the “turn off a 3×3 grid of lights” puzzle again? No! No! These are never fun, just time-consuming. Usually you’re just matching runes to open doors, though there are a couple of tricky segments. If you’re really lucky, said puzzle will make you think for fifteen seconds. If you’re lucky, you might have to solve a puzzle. Most dungeons go on like this: your rogue searches ahead for traps and secret doors, you eventually encounter enemies, and you kill them with monotonous MMO-style combat. For now, upcoming DLC will be free, but I wouldn’t be surprised if we see future races and classes for sale. Tieflings are confirmed to be coming soon, but this piecemeal distribution feels seedy. Likewise, only 6 out of 12 character classes are available. This feels even seedier when one of the first NPCs you meet in the single-player campaign is a Tiefling, one of the races that you can’t choose. ![]() There are only 5 available races at launch, as opposed to the 9 that are in the Player’s Handbook (12 if we count the races added in the Elemental Evil Player’s Guide). Even as you start creating a character, it feels like half of the game is missing. Instead, there’s an uncomfortable content divide. It would be difficult to achieve, but if traditional D&D and Sword Coast Legends offered even a semblance of parity, people would be willing to forgo the magic of an evening’s revelry with real friends in exchange for the convenience of playing online. This leaves an opportunity for n-Space to both attract new fans and provide old fans with the oft-dreamed of digital stomping ground. Dungeons & Dragons‘ 5th edition came out last year and has remained hugely popular since then. Let’s skip past the initiative roll and go straight to the most baffling decision n-Space made. ![]()
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