Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale

Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale is a hack and slash action-adventure game developed by Bedlam Games and set in the fantasy universe first dreamt up by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson many moons ago. It follows four adventurers – a Human Fighter, a Dwarf Cleric, an Elf Rogue and a Halfling Wizard – plucked from their past lives and informed that only they have the power to stop the fearsome Rezlus. Of course, Rezlus hasn’t made it easy for our heroes; he’s only gone and constructed a secret tower and filled it with all sorts of ghoulish creatures!

I was completely at a loss when it came to choosing a starting character but this was really just because I had wanted to try out all the characters. I was inclined just to pick the Human Fighter because that’s how I play every role-playing game – as the character that requires the least amount of thought and the maximum amount of “smashing things upside the face”. I was determined to play as something else. A Dwarf Cleric with healing powers perhaps? Or a powerful Halfling Wizard? After making my choice, I was immediately taken to a character creation screen to kit out my fresh-faced Human Fighter (don’t judge me!) with all the skills, perks and abilities he’d need to take on whatever Rezlus threw at him.

But the game doesn’t give any indications as to what is best to pick for your character. It’s a bit like choosing a knife to cut something, before you’ve actually seen what it is you’re going to cut – make the wrong choice and it’ll be tough, and before long you’ll want to go back and pick another knife. You could choose perks that make your character better with two-handed weapons (like I did), only to find that one-handed weapons are better against the enemies you face. Another problem is that the classes don’t really feel balanced either. Playing as a Wizard or a Rogue, you’re more likely to come out of a fight unscathed than you are as a Cleric or a Fighter – you have much better crowd control playing as the former two.

Keeping enemies at a distance when you’re attacking seems to be the best way to get rid of them. As a Wizard, you have a plethora of destructive magics that can be used at varying ranges, while the Fighter is limited to barging in and hence you risk being overwhelmed easily. The Fighter’s initial skill set may make up for it depending on which skills you picked, but you may have picked wrongly. Again, it all comes back to not knowing which of your starting character creation options are worthwhile endeavours.

That said, I’ve never played the tabletop version of Dungeons & Dragons in my life (a problem in dire need of fixing) and thus I can’t tell if Bedlam Games have managed to do what they set out to do and that was to make a Dungeons & Dragons action-adventure title that was as close to the tabletop game as possible. To this end, they’ve definitely captured the look and feel of what I’d imagine a Dungeons & Dragons adventure to be like very well – deep, mysterious caverns, vast swathes of vicious foes to cut your way through and an odd charm about the whole experience. In a sense, Daggerdale can be compared to a less-compelling Torchlight, or even Dragon Age 2, with co-operative multiplayer thrown in as well.

On the subject of co-operative multiplayer, it’s pretty damned fun. Not much can beat the satisfaction of fighting legions of goblins back to back with friends, and even less can beat the mad dash to grab as much of the spoils as possible! Like every other co-operative game out there, however, it’s much better with friends. Playing Daggerdale with strangers tends to take the “co-operative” out of “co-operative multiplayer” whereas playing with friends makes working together and loot-sharing much easier, and far more enjoyable.

On the whole, Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale is a fun, if rather forgettable, hack and slash title. What it lacks in the way of balancing, it more than makes up for in charm – if you let it, it just might steal you away to another world for a few hours.