Impressions: DDO Unlimited, Now Free to Play

Turbine Inc has set Dungeons & Dragons free with their new updated to the game. The game is now free to download and play and makes use of a microtransactions. Our own Jason Weaver played the game, hit jump to read his impressions.

Turbine’s other and oft forgotten MMO, Dungeons and Dragons Online is set to make a major change from subscription based to free2play while still keeping the option to pay the 14.99 subscription fee. What this means is, if you like D&D but don’t like paying a monthly fee you can get your D&D freak on for free.

To entice free users to at least spend some money, an item shop called the DDO Store has been incorporated into the game that sells everything from hair dye to extra character slots. In order to buy anything, you need to first purchase Turbine Points to spend in the DDO Store. Nothing in the shop is game breaking and the shop is available anywhere in the game. So what this means is if you are in the middle of an instance with some friends and you run out of healing potions, just bring up the shop window and within moments the items are delivered right to your inventory.

Users that decide to pay a monthly fee (premium users) will have access to all game content, like the two player races; dark elves and the warforged. These premium users will also have access to all the higher level quests and the new Monk class that launches with this new update. In addition to the above, premium users will also get some Turbine Points each month to use in the DDO Store.

Since DDO launched in early 2006, it has changed quite a bit. The biggest change Turbine added awhile ago are adventure areas that are basically large open instances that you can go into solo or with a group. These areas have quests available as well as special milestones to achieve. These milestones include slayer achievements which require you to kill a set number of a specific creature, and the number increases with each amount you fulfill. Another one is rare encounters, where you have to find a specific monster spawn and kill it. The last two are lore and dungeon entrances which reward you for finding specific locations. Each milestone awards experience to the player.

The only problem I have with the game is some of the quests seem overly hard for the solo player and require a large amount of healing potions and unless you stock up, you’ll easily run out and have to either buy some from the DDO store or leave the quest area (which resets it) and buy some. I don’t believe this is intentional and it barely detracts from an otherwise very enjoyable MMO that is ultimately easy on the pocketbook. I know come September 9th I’ll be lobbing the heads off skeletons and slaying kobolds.