Dragonshard Review at Worthplaying

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Worthplaying has reviewed Dragonshard, rating it 7.8 out of 10. According to the reviewer, this doesn't mean that the title shouldn't be played because it's actually a good game, it's just not so exceptional as it could have been and not really innovative. Here's a snip:

I've been a D&D player as far back as I can remember, so when I heard of Dragonshard, I was rather excited. This promises a mix of real-time strategy and role-playing game, much like Warcraft 3, and for the most part, it doesn't disappoint. However, don't be lured in just because it says D&D on the box, as this is standard RTS/RPG fare, and in some places, it falls short in the latter genre. That is not to say that this title should not be played, though, as I will endeavor to show.

The game is set in the land of Eberron, which consists of two parts; the upper part is where you build your armies and collect dragon shards (more on that in a moment), and the lower levels are sprawling dungeon crawls filled with traps, monsters, and, most importantly, gold. When you are above ground, you start with a supply of shards nearby. When they have been mostly depleted, a storm comes and meteors bash themselves against the Earth, and some of these meteors become harvestable piles of shards. Any of your units can collect them, but certain units are better at it than others.

I remember all the excitement with the expected innovative value of solutions to be used in Dragonshard, but, as the reviewer points out, most of those have been done in other games. One example would be the underground, which new players might take for new but those who have been around for longer will remember from Heroes of Might and Magic III. Hive-style building up dates as far back as Dark Colony if not further. And so on and so forth. This doesn't mean the game is bad, of course. I'm probably going to buy the game myself when I find the time to play.

Read the whole thing at Worthplaying.