Microsoft Asherons Call - Dark Majesty Expansion Roleplaying Review

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Visitors rate this review
3.67 of 5,
3 votes

Summary:
AC is a great game. I have been playing since it began, and have not seen all the lands there are to see. There is a curve that is kind of odd. Its boringly easy at first then very hard, then it gets easier as you get up higher in levels. Every month they add an update that can cause some grief, but if you can adapt its no big deal. Now they have added a way to change your training and specialized skills, you dont end up with any more gimps!

I.B. Chance

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5,
1 votes

Price Paid:  $20.00 from EB

Summary:
Asheron's Call - Dark Majesty is not a sequel. It's an add-on. I wrote the Asheron's Call in-depth beta review here on this site almost three years ago and I still frequent the world of Dereth. My feeling is that re-reviewing the entire game is disingenuous. There is nothing in terms of gameplay that has changed for Asheron's Call - Dark Majesty.

In effect what you are getting is very simple. For Dark Majesty you receive full access to the entire Asheron's Call Dereth pre-Dark Majesty. With Dark Majesty you get a new island that has some nice features for all levels of character play. With Dark Majesty you get a shot at the olthoi queen and a variety of olthoi dungeons with some new olthoi thrown in. With Dark Majesty you get a shot at unique creatures that you can't find anywhere else. And finally with Dark Majesty you get a shot at owning your own house, villa or mansion.

That's the bottom line. Is it worth it? Well, yes and no. Yes, if you already have invested in Asheron's Call and seek new content. Yes, if you have never played in an online rpg world and seek something that is relatively simple to operate if somewhat difficult to understand.

The big knock on Asheron's Call is that it's old. The graphics are certainly dated compared to the upcoming AC2 beta and the other online ventures forthcoming. For it's time, Asheron's Call was easily the best of the rpgs on the market. Now, it is slowly slipping into obscurity.

For people that have been with it for a year or more, the queen quest will be the only real challenge.

As I said, if you've never been in an mmrpg then this one might be a good one to start out with but be forewarned--there are some major drawbacks to it.

The big plus for Asheron's Call is it's ability to update monthly with new content. This causes problems most times due to bugs in the updates but these are usually solved quickly with a minimum amount of downtime.

The negative is that if you've never been in an mmrpg then it's debatable whether you should invest time and money into something that may very well be obsolete in a year. The debate will be whether to jump in and dedicate time to it or wait for the newest line of online multi-player games coming on the market for Christmas.

If you're considering jumping in then you may want to read on before making that decision.

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Summary:
Asheron's Call is by far the best MMORPG I've ever seen. It's reasonable graphics and great gameplay make it a very fun game to play. The world of Dereth is huge, interesting and great to explore.

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Price Paid:  $20.00 from Local mall

Summary:
I was very new to online Rpg's and decided to hit everqwest. then ultima online. then asheron's call: Dark majesty. And i have stuck with AC for a year. It has crushed all other games overall.

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Summary:
A super cheap way to get into a good online role-playing game. For only $20 this xpac delivers the entire AC game and the expansion island of Marae Lassel----plus a full month of online play. At this price you really can't go wrong. The world in Asheron's Call is not quite as big as Everquest's is now with Shadows of Luclin, nor does it have the "traditional" appeal of EQ's D&D type fantasy setting. But the world of Dereth has the very important advantage of being both original and interesting. And after more than a year of monthly updates, there is an huge number of quests and an immense amount of cool loot to plunder. You can easily get hundreds of hours of entertainment from this game, and the bang per buck simply cannot be beat. It is true that, at the higher levels of play, there are severe class balance problems, and the game engine is begining to age, but overall this is a thoroughly original interesting online world with a developing story. At $20 this particular package is highly competetive with either EQ's large upfront cost and ridiculous system requirements or with Dark Age of Camelot's more expensive monthly cost and its highly restrictive gameplay.