One day an MMORTS will appear that captures the dynamics of online warfare. Dreamlords: The Reawakening, the follow-up to the risible Dreamlords, most certainly isn’t that game. Trapped in a split-personality limbo, it feels like a substandard MMORPG with a few RTS ideas tacked onto it.
You play a Dreamlord (a mystical and powerful hero) who must save the world from evil. One section of the game is played from an in-game strategic map divided into territories which your armies must attack in order to amass Soul Shards and Gnosis (the game’s main resources). There’s also a third resource called Tribute, which you can use to make your followers happy and summon powerful items, but this costs you real money. The resource management part of the game is done from the game’s website, meaning every time you want to tweak your research tree or reassign your workers, you have to exit the game. What were they thinking?
The Reawakening falls short in too many areas. Battles are tedious, often consisting of identical encounters between your armies and pockets of enemies. The atrocious camera and poor control system ensure that you can pretty much forget about executing any tangible tactical maneuvers. Your Dreamlord is easily the most interesting thing about the game and can be equipped with flashy armour and fearsome weapons, of which there’s an excellent collection. He also wields offensive and defensive magic, and this hardness may explain why enemies ignore your troops and charge straight for him. The resulting Benny Hill Show-style chases as you try to get your Dreamlord to safety make a mockery of the game’s RTS pretensions.
Uninspiring, confusing and often tedious, Dreamlords: The Reawakening seems to have learned little from its predecessor. If it wasn’t free-to-play (a merit Dreamlords lacked), then it would be a prime candidate for a Dump award. As a result, it’s more of a fart than a full blown follow-through.
Jul 28, 2008
