Product Description: Dungeons & Dragons: Tactics brings the excitement of fantasy battle and role-playing to the PSP system for the very first time. All of the core races and classes will be available to the player, including two Psionic classes, the Psion and the Psychic Warrior. Players will be able to customise their characters and store as many as their memory stick can handle. Faithfully utilizing the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 rule-set, Dungeons & Dragons: Tactics allows players to take a party of six adventurers into a wide variety of dangerous environments to experience deep and exciting turn-based action. All core races and classes are available, plus the addition of Psionics Deep and exciting turn-based gameplay using the D&D 3.5 rule-set
Fun game- really keeps the tradition and gameplay of D&D I used to play D&D back when I was a teenager, and I was currently looking for a time wasting game for traveling that was turn based. Since Risk hasn't been rehashed, I decided to give it a shot. From what I remember about D&D, this game seems to follow the rules exactly. The graphics are good, and the game plays well. I dig it.
Boring I like RPG's, Dungeons and Dragons, and Tactics games; but I put this game down after about 15 minutes and haven't picked it back up.
For one, if you want to roll your own characters, it will take you close to an hour before you even start playing the game. After that, I just don't find that the D&D 3.5 ruleset makes for a good backdrop to make a tactics game. Furthermore, there is inclusion of some D&D details that just distract from gameplay.
I would be more inclined to think that the D&D Miniatures franchise would be more suiting. Are you listening WoTC? ;)
Great game that gets ragged on. Seems to me a lot of reviews that trash this game are really unfair. I loved it and really missed it once it was over.
I am a Dungeons and Dragons player and I'll admit that the fact that this game is based on DnD rules was a major draw for me. Lets just say it's very satisfying to see all the classes and races and items you know so well and to form your own well balanced party to kill stuff and find treasure. That's what it boils down to and that's what it delivers.
There's no use in complaining about the game not adhering strictly to the rules since obviously a PSP game has limitations that your imagination and pen and paper dont.
The story is retarted. There are no real decisions to make and there is no role playing. It's dungeon diving, plain and simple. Level up your guys, explore cool settings and get stoked when you get your head bitten off by a mind flayer.
The graphics are beautiful. Lighting a torch in a pitch black dungeon looks just as it should. The menus are awkward as hell, but you learn it after a while. It's also sort of glitchy. Save it in multiple slots. Hopefully they make a sequel and work out some of the irritating bugs because this game has a lot of promise for strategy fans and DnD freaks alike.
Mediocrity Let's get right to the thing most people interested in buying a D&D game are going to be worried about: how faithfully does it interpret the rules of the game?
The answer is, quite frankly, poorly. First and foremost, the ability to multiclass seems to be completely absent, which in and of itself almost completely disenfranchises this game from D&D 3.5 and its ease-of-multiclassing, build-your-own hero design. Further, there don't seem to be any prestige classes either, which while far more understandable (and acceptable) than a lack of multiclassing serves to even further distance the game from what people who play P&P D&D naturally expect.
Throw in changes to feats and base classes (what the heck were they trying to do with the Ranger?), ambiguous or missing class abilities (do Clerics even get Domain-related special abilities?), and a generally thin selection of all of the above to begin with, and you end up with a game that completely removes the character-building and development strategy aspect from D&D, which quite frankly is about the only thing truly 'tactical' about 3.5 to begin with...
This would be understandable if the changes were merely made to make the game more 'playable' in its given format, but that doesn't seem to be the case. For example, the Perform Skill in this game only has any utility to a Bard character, and you can't multiclass from other classes to a Bard, but non-Bards are still allowed to pick it. If you were trying to 'streamline' the game for hand-held play, things like that would be what you would want to 'fix'...
But instead we get 'fixes' that show a questionable, at best, sense of what the original rules were intended to do, and little to no concept of game balance. The Psionic Weapon feat, for example, adds +2d6 damage to all melee attacks. ALL melee attacks. All the time! You don't have to spend Power Points or anything, you just get +2d6 damage on every swing (vs. +2 damage for Fighter's Weapon Specialization). How in the world could that have slipped by someone?
Then there are the changes they seem to have made to try to be 'sticklers' to the rules, making the naggling little details that no one who plays P&P bothers with--at least, nowhere near to this anal-retentive degree--into massive issues the player must deal with. Encumberance is not only enforced, it's going to ream you on every single level in the game unless you've got a team stocked with Barbarians. You're going to be constantly groaning over being told you can't do something with your hands full. (A Cleric needs a feat to cast spells while wielding a mace and shield? Since when?) You're going to wonder why some things just don't seem to work right (Tumble nerf?). The strict adherance to the Light and Vision and Surprise Round rules is going to give you endless headaches, especially if you try to use a Rogue or Ranger...
If you push past the thousand and one little annoyances, which extend further into a poor interface, weak story, and mediocre graphics, there's a half-decent game buried underneath. However, that's all it is: half-decent. Don't go into this expecting more, and don't bother at all if you're a rules purist or lacking patience.
Best PSP game so far, if you like D&D 3e. The game is great, though it is extremely difficult to understand and play correctly because it is so rules heavy, and this limits the enjoyment for people who have no experience with the table top version of the game. The rules are implemented quite nicely. OTOH, if you know the rules prior to playing this you'll find it way too easy. It does lack important aspects of the game, such as random encounters and a possible "automatic" threat releveling for missions. Maybe in d&d tactics II. Some things though make little sense. During missions you are permitted to rest and heal completely while standing outside the Boss' door!!!
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