Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale

Daggerdale could have been at the minimum a great appetizer for those awaiting the launch of Diablo III, especially for D&D fans. Instead, it ends up being a bland and buggy exercise in tedium.

A race to the bottom, buggy and ill-inspired by genre clichés.

Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale is a game that means to serve the fans, but is a let down in so many areas. With the stellar Torchlight hitting the marketplace as well, the only thing Daggerdale has on it is cooperative gameplay, and it even does that poorly. Only the most hardcore D&D fans should venture forth, everyone else should cast a haste spell and run away...quickly.

Dungeons And Dragons: Daggerdale barely has any memorable features to it, as it is nothing more than a generic dungeon crawler. This is worsened by the repetitive missions and a lack of checkpoints. The decent controls and the co-op add a little enjoyment, but cannot save this game from disaster.

The decent hack-and-slash action of Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale is plagued by more problems than its heroic adventurers can handle.

For fifteen dollars, there are better titles out there to download. Daggerdale will certainly give fans of repetitive combat what they look for, but little else.

Pales next to the likes of Torchlight and the DeathSpank games. [Issue#74, p.102]

Just don't expect it to live up [to] the potential of the D&D license. [Issue#111, p.112]

Do yourself a favor and download the far superior Torchlight instead. It's not D&D, but it's a heck of a lot more fun to play. [Aug 2011, p.82]

Dungeons & Dragon's: Daggerdale starts off well enough, but you quickly discover that this games is a collection of infinite loops. The gameplay, story and setting is unimpressive in what really is an unremarkable action RPG.

A disappointing game due to an unconvincing story, repetitive gameplay and environments, bug-ridden online co-op and a generally lacklustre technical production.

Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale is a very elemental and simplified game. For good and bad. Many of the expected components are there, but the end result is uninspiring. The fact that you can play with three friends over the Internet or in your couch enhances the experience somewhat – but for the most part this game cannot challenge its competitors.

This is a game that could have been a lot better than it is. But it is not better. It is exactly as good as it is, and that is not good. It is, in fact, bad.

An epic fail on the quest for fun.

For those waiting for the next great dungeon crawler, your ship hasn't yet come in. Take heart though, the future looks bright for the genre.

Unfortunetly, Daggerdale doesnt live up to the Dungeons & Dragons licence at all. It feels rushed, don't offer interesting challenges and is so cliché ridden that even hard core fantasy fans will have a hard time to accept it.

Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale is a technical mess. Tons of bugs ruins the experience, transforming a potentially good game in an old chinese torture. The only good element of the package is the multiplayer mode, but some strange lag issues destroy all the fun.

That's no way to exploit an historic license. This is not Dungeons and Dragons, it's more like a buggy and unpolished hack'n'slash.

Dungeons and Dragons: Daggerdale could have been a great title if the developers had taken the time to work out the bugs. If you're easily frustrated over games or their glitches, you most likely will be spiking your controller on the floor and walking away in bitter shame.

Ultimately, the one thing that Daggerdale manages to accomplish is providing a proof of concept: Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition can work well in a video game. Unfortunately, Daggerdale is not that video game. Buggy, flawed, and bland, Daggerdale is the dice without the creativity of the players throwing them. While I'm sure we haven't seen the last of 4th Edition in the video game world, it's safe to give Daggerdale a critical miss.

As miserable a waste of a good licence as we've ever seen and the most bug-ridden and unimaginative download of the year so far.

From UI, to writing, to systems, this feels like an ancient game that was also, tragically, not given enough time in the oven.

At the risk of repeating myself, the game is just broken. And in this age of "eh, we'll fix that with a first-week patch," it's particularly sad to see what feels like so little effort put into living up to what can even objectively be described as a legendary property.

Daggerdale comes across as a careless and sloppily executed venture. Even if such problems are eventually addressed, this rigid and uninspired quest is little more than an adequate adventure, legendary namesake be damned.

It's not just a bad game, it's a terrible use of Wizards of the Coast's timeless license. Even when boiled down to its core combat mechanics, D&D is cerebral, challenging, intense, and infinitely rewarding. Dungeons & Dragons: Daggerdale is just a game about hitting monsters until treasure falls out of them.