Dragonshard Review

With all of the fantasy real time strategy games released over the past decade it's hard to believe that none have been based on the popular Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. With Dragonshard the wait is finally over. Don't expect a typical RTS game of resource gathering, civilization advancement and conquest however. Liquid Entertainment have added a true D&D role playing feel to the game that blends nicely into their fast paced RTS game play.

Dragonshard is set in the newest D&D world Eberron, a magical world formed from the fallout of a great battle between dragons. The planet and ring of magical shards orbiting the world are made from these three dragons. It is the magicical shards that give Eberron it's power and is the main reason for war and adventure in this unique world.

Split into two campaigns, Dragonshard tells the story of a very large and powerful magical shard called the Heart of Siberys. Possession of this object could shift the balance of power in Eberron and the duty of obtaining it lies in your hands. There are two factions you can choose from in the single player campaign, both of whom have their reasons for questing for the Heart of Siberys. The Order of the Flame and the Lizardfolk. The Order of the Flame is an alliance of races setup to fight evil and includes Humans, dwarves, halflings, and more. The Lizardfolk are comprised of lidzardmen, troglodytes and more who are determined to gain control of the powerful Heart of Siberys before the Order of the Flame.

The story, written by the creator of the Eberron game world, flows nicely with the game play and does not leave any loose ends. In total there are two campaigns with seven missions each. The missions themselves are quite short and the overall story seems to end a little prematurely. The entire single player campaign can easily be completed in a week or even over a long weekend of dedicated gaming. There are side quests and variations to the storyline depending on which champion you choose, so there is some replayability when played with different champions, but ultimately the end is the same.

Dragonshard takes a unique approach in game play by having two maps for each mission/game. The concept of two maps is not new but spliting them into two different forms of game play is. Real time strategy game play occurs on the upper level while role playing game style game play occurs underground in the dungeons of the lower map. It is here in the underground you can gain the experience necessary to increase the levels of your captains.

Each Faction begins with a fixed home base where players will construct buildings from their pool of resources. It is from these buildings that you will build your army and adventurers to successfully complete your mission or conquer the skirimsh map. The home base only contains 16 slots where you can build buildings, so you'll have to plan your strategy accordingly since you won't have room to build every structure available in the game.

There are three main unit types in Dragonshard, a champion, captain and soldiers. At any point during the game you can have at most one champion, a fighter, wizard, healer or rogue champion. During campaign missions you will be limited to just one champion, while skirmish games allow you to create another champion each time one dies. Your champion is very important, he is the leader of your army and gives each soldier and adventurer bonuses/abilities which vary depending on which is chosen at the start of the game.

Captians are the work horse of your empire. They, along with the champion, battle above ground as well as adventure below in search of treasure and experience. As you gain experience you will have the opportunity to increase the levels of captains. With each increase more hit points and abilities are gained. At certain levels captains begin to recruit soldiers that can take part in above ground real time battles. Rangers for instance recruit scouts, barbarians recruit warriors, etc. Capations also have special abilities that can be utilized both during battle and adventuring, Rogues can find and disarm traps, pick locks and more while adventuring. Other captains will gain similar abilites based on their class.