Dungeons & Dragons Daggerdale Preview

G4 once again takes us into hands-on territory with their preview of Dungeons & Dragons Daggerdale, the downloadable action RPG from Bedlam Games that I can only presume is coming to Xbox Live Arcade very soon.

This brings us to the gameplay. Even if you choose a cleric or a wizard, you’ll soon notice that Daggerdale is a hack and slash loot fest. Every character has ranged and melee attacks, as well as powers that may be melee or ranged based in nature, or be powered by pure magic. Sure enough, the wizard has Magic Missle, a D&D staple, available to him if he chooses that power during the character creation screen. Powers take a few seconds to recharge, while melee and ranged attacks work instantaneously. For lower-level enemies, you can easily pummel your way through with minimal damage, but the game quickly ramps up, and you’ll have to be a lot more careful once you graduate past the orcs. Flaming skeletons are particularly non-friendly.

Mastering ranged attacks is definitely key, and if you select a magic user, you’ll want to learn your recharge times early and gauge your distance from foes carefully. You don’t want to get swarmed while you’re waiting on your fireball to power back up. Likewise, when you’re tanking, you’ll want to be careful how many enemies you aggro at once (some enemies summon others quickly) so you don’t get overrun. All of your foes have visible health bars so you can see how close to death they might be, but all of that information is easy to lose track of in a scrum.

Beyond combat, there’s XP and gold to collect, merchants and level ups to spend them on, and basic character upgrades and outfitting throughout the game. You’ll also find items as you quest throughout the game, with things you’re unable to use colored in red, and you can convert anything in your inventory to gold if you so desire. Equipping armor, a helmet, or a new weapon is a change you’ll see on your character immediately in the game.