As a deity of an island, you control the population and resources in a typical RTS style, slowly building up a formidable army before you unleash war upon rival other players. You can choose from three races; the savage Thul, magical Mihilim and the divine Covenant, with each one having their own completely unique units, suiting various styles of play. Each one of these games takes up to three months to play, before a winner is decided and the battle begins again.
So far, sounds like pretty much any other RTS, but Dreamlords has an ace card which, should the game prove to be successful, could be ABSOLUTELY LETHAL to the careers of subscribers.
I'm at work, right now. Admittedly, I’m not particularly busy; hence writing this preview, but I've also actually been PLAYING Dreamlords. Installing a client onto a work PC is a surefire way of being shown the door, but Dreamlords actually has a web-based interface where you can manage your resources without having to load up the full game. You just sign into the website, bring up the browser and you can maintain your buildings, give commands to units and even prepare to attack your rivals later on in the evening from any PC you can find. It's obviously simplified from the full game, but being able to ready your troops for battle from anywhere in the world and at any time is a genius move by the developers, and an absolute godsend to those who get bored at work. You can track stats and see how other players are doing through this and it is a very large step towards establishing a solid community from the very get-go; an essential step towards even denting World of Warcraft's user base.
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To make it more than just an elaborate version of the online deathmatches found in other RTS games, Dreamlords provides a real level of depth to your avatar within the game - not unlike a traditional MMO. You can customize them to your liking and simply having them there brings you closer to your minions. Even at the end of the three month "era", your avatar will keep all the stats, abilities and bonuses received through defeating opponents and maintaining a strong island. Your avatar doesn't, however, level up. As you progress, the island you are managing receives a rating depending on how strong it is, and you receive opponents accordingly - keeping things balanced for new players and the experienced elite alike.
Up to four players take part in any battle, competing for resources in the various worlds available - fighting roaming NPC enemies and even aligning your powers with other players in an attempt to achieve victory for your Dreamlord and increase your skills, all without having to resort to the most hated part of online gaming, the dreaded GRIND.
Another unique feature is that most of the monsters in the game will be thought up by the community, using the http://dreammonster.com/ website, but it unfortunately hasn’t been fully implemented yet.
It would be irresponsible to judge Dreamlords at this BETA stage, but the signs are looking very good for a game that offers a more cerebral change of pace within the MMO genre, and may even take a bite out of the forthcoming RTS monsters in Supreme Commander and Command and Conquer 3. Unfortunately, the sheer size of the brands behind those titles is so huge, Dreamlords could get lost in the shuffle, but it's looking like you'd have to be a right 'lord to miss this.
