After their first game, Dreamlords, turned out to be a huge success, the Swedish developer decided to come back with a sequel: Dreamlords: The Reawakening. Choosing one of three races, The Reawakening sees you once again taking control of a deity-like Dreamlord as you quest to reclaim your land from the Nightmares. A tutorial helps you learn the basics – although for the more advanced stuff you are kind of left on your own. It also gives a brief story to drive your game-play, and whilst it’s not much to go on, you’ll become more and more focused on the tactics and strategy involved rather then the plot.
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| Dreamlords lets you put your avatars against each other in a clash of titans. | The Patria management window is simple and easy to navigate. |
Using this subtle mix of role-playing, strategy and basic empire management, Reawakening manages to appeal to all kinds of gamers, from the master strategist to the great adventurer, and from the hardcore gamer to the casual player.
The game is split into two halves – a downloadable game client, where most of the game is played, and a web-based management browser, where you deal with all of the issues pertaining to your ‘Patria’. This screen is quite intuitive and easy to use, and can you deal with a range of things from production and assigning labour, to purchasing equipment for your troops and choosing ‘traits’. (Which are similar to abilities, but affect everything, not just your avatar.) Every player has their own Patria to manage, which consists of one city and several dozen territories that you must lead ‘expeditions’ to reclaim them one at a time. The further into your Patria you get, the higher the level of the monsters you face, and each win carries with it the ‘spoils of war’, which are a random mix of items with varying degrees of usefulness.
The game is a little slow to start off with, since you begin with only a handful of basic infantry, and the capacity to take only one of them with you on expeditions. This leaves the player virtually trapped in the beginner territories until they can develop their city enough to allow for more troops. Still, this system means that there is no ‘grinding’ to get your level up, since the development of your city (and with it, your avatar) is handled in real time. One can simply go away and do something else whilst they wait – a triumph for casual gamers everywhere. Unfortunately, the limited availability of levels and the repetitive objectives can get a bit tiresome. (For each territory you simply have to kill all the enemies within it to win.)
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| By using tribute, you can deck-out your avatar until he looks like Death himself. | You have to use the right combination of troops to take down the larger opponents. |
But every so often, a territory will contain a boss or a special character. This leads to a quest that you need to complete within the territory which naturally gives some above-average bounty.
Combat units are limited, but quite balanced, using a combination of ‘rock, paper, scissor’ mechanics, and some support units to mix things up. Again these need to be researched and developed in your city before you can wield them, allowing for a slow but steady progression as you move through the Patria.
The in-game economy of Reawakening revolves around ‘tribute’ and ‘soulshards’. Apart from some small bonuses relating to PvP, Tribute can only be gained by purchasing it with real money. However, the tribute system is a little flawed because the only real use of tribute is to deck-out your Dreamlord with fancy gear. (You can also purchase items for your troops using tribute, but a lot of those items can also be found or made using the crafting side of the game.) Whilst it prevents a ‘two-tier’ system of playing from emerging, the absence of any other way to get gear for your Dreamlord means that those who are willing to pay still get a subtle advantage when it comes to PvP. There is a subscription service, which has some more varied effects, but again, there’s no real incentive to pay so you have to wonder whether Lockpick will be able to keep things going.
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| The story is limited, but it still helps set the mood and pace of the game. | There’s only a limited number of maps, but they are varied. |
As mentioned, along with an extensive PvE system, there is also an integrated and controlled PvP system as well. In order to compete in PvP matches, you must first join a ‘Convergence’ – a clan of up to 15 members. Once in a Convergence, you may then battle other players to claim territories in their name. In order to prevent better players and convergences picking on newcomers, two checks have been put in place. The first is that each convergence can only control 6 territories at a time, to avoid hogging. Second, all of the PvP territories are split up into islands, and you can only battle on a particular island if you fall within the rank requirements. (The rank is calculated based on the development level of your Patria, and the amount of PvE matches you have won.)
Reawakening also goes through a ‘reset’ every couple of months, making it a cyclic game that you often see on other online strategy games. This was a prominent feature of the last game, and it’s still going strong. Whenever a reset occurs, everyone’s Patria goes back to the beginning, as well as troops and resources. However, things like your Dreamlords gear and traits carry over, as well as tribute and your overall rank within the game. According to Lockpick, the appealing part is that you can plan long term strategies with your convergence, as well as try something new. It remains to be seen if this system will be as successful, as a reset will occur more frequently than in the last game.
DREAMLORDS – THE REAWAKENING VERDICT
Dreamlords: The Reawakening has the potential to be something great. It has the potential to be a pioneer in a genre that’s still suffering from growing pains, and having to live in the shadow of its RPG brother. Bugs are few and far between, and Lockpick has proven very efficient in dealing with those that do turn up. With continued work and expansion on both the PvE and PvP elements, Reawakening has the capacity to lead the way to high-profile and dynamic MMORTS titles. This is one is defiantly worth a try, and one to watch for future developments.
TOP GAME MOMENT
Winning your first PvP match.
