The new hireling system has the potential to vastly improve the solo game. As of this writing it was not fully implemented yet but there have been a couple of test runs. It works pretty much as you would expect—go hire an NPC hireling to come with you. Each human player is allowed to hire one NPC. It’s hard for me to comment too much on how well this system works as I didn’t have much time with it, but in theory and from the little I have seen it will be a game saver.

Through eight free modules much has changed in the land of DDO. Instanced outdoor areas for example allow you to explore and receive experience much like its sister game LOTRO. The game has a much better interface now; everything from the layout to the icons, is just crisper and more intuitive. The game’s selling point, the dungeons, is still top notch. Puzzles, traps, secret passages and a narrated dungeon master still make DDO the king of dungeon delving in my book. Everything about DDO screams quality and it makes you wonder had the game shipped in even half the condition it is now it could have lived up to the initial D&D hype.

Whether the game is worthy of another look is really dependent on what you’re looking for, because while DDO may technically still be in the MMO genre it will always be a game about small groups. I’m certainly going to keep playing it for a while based on what I’ve seen as it’s a great change of pace from the other MMOs I play and if you have yet to wander into Stormreach now is the ideal time to take a look.

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