First Impressions: Dreamlords the Reawakening

Lockpick Entertainment has been hard at work on the relaunch of their fantasy MMORTS Dreamlords the Reawakening, and their efforts have not been in vain. This title is just as rich and complex a game as you'd hope for. If you're the type of gamer who likes getting your hands dirty, the level of micromanagement alone will please you. As for the rest of you, you'll have to decide for yourselves whether DtR is your cup of tea.

To help you with that decision, we've put together this First Impressions post. Keep in mind that this is not a guide -- we have no insider knowledge to report. This is merely a record of our opinions and experience playing this game for the first few hours. As always, you can click on the pictures for their hi-res versions. Onward!

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Here we are at the login screen. You will, of course, have to sign up for an account, but it's free-to-play, with microtransaction elements, so no need to worry about a monthly fee. Now, don't let the innocuous user interface fool you -- this game gets really deep really quickly. With the exception of Starcraft, I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool RTS gamer, so perhaps my muscles just weren't toned enough for the heavy lifting, but ... well, you'll see.

Here's where you create your avatar. In keeping with the theme of the game, you, as a Dreamlord, are basically a humanoid field of energy. You get to choose which color you'd like to be, but the pattern is set for you. Given that the word "pattern" is in what appears to be a drop-down menu, presumably you get to pick different patterns later, perhaps through microtransaction.

Your next option concerns the race over which you'll exercise your will: the beastlike Thul, the sorcerous Nihilim, or the militant Covenant. I chose the Thul, 'cause, y'know ... FOR THE HORDE!

Here's the opening area, a lovely pastoral scene. Pastoral, that is, if you discount the grey haze blanketing the land, lending an eerie ambiance to the proceedings. Movement is accomplished by selecting your avatar with a left-click, then right-clicking the area to which you wish to move. Depressing the middle mouse button allows you to move the camera around, though you may want to invert the axes first. Scrolling the mouse wheel zooms the view in and out, centered not on your avatar as you might expect, but on whatever you're looking at.

The camera can also be manipulated with the arrow keys, but using the mouse is the simplest and quickest means of navigation. In force here are the standard RTS conventions: you can draw a box around your units to select them; you can assign group numbers to units with the control key; you can attack-move to an area, preventing enemies from ambushing you on your way somewhere.

This is your home base. It's a map of the world, which seems to be a large floating mass of volcanic rock. Treat this as more of a strategic map. The non-grey areas are closed to you. Green areas are visitable, and yellow is the color that indicates where you currently stand, with its information displayed in the left-hand pane. Where you stand is the area in which you'll be fighting. Once you've eliminated the enemies in that area, the areas bordering it will become available. As you can see, there are a number of tabs to click on, with tons of information within each one. And believe me, it gets even better.

The first interaction with another person comes in the shape of this Thul child, who looks kind of like a little chimpanzee. She makes no mention of the fact that you don't look anything like her, but she does recognize that you're a Dreamlord. She plays a game of hide and seek with you, which helps you acclimate to the controls.

Then she leads you to her village, where you get your first taste of how combat works. That flag is just the marker of where you've chosen to move to. It's a lovely-looking game, but the scale of things might throw you. It hovers somewhere between presentational and representational.

This is combat, initiated by these "nightmares" when you move close enough to them. There's no real threat to you at this early stage, so let's take a look at some other UI elements. The chat window to the right is like any chat window, but you can close it, unlike many others. The bottom interface gives you the minimap, your avatar's stats, and a box of commands. You start with only one special ability, called "Dissolve", which reduces the speed of your opponents and adds one point of piercing damage.

The upper-left pane contains a group of powers bestowed by the gods. These are non-regenerating, and must be bought with Tribute. More on this later.

Here's another look at the strategic map. There are figures standing on other areas; these represent higher-level enemies that block your domination of the world.

Moving to this middle area presents your first challenge, and where you'll pick up your first army. The info box on the left now shows the name of the challenge, and the level required to meet it.

In the interest of expediency, we'll skip over the story content, and just show you one of the units you'll command. He's a tough-looking bruiser isn't he? You get three of these guys at first, and they follow you around. A look at the minimap shows you in white, and enemies as red. You can also see the vision cone, which represents the direction the camera is facing.

Here's a look at multi-creature combat. In the bottom box, you'll notice your troops are represented by an icon with a number in the upper-left showing total number of individual units. The health bar is beneath the icon.

These are the spoils of victory, which you can choose to keep as-is, or transform into either Soul Shards or Gnosis. Soul Shards are used to pay for items in the marketplace, or to build/upgrade the buildings in your Patria, or land. Gnosis is a more diffuse concept. Gnosis acts more like a source of energy, bolstering your avatar's strength and abilities, and causing more people to follow you. These followers can be put to work building new structures on your Patria, which will grant you different abilities. This is the most cursory summary; the reality is that you'll have to invest a good deal of time and attention in learning how this system works.

This screen is where you can manage your belongings and purchase items. As seen here, you can try on items to see how they look and how they affect your stats. The currency is the aforementioned Tribute points. You start the game with a small number of Tribute, and you can gain more through PvP victories or through microtransactions.

Another few items.

And this is where it gets completely crazygonuts. This is a shot of the website that connects with your Dreamlord's account. Here's where you manage nearly every conceivable aspect of the game, from the disposition of your followers to the buildings you've built and the research they contain to the crafting section ... it's all here, and it's somewhat dizzying. One of the great things about DtR is that you can play a lot of it from your browser, whenever you can't get in-world. For example, you can begin to research technology upgrades and they will proceed on their own in real time, similar to the way EVE Online does it. This is where the true RTS gearheads will find nirvana. It's beyond the scope of this post to go into any kind of detail, but believe me, it's there.

And here is the microtransactions interface. The smallest transaction is $14.99 for 10,000 Tribute points. There's also the option to start a subscription, which comes in two flavors: six months for $39.99, and one year for $69.99. That seems a little steep, but given the depth of gameplay here, maybe six months is just barely enough time to really get a grip on things.

Here's a cursory look at the PvP overworld. You can see numerous floating islands in the grid.

This is a typical squad of enemies marching around just prior to being attacked.