Dragonshard

Background

The game takes place in the world of Eberron, a new world created in the D&D universe and the setting for both Dragonshard and Turbine Entertainment's pending massively multiplayer title, Dungeons & Dragons Online. The above ground element features massive battles, where buildings are just as important as units, whereas the RPG elements come into play in the underground portion, which is akin to a dungeon crawl to bolster armament and treasure caches.

Gameplay

Dragonshard is a real-time strategy experience based in the mystical world of Eberron, the acclaimed new DUNGEONS & DRAGONS realm. Within this wholly imaginative setting lives an inventive gameplay fusion: dramatic RTS play is affected by the risks and rewards of a thrilling RPG-styled underworld. As players direct troops over the land, they also plunge smaller, hero-led parties below ground to an RPG-modeled world of beasts, battles and bounty. Experience and items gained in this underworld result in great powers and abilities above ground. Using magic, weaponry and skilled maneuvers, players command armies from varying races to control, protect – or destroy – the powerful Heart of Siberys. Obtaining this omnipotent artifact will unleash its full forces, good or evil, upon the entire world.

Features

• The First DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Real-Time Strategy Experience
  
• The first D&D game from the all-new Eberron campaign setting
  
• Groundbreaking game design with two levels of interconnected action: dramatic RTS war above ground and critical RPG-styled battles in dungeons below
  
• Four ranges of controllable units: powerful champions, heroic captains, trainable henchmen, and nearly unstoppable battlefield juggernauts
  
• Unit development based on 'Experience Points', allowing players to "level up" units — an added RPG twist to the classic RTS gameplay structure
  
• An innovative village grid system — the "Nexus System" — where choice and placement of buildings can specifically affect units' powers
  
• Co-op and head-to-head multiplayer modes
  
• Three warring factions (in multiplayer modes), each with its own history, campaigns, unique strengths... and weaknesses.
  
• Game story by Eberron creator Keith Baker
  
• A variety of threatening environments, all with the "Hyper Terrain" feature, creating real-time terrain deformation in the wake of unit movements

Hardware Requirements

Windows 98, ME, 2000, or XP
1.3 GHz processor
512 MB RAM
3 GB free hard-disk space
8x CD-ROM drive
64 MB 3D video card with DirectX 9.0c support
DirectX-compatible 16-bit sound card
Access to online play requires low-latency, active Internet connection, rated at 56 Kbps or faster; multi-player games played over a LAN require an active connection to a TCP/IP network

Official URL

Official Site