Dungeons & Dragons Online Preview

1Up has posted a short preview of Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach, in which they compare Turbine's claims of what the game has to offer to what they actually experienced during the beta test. Check it out:
Turbine says: Pacing and teamwork are a must. Successful parties consist of characters of diverse races and classes filling roles that will be essential to conquering dungeons. Dungeons will present physical obstacles not seen in other games--like traps--that will require careful planning and coordination from party members. Quest rewards and loot will be divided up and "reserved" for specific party members, based on character class. (No more ninja looting!)

We saw: Dungeons that truly required the skills and abilities of multiple party members of different classes to beat. Tanks alone would have failed, as would spellcasters. One of the dungeons we visited was full of traps, like the one seen above, that could only be disabled by our rogue; when the rogue died, it essentially ended the quest for all involved. But before his tragic death, the rogue was having a blast scouting ahead of the party, searching for traps, and disabling them before the party advanced--just like in a real D&D game. And opening the treasure chest after finally beating a different dungeon yielded rewards specifically reserved for each of us. Yay!