Dungeons & Dragons Online Review

GameSpy has published their review of Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach, in which several of their editors have collectively given Turbine's MMORPG an overall score of 3/5. Some comments:
It seems a bit ironic that Dungeons & Dragons Online may have shot itself in the proverbial foot by actually being too true to the paper and pencil game. When I was playing with a group of people I knew (you guys), and we could all talk to each other, go through the dungeons at a reasonable pace, and really experience the game's content, it was a blast. Getting together with a group of strangers, though, inevitably means you end up following someone whose only concern is to get through the dungeon as fast as possible to get to level 10.

Even worse, pick-up groups only want to do the high experience value dungeons, which means that many players won't even be able to experience half the content that is there because they can't get a proper party together. If Dungeons & Dragons Online was built around the Guild Wars model -- free to play, but you pay for new modules -- I could definitely see getting into this with a steady group of friends. Every month or so, you'd have a new adventure to experience. As it stands now, the social aspect that's so critical to the MMO experience is sorely lacking.