Shadowbane

by UBI Soft

Product Features

• We enter the world of Aerynth after a massive war. Not so long ago, the humans and elves fought their final battle -- and neither side won. Their empires ruined, the world descended into an Age Of Strife. Legend holds that an ancient sword called the Shadowbane can restore peace and order. if it can be found.
• This incredible role-playing game features large strategic elements as you choose your destiny in a new world
• Manage your political & social maneuvering through an aextensive guild system
• Personal housing system allows players to build cottages, villas, even citadels
• Detailed warfare and magic systems for incredible tactical and mystical action

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B000067FDX
• Item Weight: 12 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: March 25, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (98 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,024 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #71 in Software > Outlet
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Shadowbane is the first persistent world massively multiplayer online game to combine the fantasy role-playing and strategy genres. In addition, Shadowbane is the first such product to embrace a dynamic world design model, in which players can physically affect the history, politics, and landscape of the game itself. In Shadowbane, you can build castles, raise armies, and lay siege to vast areas of virtual terrain. These kingdoms remain even as players come and go--the game simply continues evolving over time. It's EverQuest with an edge.

Product Description

Shadowbane is a massive multiplayer online game that brings a dark & deadly fantasy world to life! An incredible story arc takes players through 5000 years of history

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Unsatisfied, May 28, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Shadowbane (CD-ROM)

1. Log-In server instability and responses: As a large fan of MMORPG's (EQ, DAOC, AC, etc.) i do not believe that getting in the "front door" should be such a tedious procedure. The wait time can range from instantaneous (during off-peak hours) to the mind numbing click, wait, repeat process i have unfortunately become accustomed to, some lasting 20 minutes or more. Many times i have encountered the 'invalid' password screen - forcing me to reset my password a handful of times, further delaying my playing time by minutes or hours waiting for the reset to take place. Perhaps cookies could be established to reduce this issue - perhaps not. If the login server takes more than a couple minutes to start up now, i usually find something else to do - my play time is limited some nights.

2. Server population: While it is becoming apparent that the current servers cannot handle the current population load, the server population in Shadowbane is that of a poor DAOC server or a barren EQ server. The game world is far too large for so few people. The servers would be much more exciting if they were more densely packed. I realize that you have many other online games competing with you and thus diluting your customer base, but 10 servers is too many for such a new game. It reminds me of the "console" feel of Asheron's Call 2.

3. Guild war is stagnant: While this does not hold true on all servers, it unfortunately happened on many of mine. The 'endgame' of any MMORPG is a trick matter - what do you do when you've stopped leveling? Unfortunately in Shadowbane the leveling process is rather quick (kind of a double-edged sword, i know) and the endgame consists of pounding on other guilds until one of you is defeated and one or two strong 'empires' remain. Then what? Am I supposed to keep making enemies although they have no town? Am i supposed to turn on my allies? For what gain? What happens if you actually get along with the neighbors you have left?

4. No test server?: I don't know how you 'test' your patches but i find it hard to believe they can successfully be tested without large-scale, human feedback. The last patch arguably made the game worse. An honest example of my weekend's playing session was Saturday night - unplayable due to lag, Sunday - login servers were down (this is the day we all received credit for), Monday - forced to change my password because my current one was "invalid". You may wish to consider smaller patches more frequently than the huge "hope this fixes everything" carpet bombing that is currently underway. Check out Mythic's DAOC for how to patch - they have it down.

5. No quests? No "dungeons"? Combat is very shallow in my opinion. Creature control spells are almost unnecessary as a "bad pull" consists of 3-5 creatures - which most groups of 10 can reasonable handle. Loot is random for the most part and all of the best "dropped" items can be found in a decent r7 sage shop for a minimal sum. The only thing that vaguely resembles going out of your way to do something different is getting disciplines - and many of the unique, enjoyable races in your game (Minotaur, Centaur, etc.) are extremely limited in the ones they can select. I do appreciate not having to wait 24 hours for a rune spawn though - kudos on that.

My above statements were made on the Shadowbane forums in an attempt to provide feedback. The thread was subsequently locked and silenced - apparently i hit on a nerve.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Could be great!, May 22, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Shadowbane (CD-ROM)

I'll make this quick. I have played about 10 morgs to date and this is my read on Shadowbane.

1. Very old graphics. If you have played Daoc or AC2 you will be very disappointed in the graphics.

2. Leveling is faster than any morg I have played which is good. I'm not sure what the end game is and I'm not sure they know what it is. Once you hit 60+ you are left to farming gold.

3. Housing is a joke. The cost is high and the upkeep is absurd only to have it burned down a week after u put it up.

4. Small cities don't stand a chance. If you have a group of 40 buddies from another game and u want to start a city gooood luck. The costs are very high and the upkeep is even worse. You will spend all ur time farming gold to keep the city going and eventually one of the uber guilds will burn it down.

5. If you get in a guild and don't like it past lvl 35 your banished to the ruins for ur bind spot until you find another guild. They force you into a guild and leave no room for the smaller guilds to go but to subguild to a larger uber guild.

6. Lastly travel is very very difficult. U end up hunting the same spots around your city because getting anywhere takes forever. Once the big pvp battles start you spend most of the time frozen from lag.

This game could be very good but in two months I have not seen any improvement in the game at all. I would consider buying it but I would wait to see if they can fix the lag issues first.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A huge disappointment, June 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Shadowbane (CD-ROM)

I started playing Shadowbane on launch day. It had its problems but I figured hey, it's new, there will be some rough spots -- give it time and it will get better. I was wrong: the game has gotten progressively worse. Every patch that's supposed to fix things breaks more than it fixes. The developers have been struggling with a constant server-side lag problem and seem no closer to fixing it than they were two months ago. Many features listed in the manual were never actually implemented. Players' accounts get locked out for no apparent reason and they have to wait days or weeks for them to be fixed. There is now a huge problem with item and gold duping, which has wrecked the game economy. People are quitting in droves. UbiSoft has blocked access to the general discussion forum to non-players because players were posting complaints faster than the moderators could delete them, and the company has been insisting to everyone from reviewers to the Better Business Bureau that there are no problems. They responded to an excessive number of in-game trouble reports by severely limiting the ability to report problems. Player counts have dropped by 30-50% in the past month and the company's stonewalling, evasiveness, and flat-out lying is driving the remaining players away as fast as their subscriptions expire.

I waited a long time for Shadowbane. It was the game I'd dreamed of playing. It has some really ground-breaking concepts and some incredible ideas behind it, but the design is fatally flawed in a number of ways, the implementation is bug-ridden beyond belief, and the company doesn't seem to care if it actually has any customers.

In short, two thumbs and a big toe down.