I mean, don't get me wrong; Shadowbane has more potential than a freight train with no brakes at the top of Pike’s Peak. And that freight train is stocked full of cargo, with a shiny new paint job, a cool-air intake valve and a million other extras. It just has no wheels. I tell you what though; when they get some wheels for that train it is going to smoke!

As you will see in the coming sections, the game itself is fantastic. It merges the content of the old MUDS with today’s graphics technology. On the other hand, it does that for about 15 minutes a day. The rest of time, while their servers are down, the client side of the game (the portion you bought) is nothing more than a paperweight or a doorstop.

For this review, we've decided to try out a team approach, with Kurt as our main reviewer, and Ted as a co-reviewer. Since both of them have been playing (or trying to play) Shadowbane since its release, we thought it would be interesting and fun to have two viewpoints on this title.

Kurt: The first step to playing Shadowbane, as in every other MMORPG, is to create a character. As you might expect, you get your choice of gender, race, class (wizard, warrior, rogue, etc), attributes (strength, dexterity, etc.) , profession and appearance. This is done through a sort of slimmed-down "Sims-type" interface. What makes Shadowbane so different from other titles of the genre is that once you've completed the initial character creation, you're presented with extra choices later in the game to enhance your character, including the development of disciplines and the use of runestones to enhance your character.

The true strength of Shadowbane lies in the gameplay. The game builds upon the concept that was developed in the old MUDS (Multi-User Dungeons) while making use of the "sizzle" available in today’s computers. In this game you have the option of simply playing using a "hack and slash" style, or you can move on to guild wars, politics or commerce. Seriously, what other game has a four-page document complete with diagrams on the economics involved in the game play? Just the library of information supporting this game is impressive, to say nothing of the world itself. The maps, the bestiary, the history… all of it shows the kind of support this game could rely upon if the servers were up.

Ted: The character-creation system is unique in the ability to define disciplines to flesh out your character later in the game, but it'll take quite a bit of gameplay to level up to the point where you can even choose a discipline. It seems great in concept, but what it turns out to be is nothing more than a way to keep you paying your monthly fees to Ubi for Shadowbane.

As far as the gameplay is concerned, I found that early levels require you to spend countless hours "hacking and slashing" some of the dullest monsters you will ever meet. After 10 hours of slaying furry spiders, you will long for the days of EverQuest, wherein you were given quests to complete, which served not only as a means of helping you "level up," but they also taught you about the game and the character class you had chosen.

Once you finally do reach a decent level of experience in the game, it gets interesting, but still requires a heavy time investment. When you start the game, you choose a home city to work from. Once you hit a high enough level, however, you're forced to join a guild and move to their city. At that point, Shadowbane becomes a game of warfare between the guilds, or so you'd think. In my weeks of playing, I never once saw a guild war actually happen. Instead, these now "uber-characters" would head out in war parties and destroy as many high-level monsters as they could find, hoping to gain a ton of experience in the process, but doing little else to enhance the world of Shadowbane.

There's a siege system in Shadowbane that had many players excited as the idea of massive wars against cities was something we all couldn't wait to see. During the entire time I played the game, I never once heard even a rumor of a siege taking place. This may not be due to the gameplay however, it may be the fact that the servers are still having issues, and thus not as many people are playing as could be.

Kurt: Where the Gameplay really enhances this game, the graphics simply support it as they are completely unremarkable. They're good, but not jaw dropping. This fact was especially hard for me to swallow since I had to upgrade my video card just to play it. The website claims that the game will work on an old junker Geforce 256, but don't believe them, be sure to read the system specs section for more information. Every now and then you get a shot of the sun rising, or setting, or an angle of a battle that is impressive, but in general, the graphics are not revolutionary.

Ted: I'm sorry, but EverQuest Online Adventures on the PlayStation 2 looks better than this, and that's unacceptable in my book for a new PC title, especially considering how long it took this game to come out. You would think that a game which spent this much time in development could at least have some eye candy to throw our way, but that's not the case here. Generic character models, a frenzy of polygons dubbed "landscapes," and stuttering motion all amount to a game that looks like it was made four years ago. The camera is the only high point, allowing you to play in an overhead, off-angle or face-on view. As Kurt said, the graphics don't take away from the game, but for my $39.99 down payment and $13.95/month, you could at least throw me a bone when it comes to graphics.

Sound

Kurt: As a reviewer, I tend to really pay attention to the sound of a game, especially the soundtrack. The music in this game harkens back to Diablo and Diablo II, which is fine by me, I enjoyed those soundtracks. The sound effects are clean and well recorded. Here's another category that fails to detract from this game, but doesn't add to it. Then again, with sound effects what more can you ask for?

Ted: Like Kurt said, the sound doesn't detract from the game, but doesn't lend much credit to it either. Since most gamers have huge hard drives, I don't think any of us would take issue with the developers having plunked down some large, high-quality music files on our machines, but apparently Wolfpack couldn't be bothered, and so we have generic music from the Diablo era. It's not bad music, it's just that it could have been a lot better.

As far as the sound effects, they are wholly generic, lacking any unique flavor whatsoever. Swords clang, players grunt, monsters groan and the wind blows, and it all sounds like it was generated from an audio clip-art package. Doesn't hurt the game, but it could have offered a little more depth.

Kurt: Role playing games, by definition, have more replayability than racing games or your run of the mill shooters. Why? Because you get the option to do the same game again as an entirely different person with an entirely different slant on the world. Now, I know my friend Ted is going to tell you that the replayability was hindered by the company he kept. Hogwash. In any of the team based games your going to find groups that are anti-social and groups that have to be finessed.

The only legitimate detraction that I can see to replayability in this game comes from the first 4 or 5 levels where no matter what route you decide to take in the game, you are going to have fight your way up the food chain. But honestly, if it takes you more than 2 hours to get to level 6, then you're doing something dreadfully wrong.

Ted: I think Kurt sums up the nature of the beast when it comes to online RPG titles and replay value; that is, they are all dependant upon the other players working together to build strong communities. Right now, however, it's tough for me to want to come back to Shadowbane, not because it's a bad game, but because it just didn't overwhelm me with features I couldn't find in other current MMORPGs. As sieges and guild wars start to become more common, I think Shadowbane will become more popular, and might thus offer more than it does at present. It's a new title, so I'm willing to give it a little time to grow and mature.

Kurt: Finally, I get to gripe about the servers. However, I'm not going to complain as Ubi deserves a little leeway here. To be honest, I think that an online game of this magnitude, with as many players as it has, can be expected to have some down-time. It’s only natural, especially in the first few months after its release. Perhaps by the time you read this review they will have overcome their difficulties. Maybe it'll work just fine tomorrow and every day after. Then again, I might just be a big, fat Pollyanna with an overly optimistic attitude that makes me sound light-headed..

All in all, Shadowbane takes an aggressive stance when it comes to MMORPG. It really does attempt to stand out from the crowd by offering a richly detailed world in which players can immerse themselves and play a variety of different roles. It is not for the faint of heart. If you like to play a game for a few hours and hope to have it finished, then look elsewhere. This game takes patience, diligence and time. You must forge relationships, hone skills and develop a true alter-ego. In addition we must all look around for wheels that fit this wheel-less train. If you find any, ship them to Wolfpack Studios right away.

Ted: I think Kurt's being a little overly generous to Wolfpack and Ubi regarding the servers. Even a month after release, it's still difficult to log on to the servers to try to get a little game time in. For this review, I found myself getting up in the wee hours of the morning to try and log in and beat the rush. It seems like it takes only a few hundred players to cause the Shadowbane servers to spike and die, leading to laggy gameplay or the complete inability to log on. It also doesn't bode well for a new title that their daily news item is, "Please don't complain to us about the server bandwidth spikes, we know about the problems and are working on them." In my mind, that's Ubi's and Wolfpack's way of saying "Hoo boy, did we ever underestimate the bandwidth we'd need for this game."

Overall, I'd say that Shadowbane will prove interesting to most players for a brief period (when they can log in to play), but most will give up after the courtesy free trial period and return to better games such as Dark Age of Camelot or one of the myriad of new titles in the pipeline. Kurt, on the other hand, seems pretty sure that this is the next big thing when it comes to MMORPGs. If you're looking for a new online role-playing experience, give Shadowbane a shot, but be sure to pack plenty of patience until the online kinks are ironed out.