Rating: 
Summary: Beauty and the Beast
Review: Although this expansion brings out a whole new world of zones, quests and items, the way that Mythic handled it was not the best approach.
Dark Age of Camelot had one unique PvP feeling and still has, but now, if you dont actually own this TOA expansion, sooner or later you will get gimped on RVR battles.Worse than that, some quests you actually can solo (or even duo if you can afford 2 accounts with a "bot" of somekind), but the majority and most rewarding of the quests (example: Master Level quests) you simply cant solo. Now you could say, if you want to solo, go and play a non-online game. Not quite right. Like in real life, sometimes you want to wonder alone, sometimes you want to be with friends. A true mmorpg should allow both, without letting people who like to solo here and there gimped in the future of the game. That said, TOA brings great graphics, great underwater feeling (and general Greek / Atlantean feeling), great sound and unique zones. The problem is that you are very group dependable (and it aint easy to find a group many times) and item drops can be a pain (countless hours of camping this or that creature). I left Everquest for 2 reasons: hard to find a group at higher levels and camping of rare items spoiling the game. DAOC is following the same path that may lead to many players quiting the game. If only they made item drops more common, more soloable quests and a balanced game for people that dont own TOA or cant PVE that much, this would be a much better Expansion. Lets hope the free RVR expansion in 2004 brings a new life and hope to non-campers or non-TOA players. Anyway, taking in account all the work theyve put in this expansion and all the beauty in it, i would say this is the best expansion for a mmorpg out there ever.
Rating: 
Summary: Dark Age Indeed...
Review: DAoC Classic and Shrouded Isles was an excellent combination, where DAoC Classic still had some great exp sites, SI added new PvE content and Items. PvE was well balanced with RvR, in the sense that players could exp for a while and then go to RvR without much trouble. The Items from SI had little effect on RvR. ToA ruined this perfectly balanced relationship of PvE with RvR. ToA turned the game for the casual gamer into a game that is going to be won by the powergamer, for the following reasons: Artifacts: First of all, Artifacts take a LONG time to activate, and i'm talking from personal experience here.
Do the encounter, get the item, farm for scrolls, and hope that your activation is not bugged. (Did i mention this game has so many bugs that it seems it hasn't been beta tested?) Once you have the item activated, enjoy 4 days of non stop farming a certain mob to level it to 10, where you unleash its full power. Many artifacts are extremely powerful at level 10, and a power-gamer that wears a full suit of Artifact Armor and Items is most definitly going to be VERY successfull in RvR compared to the casual gamer who does not have that. Trials: The Trials *CAN* be fun, however, expect to do some long hours of waiting before you get a chance to finally get it done. Once again, as stated before, you *WILL* need large groups and a LOT of time to do all Trials. Does the Casual gamer have the capability of this? Nope. Once again, the Power Gamer is the one who benefits. Overall: Mythic made a *HORRIBLE* expansion that i would DEFINITLY NOT recommend if you are a casual gamer. Paying $30 for a graphics upgrade is not worth it in my opinion. With Trials of Atlantis, Mythic made a bold statement that they prefer the Power Gamer over the Casual Gamer, and not only that, but they lowered their own image among other Gaming Companies by releasing such a bugged game that they have to make patches to fix errors daily. Patching Daily is what Alpha and Beta Tests are for, and DAoC would have been better off had ToA been delayed and tested more. Buy it if you are looking for a Timesink a la "leveling to 50 all over again", and want some pretty graphics. Don't touch if your a casual gamer, you will only get frustrated with the game.
Rating: 
Summary: Finally, something different!
Review: Trials of Atlantis finally introduces something genuinely new and different to Dark Age of Camelot. The expansion focuses primarily on the lands of Atlantis, and the Master Level trials - a set of fairly involved quests and encounters that will eventually earn you very powerful artifacts, equipment, and new abilities. These encounters generally require more than one person, 4 - 8 seems to be the norm, but several of them will require several full grups working together...and some can be completed solo. Other new additions to Dark Age of Camelot include improved graphics, underwater exploration and combat, personally owned and operated boats, a bunch of new models and skins for armor and equipment, and a new race in each realm. While Trials of Atlantis doesn't completely change the game, it does add something new to it. Rather than simply killing monsters, or killing enemy players, you now have the trials to complete. Generally speaking these trials are more involved than simply hauling items around or killing monsters. Many of them involve an element of strategy or puzzle-solving. Many of them are also incredibly frustrating and confusing until you discover the "correct" solution. Give it a try...definitely worth the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Adds a whole new dimension to the game
Review: I'm loving this expansion. It's bringing very unique game play and absolutely breath takingly beautiful graphics. Makes you use your brain for a change.
Rating:
Summary: Tedium of Atlantis
Review: Sure the graphics are great. But this expansion has made it impossible for casual gamers or people who like small groups to compete any longer in RvR. It added enormous time sinks that you must sacrifice a hundreds of real life hours simply to return to parity. 12+hour spawn times, buggy rewards, long travel times, dependance on large time sucking groups is what TOA relies on. The artifacts are so overpowered as to be ridiculous. I cant imagine doing what is required for even 1 character, let alone my alts which I formerly enjoyed playing. And what about new players? The idea that a new player could buy DAOC and be able to compete or enjoy it in less then 1.5 years of solid tedious gaming is a joke.
Rating:
Summary: Trials of Atlantis heads your 50 back to the grind of PvE
Review: This is a disappointment for those who expected just a good time and maybe something like SI where you could take any tune and find new places to level. If you like EverQuest, you'll like TOA because that's what you'll be reminded of. Spending 12 hours waiting for certain mobs to spawn and then someone else coming along and killing them.
Bugs, the expansion is full of them and /appeal does nothing, a CSR will tell you "try again".
One poster states he spent 16 hours waiting for a spawn, didn't get the article, then spent another 16 h waiting for a CSR who told him to do it again.
Think you can just ignore all of that? Well, TOA adds master levels to 50's and that would give you an advantage in RvR.
Thought once you hit 50 you were done with the PvE grind, not with this expansion, this sends you right back to the same thing and you can't even do it solo. Many you can't even do with a small group. Often you need battle groups with a lotta people and now you have to find them. Oh yes, that's after you've spent all kinds of time trying to get where you need to go and then you find you need to wait for hours and hours.
Some of your group gets antsy, some just have to get on with real life and leave.
The low population servers are out of luck from the beginning, and once you've done the trials are you going to go back and do them again with your alts? These trials make epics look like a piece of cake.
I don't understand what this company was thinking, no one at DAoC plays in hopes of finding an EQ or AC environment.
DAoC is founded on realm wars and RvR is what draws people to this game. At one time realm abilities were introduced.
People racked up realm points that gave them an advantage in RvR HOWEVER they did that while RvR - something that was enjoyable to those who play this game.
Moral in the game is low because people are up against the wall to find someone to help with the ML and many people are looking for people to RvR with, but they find most are in Atlantis (NOT because they want to be-but you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.)
Atlantis could have been a lot of fun, it could have held a lot of fun for lowbies and anyone who just wanted new places to level. It COULD have added dynamite quests for all with great rewards.
I don't think the expansion is as bad as the idea of the master levels, and because so many people are upset about that entire idea, people I know are totally disappointed overall.
If mythic can pull of the next expansion "frontiers" in which they supposedly fix RvR play, they might keep customers, but right now the game is just going downhill and TOA was a shot in the foot.
Rating:
Summary: DAOC - Best game EVER
Review: All these people go and try other games but they all come back. the graphics are great, buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible mess for a great game
Review: This exp pack ruined a good game, unreal how a company can make such a huge mistake after a good track record.
Rating:
Summary: bad eq clone
Review: title says it all. what differentiates daoc from eq is it's pvp focus. this expansion takes all of the 60hr+ timesinks eq and and adds buggy untested items as your reward for blowing 1.5weeks of work.
Rating:
Summary: Horrible Timesink
Review: This controversial expansion changed an excellent game into an unbalanced mess. Much of ToA is built on group puzzles for Master Levels and "camping" for objects such as artifacts and scrolls (which you need to activate the artifacts--phew!). The group puzzles are sometimes fun, but often frustrating if your group does not have the ideal combination of classes. Spawn times for "boss" monsters compound an already frustrating experience. Often you will just have to sit and wait...and wait...and wait...and wait some more until the boss mob magically appears. God forbid any key member of your group should need to depart in that period of time. If that happens, you are screwed. That's not to mention the poor people who have real life obligations (imagine!) and cannot devote 24/7 to a game. If you cannot invest a minimum of 4 consecutive hours per session, you will have difficulty accomplishing much in ToA. Obtaining artifacts is even less fun. First, you have to "camp" a monster type to get the items necessary to activate the artifact (called scrolls). This involves idly killing the same monster after monster, hours on end, hoping the random number generator rolls your way. Then, after you obtain the artifact, you have to level the artifact, often by killing a different monster repeatedly. Boring! Some people will enjoy this timesink. Unfortunately, those who just want to RvR will be impacted by the new items and master levels. Without these things, you will not be able to compete. DAoC has changed from casual-gamer friendly to hardcore only. Unless you are a serious hardcore gamer who has hours and hours of free time, I do not recommend this game.
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