Rating: 
Summary: Mythic took everything that made the original good and threw
Review: Many of Dark Age of Camelot's subscribers first started as refugees from other MMO games, getting away from such things as resource contention, massive timesinks, poor customer service, and game imbalance. Who knew that their latest expansion, Trials of Atlantis, would introduce such hated facets into their once wonderful game. One of my most hated things in such games is the fight over limited resources. Whether it be a special monster for that must-have item, or just finding a place to hunt, fighting over other players over this just isn't fun. Mythic's original quest system was great, since credit is awarded to everyone in the group. Unfortunately, much of Atlantis' items, known as Artifacts, are on the sort of rare-spawn-rare-drop table only the most masochistic players could endure. If that wasn't bad enough, you have to do this three additional times for scrolls to even use an artifact. Let's not forget about the master levels, which have multiple groups of players competing for the same spawn. Result? Instead of players working together for the realm, we have them bickering over who took what wrongfully. An important feature of such games is the ability to play for a short time and feeling you've accomplished something. Not so with TOA. Many master level trials require gathering 4 or more full groups to dedicate at least 4 contiguous hours of their time. Can't devote that much? Then you'll just get left behind. Think master levels are not for you? Then don't expect to perform well in PVP combat. To add insult to injury, the once acclaimed customer service has taken a dive. Many of the quests, artifact encounters, and master levels have had problems since the start. After waiting at least 10 hours to contact customer service, you are most likely going to be told that you are out of luck, and receive a form email saying the same. Realm abilities were bad enough for game balance, but throw Atlantis into the equation and watch out. From the stealth lore ability that effectively nullifies a spec line for seven classes, to the master level ability grapple that puts players totally out of fights, it is a mess. Mythic really needs to provide even footing for all players; nobody wants to feel useless. It really is a shame to see such a good game ruined by an expansion, especially one that is a "must-have" to advance further. Fortunately there are some promising new titles coming up.
Rating:
Summary: ToA KO'd DAoC
Review: As a Commerce student in the last year of my B. Comm. degree, watching a company do something like this to themselves really makes my head hurt. The first, most basic, fundamental lesson they teach us in second-year Marketing is: Understand what your customers want. I have been playing DAoC since its release years ago, and ToA is what drove me to quitting for good. Mythic either did not understand what their customers wanted, or decided to deliver something that they knew they did not want anyways. In either case, the result was an unmitigated (and in my eyes, unsalvageable) failure. Customers WANT to have enjoyable fights against other players in this game; what ToA gave them is a truckload of barriers to that enjoyment that only people with an obscene amount of time to devote to a computer game can possibly hope to accomplish. The main appeal to DAoC was it's RvR (team-based player vs. player) fighting. However, to get to the point where you were good enough to be relatively successful required fighting monsters from levels 1 through 50. This was rather time-consuming, and by the time people finished, the last thing they wanted to do was to "level" their character more. Mythic did implement more powerful rewards, but they tied the rewards to PvP fighting, so the method to get the rewards was palatable to the customers, even if the many rewards themselves were horrible unbalancing. With ToA, what Mythic has done is to force players who want to be competitive in RvR to endure a HORRIBLY time-consuming process of getting 'master levels' and insanely powerful artifacts that unbalance the game even more. It's Everquest tedium all over again to get the latest, greatest ML or item, with the exception that the PvE fighting is much, much worse. Now DAoC consists of a crazy arms race with two categories of people: Powergamers in large/elite powerguilds who can devote hundreds of hours a month on a computer game, and casual players who play when classes/jobs/social life allows. Casual players are leaving the game en masse. Playing DAoC now necessitates a huge time commitment to PvE in order to enjoy the RvR element which is what most customers enjoyed. DAoC has an environment now where the uber players rule and casual players drool. Elite powergamers will stick to the party line of "Oh you don't NEED to do MLs and artifacts to compete", because they like having people around to slaughter like cattle. Unfortunately, this situation isn't much fun for the cow. The new timesinks involve camping the same monsters for hundreds of hours to "level up" items, waiting for hours hoping a certain monster spawns, and hoping you can get into trips with the power guilds for hours at a time to complete stages of quests. Did I mention that ToA has more bugs than most beta tests? Practically daily, Mythic publishes patches to problems in ToA rather than making fundamental game changes that customers really want. Mythic really slit their own throats with this one. Save your money for a computer game that can be enjoyable, rather than a second job that you have to pay for.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent addition to an already great game
Review: One of the biggest things I enjoy about this online game is its sense of community and team work. It makes it fun to visit with others and to engage in gameplay together. This new expansion adds a great new level to gameplay and community. First for gameplay, the expansion adds more depth to the game. Graphically (if your system can handle it) the world is more 'alive' and contains greater detail and shading. It adds content to the gameplay that was never available before, and multiple new skills that have to be earned not as a solo player but as a team. The content of ToA lends itself to group encounters. It helps build teamwork and a better sense of community. The community now has to ask the question, what skills do we lack and how can we help someone in our guild / alliance to gain that skill to the benefit of us all. The biggest downside of this, is that the expansion will not appeal to the casual player. While there are places to solo fight in the expansion, to gain the new master level skills will require groups of people. Thus a casual player will not benefit from this addition.
Rating:
Summary: Great game except for the expansion part
Review: I am a serious player of dark age of camelot. It is probabbly my favorite game. I got the game when it first came out and i loved it to death. Then they came out with a new expansion pack called Shrouded Isles. This one seemed to be good because it gave us new classes and players. I had total faith in mythic for bringing me great gaming fun. But now i have lost faith in them once i played this expansion pack. They now have what they call master levels which will take several hours if not days to complete. Its like starting your charactars all over again. i have 2 level 50's which is as high as the levels go. I had a lot of fun getting them up to that level. But then i went to this new place in the expansion pack and it was horrible. This game was supposed to be based on Realm vs. Realm in which the humans battle the viking type realm and battle the elf fantasy type of lands. So its a 3 way war in special frontiers. That has to be everyones favorite part of the game. Level 50's like to go there and team up to capture keeps from the enemy and gain realmpoints for doing so. It is a well put together game. This expansion however is not. It's like Mythic tried to make this game strictly Player vs. non charactar monsters. They need to get an expansion out for improving the frontier battlefields. unless you want to spend 25.00$ - 30.00$ for better grapics this game is NOT WORTH IT!!!!! the one positive thing i find out of this game is the special armor that creatures drop in this new area included in the expansion pack. It is not like a regular suit of armor, it has colorful decorations like for kingly type people. That is the only positive thing i can say about this TERRIBLE GAME!
Rating: 
Summary: I love this expansion!
Review: Don't listen to these people that love to complain. I have been with daoc since the first week its been out and have to say that I love it. How can you expect to not spend time getting the great gear? If it was easy then it would be a pointless expansion. And it is geared for high level characters though mythic has added some camps for getting experience now. All in all its a great expansion that I highly recommend. Don't listen to these people that like to form "pity parties." 'Nuff said.
Rating:
Summary: A great game gone bad
Review: DAoC was a great game until ToA came along. If you are even considering buying this expansion pack, or the game itself, read the rest of the reviews here on Amazon. They're not too far from the truth. Its amazing how Mythic lost touch with their game and customer base. BIG disappointment!
Rating:
Summary: Wait for a price break
Review: There are currently WAY too many bugs in this expansion pack. Patches will fix them, eventually, maybe. The enhanced graphics are nice, if your system can handle them, but it certainly isn't worth $25. I'd wait for the price to drop to $10-15. Dark Age of Camelot is still superior to other MMORPGs currently on the market, and the upcoming FREE expansion should keep it that way for at least the next year. Just don't be too anxious to get your hands on an expansion that is still basically being tested.
Rating:
Summary: gotta love nerfs
Review: Mythic really messed up a fun game with all of the timesinks they introduced with this expansion. I won't reiterate the comments below, but I wanted to post this caveat --- Some of the new artifacts in this expansion are quite overpowered. When players complained about how overpowered one of these artifacts in particular was, Mythic reduced its power. However, they reduced its power so as to make it useless. So if you're considering buying this expansion, and are willing to spend the hours finding your dream artifact, and the hours sitting around waiting to find the scrolls that activate your artifact, and the hours levelling up your artifact, beware --- it may very well be that Mythic will decide, after you spend all that time, to make your artifact useless.
Rating:
Summary: Highly NOT recommended
Review: If you are just starting this game, this expansion pack is most definitely not for you. You cannot start Trial 1 until you are level 40. Frankly, if you go to TOA before you are 50, you will end up losing alot of gold and xp. I have several level 50's and die frequently in TOA. The main reason *NOT* to get this expansion is that you will be extremely frustrated. You will not be able to find a group to help you complete the trials. Why? Because they have all moved on to the higher level ML's. No one..I mean NO ONE..is going to repeat any trials or help you complete them. So all in all, you're paying for a slight graphic upgrade. The trials themselves are worthless. You need HUGE groups to complete them and if you are somewhat casual gamer, you won't get them done for all the reasons I stated above. This expansion turned a nice game into a horrible game. Many people are leaving due to this expansion. I would not recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Bye Bye DAOC - hello Ever-Camping
Review: Im level 50, was pretty good in RVR (RR6L6) and now with TOA im realising i have to go through all the pain of leveling items (???) waiting countless hours to find mobs that drop rare items (if not bugged)) and waste a lot of my RL time waiting to arrive at a certain zone, waiting again to find a group and then pray to get a drop thats even worth of the pain (if theres anything worth that trouble at all). MLs and Artifact levels are a good idea with a bad conception. This game is turning to be a power-gamer game only (since the ones that wont do it, will be gimped like they were green). And the reason why its powergaming? Cause the majority of the quests out there you wont be able to do them alone, duo or even with a group. Forget solo playing, forget all you ever knew to be sure. Do ML1 quest 1 and 2, a bunch of artifacts or quests (that you supposedly can solo) and thats it, time to waste a lot of time gathering groups and it only gets worse when you go up. Did i mention artifact? You waste hours or days camping for a item that supposedly drops from a mob, finally you get the item and then be prepared to waste another lot of time getting the scrolls to activate it (from scathered mobs that rarely drop the scrolls) and then.... thens more...... waste a lot of time leveling that item (and be prepared cause the best exp comes from good groups - cause the mobs that level them are deep-purple) Forget the reasons why you left the ever-camping, ever-item of Everquest, your nightmare is here to stay. Beautifull graphics and zones dont make up for a complete waste of RL time. When youre not having fun, its time to ask yourself if its really worth it. And im asking myself already. Avoid like the plague, unless you dont have a RL and are a true EQ life-sucking game fan.
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