Rarely is sorting through after-battle loot handled as poorly as it is in Dungeons & Dragons Tactics. While this PSP title from Kuju Entertainment is a mostly satisfying look at hardcore role playing, courtesy of slavish attention to D&D's version 3.5 rule set, a spectacularly awkward interface slows the action to a crawl both before and after the long swords come out. Venturing into the bowels of the earth to slay dragons and load up on gold pieces has rarely been so tedious.
Despite the title, D&D Tactics is actually a fairly straightforward turn-based RPG. The emphasis on tactical combat is only about as pronounced as you'd find in something like the old Gold Box games, which actually seems old-school appropriate for the debut of D&D on the PSP. Battles are the primary focus here, making the pace more measured than the standard contemporary RPG. But even though you need to have some appreciation for the 3.5 edition of the pen-and-paper D&D rules to truly enjoy this game, combat intricacies aren't too over-the-top. For the most part, you just need to have a reasonable idea of how to use each character class when it comes to melee and ranged fights, as well as some common sense when it comes to whipping out area-effect spells, such as a fireball. If you're a total newbie at this stuff, at least there are four opening tutorials to get you up to speed.
The only real difference between this game and a garden variety RPG is the predominance of set-piece missions with straightforward cleaning-house objectives. Instead of looking for the answers to some big mystery, you kill all of the goblins in a crypt, wipe out a bunch of thieves, or take on some similar style of methodical mayhem. While the role-playing depth isn't tremendous, there are loads of options. Full six-person adventuring parties are created from all of the D&D core classes, such as the mage, fighter, cleric, and rogue. There are also more esoteric selections, such as the barbarian and a pair of psionicists. You select which ones go on each assignment. All of the standard races are here as well: human, elf, dwarven, halfling, half-orc, and so on. Characters are fully detailed with all the expected skills and feats, whether you choose from the sizable pre-rolled crew or whip up your own. Their backgrounds even include such extras as god worshipped (nice to see St. Cuthbert again).
The game's story is a pretty ordinary fantasy tale. The lengthy solo campaign deals with the usual claptrap about arcane prophecies of doom, magical artifacts, and the end of the world. All events are also nicely illustrated with what look to be painted scenes that wouldn't have looked out of place on a panel van in the '70s. Most of it is driven by hack-and-slash dungeoneering although there are some choices to be made. The ethical "alignment" you choose for your characters--whether they have evil, neutral, good, lawful, or chaotic outlooks on life--is also a concern. It can be very tough to remain on the straight and narrow as a good guy; make a few bad choices as a noble paladin, and before you know it, your character's alignment has changed to evil.
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