Dungeons and Dragons: Online: Eberron Unlimited- or DDO - is the shiny, repackaged, free-to-play version of the pay-to-play but equally-lengthily-named Dungeons and Dragons: Online: Stormreach. Both games are set in the Eberron campaign setting, which is essentially meaningless unless you're a fan, but for the casual player it's enough to know that being set in Eberron allows you to play as a sentient war-robot who is powered by magic.

Most video games based on existing tabletop systems suffer from what could be generously called a disconnect, or at worst, an artistic license from the source material. Warhammer Online for example, plays nothing like the tabletop miniatures game of the same name, and for obvious reasons. DDO not only bucks that trend but then goes on to spit on its grave and insult its mother: from the moment you fire up the game to the moment you log out again, it never stops smacking you across the face with just how insanely faithful it is to its source material.

Watch the launch trailer for the free-to-play version of the game
The character creation process is identical. The combat mechanics are identical. The models and textures are ripped straight out of the sourcebooks. My dwarven cleric actually drowned when I attempted to swim through an underwater tunnel because I was wearing heavy armour. Once I took it off - which took just as much time to do as the Player's Handbook said it should take (I checked) - I was able to swim through with no problems. The level of detail is mind-boggling - it even tells you what you rolled to attack in combat, just in case you were interested.

Of course, there are a few discrepancies: spells-per-day are replaced with spell points so casters can actually be useful, and the levelling system is altered slightly so that, although there is still a level cap of 20 identical to the tabletop, smaller mini-levels called ranks have been added so that you're not waiting 9,000 years to get cool new toys to play with.

Dungeon crawling plays a major part in this game, and it pulls it off well. The dungeons (instanced, naturally) are filled with smashable crates and barrels to discover loot in. DDO encourages you to climb ledges and solve puzzles in a platformer style, not just limiting you to running and jumping and stabbing like most other MMOs. It even includes a built in Dungeon Master, whose booming, creepy voice speaks unbidden to you from time to time to tell you about something particularly noteworthy or terrifying.

Partying up with friends is easy once you figure it out, and the game smoothly transitions to group-based instanced dungeons to allow you to play together. Unlike other MMOs where arguments can break out over needing and greeding loot, in DDO each piece of loot from a chest is automatically reserved for a specific player who can choose, at their discretion, to allow another player to take it. It's a clever system and it works well, although the game has a strange tendency to throw completely useless loot at you - it was not uncommon to see players still wielding their starting weapon at third level just because nothing better, or relevant to their class, had come up.

Of course, it's not all gold and gems: the controls are unusual and can take some getting used to, and there is no shared "overworld" to inhabit with other players, besides towns and villages which act as hubs to provide access to the instanced dungeons. In fact, during most of the times I played, the PC's outnumbered the NPC's at least five to one - it was a most unusual sight and made me wonder if perhaps they should include an option to turn other players off visually, so it actually felt like a proper RPG. Many of the quests can only be played solo, which is frustrating (I thought I was playing an MMO here!) and the system of dying/respawning/getting your friends to carry your soul around the dungeon can be infuriating. Also, DDO only offers one storyline and one set of dungeons, no matter your race or class, which I cannot help but feel strongly discourages players from trying out new characters.

DDO is ostensibly free to play and 95% of the game is available to you without having to spend a dime, though a word of warning: those magic-powered war-robots I mentioned before? Those cost money. Want to play as a dark elf, or as a monk? That will cost you, too. You can become a Premium Subscriber for a monthly fee, or just purchase these things individually as you choose - or if you're really skinflint, you can just grind the game until you've built up enough favour points to redeem for your bonuses. The choice is yours, and to their credit Turbine have done a good job of providing free players with a solid and respectable MMO to play without having to whip out the credit card. At the low, low price of nothing you'd be hard pressed to find a credible reason not to try it out.