So I picked up the Dark Age of Camelot expansion Catacombs and what follows is my first experience in these new areas. I installed the game first of course which comes on 4 cd’s. And like the other expansion packs for Camelot this is a whole new version of the game. Each expansion that has come out has had it’s own client for the game. Which means that I’ve wasted another 2 gigs or so for this game that I’ll play maybe for a month at the most and end up canceling again.

Then of course I patch. Patching Catacombs involves the normal Camelot patching system plus a download of some bigger file not added by the patcher. No problem here of course since the expansion has been out a while and it’s not having to patch everyone and their brother. Once the game loads up your greeted with a new character selection screen, which is a nice fluff feature added by the expansion. All of my character except my level 50 were able to change their faces here at this screen. Turk (my level 50) could not do so. Which is no big deal as I found out I can talk to a npc in game to do this later. I picked my 50 and entered the game.

And of course I zone into Avalon City. This of course just shows how long ago it was I played the game last. So to get to these new expansion areas I have to run to a nearby town and take a horse to another town where I’m able to teleport to Camelot City. Then one goes behind the church and enters the Roman Aqueducts. And this is where the games unfriendliness becomes very apparent. You zone into this area and there is no real indication of where you need to go, other than heading forward. I guess I’ve grown used to WoW and it’s hold my hand approach.

So I’m exploring these Roman Aqueducts and having a general fun time minus the fun. I go past this Blue shiny thing and pay no attention to it. Which was a mistake because it is an Obelisks that transports you into the city for your side. But I had no idea and I explore all around this maze that is the Roman Aqueducts. And I’m having a fairly decent go at it until I come to a dead end which the only way to go is to jump off down to your death.

And of course I skillfully manage to fall to my death at this dead end as I’m making my way out of it. Which is no big deal I’m level 50 the experience loss is not an issue nor is the 17 gold it costs to buy back my con. It’s just the whole idea of this death. It’s like the game (or the developers) relish the idea of killing the player.

I can invision some sort of big scoreboard at Mythic that keeps a tally everytime the game kills one of their players. And again maybe I’ve been babied to much by World of Warcraft. But I just can’t find the fun in it anymore and I’ve tried. Oh well I’ll spend a few more days in Camelot as I gain up some great rested xp in WoW and see how many more times Catacombs can kill me.