adventure

In a nutshell, it's AD&D wiggled into the Gauntlet package.

Pros:
Good multiplayer game if you've several friends with 3-5 days of free time.
Also fun as a single player game.
Lots of powers to buy up and further diversify each character.

Cons:
Despite the diversity of skills/powers that can be bought up, it all boils down to "look at my new trick for doing/avoiding damage."
Linear gameplay with no means of exploring or jumping ahead.
Gets repetitive fast.
Low replay value.

Finish the game in 3-4 days of solid playing.
Zero character development. Total hack n' slash.
There is no actual story/plot beyond "go kill X again." Yawn.
Mini-adventures/quests are equally linear and inconsequential. Double yawn.
Standing around aimlessly while waiting to heal up.
Backstory is so ridiculous as to be laughable.*

* The backstory has the four heroes killing the Bad Guy centuries ago. But as the Bad Guy is dying in this fight, he gets off a spell that 1) kills all the characters and 2) destroys their weapons by shattering their magic into 20 shards which are then dispersed to multiple planes of existence. Hello? If the guy is so powerful as to be able to cast something like that as he's dying, why didn't he do that right when the heroes walked through the door? It's just outright bad story.

So while the game is entertaining most of the time (the first time through), it becomes tedious in places and won't be one that you go back and play time and time again. Lack of any plot/story makes it a combat-only game rather than an engaging epic, which is the heart of the AD&D gaming system.

I'll be selling my copy after I've loaned it to some friends to play.

I need to preface this with saying that I love D&D, and I love fighting through dungeons. Any game that lets you set the character's armor and weapons makes me happy.

I really liked D&DH when I started playing it, but it became repetitive after the first few hours. I finished it, but quickly traded it in. Read on for the reasons why...

You are one of a band of heroes raised from the dead to fight an evil warrior you defeated years before. His power is legendary, and it is believed that only you (and your friends, if you are playing multiplayer) can defeat this undead hellion. He has, of course, unleashed a pride of monsters upon the various worlds you must travel to find his lair.

Characters
The characters in this game are good, keeping in tune with traditional D&D classes. I played through as the human Warrior (I mean ''Fighter''), my hack-'n'-slash favorite. You can also choose from Rogue, Wizard, or Cleric. Other than the players, the NPCs are well animated, but their character development is pretty two-dimensional.

Bad Guys, Monsters, and [SPOILER]s, Oh My!
Ok, I won't spoil my favorite part of the game for you. Let me just say that some of the monsters that appeared brought back some great PC/earlier console memories. There's nothing better than beating a monster easily that has kicked your backside before, and there is plenty of this in this game. The monsters are well animated, and have decent sound effects. It would be nice if there was additional variation within levels (rather than just among levels), but overall there are is a wide variety to kill.

In other graphic/sound areas: The NPC voices are good, and well cast. The animations for fighting and spell casting are nice, but are not unique to D&DH.

Will This Gather Dust?
I traded it in after finishing it in one week, so it might be gathering dust at the store -- I don't know! I have absolutely no desire to play it again, because the repetitive hacking and slashing became tiresome the FIRST time through. Only about 20 hours worth of playing time, but I only played through as the Fighter (thank goodness)! There is nothing new in this game, but that may not be a bad thing, depending on your taste...

Overall Recommendation:
If you like Diablo, you'll like this.
If you liked playing earlier D&D games, you'll like this.
If you like pushing one button to attack and another, occasionally, to use a health potion, you'll like this.

This game, while worth the 20 hours my brother and I spent on it disappointed us in the end. Perhaps if we had played on the toughest skill level it would have been more challenging. The objective was reached without much trouble in a "hack and slash" style. Disappointing ending for a pretty good game.