Star Trek, DDO, WAR, Allods and Fallen Earth. How did your favorites do?

It's time for our second round of the MMO Character Creation Report Card. Today we'll take a look at the free-to-play sensations, Dungeons & Dragons Online, Warhammer Online and Allods Online, plus the new and fresh Star Trek Online and Fallen Earth. How did your favorites do?

Dungeons & Dragons Online

While it's unfortunate that there are not more visual options for crafting your character in Dungeons & Dragons Online, we will say this: each option looks fantastic. You only get three dwarf noses but each one looks appropriately Dwarfish. This leads to creating characters that look very much the part, albeit somewhat similar to each other. But there are worse things than showing up to a party where everyone looks great.

When many games can lose you in a labyrinth of menus, DDO holds your hand through the process. You choose a play style, a class, a path and finally a race, and everything happens on one screen in a very systematic order. It progresses logically and efficiently, instead of dumping a bunch of puzzle pieces on the floor and making you sort them out.

As you make choices to craft your character, you can let DDO make recommendations. So you if you've chosen to be a nimble rogue, it's going to recommend you be a Halfling or if you've chosen to be a frontlines warrior it'll recommend you be a human. It's also nice that any race can be any class, so you can make a Dwarf mage or that Halfling warrior that'll make Frodo proud. And for those of you who like to be a lone wolf, DDO lists the projected challenge of solo play of all classes, with warriors doing a lot better than spell casters, with the exception of those who have healing spells.

Not Bad DDO, not bad at all.

Grade: A-

Allods Online

Switching between races in Allods Online's character creation is like going from Adventureland to Tomorrowland by way of Fantasyland at Disney World. It's kind of hard to believe that you'd find all these characters occupying the same world. Not that we're complaining. At its best, Allods Online is bursting with creativity, as if its designers were constantly saying "Why not?"

The Orcs are towering and intimidating, the Arisen look like an amalgam of cybernetics and ancient Egyptian elements, and the most appealing race, the Gibberlings, are so adorable they make Ewoks look like pitbulls. However, we couldn't shake the impression that the evil Xadaganians seem to have a Nazi theme. Yes, they're supposed to be an evil empire, but the helmet shapes and the Hitler moustache and bowl cut go too far. Who would want to play as them?

Another interesting character creation choice was to include a button that strips your character of their clothing, right down to their unmentionables. Each race even has its own take on under garments too: stockings and garters for the female elves, sports bras for the Xadaganians, and fashion model briefs for the male elves, complete with a metro sexual star tattoo right below the navel. Strange, but hey, I guess you can tell a lot about a person by the underwear they wear.

We admire your unbridled creativity Allods, but next time you make a fun game, try to leave the war criminals out.

Grade: B