What's behind that door?

In City of Heroes most missions involved talking to a contact in the open world and then going through a door into the mission instance. This is also true of DDO, but that's really where the similarity ends. There's a lot more going on behind these doors than there often is in Paragon City.

After a few more hours in Stormreach (and I paused for a second after writing that... it's really only a matter of time until I write Stormwind by accident) I've seen environments other than warehouses. Sewers are admittedly probably the second most common urban MMORPG mission setting other than warehouses, but I've also ventured into the steam tunnels, caverns filled with giant mushrooms and an entire underground town full of hobgoblins and ogres.

There are still warehouses, of course, all stacked with so many huge crates that I expect the Ark of the Covenant is in there somewhere, unless some passing adventurer has already stolen it and sold it to a vendor.

I'm also finding a lot of variety in what I'm doing in these environments. There's been a few straight hack 'n slash 'em ups, though still offering plenty of opportunity for me to use my stealth skills, but I've also done adventures that focused on traps more than enemies, a stealth mission that I'd fail if I killed too many enemies, and a timed challenge with no enemies at all.

Not to mention a long adventure that ends at the start of another long adventure.

With almost every adventure being new to me I'm really enjoying the unpredictability. Yes, before entering an adventure it does show the level and the estimated duration (short, medium or long) but there's no way of knowing exactly what's coming until you're inside, and that's working well to keep me focused on what is, ultimately, a very episodic MMO. I'm now 12 hours in, and I'll easily get through the next 12 hours if I continue to wonder what's behind the next door.