Overview after playing to level 20

Bolka

 

Here is a quick and dirty review of my impressions of this game;

 

OVERALL

While the genre usually focuses on medieval-fantastic, this game is set in a renaissance-fantastic environment. The game comprises of several environments that are either cities, or dungeons/open dungeons, and are organized by level range. I have seen no instanced environment.

SotNW is a combat based game with an advanced skill system. I tend to describe it as "one logical evolution of Diablo". The combat system is a mass-killing system, similar to Diablo, but the player leads a team of characters instead of just one. A player can involve himself more or less into the fighting, from a hands off to individual management of 2 or more characters. I find the interface to be good, and the level of involvement principle very good as you can quickly switch almost all parameters and adapt to situations or just change the way to play.

The skill system is very interesting; although it is not immediately obvious when starting the game, each class is highly customizable. First through the character overall level, then each character can adopt a stance, each stance has a list of abilities that depend on the level of the specific stance, and in which the player can invest skill points.

The stance works differently from one class to the other, for instance for the scout stance means being either medic, bard, trapper, or light fighter. For the fighter, the stance is a combat stance, depends on the weapons equipped, and the list of stances is very long.

 

 

GRAPHIC AND SOUND

The graphics are just the way I like: creative with a style of their own, yet not trying to win the GPU-award of polygons per second; they are running extremely smoothly on my average machine. I found the game graphics rich and very nice, it impressed all the non-gamers I showed them to.

Sound is basically composed of many original sound tracks. Each level, or environment, has a specific list of soundtracks. You like them or not, I do, if you don't, there is a jukebox and you can use your own.

The sound effects tend to be a bit tiring, but then in a massive hit and kill game I guess you would expect them to be. Overall it is about the same as Diablo2.

 

GAMEPLAY

To make fighting less linear, the group lets you involve yourself the way you want to. You can for instance decide to leave your scout as a medic and he will take care of healing, and use your fighter in an aggressive stance. But you could decide to have your scout take two knives with the "2 cuchillos" stance and jump into the fight, then doing yourself the healing manually. You could balance this by having your fighter adopt a more defensive stance with a shield, that would reduce the need for healing. All these changes can be done right in the middle of the fight in a matter of seconds. You can even try to manage not the group, but each individual separately in the fight. Generally speaking, the more you get involved the faster and safer you kill mobs.

Massive killing and use of space for fighting is something I am glad to find again. Going through a large crowd of mobs is really fun, and the game does not feel at all like grinding through levels, instead it is just entertainement. So the game succeeds in making the main activity attractive and where you want to spend time.

The game flow is good. Thanks to waypoints and warp scrolls that allow you to get back to places you already visited, transportation is easy, and you can be where you want with little pain and small costs.

The skill system is rewarding, since it is about playing at the very least 3 characters it is eventful and there is almost always some point to invest somewhere. There are many many combinations to try, as any characters has at least 20+ skills to draw tactics from, there are at least 3 characters in a  group, and you can change the composition of your group at any time.

I found the combat animation to be good, but it is slightly too flashy and the screen shakes too much for my taste, being tiring for the long hours playing.

The game is free for long enough to make a very good trial, and then the subscription is rather low (8.95 USD).

 

CONCLUSION

In my opinion, this is a game that came up with its own style and ideas. It does take a small effort to get into it, especially if you try to approach it with the pre-conceived mold the market seems to use. In fact an inexperienced player would probably understand the game faster than the hardcore ones who expect things to be as usually laid out.

The result is a very nice and surprising game with almost instant fun, that has potential to attract different players than the usual MMO crowd.

I am unsure about the long term fun, and potential to expand, but it does look like I'll be playing it for some time.

 

 

 

garbonzo

Thanks for that, Bolka.  I'm downloading it now.

boommer99

You encapsulated in words my thoughts exactly.

Zorvan

A more apt comprison would be to Dungeon Siege than Diablo, since DS uses the party system.

I still recommend the IAH Games version over K2, though. K2 sucks.

Roin

Originally posted by Zorvan


A more apt comprison would be to Dungeon Siege than Diablo, since DS uses the party system.
I still recommend the IAH Games version over K2, though. K2 sucks.

Amen

pkim96

Good review.

As for the IAH version, if you're half away around the world from the servers, then you're going to get game breaking lag.  I played it for a while (I live in the US), and constant lag spikes made it difficult to play seriously.

My style of play is to gather a huge group, provoke, AoE to death.  If a lag spike hits during this sequence, I'm dead.

Once you reach level 50, dying becomes a bigger pain.

boommer99

Originally posted by Roin


 
Originally posted by Zorvan


A more apt comprison would be to Dungeon Siege than Diablo, since DS uses the party system.
I still recommend the IAH Games version over K2, though. K2 sucks.

 

Amen

I'm actually not a big IAH fan.  The IAH game is FILLED with botters.  K2 Network has been very proactive and responsive to the situation.  IAH doesn't really seem to care.  Also, IAH STILL has not released pricing details.  They have been in beta for 2 or 3 months now.  The english in the IAH version is TERRIBLE.  K2 Network has much better text and story.  AND they even have easter eggs.  K2 Network is in touch with Western culture and it shows.  

As far as service goes, K2 has been having a lot of issues with getting things up and running, but it is the first month out of release and every game has those kinds of issues.  The difference is K2 is being very open about what is going on and trying to inform the player base as best as possible.

And lets not forget, their servers are hosted here in the US not in Singapore.  I had terrible lag with the Singapore version.  But get no lag with K2.  I think all in all, for ME, K2 has been a better choice.

Sovrath

Pretty good review but one correction, it's not "renaissance-fantastic". That would be too early. It's more 17th century.

It's a fun game but not for people who are interested in making "one' character. It took me a little while to get a hang of controlling all the characters. And the mob respawn is extremely fast which in some ways is very good as there is little time to do anything but attend to your characters. 

hotart

O.O hahas...i agree..but i still prefer the japanese version which is like 20+ more patches than those that are in IAH...and to admit the fact that i got used to IAH...i quited a many people would just lvl up quickly as they just let their char auto-kill and them,..being AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER FOR LONG HOURS...making me lose the interest of this game...and for your info..mine is family lvl 20 in IAH and lvl 29 in japan version before i quitted...i am too fed up with those sicko whom just keep power-lvl without enjoying the game!!

Unknown

(Responding to OP)

My thoughts exactly. I played the game to the 20 level cap, it was definitely entertaining and not what I had expected. A different change of pace from the rest of the games most MMO-ers are used to. I'd recommend at least trying it out for someone looking for a new game.