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YAWN! my review
Okay, well I have been in OB all day trying out different classes etc. Here is my impression...
First, I want to say that the game's artwork is different and unique and it does look like a Chinese comic book. I really like the artwork alot.
However, I am bored already. The combat in this game puts me to sleep. I played several toons up to lvl 10 and I was bored the whole time.
The mobs just sit there waiting to be farmed and there is apparently no aggro whatsoever. Even when you attack a mob with others standing right next to it, they do not aggro you. I even ran my lvl 1 toon thru a lvl 20ish mob area and still did not get any aggro.
The actual combat animations are also boring as hell. And combat is way too easy. I was able to kill a lvl 12 mob relatively easy with a newly created lvl 0 toon using only 1 noobie healing herb.
So, can anyone tell me if the combat gets anymore exciting than this? Or is it just mowing down the mobs that are sitting there waiting for you to farm them?
I would give the artwork in this game a 9 but the mob AI is like something out of a 1980s game. (Ie there appears to be none).
Please tell me that I am wrong because I really want to like this game.
Amazing CGI toons: http://www.damapro.com/ & http://www.renderosity.com/
Comments
Yes the mobs do start attacking once you get out of the training area levels.
Well I tried to force myself to play another day, but I just couldn't do it. I failed and imo this game does too.
Here's some more info for those interested.
First, so you don't think I am just trying to bash this game, here are the good points:
This game has unique beautiful artwork which looks like a Chinese watercolor painting.
The game has a beautiful soundtrack of Chinese music.
The game plays very smoothly and I did not notice any major bugs.
The click to move on the map and click on names in quest and auto move feature is excellent and unique to this game. (Well Domo has something similiar too, but theirs is buggy as hell)
There seemed to be overall a nice community.
Now for the Bad:
In addition to the non-existent mob AI I listed above this game also suffers from some other flaws that make it unbearable for me to play.
As others have already noted the quests are BORING too. There is almost no attempt to make the story interesting. It is just go here, kill this, hand this to this NPC and bla bla bla.
What makes the quests even more bland is that this game has some of the worst Engrish translation I have ever seen from an asian mmo. I tried to read alot of it, but I couldn't tell what the hell they were trying to say. So I gave up.
Moreover, I have never played a game where the NPCs spam more than the players do. Every time anybody runs past or talks to an NPC they say something. This speech shows up as a chat bubble (which is okay) but it also shows up in the chatbox in the general/say channel.This generates so much spam you cannot even read what the REAL players are saying before the chatbox is filled up.
In additon to this, you have a scrolling message across the top of the screen with non-stop GM messages spamming/advertising stuff.
Finally, there is also a larger blue text spam right IN THE MIDDLE of the screen everytime somebody completes one of the boss(?) quests telling you that so-and-so noob has defeated this brigand dude or that watchamacallit badass and taken his treasure.
This occurs every few minutes and I found it even more annoying than the ads that pop up in your face in 9 Dragons. (For those of you who have tried that game you know what I am talking about). Seriously, I could care less and I don't really see why they think its necessary to have this feature.
This excessive game spam is seriously aggravating and ruins the immersion in the beautiful artwork.
Normally I try to play a game for a few days to try to give it an honest chance, but for some reason with this game there were just too many aggravating things for me to overlook.
/UNINSTALLED
Amazing CGI toons: http://www.damapro.com/ & http://www.renderosity.com/
Totally agree, your comments just about sum up the ZU experience, I felt almost the exact identical feelings about it !
Uninstalled lol
Oh yeah your right about the Artwork in this too,so it is a real shame the game does'nt cut the mustard .
when you get above level 30, mobs will attack you. you will find aggro everywhere.
If you have to get to level 30 before the game becomes slightly more then a snoozefest then that is a game that many will not play.
I also tried this game and quite frankly it bored me to tears in under a couple hours. I really do NOT see this game making the grade.
If I were to give it a letter grade it would get a B for graphics, C- for UI and character control and F for non existant fun gameplay.
I have played zu untill level 48 so far, and although i agree with the review, i don't agree with your point, that zu is a bad game.
i have played a lot of free games, and except voyage century all were really siple "grind to get to next level" games.
Rappelz wasn't so bad but Gala.net policy was, so i uninstalled it
Zu is really bad and boring at low levels:quest are incredibly easy, and it's all run around to the next npc.
Well after level 40 quests become challenging, and everywhere u need to watch out for guys from other factions that want to kill you.
I got a uber elite quest at 40 and so far i died every time i tried to finish it.
My suggestion is that you force yourself to play a little more than level 30, they messed up the game with low levels, but at higher levels the game is good
First of all, a confession: I'm tired of reading the expert reviews of lvl 10 players; if you intend to bash the game, at least spend some time actually playing and testing the game. Being lvl 10 in Zu is nothing: the level cap is 300 and you can get to 25 - 30 in a couple of hours without pushing yourself too hard - jut so you'd understand how much time that dude spent in game...
Now: IMO Zu has the potential to become one of the most successfu free MMOs on the market but it all depends on what decisions the company will take when going from OB to full release. The situation is like this:
- the graphics are both original and very carefully designed; the maps don't look the same, each having its own type of mobs; characters and mobs look really cool, with a lot of details. They're 3d looking too (from the official photos you get theimpressionthey're 2d, but fortunately it's not the case) - it's just the way Zu is put together (in a cartoonish manner) that makes you see it differently at first.
- the game has a lot of little things that make playing the game a real pleasure and make you relax more than in other MMOs: you have an auto trace for both quests and NPCs (so solving quests or finding a certain NPC is no problem at all), you have teleporting portals and also a flight system (which you'll be using a lot), you also have pets, that are really worth the trouble of leveling up, because they get both stats and skills to buff your character; you get a lot of good drops (many with enhaced attributes that would save you tones of in game money); you also have something worth fighting for when joining a guild: the guild poles which allow the owning guild to afk level its members; last, but not least: various ways to help you level faster - in game events, blessings, double xp items, etc.
- advancement: untill reaching lvl 30, you're safe from pkers. You should take your time and learn the game mechanics and get a general idea, because I'll be honest, the game can get a little confusing at first: there are no stat points (so no super builds or anything like it) - that means your toon's eficiency will depend entirely on the gear you're using and the level (because skills and talents are level based; pets depend on your lvl too - they can't be higher lvl than you, and some of their features are lvl based - you can ride a mount at lvl 40, equip it with items that increase its attributes at 60 and 90, and so on). Xp (at least at lower levels) is achieved entirely from quests (no grinding). You also need to get cooperation points, which can be exchanged for skill books (there are several ways to get them). Like I said, leveling (due to the huge xp from quests) is not a problem (ppl can easily get to 60 or more in the first week of playing). At first the game is super easy, no aggro mobs, easy quests, very good drop rate. As you level and you begin to understand and master the game, it becomes more and more difficult. After reaching lvl 30 you are able to pk/get pked - and tyhat's when you'll discover the 1st "horror" of Zu - it's an all areas pvp game with no safe zones (it's quite shocking, because at first the game has such an enjoyable and peaceful atmosphere, and al of a sudden, it gets quite brutal) - not even in low maps or starting towns (once you leave the teleporting areas, you're game). Raids are (sadly) a part of the game (some quests even require that you go in other factions' wolds), they're frequent and like I said, pvp is level based, and since there are no "super builds" to compensate the level difference, the higher lvl player always wins. Thus, the 2nd "horror" of Zu: right now, the max allowed level difference is 90 levels! That means someone 90 lvls higher than you can attack you! And after several deaths, you discover the 3rd "horror" of Zu - when you die, there's a chance you'll lose some of the items that you equip (pieces of armor, weapon, etc) - and most annoying, it's random (which means you could lose the most valuable of all). So you're close to discovering the 4th "horror" of Zu: crafting & upgrading costs in Zu are very (VERY) expensive!!! That's why it's not advisable to upgrade gear of lower lvl, you'll end up spending all the money you have for just 2 full upgrades - and money (bones, or silver) are very difficult to obtain in this game (it's the first time I'm having serious cash flow issues and I'm running with just 5 - 10k most of the time). Not to mention everything in this game is quite expensive: pets, gear, pots, you name it; even teleports could drain your account dry (just take several quests in Death World or Miracle Town and you'll waste a lot of money on teleports). So what to do? Well, you have to keep your eyes open for good gear from drops, always keep back up gear in bank, do all the quests - especially the ones that give good gear as reward), spend wisely you talent points and your contribution points to upgrade the skills, etc. It's good to have friends to play with, because you'll get a lot of boss slaying quests that require a party, and it's also good to have someone to watch your back all the time, because there's a a very high chance to run into a pker the minute you step in a training map (especially in Miracle Town and Sky Lake). More to come...
First off, none of us said we were expert reviewers. Secondly, if the game isn't fun at lower levels then why would anyone in their right mind continue on with something that might get interesting in another 20 to 30 levels. You arrogant post just shows that there are a few of you that love boring yourselves till a game gets fun or until you convince yourselves that it is fun.
Good luck to you, I think I will stick with my pay to play, quality mmo's.
I hate mmos with bad english (engrish). Surely a company that has enough money/investment capital to runs mmo have enough money to hire a better translator to localize their content.
man, amen on that, im kinda tired of games that are released on NA that can barely tranlate a single word, in all honesty, english aint that hard
Processor: AMD Athlon X2 Dualcore 6000+
Ram: 2gigs Patriot Performance
OS: Vists Basic
VC: Evga 8800 Gts
HD: 260g
MB; Gigabyte S Serioes
[quote]Originally posted by khartman2005
First off, none of us said we were expert reviewers. Secondly, if the game isn't fun at lower levels then why would anyone in their right mind continue on with something that might get interesting in another 20 to 30 levels.[/b][/quote]
You are not qualified to make a review after just 15 minutes of playing the game - which is how much would take (at most) to get to lvl 10. Like I said, you can reach lvl 30 in 3 - 4 hours. Zu requires more time to spend learning the game than your usual MMO, there are some features that might be confusing at first. That's why the game is so easy & high paced at first. However, the higher the lvl, the more challenging it gets. I don't have to convince you of anything, by all means go and play whatever you like, but don't come in here and say the game sucks, when it's obvious you have no clue whatsoever regarding the game and its mechanics. And on top of that, the game is stil in OB, and a lot of things are changed from one patch to the next.
I never said I was qualified and neither are you for that matter. However I played the game for a few hours and got to level 27 if that helps any. I got even more boring as I got higher in level. Sorry but this game isn't for me and from the posts I have seen alot more do not like it also.
Like I said in an earlier post, if you like it then congratulations and have fun. For me and several others that think this game is a stinking pile of dog dung then we shall stick with our quality pay to play mmo's.
My initial post was a reply to the topic's title and the OP's "review"; you felt you needed to step in, fine. You have something to say, say it, but stop using cheesy lines like the quoting one - it's quite funny if you think that's irony, lol! Stick to playing your P2P MMOs and let others enjoy Zu, but like I said, don't bad mouth a game just because you don't have the patience to understand the game's mechanics. Have a good day!
Ive tried it. If the game can't keep me interested beyond the 10th level (Or in this case, even beyond level 1), its not worth my time.
Fellow MMO'ers: Try it, but dont get your hopes up.
tried the game till lvl 12 didnt like it
too cartoonish for me
i just loved flying on the sword though that was cool
First time i played world of warcraft i thought it was ugly, boring, and too cartoonish too.
now i thank god i didn't quit playing after 1 day like most ppl did with zu, after level 20 wow became amazingly fun.
This game feels exactly like Xiah. and that's not good.
im on lvl 40 right now, and the game is starting to get less and less appealing. I always enjoyed more pve than pvp, and in this game pve is really lackluster. I just got my first quest that I know ima need a group to accomplish, so maybe this will turn things around if there are more quests like this.
I'm hoping down the line, they add instances/raids, that would truly make the game worth playing.
The main aspect of the game seems 2 be pvp, and from what I heard its been nerfed a lot because of the latest patch that added guards everywhere. So hopefully that will be fixed, so lower lvl people have something to do besides questing.
Also the EVENTS in the game are something to take away from standard grinding/questing. Although it seems you need to be a high lvl to participate in most of them. I've only been able to do 1 Event, which was a Q and A event.
New guards were added because up until then any high player would enter the other faction's areas and wipe out the entire map; right now the only "pvp-ers" that complain about the guards are the ones that used to grief low lvl players (picture this: you're a lvl 35 player and you're bumping into a lvl 100+ enemy - the allowed level difference gap in 90 - do you think you'd stand any chance?). And remember: in Zu you may drop your gear when you die, so getting killed 20 times in a row and losing most of your equipment in the process just because some idiots think it's funny to stop you from leveling while they farm the hell our of you for faction points might ruin your day and certainly your gaming experience. There are still some things that need fine tuning, but again, the game is still in early OB.
This game have 300 lvls, people who does not even hit 50 have no right to make a review of the game (even though u r entitled to your opinions) It only takes a few hours to get to 50, and its mostly questing and not hack and slash mobs. Even at my current lv I cannot say I know absolutely everything about this game.
If you say its boring at lv 3, you have basically just got out of first town (takes about 5 minutes if you read the quest dialogue, and longer if you didn't bother reading any) because the first quest gets you lv 2 automatically and any following quest will lvl you to lv 3. (If you even bothered doing it at all, you should know it takes about few minuts to complete). So, you have spent about 5-15 minutes in the game, pretty sure u cannot write an review about it. HOWEVER, you ARE allowed to say its boring since its YOUR opinion at lv 3.
If you say its boring at lv 10, you are still in the beggining part of noob training area. If you stopped at this point all you are allowed to write a review on is the graphics and less than 1/10th of the game mechanics. Remember you are protected by the game till lv 30 from PK and are still protected before you even reach the ACTUAL dangerous maps.
If you stop before lv 30 you cannot do round quests, which give you faction contribution for further skills/upgrades. You also would not know about Talents, since you don't even know enough spells/skills to make any sort of reference. You will be so safe from other faction's PK that you will feel like the game is just hack and slash, but what mmo isn't hack and slash? (at least this game limit it to minimum so u can have quests, guild, events, and other ways to level up your character)
If you stop before lv 40 you would not have a mounted pet, or any extensive knowledge of how the pet system works unless someone tell you.
I could go on and on about every big lv and how much it changes the game, but it would not matter to anyone who only spent less time playing than the time it took to install the game.
Currently I am lv 130+ (no i wasn't even in alpha testing), even though I won't say this is a great game, but I do not believe any game deserve judgements from 10 minute players.
Even I still do not consider myself being able to write an accurate review of this game since its still in OB, which is something to think about when someone decides to write a "review".
HOWEVER, you are still very much entitled to your opinions as I have said many times. Just don't call it a review since it is about as accurate as a sniper rifle with a sausage as scope.
Well spoken, Neosai, that's exactly what I was talking about!
Not everyone have played 300+ games, Many played wow as thier first mmorpg and some might play ZU as thire. Wow got a big crowd because it was simple and appealing to a big audiance. Emagin if all these pleople had tryed a game like Lineage2, Eve or fury. Lineage2 have hard time selling to new player because it takes months to get to fun parts, eve is hard to get ahold of and fury is complicated step learning curv. The point is, devs dont want to scare new mmoprg crowd away. Usaly the first game got to be a hit for them to stick around, games being silly easy at beginners level can be justefied by this and it only lasting for a few houers in zu is not so bad imo. Thoe i havent played it thats what i can tell from the posts here.
I think the lotro model was good, you can skip the intro if you concider yourself hardcore and want to face higher level mobs with just beginner wep and lvl 2, or you can follow the tourtail and get some basic understanding of the game.