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I am done and my thoughts on AoC.
Shard101
Member UncommonPosts: 479
When I first launched the game and my 640mb 8800GTS started to purr, I thought I had found a WoW killer, the game is beautiful, lets get that out of the way right now. The entire Tortage experience and Destiny chain reminded me of Oblivion in a way no MMO had before. My initial thoughts were that this was the absolute best introductory phase of any mmo I have played. Right away I found combat to be enjoyable and immersing, it was quite a change from past MMOs where I could watch TV, eat dinner, talk on the phone, and still grind away decent XP. Lets just say I have about 3 days worth of my favorite shows waiting on the TIVO. The quests in Tortage were delivered with brilliant voice over work, not something you often find in any game, much less an online game. By the time I had hit lvl 20, I was aching to get off the island and find out what the real game was all about, I wanted to explore the world, run through zones, quest, and run about looking for fun and interesting places wherever the wind took me (trying to make a point here.) Doesn't everyone love that new game feeling where you never know when you will find a new zone, a new camp of mobs, a new boss who drops something shiny and powerful? I love that aspect of MMOs, its why I have played almost everyone to it the market. Anyway, back on subject, I made it off Tortage and found a new town bustling with....well...npcs mostly... where was everyone? Off hunting I suppose. So I picked a direction and off I went, eager to hunt down new monsters and get away from the newbie "follow the arrow" games Tortage had been full of. Much to my dismay, I found that there were no rolling hills to explore, rivers to wade through, and quests to conquer, every direction I ran, I was caged in. So back to town. Here I found there wereNPC who could teleport me to specific zones where I could fight and quest. Thinking that at least these zones would be sprawling with different ways to go, and thing to do, I tried them. Again to my dismay I was told to follow the arrows along one of only a few possible routes in every zone and then to return to town to pick up a new quest. "This is an MMO, not pacman, where is the freedom?" I thought. Sadly, I never found the answer. Shrug.
SKIP TO HERE IF YOU WANT THE REVIEW.
Graphics: Brilliant! Climb to the top of any mountain/tall building and you will be treated to the best view in any MMO to date (Vanguard has been replaced....sorry VG)
Sound: Little bit lacking but I'd give in a B+ Good musical scores in some parts, but not much more than crickets for ambiance.
Combat: Awesome combat controls will keep you more involved in the game than any to date. Your special skills (combos and spells) require timing and skill to properly execute....that said, once you get the hang of it, it gets kinda old mashing key combos everytime you want to do a special attack (my finger tips hurt during one extremely long boss fight)
Grinding: Meh, its still an MMO, grinding is fun sometimes, but my biggest problem with AoC is the lack of useful item drops. Grinding gets a lot less interesting when theres next to no chance of getting anything but the kills. Note: this is not your typical MMO. You do NOT pull 1, kill 1, pull 1, kill 1, rest, pull etc... You jump right in and slaughter people, 3, even 4 at a time is no problem for many of the classes depending on levels of course.
Questing: Terrible. Almost every quest you get shows you EXACTLY where to go on your map. If you are too lazy to even pull up the map screen, it even shows u a little arrow on your radar so you can follow that down the road. At some points I found I wasn't even watching the main screen but following the radar and using my peripheral vision to stay on the road. Kinda takes the "quest" out of the picture and turns it into more of an errand. Next, the quest rewards are stupid. Yeah you get XP but the items are mostly worthless, and the ones that are good, you can't even really measure since theres no way to check your stats(in a sec I'll explain.)
Stats: I have no idea if my armor is doing anything, nor do I know what my DPS is before and after equipping all sorts of strength enhancing crap. Where are the detailed character stats? Its all good fun to play dress up in stuff I think looks good, but if I don't know what it DOES, its just that, dress up.
Gameplay/Environment: Ok so this is why I quit. Guild Wars on steroids. Thats all I can really say. Every single zone I found was so stupidly linear that I found myself forced to take the same paths probably 50 times a day. ITs not one big world, its a ton of little worlds that you can teleport in and out of, again, Guild Wars on steroids. The zones aren't even big enough to support the number of people in them so they are all instanced, there could be 300 people there, but you would never know it sine they are spread across X number of instances. That for me, takes the MM out of MMORPG.
Bugs: Its a new launch so I won't even get started, but um....its a new launch so...yeaah....
My point: Not enough freedom in the game, everything is way too linear and repetitive. However, if you like the guild wars style gameplay, please, go buy this game tomorrow....or wait a year for the bugs to get fixed 
*This information is based solely on my own gameplay experience, I may in fact be incorrect on every single point I tried to make and ask that you take everything I say accordingly. This is not a flame on AoC or anyone who plays it, as I give full credit to the game devs and everyone responsible for making a game that I am sure will succeed, it is however, not for me.
**Yes I know I quit the game without seeing all it had to offer. I'm not willing to follow 1000 more arrows to get to whatever level you claim it changes. Thanks for the advice though.
Comments
In VG though when you get to the top and see distant things you can go there!
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
George Washington
People will tell you that it opens up after level 20. And I think most new MMOs are going to spoon-feed you the objectives for quests now; people just don't have time anymore. I expected combat to get boring for everyone, how long it takes however depends on the person. Good review, thanks for your opinion (I'll say it now before fanbois come in and say "WTF YOU NOOB you can't write a review you didn't get past 20!").
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A human and an Elf get captured by Skaven. The rat-men are getting ready to shoot the first hostage with Dwarf-made guns when he yells, "Earthquake!" The naturally nervous Skaven run and hide from the imaginary threat. He escapes. The Skaven regroup and bring out the Elf. Being very smart, the Elf has figured out what to do. When the Skaven get ready to shoot, the Elf, in order to scare them, yells, "Fire!"
Order of the White Border.
You know what i really hated about WoW and similar games? NOT KNOWING WHERE THE BLOODY HELL I WAS SUPPOSED TO GO!!!
Arrows on the Radar (AKA Guild Wars) FTMFW!!!
Actually it was a SHIT review in my opinion. Mentions that he got to level 20 and he felt the same. Didnt mention what level he got to or any so called zones. Try the zones from 55 - 70...
Its limited gameplay experience.. Where is the grouping, the city building .. large scale pvp, the names of the large zones later on...
See? That's why you had sites like Wowhead and Thottbot. But now companies are putting the easymode right in the games, so hooray!?
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A human and an Elf get captured by Skaven. The rat-men are getting ready to shoot the first hostage with Dwarf-made guns when he yells, "Earthquake!" The naturally nervous Skaven run and hide from the imaginary threat. He escapes. The Skaven regroup and bring out the Elf. Being very smart, the Elf has figured out what to do. When the Skaven get ready to shoot, the Elf, in order to scare them, yells, "Fire!"
Order of the White Border.
Actually it was a SHIT review in my opinion. Mentions that he got to level 20 and he felt the same. Didnt mention what level he got to or any so called zones. Try the zones from 55 - 70...
Ah ok well I skipped the first mega paragraph. And who is level 55-70 after 4 days...wow. I guess 7 days with the head start.
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A human and an Elf get captured by Skaven. The rat-men are getting ready to shoot the first hostage with Dwarf-made guns when he yells, "Earthquake!" The naturally nervous Skaven run and hide from the imaginary threat. He escapes. The Skaven regroup and bring out the Elf. Being very smart, the Elf has figured out what to do. When the Skaven get ready to shoot, the Elf, in order to scare them, yells, "Fire!"
Order of the White Border.
See? That's why you had sites like Wowhead and Thottbot. But now companies are putting the easymode right in the games, so hooray!?
Yeah,I'm a games journalist, so I've noticed this far more and especially for AoC with its "Adult's Only" theme, its for people that want to play regularly but for short time spans than WoW and the likes... Mainly cos people have kids and a real life that pays them to play this stuff rather than using mommy and daddy's credit card like a lot of WoW players do
Espcially being a journalist too, i need to see as much in as shorta space of time too, so even better, but hell, they could easily make it an option to toggle on/off in the game options for those that don't want it
lvl34
I see nothing wrong with people having different opinions of the game though I think the majority of the people who are playing it is having a great time. There is nothing more fun and enjoyable than seeing your character stick a blade through your opponent's gut, laugh at him and pull it back out!
I'll be honest: I skipped the huge chunk of text at the top because it hurt my eyes to look at.
1) Could you explain "lack of useful item drops"? Are you saying you were wishing for magic item drops more often, or things like potions? I've heard many people who like that fewer enhanced items are dropping (pointing to a lack of dependence on magic items), while at the same saying so many standard items drop that their bags fill up too quickly (which is valid).
2) Pointing you to the exact spot for a quest is a... bad thing?
3) DPS works different in AoC than in a standard MMO, and including a "damage per second" stat in a game without autoattack would be very misleading. Since combos (of varying damage) make up a good percentage of the swings, I don't know how that would even be tracked.
True DPS would depend more on skill than stats.
4) In most games I've played, people generally follow one path between destinations anyway, so even if the zones were completely linear (which I don't have enough personal experience to comment on), is it that big a deal?
Well, if it is for you, then it is for you. We've all got varying degrees of preferences and priorities.
See? That's why you had sites like Wowhead and Thottbot. But now companies are putting the easymode right in the games, so hooray!?
Yeah,I'm a games journalist, so I've noticed this far more and especially for AoC with its "Adult's Only" theme, its for people that want to play regularly but for short time spans than WoW and the likes... Mainly cos people have kids and a real life that pays them to play this stuff rather than using mommy and daddy's credit card like a lot of WoW players do
Espcially being a journalist too, i need to see as much in as shorta space of time too, so even better, but hell, they could easily make it an option to toggle on/off in the game options for those that don't want it
Actually there is a toggle switch to turn off the arrow showing where your quest items are think it is under the HUD tab.
Out of every 100 men, 10 should not be there,
80 are nothing but targets, 9 are the real fighters.
Ah, but one, ONE of them is a warrior,
and he will bring the others home.
-Heraclitus 500BC
I agree.
Im lvl 39 and it still feels linear. Cannot go to 80% of the things in the background.
Im in your boat. I htought this was going to be my next best MMO too. It turned out to be in the bottom 5 for me
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
Actually it was a SHIT review in my opinion. Mentions that he got to level 20 and he felt the same. Didnt mention what level he got to or any so called zones. Try the zones from 55 - 70...
Its limited gameplay experience.. Where is the grouping, the city building .. large scale pvp, the names of the large zones later on...
I don't think this was a shit review at all. He clearly stated that he did not get to the higher level areas, but does that disqualify him from having an opinion and writing his thoughts about his gaming experience? If an MMO is not capturing players in the first 30 levels and MAKES people want to play more and level up, then thats a bad thing.
Talking about large scale PvP (and if by large scale you mean 48 vs. 48 *cough*) and sieging (which nobody seems to have seen in beta or in live yet) as well as city building and high end raiding content is like dangling a carrot in front of the mule while at the same time hitting it with a big stick: "if you only endure 7 days of pain and boredom, you might have some fun at the end!". That is EQ mentality, where people had to grind their way to the end level for weeks and months, only to be rewarded with some raid content. Sorry to say, but most people have a different idea of fun these days.
Actually it was a SHIT review in my opinion. Mentions that he got to level 20 and he felt the same. Didnt mention what level he got to or any so called zones. Try the zones from 55 - 70...
Its limited gameplay experience.. Where is the grouping, the city building .. large scale pvp, the names of the large zones later on...
ah god. a fanboi response (golf clap).
It s like that post 20 too. The zones are very small and very linear. Dont troll a guy for his opinion.
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
I'm guessing the invisible boundaries are doing their job creating that illusion?
I'm guessing the invisible boundaries are doing their job creating that illusion?
No they are not. Maybe if you played very little MMOs in the past you may think they are big but they arent. Like I said over 80% of all the pretty background is fake. If you try to visit them youll hit invisible walls.
They tried so hard to make the game have the best graphics possible, they threw out other essentials of a MMO world.
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
I call bull! Some zones are linear. For example, Conall's Valley is linear. But guess what.....its a valley and what are valleys? Thats right, linear. Most zones are not like that and no they are not small. I have been to zones in the game that are at least TWICE the size of the Barrens and would make most of the zones in Outland look small. There are a couple of zones that I have been too at least 5-10 times and I have yet to see the entire zone. If you consider those small, then by all means please continue to do so.
I dont care how much you whine or stomp your feet. This zones are small. Also, only 48 players can be in any one zone so at the most you'll have 48 people. The /ooc reflects all the instances in that one zone.
I think its cute how everyone compares this game to WoW or when they get made they say "go back to WoW." There are other MMOs other than WoW
The zones also are not empty. I hate zones that are huge and empty. The zones in AOC have content in them and many times I find myself just simply exploring and enjoying the sites.
If those zones are great big vastness of goodness like you say they are and only 48 people are allowed on each zone, yes they are empty. There's just 18 instances per zone because of the severe limitation
The problem with the so-called review is that the so-called reviewer is a known troll and you can see many threads started by the troll through the AOC forums. Every thread ONLY complains (or mainly complains) about the linear aspect. If that is all they got out of the game, then by all means don't play it. The OP is so closed-minded when it comes to what AOC has to offer (and their reviews show it) that it clearly isn't the game for them.
If it hurts your feelings, dont read them. Why aren't you playing the game?
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
I call bull! Some zones are linear. For example, Conall's Valley is linear. But guess what.....its a valley and what are valleys? Thats right, linear. Most zones are not like that and no they are not small. I have been to zones in the game that are at least TWICE the size of the Barrens and would make most of the zones in Outland look small. There are a couple of zones that I have been too at least 5-10 times and I have yet to see the entire zone. If you consider those small, then by all means please continue to do so.
I dont care how much you whine or stomp your feet. This zones are small. Also, only 48 players can be in any one zone so at the most you'll have 48 people. The /ooc reflects all the instances in that one zone.
I think its cute how everyone compares this game to WoW or when they get made they say "go back to WoW." There are other MMOs other than WoW
The zones also are not empty. I hate zones that are huge and empty. The zones in AOC have content in them and many times I find myself just simply exploring and enjoying the sites.
If those zones are great big vastness of goodness like you say they are and only 48 people are allowed on each zone, yes they are empty. There's just 18 instances per zone because of the severe limitation
The problem with the so-called review is that the so-called reviewer is a known troll and you can see many threads started by the troll through the AOC forums. Every thread ONLY complains (or mainly complains) about the linear aspect. If that is all they got out of the game, then by all means don't play it. The OP is so closed-minded when it comes to what AOC has to offer (and their reviews show it) that it clearly isn't the game for them.
If it hurts your feelings, dont read them. Why aren't you playing the game?
The limit is 48? I thought people were saying it's 100 per instance per zone.
There is one thing the OP commented that I was noticing. So far I have yet to see any really good drops from random mobs in AOC.
That's one thing I liked about WOW. There was always a chance something really cool could drop off just a normal mob. Yeah, the chance might be low but it was there. I remember one time running through a zone in WOW and catching agro. It was irritating so I turned around and killed the mob....and I'll be damned if a really good purple weapon didn't drop. This unexpected drop spurred me on to slaughter a lot of things I didn't have too, just because the gambler inside me said, 'Hey, maybe that mob will drop a purple.'
Besides this I am loving the game. I reverted back to a previous ATI driver and game is running better again, but performance is up and down. In instances I was getting 20 to 70 fps with average of 30 on medium settings. In Tortage or where there are lot of other players, FPS drops to 15 to 20, occasionally dropping to single digits. For me this is the biggest challenge to enjoying the game. Hopefully I can upgrade soon though.
I will say this though, graphics are awesome. For the first time I am happy how my female avatar looks. And the physique on the male avatars is beautiful and very accurate, especially with shader 3.0. I would say these are the most anatomically accurate musculoskeletally speaking of any mmo oavatars I have seen so far.
Most people have been posting that the game is ultra linear, non-explorer friendly, and anti-immersive because of this. Thanks for the heads up, I really wanted to give the game I go, but I won't be wasting my time after hearing these exact things I wanted to avoid in a mmorpg.
For example, are the zones really capped at 48 people or not? Because that's a farcry from the 100 player limit that I've been led to believe in the past.
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
Yeah and there's a lot to do there. Like take a screenshot of a boring place to post and jerk off over. "I found a house in teh middle of nowhere". Was there anything to do at the house? Hell I can find a house off in the distance in BF 1942. Guess that makes me a hardcore explorer.