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Launch Review
Before I start. I have played nearly every major mmo on the market.. to include. UO, EQ, EQ2, EQOA, FFXI, WoW, VG, AOC, WAR, DAOC, COH/COV, SWG, and about a dozen free korean mmos. I'm a huge fan of pvp, and its the #1 deciding factor for me in choosing a game. I am also running darkfall on a high end pc, that will run AOC and Vanguard with everything maxed.
The Launch - This doesn't need explaining. MMO's have rought starts sometime. I've been through enough betas/releases to deal with it. This one was one of the worse ones I've come across, but by no means the worst. I was pretty frustrated at the delays/lack of updates/and f5 spamming to even get in the game. I can overlook these things for an exceptonial game. When I say exceptional, I mean.. jawdroppingly amazing. I'll pick up more on this near the end of the review.
The Intro Screen - The Login screen is neat, and the intro music is pretty nice. It really gets you going and ready to play. The interface of the login screen is well done. Nothing fancy, and everything works. There is no opening movie like most MMO's have so don't expect one. As soon as you choose the server... key words "the" since there is only one. You can create a toon.
Character Creation - This is pretty primitive even to most of the free mmo's out there. You get to choose male/female and a couple face/decorative options. Everyone looks exactly the same in the face save hair and jewelry/facial features. (of each race). This isn't a big deal because most of the time you don't see your toon anyway. I did expect a bit better. The EQ1 character creation is better IMO.. which is somewhat sad.
Loading Screen - The loading screen is fairly cool looking, but mine was somewhat buggy.
Entering the game - when your done loading, you enter the game to an annoying blood splat noise, straight from your favorite doom or duke nukem game. Your tossed into a little starter area, that has one NPC.. that I saw. You get a sword that you cannot drop when you die. If you attack anyone here, you will get shot down by pewpewlazers. At first glance, most will be pleasantly surprised to see that the world graphics are much better than what the videos portray. Swaying trees, lots of nice shadows, and sun glare in the horizon. The world is MASSIVE, probably close to Vanguard in size. You can see a LONG ways out if you have the graphics maxed. The graphics are still not VG quality, and not even close to AOC quality. they are good for the game type though, and probably couldn't get much better without lag in pvp.
Controls - FPS players will feel at home, while most MMO players will have to take some time to learn them. There are 2 modes.. right click to enter and leave. WASD to move, space to jump, F to use items/talk/loot, and R to pull out your equipped weapon. You can click on various buttons in the UI mode, that should be somewhat standard for players of mmos especially older ones. The UI is very primitive, and everything has to be hot keyed.The UI was a little sluggish in my opinion.
Eye Candy - As I already mentioned, the world looks great for what it is. Lots of HUGE trees and landscapes of all types to take in. No carbon copy structures. Alot of work when into the world, which IMO is the games biggest draw.. which is not good considering this is a PVP game. But more on that later. The character models are pretty bad. Not the worst, but pretty bad. I've actually made models in 3dsmax myself on my spare time that look better and are animated better. I'm not sure why they took such short cuts on them. You don't see them alot, so its not game breaking.. but I honestly expected better. The armor and weapon models look pretty nice though in retrospect. The animations for characters are pretty substandard as well.. the animations for spells and effects are bar none the worst I personally have seen. I would say they date pre EQ1.
Ear Candy - The Intro music is fantastic. The world, is pretty devoid of actual music.. which will be a plus or minus depending on who you are. I personally like to hear atmospheric music. Not so much a soundtrack, but I like to know where I am based on the background music. The music that is in the game, is nothing fancy and nothing I would buy on a soundtrack. The sound effects are one of my BIGGEST negatives on the game. They are headache inducingly terrible. Its like they took all the worst sound effects from Halo and stuck them in darkfall. I'm hoping these are placeholders for better sounds, as I almost wanted to tear my hair out after hearing constant "ching ching" from the spells being cast that all sound the same. The sword sound was the only one I could really handle without cringing.
PVE - well... if you can call it that. PVE in DF is much different than most standard MMO's (EQ modeled). Its a sandbox game.. so the content is made by the players and not the devs. This is sometimes great. But, the devs still have to provide the tools to do so. We've got a HUGE world to play in, but I hate to say that the world is almost all but devoid of any life other than player characters. I think I saw a total of 5 npcs in the amount of time I have played. The small amount of quests you can get, are pretty dull and are the same stuff you'll see in any other run of the mill MMO. I would actually say that some free mmos have better quests. I really see no point in doing them when you can go kill mobs/players and profit much more. Mob camps are where you will spend all your time, unless you are crafting or pvping. When I say "camp" I literally mean "area designated for mobs". They don't roam the countryside like in most mmo's. And, you will be lucky if you see a camp for 10-15 minutes of running most times. The goblin camps are pretty close to the city, but there are only 4-5 goblins per spot and these areas (as of now) are heavily camped by players making it difficult to do much of anything. This will most likely change. But for the most part you can roam the countryside without danger from mobs, only other players. Which so far have been almost as scarce to see "on the way" to areas. This is a big game breaker for me, because as much as I like to explore.. Its just barren countryside for the most part. No npcs to be seen save a couple, and no mobs unless you go to a mob camp. I thought I was going to have that feeling of danger like I used to have in old school EQ.. its simply not there. The mob AI is superior and annoying at the same time. While they don't just stand there.. they run around wildy, and they don't seem to be all that intelligent. They seem to run off randomly, and half the time.. they would start attacking another player for no reason. Its almost easier to kill players.. weirdly enough. When you do manage to take a mob down. they turn into a tombstone.. which requires you to be unarmed in order to loot. The whole looting process of darkfall is so primitive and slow that half the time your dead before you can even get it to work correctly. I don't mind clicking a dragging the items, but it should be as simple as right clicking on the tombstone or similar. Uneeded frustration in my book. On a final note, when you kill mobs.. other players can take the loot right out from under you, and vice versa.
Crafting - Macro City. This is not a crafters game. Not if crafting is your main form of play. You never need leave the safety of just outside the city to get all the materials you will ever need. And, so far everyone who has been crafting are all macroing. Which is fine.. but just not fun in my book. Did I mention it is also expensive to do? Maybe crafting will shine later in the game, but its too early to tell right now. As of this moment, EQ2's crafting is superior as is VG's. But, I'm not a crafter so I won't speak to harsh on DF's system as this could be something true crafters love. I personally want to play.. not macro.
PVP - the core of the game. This is what raiding/arena is to WoW. Full open world, full loot pvp. How did I like it? If you do not like first person shooters... you will be dissappointed. If you do like FPS games, you've found your calling. As it is 100% FPS. No targetting. left click to swing your sword. you've got a cross hair for aiming in ranged/spell casting. When your melee... your in 3rd person, everything else is first. Its easy to gank people from afar in DF as its very difficult to see who it is who is attacking you and where they are located. This is a good thing. Melee combat in opinion is very bland. Reminds me of CS knife fights. Whoever is lagging the least and has the most stamina/stamina pots.. wins every time. Very little to do with gear. Although being naked is not the best option. I found it difficult to tell if I was actually landing blows, as sometimes the animations don't go off and all you have to go on is the difficult to read chat text which is ALL white (can you change this?). When you get hit, its similar to a fps in which your screen flashes blood splatters. The more health you lose the more bloody your toon gets. I was impressed with how long fights last, its not just one and 2 shotting like other games. You have time to think, only problem is there isn't much to think about. Friendly fire is broken. I cannot count the amount of times I have gone rogue from a innocent bystander running by me as i was swinging at a mob, only to be gang raped by everyone else in the area. People do purposely try to make you go rogue, and even though they won't attack you otherwise people have no problem jumping you once you do go rogue.. no matter whose fault it was. People so far are following the alignment rules.. at least where I was. I haven't seen people trying to attack each other if they are the same race unless the person is rogue. When you are killed.. the player has to sit and wait for 60 seconds before he can respawn, during this time the attackers get to decide his demise. Cool but annoying for the player waiting to respawn. PVP solo is HARD. You almost are required to be in a clan to do anything serious in PVP. You lonewolves are gonna have it difficult, but it could be a challenging and rewarding way to play. All in all, I need some variety. I've never been a FPS fan, and this is no exception. I enjoy strategizing what abilities I use when, vs. using the same one over and over and hoping It lands.
Clans - I haven't joined a clan yet. But I can tell you that being in a clan is really the only way to go. I would probably be enjoying the game more if I was cruising the countryside with a group of pkers. I won't say anymore as I don't have the experience to do so.
Final Thoughts...
- Its very rough, almost amateur level rough. I expected more. I'm not new to games of this genre, and I have a certain expectation in 2009. DF met them in the graphics and immersion dept. but little else. There are FPS games specifically for running around spamming LMB.. I'd be happier in one of those if all I care to do is pk people. I need something else, but not sure what that is. I know its not instances or raiding either because I hate those as well.
- UI is very primitive, as well as the chat system.
- I feel this game shouldn't have been 50.00 without a box. I don't think it should have been 40.00 with a box. Its an indie game. I would pay no more than 30.00 for this game without a box. I am all for digital downloads, but I still like the little things like maps, booklets etc. To show that I purchased the product. As for monthly fees.. I would be happy paying 12.99 a month for it. But 15 is a bit much for what your getting. I could never play DF as main mmo.. perhaps a side game.
For potential players of darkfall, if you haven't gotten through to preorder yet. I urge you to read this and take heart. I am not here to bash Darkfall. I think the concept is great. I do however think the implementation could have been better. Here's my rating..
Graphics - 6/10 (8 if the character models/animations were better)
Sound - 2/10 (sound effects kill it)
PVE - 1/10 (this simply is not a PVE game)
PVP - 7/10 (this is based on noob pvp and could have been higher.)
This game hits its mark on its target audience. Old Harcore PVP mmo players who don't mind sacrificing technicality, and content to get a large non instanced world to PVP in. If you enjoy questing, lore, dungeon running, character customization, classes, or storylines. This is not your game.
If you haven't bought the game yet, and you are from the US. I would suggest waiting for a trial.. or at the very least.. more servers and a US server.
I hope this has been helpful. Happy Gaming. Whatever game you end up in.
www.facebook.com/themarksmovierules
Currently playing:
FFXIV on Behemoth, FFXI on Eden, and Gloria Victis on NA.
Comments
Just a question.
Did u play the game mostly Solo, or with a group ?
Because ive only played this game solo for, i think, 5 minutes.
The rest of my 15-17 hours of gameplay has all been with my guildmates.
-Darkstar
As an old-school (UO) MMORPG'er who tested Darkfall for some time, I wholeheartedly agree with this review. Well done in writing it.
The game's simply not for me, and I won't be coming back. I have the time, I have the money, it's simply not a fun gaming experience at any level of analysis.
Life's too short to play bad games.
I've been mostly solo, because I figured I would wait to find a clan until after I decided whether or not I actually wanted to play. I shouldn't need to be grouped all the time to enjoy the game.
FFXI was a group oriented game, but there was still plenty of things to do solo when you couldn't or didn't want to group.
DF being 100% about PVP.. it can be done solo.. but it will be difficult and somewhat boring with the way the world is designed to be mostly based on player population and not npc's. I kept waiting for NPC's to talk to so I could learn about agon and its people.. it just never came.
www.facebook.com/themarksmovierules
Currently playing:
FFXIV on Behemoth, FFXI on Eden, and Gloria Victis on NA.
Thank you, nicely written launch review. If you happen to stay in DF and play longer, please update your impressions. Otherwise PM me if you find another game you like, we seem to be looking for about the same things in a game
Just gotta ask, how can you give a launch review when 90% of the players are not in game? Wouldn't having those players logged in affect your impressions?
Perhaps we should wait on the reviews until
1) People can actually buy the game and
2) People can actually log in
I enjoyed reading your post, but honestly, it is premature and anyone who is inspired to try the game after reading your post will be in for a bit of a shock as they realize that they can't even purchase/log in to the game.
OP is pretty much spot on; the Darkfall universe is a shell of a world unfortunately.
Lack of NPCs and content cannot be substituted by players...
I liked that review.
Bit one thing got me: when you talk about the looting. It is supposed to be dangerous to loot someone. No "loot all" button. It takes time and you need to grab every object by yourself and drop in your own inventory. So i really like it.
best review to date...thanks for the effort you put into it
i agree with this part. the mechanics of it are fine.. the technical parts are off.... meaning, the "use" key doesn't always work like it should.. adding uneeded time to an already long loot process.
www.facebook.com/themarksmovierules
Currently playing:
FFXIV on Behemoth, FFXI on Eden, and Gloria Victis on NA.
I wasn't reviewing the game to deter your from preordering.
I was able to buy the game. I was able to login. The review was based on what I have done, not one what other people can or cannot do.
the fact that you can't buy the game can only be answered by Aventurine. I was only providing those who were on the fence with a perspective view of things from someone who has done the F5 wargames, and spent hours staring at my screen waiting for account confirms, downloads, and billing info to update. I've done what they are facing now, and I do not feel that any of it was worth what I got out of it as a reward. Enter at your own risk.. basically.
www.facebook.com/themarksmovierules
Currently playing:
FFXIV on Behemoth, FFXI on Eden, and Gloria Victis on NA.
great review.! One of the few that can point out the GOOD and the Bad and infact one of the few that does mention Who it will appeal to.
Watching Fanbois drop their soap in a prison full of desperate men.
I agree with this review.. I had similar thoughts after playing the beta during the very last week. It has potential, but I feel they have to do some major reworking of how some things work: Mainly the rogue system, the speed of combat (it's very slow, and hardly very "tatctical" as it was when I played.. more similar to trading blows, while trying to maneuver around your oponent), harvesting and crafting need the most work, IMO, it's just a plain, long boring grind to craft in this game.. I was also dissapointed in how shallow the skill system turned out to be.. Technically, there are only 4 actual skill levels, just 25-50-75-100, ie 24 is the same as 1, 74 is the same as 50, etc.. Also many of the combat skills, along with magic spells were redundent, being basically the same skill in other trees, with a different "skin". "Different" skills, but the same end result.
They have a nice "base" for an mmo, but it needs alot of work fo it to be considered a AAA title, IMO. Hopefully Aventurine have it in them to make this a truely great game.. Sure, the fps combat is a breath of fresh air, and it's a nice change from auto-targeting/auto-attack, but the game really lacks the depth for me to consider buying, and subscribing to this game.. I can get just about the same experience playing Counter-strike, or (my personal favorite) Day of Defeat source. Guild Politics, and city battles may take up some of the slack in the character progression/depth of the game, but one of my favorite things about mmos are character progression, gaining new skills/abilities/spells what have you.
/agree
i say this initial review right off the bat is ok to do. however, there needs to be one after a month of playing and probably every month thereafter for about 6 months to see where the game is headed etc...
You know what is funny, I get a warning for asking a CM of forumfall to fix his web site (he was here posting stuff). This is what I posted in his thread >>>"Fix your forum site DF Team member." He flags me for flaming.
ROLF, too funny
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Awesome review, you're dead on. Worst 50 dollars I ever spent EDIT: 2nd worst, 1st was AOC. I agree: to U.S. players, wait for a trial, or U.S. servers. Some games are just tricky at launch, and some of their problems are fixed a few months in. Adventurine has a LOT of work to do.
I pretty much agree with this review. I've been playing for a little while and have wandered away from the main area, but I don't feel like my character is really advancing any. Besides collecting armor pieces, I'm still using the same sword and the same two spells over and over again.
Your first part what you have played and what system dont impress me at all and its justa e-peen showing.
Some points your right but they are working on most of these things your review is based on agame thats not yet finish and in his infancy.
You have reviewed this game as casual themepark player then this whole review is rather useless.
All who want something different then all the wow's out there i say go for Darkfall.
Macroing is a big problem its not ok its stupid to make a skill system that should take you months to bring it to 100 and then aloud macroing so all reach it in 2 weeks thats just crap.
Sounds are indeed terible i hope they improve on that.
I think they will when mostmajor problems are solved/fixed bring patches with more featers content and complex gameplay, but that takes time.
You have reviewed a game with short playing time that is a big fail.
Many agree becouse they want wow style gameplay, its simple as that.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
i'm sorry to tell you you reviewed this as a carebear player...sorry
what makes this game is clan warfare, city building, crafting everything from swords to ships
agreed on the issue that it needs mobs and other things to make it immersive, but this is not WOW guy
You just argued against his points yet you couldn't of played much more than him. And you do the opposite, you are encourging people to buy it... aren't you just as big of a fail, based on your logic?
You just argued against his points yet you couldn't of played much more than him. And you do the opposite, you are encourging people to buy it... aren't you just as big of a fail, based on your logic?
Hehe, beat me to the punch. I like the review, it shows the good and the bad, and it shows how much he does want this game to succeed. More reviews like this need to be made, not ones that are all positive, or all negative. If you stick with it, let us know how the game is for you once you grab a clan. If not, good luck where ever you may land.
You just argued against his points yet you couldn't of played much more than him. And you do the opposite, you are encourging people to buy it... aren't you just as big of a fail, based on your logic?
<Snip>
I would of agreed with the op if i had not started grouping and got in a guild, its a huge huge difference in the fun factor...at least till the devs ad more NPCs and general fluff, such as "NPCs that tell me about the world of agon"
<Snip>
you clearly dont get it do you OP, is what i'm finding after reading it twice over, so let me tell you what is up
The basis of this game is like I said, group experience, city building, crafting, sieging, ships, FPS aiming and the PVP to be balanced, the Griefing to not be too bad for the noobs (because of guard towers its not, if u are ingame you should know this)
Darkfall does all of this well, seriously, from beginner levels df was balanced for PVP
Any other game is not....just the way it is...simply put.
do you think its hard to add some npc's monsters and some quests? That's not important right now, but they can do plenty in 2 months
WOW with all the crap it can ad will never be DFs pvp and features, all DF needs is some more solo experience, and stupid fluff like talking to the NPC to "find out about the world of Agon"
if you dont realise this kind of things, and acctualy refer to yourself as "fan of pvp" I will laugh <Snip>
no offense, just my personal opinion
Great review, I doubt I will be buying it, though I wasn't really heavly considering it anyway :P
Currently restarting World of Warcraft
Whenever I look into a game top decide whether I would want to buy it or not I ask myself "What will I be doing in this game in a week? Month? 6 months? year? Darkfall just struck me as a game that I may enjoy today and maybe fora short duration, but I just dont see any reason to play for very long.......Mos sandbox games have turned out that way for me.......I might be one of those people that just needs some direction in a game and not just "go out and kill other players" all the time.......Even though darkfall is PVP based it still needs a living, breathing world full of life and some lore behind it.........I jsut cant picture anyone that started this game playing for a year or so......You can only kill each other so much before boredom sets in.
I was a fan of early UO, played the DF beta, and don't think it lived up to it's hype. I like PVP, but I also like deep character progression. The skill system in UO was incredibly deeper then DF's curent system, although I was not in UO at launch. I do agree, Guild politics will play a heavy part in enjoyment of Darkfall, but it still doesnt exscuse the shallow skill system, the horribly boring crafting/resource gathering, not to mention that the FPS combat system is not bad, but not dynamic, nor speedy enough for any real skill or tactics to come into play, other then bring friends and use a 2hander (expansion of the combat skill tree would greatly improve combat). Throwing insults and making assumptions about what type of player people who don't fully love DF are do not help any of your arguements for it. I really wanted DF to be great, and it still can be, but as it stands now, as a ffa pvp "sandbox", it's not. that. great. It took a few days of really playing the game, but it slowly dawned on me how much better this game could of easily been.. especially considering the huge development time. I will give them one thing, though.. They did create a beautifull seamless world. But most of the other elements are painfully shallow in comparison.