My Review...

Arkos_Kale

Like quite a few people, I got a bit excited when I saw the article about this game launching that same day. I had a heard a little about the game before, but never followed it during development. Well that excitement quickly turned into disappointment when the game failed to launch on time, and on that day. I remember staying up well past midnight refreshing the game's forums every second. Anyhow, it gave me plenty of time to browse the game's website and learn more about it.

In short, its a dungeon crawler that is not technically an MMO, but more like a Diablo style game with an expanded lobby and game hosting feature. Upon finally being able to play the game the next day, it wasn't too surprising to see that it was suffering from horrible connection issues. A game can host up to 5 players but usually 2-3 were guaranteed to get dropped upon loading of a map.

You have a lobby where u can select public or private games from a list, and anyone can host a game. The host has the ability to select the specific dungeon, and more are unlocked as you complete a certain amount of missions. Each map is randomly generated every time, even the stages of the main quest for that dungeon changes from game to game, as well as having the chance of the map giving you side quests. This is a fairly cool feature.

Upon actually getting into the game, the difficulty of the creatures is determined by the group's level make-up. I think this system needs some re-tuning because I've had games where it was next to impossible for the whole group to not die in 3 seconds, and other games where we just plowed through everything in mere seconds. According to the developer, all dungeons are tuned so that they may be completed without a healer or potions (which can be bought with real money). This is one area that they need to look at.

The game has the option of being downloaded progressively  in the background as you play through the first few levels included with the basic download (you can download it all at once if you wish). This in turn gave me some negative experiences with the community, as I got called every name in the book by players when they had to wait a few seconds for the map to download for me and then for certain "chunks" of the map to download as we progressed. It might save future players some headaches and getting yelled at if they download the whole game at once. I also find there is not much communication in groups, as players want to just plow through everything, however it is nice that you can still see and participate in either the lobby or group chat while you run a game.

Glitches wise, huge problems. 50% of the time, my group and I have had to abandon a game because the main quest glitches and we cannot progress past a certain part of the map. It is very unsettling to see tens of thousands of experience and your time go down the drain. This brings me to give a fair warning to future players: you only gain experience and rewards from completing a game's main quest objective. If you leave without completing or die 3 times, you lose everything earned in that game.

Graphics wise, the game is fairly nice, reminds me a bit of Dungeon Runners. With real money, you can purchase armor and weapons which enhance your looks, as well as upgrade your "Hall", which is like your virtual home where you store characters and other things. I see a lot of WoW-inspired armor sets: Big shoulder pads, very fancy helms, huge weapons. For now, purchased equipment should not give anyone an in-game advantage and is simply for looks and to set players apart. Hopefully this is something they can stick with.

In conclusion, if you can actually get a game to launch, it is quite fun, the games are quick runs. A lot of customizing and upgrading of your character's equipment and abilities is available as you level up. One downside is you cannot use other classes till you buy them using prestige points earned from finishing games, and everyone starts with a Pit Fighter (think Barbarian from Diablo 2). Games can get repetitive quickly and I cannot see myself or most people logging in to play this game for more than an hour or so at a time, although I could be wrong. Tons of connections and game issues need to be fixed, but communication from devs is fairly good on the forums.

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TL;DR:

Needs lots of fixing, quite frustrating to play in its current state due to instability, but fairly fun and unique when working properly, good time killer. Recommend waiting a bit to try it out though if you want to keep some hair.

 

 

 

 

 

Tykero

Popping in to say that this is a fairly accurate and objective review.

 

 

Great job.

doragon86

Some known issues are having to relog after each game to avoid disconnecting from your next one, variety of skills randomly fail sometimes. Also there are a lot of exp exploits going on where a player will advertise fast exp and what not, get a full group, and start the game kicking everyone so he can solo the map and get 5x the exp. So yea, would be wise to hold off on the game if you intend to play, otherwise you will definately get angry at times. It's looks like it could be a decent game, once they get all the annoyances out of the way.

WishMasta

Nice review !



I've been playing mmorpg's for years now , from LOTRO too RuneScape. And the experience with this game is a totally new one!

It kept me online and I had lots of fun. I think when you get some friends, or guild - it would be even more fun. When PvP is coming - man - thats gonna rock too. Been playing mmo's for 5 years now - this is in 2 years the best game I found.

 

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My all time "died" favorites :

RYL2

Ferentus