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Another Review of SoR (long)
Firstly, I had never even heard of this game until I started coming to this site. I was cruising through the list of games looking for something that I hadn't tried (played EQ for about 5 years, EVE since beta, CoH since release, blah, blah blah). I came upon SoR and thought it sounded decent enough to hold me over for EQII or WoW, or the Shiva release for EVE.
I headed to the store and bought it (no download for countries with a distribution deal =| ) got it home and cranked open the box. There were two Disc 2's and no install disc. Grr. First impression frankly pissed me off. I went back to the store and sat with the clerk going through every box to find only one (!) with the correct discs so they swapped it out and off I went.
Got my account created (billing process isn't all that great because there's a step created to advertise an online credit card protection. While it's useful, they should ask you after), logged into the game as a total newb with no idea what was going on.
After looking around for a few minutes, I found the Welcomer, an NPC that welcomes new players with some info. She told me to go talk to the trainers, the first quest to get you accustomed to trainers and training. So in I went, clicked on the first trainer to start, and he disappeared! Oh, well. Decided to go back outside only to find the portal that got me here no longer worked. Well, wasn't sure what to do so I filed a 'Stuck Character' petition. I was feeling a little miffed at already being stuck and having to file a petition in the first 5 mins of gameplay.
I then got a tell from a GM (not kidding, it was within about 30 seconds of filing the petition). He explained it was a known issue and the only fix was to log out. Log out?! Oh I was just starting to get really aggro on the poor guy when he also said it only happened in the starter area. Ok, I'll give it another go since I didn't plan on being in the newb area for long.
Logged out, logged in, got stuck again. Logged out, logged in, got stuck again. At this point I was considering how best to write my next petition with nothing but swear words and still get my problem across to support. I logged out, logged in, and it finally worked! I filed the petition anyway, complaining that I was not able to complete the started quest and was therefore missing out on 'something'. Again a GM responded in an amazingly short period and told me there was no reward for completing the quest so I was safe to abandon it.
So, so angry. Hated the game, thought if it was this bad right from the go it would suck throughout. But I'm not one to give in and having paid the box fee, was gonna play the free trial regardless.
Ever since that time, I have not had a single problem with the game. Everything has worked perfectly, though others do come across bugs of course.
There is indeed no theme music in the game yet, but personally I don't like hearing it anyway after the 100th time so I usually turn it off. Some sound effects seem to be very low (player footsteps) while others seem to be very loud (the roaring of kipees, a mob in the game). Other than that, the sound effects are good, they match the actions of players and the environment so that's a positive. I hate games where the sounds distract from gameplay. The sounds here are not too little or too much, a nice medium.
For the leveling, there are 4 general skill trees that branch off at various levels to more specific skills, thus allowing you to specialize in one form of, say, melee, or one form of crafting, etc. They are Fighting, Magic, Crafting, and Harvesting. I was a bit confused with this at first, because like another poster here, I felt it ruined the group/team dynamic. Who does what if everyone can do everything? Well, the bottom line is it's just not practical to be a jack-of-all-trades type char. Sadly, many players follow this line and like to tell you why your ruining your character by doing anything different. Oh well, piss on them IMO.
In any case, even if you are a jack-of-all, you really can't be eficient at more than one skill at a time. For example, in combat you can melee as well as cast spells, but you won't be able to do both to the best of your ability. This is because of the requirements to do these two very different actions. Magic is *way* more efficient in the lightest armor, while melee is obviously better in heavier armor. If you try to cast spells while in heavy armor or while holding a sword, the penalties to the cast make it pretty much useless (still works in a pinch but if there is a dedicated caster in the group, why would you be trying to melee and cast at the same time anyway?) Likewise, we all know what happens to casters who try to melee without heavy armor: as in all other MMO's they become carpet for the mobs on their way to your healers. While this group combat will initially slow down group formation ( everyone has to pick a role if they have multiple skills) in the end it makes for groups that last much longer because usually everyone in the group is flexible about the roles they can move into should someone leave or a new person join.
For combat, at first I though it was very droll and just not much to it. As I've leveled, I've realized there's actually quite a lot going on. Mostly because of the way skills work.
At a basic level, you earn 10 skill points every time you level. You get these points in whatever skill earned you the xp to level. So if I fight a bunch of mobs to level, I get 10 skil points to train with at the Fight Trainer. If I had crafted enough items to level in craft, then I would have 10 points to train with at the Crafter Trainer. They don't cross, and xp is always given to the skill that earned it. It's truly a logarythmically (sp?) calculated xp system which is indeed very realistic.
So back to the point: skills. When you spend skill points at a trainer, you get a basic action, like a spell. You can use this action right out of the box and it works just fine. However, there is a deeper level of play here. Each action (like a spell or melee ability, or crafting or harvesting ability) is made up of smaller parts called stanzas. So what you're really getting with each action purchase is a bunch of little stanzas that can be mixed and matched with any other stanzas in it's respective skill tree (fight stanzas mix with fight stanzas but not craft stanzas, for example). You won't fully realize the power of this until higher levels, but damn, it makes for some powerful combinations once you start using it. Once you start grouping with folks who play at this level, combat is not droll at all. In fact, there's a really exciting dynamic that occurs and, IMO, is unmatched in any of the MMO's I've played to date. Really, really fun.
On to the world. Some folks say it's huge, some folks say its not. You start the game on a very small 'newbie' island. It's still a decent size but you will out-grow it fast, which is kinda the point. You then travel via teleport to the mainland. This is the mainland for your race. For example, Fyros make their home in the Burning Desert. This mainland feels small to me. If I don't aggro any mobs, I can walk across it in about an hour, maybe faster. But then again, this area is *packed* with mobs. There are mobs *everywhere* and of varying difficulty. One of the things I found annoying once I got to the mainland for my race was that really hard mobs mix with newbie mobs and so it's really difficult to get going on the mainland unless you stay extra long on the newbie island getting tough and milking it for cash.
In general, I've found that playing and leveling in any of the skill trees is addictive. There's a lot going on with all of them and they each take time to learn and become masterful in. Harvesting is the example I will use. It's in-depth enough that people form harvesting groups, much like groups form to fight mobs. They go out and do their thing, only they're gathering materials for crafting instead of fighting. Never seen that happen before.
Crafting is fun but can be costly. The game works crafting well because the best items are made by players, not bought off vendors, so there could be a really nice player economy. More players are needed to make this truly take off, however. I've spent a lot of time asking for armor or weapons from player-crafters who either can't make the level of items I need, or are just not online, not available.
One thing that I am kind of bothered by is that PVP is purely consentual. Oh, well.
All in all, I'm enjoying the game. But there is one huge aspect that needs to be addressed, and it is the lack of players. Nevrax can't do anything about this, it's up to gamers. So many aspects of the game rely on a much heavier player population to be fully realized. People who log in and don't give it a chance keep it from gaining the community it was designed to support. I know people will say it's not their job to make the game good, but our requests to game designers is always for player-run games (economies, PVP, crafting, politics, etc. ) When we get it, we don't want to support it until it gets going. Sadly, games designed with player economies and the like, need to start somewhere, and that's with players. If no one gives it a chance, the game mechanics aren't fully used or enjoyed.
In summary, the game has some bugs and I was fuming. I couldn't wait for the store to open so I could throw it at the clerk who recommended it. But after giving it another chance, I have discovered a game that really hooked me. I was quite surprised by this turn of events.
That's it, hope I didn't miss anything big 
Comments
Nice review, I agree with you on most points.
I won the game from this website and have been playing for about a week now, I started a Fyros character but kinda messed him up wasting aload of skill points on skills i didnt really need.
Now im playing a Tryker and have just teleported to the mainland at fighting skill lvl 24. The scenery is great, lovely beaches and a whole living breathing ecosystem.
But apart from that to be honest there is not much else to do than level grind in harvesting, magic, fighting and crafting.. sure you could go explore the world and see all the beautiful beaches, deserts forests etc but even that gets boring after a while. But yeah I agree that the skill system is well thought out and much better than most MMORPG's that i have played.
As many others have said this game has alot of potential, and I can see it being a great game in the near future with the upcoming patches introducing quests and additional content.
Apoljing
Fading Shadows Guild
Actually I agree that there's not much to do but grind. The previous poster is right that we do this in most MMO's anyway so SoR is no different in that sense.
However, what gives me a fuzzy feeling is the response players get from the devs. Obviously they know what they're up against with EQII and WoW, let alone other upcoming titles, and they don't seem willing to sit back and let the game fail.
I'm really impressed with the patches that have gone live so far (fixed most of the frustrating issues in a very short time-frame), and I have complete faith the devs will release Patch 1 and Patch 2 both on time and with minimal implemenation flaws. This faith comes from the way they've responded to players in general and to my petitions and me specifically. The small patches given us have also not introduced other problems as far as I can tell; they're all solid.
IMO, these two things (not resting on their laurels, and responding to player concerns) is what will fill the content gap and also draw more people to the game. Given a couple of months, I think SoR will have a heavy population and set a new standard for other MMO companies to follow in customer service (welcome to the new world, SOE).
Honestly, I might be a fanboi now, but at least Nevrax had to prove it to me, so they've earned my praise
Just so you know, I read your review and thought it was extremely fair and not written as hype, I have started to send people here to read it when they ask about the game.
____________________________
Current player of The Saga of Ryzom. I waited 3 months for promised live events in City of Heroes, it never happened. Ryzom had one in 2 weeks.
Cool
Glad your finding it useful!
Having played for some time in beta, but not upon release I also believe this review to be accurate of what I saw with SoR.
It is hard to get fair and intelligent reviews of most games since they are either written by fanbois or leetdoods.
Well done.
A good review - I always find it better when people point out the rough with the smooth in their experience of a game :-)
Couple of points of interest...
There is a patch being applied as I write this to address the issue with disappearing trainers and getting stuck as you did, as well as some other stuff.
The issue with the wrong discs in the retail boxes is being addressed also. See www.ryzom.com for more info...
Call me Legion, for we are many...
Call me Legion, for we are many...
Excellent review, you should post it on GameFaqs or other such sites with user reviews, positive statements like these, if spread will get the game the audience it deserves.
SOR is a good game with strong fundamentals, hopefully they can increase their exposure or get out their content patches faster. Otherwise they will never survive nov 15.
I disagree that EQ2 and WOW will kill Ryzom, for several reasons:
First - it's not your typical Dwarf/Orc/Elf fantasy world; not everyone wants to play in the same done-to-death genre.
Second - The community is not primarily North American - there are German, French and Euro-English servers along with the NA one. This is a different demographic and marketing base than EQ2 and WoW - it doesn't depend solely on American players.
Third - some people (one for eg; me -
) are actively *avoiding* EQ2 and Wow because of the (perceived) playstyle of the people who are gravitating toward them. Ryzom looks better and better with every flamefest that flares up. Which leads us to -
Fourth - a more mature gaming atmosphere.
Fifth - gameplay that isn't centered primarily around fighting: harvesting and crafting have their own skill trees and group dynamics (yes - harvesting groups). This also sets Ryzom up as an alternative to the Nov 15th behemoths.
I could think of more, and maybe I will. But later.
I agree with all you points except the second. EQ2 and WoW are also targetting the German, French and Euro-English community. These games will be fully translated like Ryzom (EQ2 is already translated in the beta test, (including the voice over)).
Great review, I've been playing Ryzom for about a week now and agree with many of the things mentioned here
The stuck in trainer bug has now been completely fixed in a recent patch so any new players shouldnt have this problem when logging in.
There is still a lack of population, but that is due to a distribution problem according to Nevrax, with people not being able to get ahold of the game. However, you can now buy and download the game from www.ryzom.com, just go to the order page and choose "Others", cost is around £30 and it downloads from a UK site. Hope this helps people who are having problems
Patch 1 is now on the Advanced Test Server, which means it should be going live in the next week or so. This patch is going to completely overhaul the harvesting skill so it is easier to get into, and addresses some content issues, like adding quests so i believe.
I hope more people try this game, as once you get into it, you will be pleasantly surprised with how much fun it is