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Completely honest and unbiased opinion of thie game after 4 betas
Consequence
Member UncommonPosts: 358
I was in this game through all of the betas. and, like many unbiased opinions about stuff there will be good stuff and bad stuff. So ill tell you what I know and let you decide.
Ill start with some of the negatives:
The gameplay itself is very simple. The combat is "EQ style" in that you auto target, auto attack, and use buttons to cast spells and use abilities. I find this system outdated and lacking, to be honest.
The world is very big. There is a lot of territory and this is a good thing. Its a kind of bland world however. There are a lot of empty spaces as well. This is both good and bad. Good because it gives them something to work with, bad because it has an undeveloped feel similar to the way darkfall was at release, a big world that isnt being used. Unlike darkfall there are zones.
I have never been a guy that evaluates games based on graphics. This games graphics are bleh. The character models are bad and the movements are not very good but parts of the world itself look very good. The day night cycle was actually quite well done in my opinion as well. However, if you are 1 who needs to be entralled with graphics dont play this game. I do not think thats what it is about.
1 of the biggest negatives is the lag. The ping for North American plays is really bad. Since combat isnt twitch it doesnt effect it as much as it could, but there is still rubber banding of mobs and severe patches of lag for no other reason than the fact that you are a LONG way away from the server itself.
The grind. This is a game that will get repetetive and monotonous. This was my biggest problem with this game. Its partly because they seem to have the xp on mobs all wrong. You can fight something 3 lvls above you and get less than fighting something else thats your lvl. I never got this at all. The only real way to lvl in this game is by questing, which isnt for everyone. I found it very boring to advance my chatacters lvls. I hope it is just because they havent put a lot of content in, but in my experience with betas, usually if its not in beta its not in release.
I think thisd problem will likely get fixed, but the game isnt group friendly as much. In most games you arent penalized for grouping. In this game you were. The XP is divided by 2 and you dont really kill 2x as fast, so it pays to solo. Like I said, I see this changing in the future.
The last negative I have is about the developers. Its not all bad, they do a good job. I have to question how big the team itself is though. They had multiple betas with some fairly large multi week breaks between them. Yet, I often witness only minor advancements in the game itself between the betas. Overal, it is more polished now than when beta began by far. But, there hasnt been much change to the game itself aside from the polish. The same skills seem broken. Many of the same obvious issues went untreated.
Some of the Stuff I liked:
Easily, the most attactive aspect of this game to me was the Skill and character building system. It REALLY allows for diversity. I will do my best to descibe it. You have points which you gain with levels that you destribute into skills. Much like a feat tree, you unlock various skills the higher you get into trees. Each different skill has MANY unlockable abilities/spells. This system is common in games. You can choose from a decent list of skills with no requirements for classes or anything. This in itself allows for diversity. On top of this, you have a real time talent tree which is similar to the skill system in EvE online. You can put points into physical attributes of various talents which effect skills. So you could put talents in strength to increase you melee dmg or you could put it into a school of magic to increase dmg and spells from a specific spell skillset. Again, these talent are leanred in REAL time so you do not need be online. It takes 10 mins for most talents at lvl 1, and 1 hr for lvl 2, 3 hrs lvl 3 etc etc etc. I honestly beleive this combo of skills and talents may be the best system I have EVER seen in a MMO. If not for this 1 aspect of the game I likely would not have given this game a 2nd thought. They truly have a gem in this aspect of the game. I commend them for trying new stuff, or at least combining stuff from other games.
I see a lot of potential in the craft system. Its largely unfinished at this time and the game doesnt seem to have much in the way of items at this time. But, I can imagin the game would end up being 1 where you use mostly crafted items at high lvls on top of a few quest reward items. But, items get quickly outdated as you advance through lvls. On the flip side, they need to seriously adjust the wierd lvl requirements some items have. They also need to figure out a better inventory management system.
I am not a quest guy. Which likely means this game wont work for me as thats basically the only way to lvl or at least the most effective way by far. Some of the quests in the game are ok though. And I like the fact that the quest are vague in nature about how to complete them. For example, you dont get a guy telling you do go to an exact spot for something and then a magical red X appears on your map. They just say stuff like "somewhere to the west you will find what your looking for" or some other vague description. I can see how it would get old, but this system promotes discussion amoung players as well as not having a dumbed down quest system. Due to the big map, I never found many of the quest places I was looking for, and I know I am not alone in this. If I am gonna do quests, I prefer things like this where quests are just something you take and have to do without effort. I would still prefer not to do this at all though.
The game has old game style dungeons which I always liked. Most are incomplete right now, but its still a good start.
Lastly, the game is pretty sandbox. Though I never participated in PvP, I cant see it being very good. Not with the target / button mash system. It would be too basic. However, in groups it may not be bad at all at high lvls simply because of the sheer number of abilities and skills available. There will be a LOT of diversity of characters which could be interesting at high lvl group conflicts.
Hope, the wall of text didnt crit you and I hope this helps you decide.
Comments
Hey thanks for the reply it's hard to find good information these days.
I agree 100% on the character building, very cool system that is good for casual and power gamers.
To my tastes the graphics were fine the character models meh but the world was clean.
The killer is definately in the leveling... flavorless quests and worthless grinding..
I'll keep an eye on the patch notes but unless they change the exp system it's not the game for me.
thanks for the info. I am waiting for the next beta wave, before I decide if I want to preorder or not.
with regards to quest-texts, that you mention: I can see this as a plus, but I already dread the multiple, repetitive chat "doh, where do I find X, Y, Z?". at least in games with the X on the map one can say "read the quest text for crying out loud".
as with many small developers, one either has to be patient and live with more problems than necessary, or simply let it be, unfortunately.
Thanks for the info, I was wondering about this game for a while and I liked the graphics/environment videos but basically you are saying that the game is unfinished and not groundbreaking in any field. Plus combat videos (the official trailer anyway) weren't exciting at all and very static. And I'm worried too about development speed and team capacities. So pass for now I'm afraid
realize also this game will only be like11 bucks a month and 35 to get it, also at the release there will be a free.... 2 week trial, so I suggest you keep this in mind, its one of mine that , I plan on trying at launch. I did beta test it, for sure for me atleast is one to keep and eye out for months to come after release, what I like tht fact that the Gm,s keep and eye on the boards and keep us informed and work with us tightly during beta, unlike alot of other companys .
I suggest you do not make this out to be one of those games that people, will not play because of what others say etc. This game will never be a WOW, and they don't wanna be so if your looking for a good game that is going to work hard and be a smaller tight knit type game, and in time may be come larger never a WOW , then it may be for you.. I like the cheaper aspect as well and the 2 weeks free... at release yet to see any new MMO with potienal to do this so what the heck..
I for sure would try this for sure.. and decide for your self the Op was on about some things , but teh lag I never had that issue at all.... and others I know that beta tested did not either.
I did see some folks say they had lag but its beta....... enough said there. to the poster above me try it .. for your self never go choice because of someone else's review.
Everyone likes games that others may not. I love AOC, and fallen earth others hate it.. others love it.. so there you go..
I hate WOW and played it for yrs , but others love it.,. see where i'm going with this..
I have been delaying my latest comments on this game hoping to not have to come here are be too negative. I have played since the first open beta and have my main character to level 15 which is fairly high for this game.
They have made fairly large advances in content and each beta. The game has been very stable never crashed to desktop or got hung like other beta games. The basic structure works well not a lot of the walking through walls or visual distortions.
The skill point and talent system are very complex and hopefully are as fun as they appear. There are enough combinations to keep someone busy for a very long time.
The game is relatively slow leveling. Grinding mobs for XP is not really a option. The quest reward a lot XP but many are bugged. I ended up going to all three starter areas and doing the quests. You can do all he quests in a starter area and still not be high enough to complete quests in the higher level areas. Maybe because of all the bugged quests there are more that could be done later in the chain.
There are many bugs but they do seem to fix them although some have been reported many times and they are still there. They have to fix the lag but it is tolerable. Would like to try more of the ranged spells and kiting but so far lag has prevented that type of game play.
The biggest issue I see is the release date of 5-27
For a game that pushes crafting as one of its main sell points it has a very long way to go. To say they even had crafting activated would be generous. Most the items needed are not in game or they have placeholder names. It appears to be a very simplistic crafting system. Take your ingredients click go and wait. Seems to not fail and you get 1 skill level per item. Not enough content to tell if there are any advanced option like optional ingredients. I would very much like to see a more player decision controlled outcome like other games that have more advanced crafting.
PVP has a long way to go. Although not a PVP game they have not place enough restriction on players to not abuse PVP. It would be nice if they had a reason to PVP before release but even more they need a system to avoid abuse. There is no guard system so you can gank in the cities while people talk to merchants. You can bind to enemy bind point and teleport to the center of their cities en mass. If you get killed you spawn at the nearest point along with the enemy. Since many of these are near the cities you could attack someone get killed respawn at full health and run back and attack them before they had even regen their hit points from killing you the first time. Zerg PVP for the win
The official forums are down again and have been for days so that is not a good sign of a game close to launch. At least the GM comment on many posts so when it is working they do take a player input seriously.
One more open beta starting this week so I will take my fanboy hat out to cover my eyes and try to enjoy another free week.
I didn't had so much time to drive test the game.
What I'd like to mention, from my experience with CoG, is the fact that I was pleasantly surprised by the activity of the GM on the forums and the promptness of their helpdesk when dealing with my emails.
Better to be crazy, provided you know what sane is...
Very good write-up, OP.
The skill system sounds very good. I like off-line development in games.
Is the crafting off-line as well, like Fallen Earth? That would be a big plus, as would gaining xp from crafting.
The lag would be a deal-breaker for me. Hope they get it fixed.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Decent game with great potential, but the lag is awful. I guess its an EU vs. NA thing, idk, but this one thing is a bit of a deal killer. Also, it seems the game is unfinished overall. Quests seem buggy, some kill quests require you to kill mobs that arent your level, quest rewards are items 5 levels above you, skills not working properly, etc. etc. They need another 3-4 months of hard core testing, but I guess they will be calling that launch.
The skill tree, though, is a great idea and I applaud that.
I'll check it out in a few months, but too many good games launhcing in the next 8-10 months
Thanks for the review. TBH the more i read on this game the less it seems to be my thing. But i might gie it a go in a couple months time when more people have had a go.
I gave the game a try last night and I gotta say I had fun playing. The graphics are just "meh" but I really did not mind them., as I was having fun. The music was actually really good, but I ended up turning it down as it was much louder then the rest of the game.
I also liked the idea that you are not spoon fed what to do in the game. The quests tell you kind of what to do, and leave it up to you to explore and find out where you need to go. However there is an option in the quest to point on the map where you need to go but you don't have to use it nor is it automatically turned on. While I was in a town I saw a few people complaining there was no where to store their loot, because their bags were full. Had they spent the time to look around they would have found the stash.
However some things did need better explaining... You are questing in the tuturoial, you come across this big globe thing and you click on it and your instantly ported outside of the tutorial with no way back to where you were. That would be fine if you had any idea what you were clicking on. Also, you pull up your crafting tab and you got 6 different symbols to represent the different professions yet you don't know what they are unless you memorized the icons from the website.
The attribue/skilll/talent diversity is great! I love that there are soo many options that you have little to fear anyone will eveer have a build exactly like yours. This is by far the best thing I think the game has going for it. Allthough from what I saw in chat, some people were saying it was severely in need of balancing.
Overall I think the game has a lot of potential, the GMs were extremely friendly and allthough the community was fairly small, most people seemed happy with what was available so far. The only thing that really bothers me though is the game is supposed to go live on 05/27, and I think it is far from polished. As I did notice some of the quests were broken, experience from killing mobs varied depending on what you killed (best way to level is through questing) not grinding. Also drops were very imbalanced as well, you kill a mob at level 5 and something drops that is level 13.... The game is currently available for preorder, but as I don't know the state of the game when it will be released to see what kind of fixes will be in place for some things that do need to be corrected right away, I can't see buying it right away. I will play the next couple days and probalby the free 10 day trial after release hoping to see a more polished game worthy of my $$$.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
I'm sorry, but the only question I had in my mind as I uninstalled this piecemeal drek was, they expect people to PAY for this?!?
I've seen better graphics from 10 year old ftp games. Combat is s..l...o.....w, the interface is clunky, and the whole game seems to move at a snails pace. There's no real atmoshere to the game. It feels overall like a realmcrafter mod to me, something made in some kids' spare time.
I gues some people will play anything, though.
So, good luck to the devs. They're gonna need it.
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
I really liked this game, it has a nice atmosphere and the diversity in choosing how your "class" is is so awesome since you can choose any ability or skills you want and basicly make your own class. It feels so damn much better than most other games where you just end up being a damn clone of every one else that plays the same class as you
Being able to tame and ride so many different animals is also a really cool feature, game had annoying ammounts of quest and mob related bugs in the last beta but I really hope they sort that out for the launch.
Sure the graphics aint that hot but they aint awfull either, having a top notch graphic mmo is just a pain in the ass imo since there can be so many graphic issues on mmo games that requires much with age of conan being a huge example on that, endless memory leaks and all that, unreliable fps not making sense no matter how much you tweak the settings at most times.
Theres a 10 day free trial for this game and I advise people interested to try it out
interesting that crafting is the way it is presently
"craft of gods" - despite there could be more than one meaning to this, it is a real shame
will have to keep on eye on it (if i remember to)
Same way as i. Keeping eye on it and waiting what they will do out of it.
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I will admit, I am probably not giving it enough time.
However, my reason for already quiting with this game is while I'm not a complete snob about graphics, it does matter a little.
The character development is a great idea. I do like that the game is challenging and quests are not simply, "accept, go to point A on map", you need to try to find Point A on your own.
However, it's painfully ugly and it does matter. At the end of the day, you play, have fun, but then ask yourself, "Will you pay XX.XX amount each month for this?"
At it's current state, no.
I really hope they improve and grow, it's a great open character system. The game itself though is just, "eh".
Hmmm....I had the EXACT same thought.
Well, I've played a character to level 10 on the trial server and I like the game but have some concerns some of which were mentioned above. I just don't know if I can justify spending money up front plus a monthly subscription fee.
Yeah played aswell trial and gave up soon. A shame that they divide trial players apart from main server. When i played i felt like i was only one playing. Not a single chat in several hours.
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