Very cool game. Yeah, it needs some tweaks, but that's what beta is for. The fact that it's 3vs3 pvp, no levels with the skill wheel and you can make your character look exactly how you like despite the gear and I've already pre-ordered.
Walking through New England killing zombies, I felt like I was in my own episode of Walking Dead.
Quest system is a little wonky, but workable. The character animations....meh. The main bits: ie: combat, progression, etc are what work.
Never thought I'd hear myself say this, but I me thinks I'm going to put down TOR for this.
Edit: Another "genius" move is forcing players to use google to find solutions to puzzles instead of having them solveable ingame. Every time you take someone out of the game, it makes it that more likely they'll stay out.
There is a browser in-game.
Makes no difference. Whether the browser is ingame or not, simply opening that browser throws you back into the "real" world and takes you away from the game.
Now had they done something along the lines of GTA IV where it had computers that could access fake ingame websites and such, not only would it have maintained "immersion" but it also would have allowed a bit of creativity, such as "hacking" into an Illuminati web server for info, etc.
It's a modern game, so the use of internet technology, which can take you to fake sites set up specifically for the game, isn't exactly immersion breaking.
Then again, I guess every time I use my iPhone to check a website, I'm breaking the immersion of my real world existence...
There are also in-game computer terminals that can be hacked for specific information, much of which can be pretty amusing, i.e. Madame Roget... Dyn-na-mite!!!
Or, after acquiring the video cameras from around town and hooking them into the security system at the police station, it allows you to get video from those cameras.
Or, you can actually see the pictures taken by the RC plane.
In fact, they did do a lot of in-game use of tech creatively, which is contrary to the claims you're making here.
To me this game fell into the same trap that SWTOR did, they became to focused on "solobility" where every swinging dick was running around on their owm OFP and that bout every player pretty much ignores the other. I really love the quests and the story but am no about to pay a sub on a single player feature.
Combat was a bit meh on, too much felt like was frantically trying to keep track of 5 different things at once and felt like the typical fomula. There does need to be better scaling though. In one moment I was face rolling mobs and in the next moment was getting fucksored in the same zone. While I do enjoy a challenge but there is a total lack of a tutorial for various things like gear cusimization or proper syncing abilities.
I am not a PvPer and never tried the PvP in Beta but does it really bring anything new to the table? Don't quote me 3v3. What I'm getting at is for instance GW2, the WvWvW brings a lot of "new flavor." Holding keeps, assaulting keeps, DEs within the PvP zone amongst other things like siege weapons and so on so forth. I wonder if TSW will just be a typical WoW BG copy just with an aditional faction involved. Two faction warfare is bad enough with numers tilting which both SWTOR and Rift are prime examples of and three factions will just make it worse I think.
Sorry but this Article is poorly structured and often wrong. There is a headline about the Tokyo Flashback and it says during this scene the player sees his character developing his powers by jumping through few days showing singel scenes.
This is simply wrong, the Tokyo Flashback is actually described in the next paragraph which ironically starts with "after the tokyo flashback" which is wrong as the following lines describe the tokyo flashback.
You see that incident while inhabiting another female person, this is what you see by your character and another flashing around. You then play with 3 different NPC's which are one from each faction. You even can see those NPC's in cinematics if you would so some research.
You get preset abilities which you try out, this is not even London underground and not other Templar rookies, it is a completely different story in Tokyo.
To everyone else: You won't notice the animation issues...if you do, like another poster said, this game just isnt for you. Go play Tera where you can kill mobs all day and do x and y quests.
I heard someone call the world uninspired and dull....ARE YOU CRAZY????? This is the most unique MMO world since....Im not sure...maybe AO.
PLEASE DO NOT LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE are saying here and try it out for yourself....the writer is definitely not a fan of this breed of MMO....it's obvious by the way he's able to constantly hark on what's wrong and use one of the worst games of the year as an example to support his argument. Then to write a few short sentences about the questing and story does this game NO justice....this is the first game since WoW where you can actually wonder off and find a quest in the middle of nowhere.
To everyone else: You won't notice the animation issues...if you do, like another poster said, this game just isnt for you. Go play Tera where you can kill mobs all day and do x and y quests.
I heard someone call the world uninspired and dull....ARE YOU CRAZY????? This is the most unique MMO world since....Im not sure...maybe AO.
PLEASE DO NOT LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE are saying here and try it out for yourself....the writer is definitely not a fan of this breed of MMO....it's obvious by the way he's able to constantly hark on what's wrong and use one of the worst games of the year as an example to support his argument. Then to write a few short sentences about the questing and story does this game NO justice....this is the first game since WoW where you can actually wonder off and find a quest in the middle of nowhere.
I played, and noticed the animation issues before I left the flashback sequence. I noticed the lack of impact in combat, the horrible palceholder animations, the rather dull combat that is mostly about spamming an aoe until everything falls over, the fairly limited ability menus that didn't give nearly as much flexibility as I'd like, the lack of decent character options.
OK fine, they say that will all be in release which is what...3-4 weeks? OK cool. In 3-4 weeks, let me play a free trial so I can see these things in palce. I'm not paying for the game as it currently is. And FC< sadly, has a history of launching games with major compenents missing or broken.
To everyone else: You won't notice the animation issues...if you do, like another poster said, this game just isnt for you. Go play Tera where you can kill mobs all day and do x and y quests.
I heard someone call the world uninspired and dull....ARE YOU CRAZY????? This is the most unique MMO world since....Im not sure...maybe AO.
PLEASE DO NOT LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE are saying here and try it out for yourself....the writer is definitely not a fan of this breed of MMO....it's obvious by the way he's able to constantly hark on what's wrong and use one of the worst games of the year as an example to support his argument. Then to write a few short sentences about the questing and story does this game NO justice....this is the first game since WoW where you can actually wonder off and find a quest in the middle of nowhere.
I played, and noticed the animation issues before I left the flashback sequence. I noticed the lack of impact in combat, the horrible palceholder animations, the rather dull combat that is mostly about spamming an aoe until everything falls over, the fairly limited ability menus that didn't give nearly as much flexibility as I'd like, the lack of decent character options.
OK fine, they say that will all be in release which is what...3-4 weeks? OK cool. In 3-4 weeks, let me play a free trial so I can see these things in palce. I'm not paying for the game as it currently is. And FC< sadly, has a history of launching games with major compenents missing or broken.
Again, like I said, go play TERA or GW2 and have fun.....Funcom has always brought something to the table that those devs can't hold a match to.....ingenuity, sincerely unique gameplay and an unmatched atmosphere that draws you in at every step.
Id just say this kinda thing isn't for you....you want something familiar....go get it.
Again, like I said, go play TERA or GW2 and have fun.....Funcom has always brought something to the table that those devs can't hold a match to.....ingenuity, sincerely unique gameplay and an unmatched atmosphere that draws you in at every step.
Id just say this kinda thing isn't for you....you want something familiar....go get it.
Quests - aside of story-telling mode aka SWTOR - boring and not fun
Atmosphere - boring and not fun (how long people will keep create zombies? I thought nobody cares about zombies any longer, but no, lets make another MMO with zombies...)
lasting value - zip (I've played 2 hours and uninstalled it)
One of the most boring games I've tried so far. Even TERA is more fun. Secret World lacks big time in something that would keep subscriptions rolling. A lot of people will cancel after first 1-2 months.
FALLEN EARTH - years old game of similar setup is more fun. Wish people would stop making MMOs with old boring mechanics and pretend that their game is better than anything out there.
Skill system? Yeah you can hybrid, but amount of time required to raise your skills will make you SW slave.
Combat-it really does suck.Only thing i liked about it, was the indicators of where an enemy aoe was gonna land,allowing you to manually "dodge" it.
Setting-its pretty good.I really like the town ive seen (new england one,forget the name).You cant enter many of the buildings,which is a major flaw, and nothing really happens npc wise,which is another major flaw, but other than that its done pretty well.
Char-sub par
Skills-sub par,the skill deck is so tightly controlled by the point costs,the wheel has very little effect at the lower play.Which is what this beta weekend gives us.
Quests- about average,whith some exceptions.The Follow the Ravens quest was a nice standout.As was the security equipment quest with all the traps in the cellar.
Balance- there doesnt seem to be any.....BUT then it IS a skill deck system,so there really isnt any.
Overall, ill pass.
Theres just nothing ive seen that makes this game anything special.I cant even get excited ebough to log in today,the last day.
This would have been a much better game, had it used a "realistic" fps style combat system.
To everyone else: You won't notice the animation issues...if you do, like another poster said, this game just isnt for you. Go play Tera where you can kill mobs all day and do x and y quests.
I heard someone call the world uninspired and dull....ARE YOU CRAZY????? This is the most unique MMO world since....Im not sure...maybe AO.
PLEASE DO NOT LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE are saying here and try it out for yourself....the writer is definitely not a fan of this breed of MMO....it's obvious by the way he's able to constantly hark on what's wrong and use one of the worst games of the year as an example to support his argument. Then to write a few short sentences about the questing and story does this game NO justice....this is the first game since WoW where you can actually wonder off and find a quest in the middle of nowhere.
I played, and noticed the animation issues before I left the flashback sequence. I noticed the lack of impact in combat, the horrible palceholder animations, the rather dull combat that is mostly about spamming an aoe until everything falls over, the fairly limited ability menus that didn't give nearly as much flexibility as I'd like, the lack of decent character options.
OK fine, they say that will all be in release which is what...3-4 weeks? OK cool. In 3-4 weeks, let me play a free trial so I can see these things in palce. I'm not paying for the game as it currently is. And FC< sadly, has a history of launching games with major compenents missing or broken.
Again, like I said, go play TERA or GW2 and have fun.....Funcom has always brought something to the table that those devs can't hold a match to.....ingenuity, sincerely unique gameplay and an unmatched atmosphere that draws you in at every step.
Id just say this kinda thing isn't for you....you want something familiar....go get it.
Now, I'll grant you innovation. FC was the first (or second, did DAoC come out first? I forget) developer to create 3-faction pvp. The first AAA sci-fi MMO. Randomly generated quests. Pretty sure the first instanced dungeon was in AO too. AoC had the first game where directional swings mattered in melee. And boobs We can't forget the boobs.
AO, however, was unplayable (literally, due to crashes, mem leaks,and fps issues) for nearly a year after release. The company made much of their 5-yr storyline where players could participate, but by Notum Wars (the first expansion) GM-run events had nearly died out. They then tried to "reinvent" the game over a series of other expansions, bringing it more in line with what they thought players wanted. And failed. It still exists, a pale shadow of its former self.
AoC, now that game had promise. Real adult gameplay. Remember the prostitutes you could pay for buffs? FC promised those at launch, but never put them in. Seige gameplay was supposed to be present at launch, nope. something like 20% of the models and animations at launch were placeholders, some STILL such until nearly a year after release. Those boobs? quite a bit of teh nudity in the game was stealth nerfed, and to the best of my knowledge FC has still never even admitted it happened. Let's not forget they merged something like 15 classses down quite a bit because they couldn't get them all working. Oh and the massive lags, crashes, etc. And the fact the game more or less died off by 30 for quite some time after release. In fact, once you were out of Tortage the game was boring and horrible for a long time. It's gotten better now, with the expansions and f2p....but it suffered for a long, long time.
Don't get me wrong. I praise Funcom's ingenuity, and I honestly LOVE that they constantly think up new clever ideas. The problem is they tend to implement them poorly, and release poor product and expect players to pay for it.
It's not that the game is too "cerebral" or "doesn't hold my hand enough", or whatever claptrap people such as yourself like to post. It's broke. Missing animations. No character customization. The "intellectual" bits you reference are about 10% or less of the game's content, the rest is basically rehashed MMO staples, and poorly done at that. Combat is, once again, utterly boring and without challenge. The skill system lacks the depth I had hoped for (something more like AO).
Let's not forget this is a game that not only has a sub, but will also have a cash shop? FC plans on taking that much money from people, but is about to release the game missing so much? (a FC dev was recently quoted as saying that the product we're seeing in beta currently is more or less what will launch)
I'm kinda tired of (God I'm about to sound like a typicall MMORPG.com poster, shoot me) fanboys of this game red herring any complaint made against it that the game's just "for a different kind of player" Maybe it is. But it's still broken. Until it is, I don't caer whether I'm that kind of player or not. I will not pay a cent for it until it's fixed. Nuff said.
I'll make it short - the game has great potential, but I think it lacks a lot on the technical side, and I don't see how all the problems will be removed until release.
atmosphere: the game excels here, the setting is great and you do have the feeling that you are entering a "secret world". The apocalyptic feel and modern setting go a long way;
+ skill system: even though it is not something extremely deep, it does offer a lot of choice, and it is not difficult to get into. Probably some people expected a lot more, but I think it would have reduced immersion, because this way it's fairly easy to make a build yourself. If the system were more complicated, most people would just use builds recommended on fan sites;
+ you get to use your brain (occasionally): I like the approach that you are actually required to pay attention to what is going on in the game. This is very much the approach of adventure games, where dialgue and surroundings matter a lot. The downside is that this type of content is not prevailing in the game (from what I've seen so far);
- client stablity: maybe this was something specific due to my system, but the game client was extremely unstable. I don't think I've spent more than an hour before the client crashes. This is a huge issue, at least to me, and I don't see how it can be resolved in five weeks. I understand there were a lot of players over the weekend, but there may be even more at launch;
- ugly character models: I am not referring so much to the limted choice of customisation,but rather to the ugly animations. The backgrounds were fine, but the character models seemed much more like placeholders, rather than the true character models. I don't expect too much, but in my view, this is graphics at least 10 years old. Looking my character in the back helped, but still, I am unpleasantly surprised;
- quest management: I don't mind the tiered quest system. I think it is nice, and once again much akin to adventure games. However, I don't understand why I can't have more than four quests active at the same time. I think it makes sense, it's too limiting;
Overall, I expected something more from a beta five weeks before release. One would think that Funcom would try to present the game in its best light, but I still have the feeling that the game is in early beta stage. I truly hope the game is successful, because it is definitely something different, but I am afraid it is technically not ready for launch yet. Comparing only the technical side, Guild Wars 2 gives the impression of a much more finished game, and it doesn't even have a release date yet.
Very immersive mmorpg. I am really enjoying the beta. And I really appreciate Funcon letting us play/try it without having to preorder. I thought that was a very greedy what GW2 did...
Heck I have played TSW game more than any other outside of EvE this month.
Only thing that concerns me is this game feels more like a single player console game with live chat than a mmorpg.
I suppose there are group PvE "dungeons" and such, but outside of the PvP warfronts (which need some work btw ), I found myself pretty much playing it solo.
Now with that being said, pretty much all mmorpgs (outside of EvE) now a days are single player linear focused, and I hope Funcon takes that into consideration before rolling out their business model. 15 dolllars a month for a single player game is what drives all of your player base away eventually - 1-2 months and people start bailing.
If anyone has any insight on end game group play content can you post it? I am curious before I invest money into the game.
Funcom has been working on this for 6 years and from what i can tell,They Delivered the concept they promised.
However people are under this crazy assumption that this game is bad because it wasn't built to their "standards" or "needs". Ie; "combat is boring, why cant it be more like x" - because it was never intended to be like x? and fps wasnt on the cards either.
Combat animations are "chunky" - There mmorpg standard? there not spectacular but they for-fill the role that was intended.
pre orders - = intent to buy...you didn't intend to buy you intended to try...any way you cut it your trying to pull a scam.
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
its funcom, get ready for an endless round of bug fixes introducing more bugs than they fix, information flow akin to chemical ali and the last days of baghdad and the odd funcom employee trying to tell us different on these forums.
The game WORLD felt pretty good to me. I didn't think the animations were horrible, but not great either, though the fast moving zombies were a definite exception; they looked like the Scooby Doo gang guest starring on Benny Hill. To be honest, the game feels more like "The Longest Journey" than AoC, mechanically, and certainly spiritually.
Gameplay was okay... felt to me like a less polished and slower moving DC Online system where you have loadouts but they change if you change weapons, and most of your skills can be used while moving. It is nice that you can switch weapons and your loadout will switch automagically; no doubt they developed this in feedback to the AoC system which doesn't do this despite many moves being only compatible with certain weapons.
One of the best things about the game is that that the quests are spread out and not terribly linear. I found myself running around in any particular direction and finding things to do. I also found that I had chewed up most of the scenery and side quests before moving on past the 3rd tier of the main quest. THIS IS A GOOD THING. But there's a problem.
The quest limitation is the problem. It was exactly the opposite of the kind of system this game needs. To have to cancel another quest to pick up these remote quests makes no sense whatsoever. I know they probably want to keep you focused on a few goals at a time to keep the story straighter, but this isn't the way to do it. I really hope it's a beta thing.
Another concern I had... almost every quest was repeatable. I HOPE this was just for sake of beta testing, which is certainly possible. Because usually when so many quests are repeatable, it's because there's not enough content.
On the question of this being an MMO... from playing the whole thing(pretty sure I played most if not all the available quests), I have to say that thus far, this is the least group based MMO I've yet to play, including TOR. It looked like Priest Island might be a MP haven, though no missions pointed me there. Again, being less than halfway through the main zone quest may have something to do with this.
Based on what I played, I would in no way expect to stay subbed to this game indefinitely. It suffers from the same issue that TOR has, which is:
Once I've finished Kingsmouth, will there be any reason to go back there? Not just for some higher level return mission, I mean to actually go there and wander around. LotRO has this, and it's one of the reasons I've been subbed for over 3 years. Once completing the Shire content, I still go back there often. Same for Bree, Rivendell, etc. Will there be a reason to return to Kingsmouth just for the halibut? I don't think so. TOR has this same problem. See yourself going back to Tattoinne to hang out? No? Me, either. Once you complete the content, it just feels like an empty shell. Once you've saved the day, I doubt it will feel like home, the way cities in LotRO do. And I didn't see anything in London that created that feeling, either.
But the content was certainly interesting enough to where I may want to play for a month or 2 to munch through the single player content. The investigation/puzzle based missions were pretty interesting, though one was a bit too "read the devs mind" oriented(example: when talk of "golden girls" and "white ravens" begin, there's something you have to do that makes little sense outside of the dev's mind.), but still interesting. I suspect that all factions will have the same path, though maybe their main quest will be different; basically, TOR with only 3 classes. But that may not be correct.
I do look forward to more beta weekends, and I hope many of the assumed negatives I've considered don't pan out. I'd love to be proven wrong on some of these cases.
You know what I loved in this game more than anything? It is scaring off the kind of gamer that this game do not need:-)
Said that I am amazed as the community bought FC idea... They also gave hints about the puzzles, not the answer directly... The community blended in the atmosphere of the game. Good perspectives from the community, no goons there, we can wait a critic approach of the game without the selfish feeling of mostly games, we can wait RP, we can wait a good development because the community is much more mature and tend to answer properly to the problemas ahead... I just hope FC understand this.
The game WORLD felt pretty good to me. I didn't think the animations were horrible, but not great either, though the fast moving zombies were a definite exception; they looked like the Scooby Doo gang guest starring on Benny Hill. To be honest, the game feels more like "The Longest Journey" than AoC, mechanically, and certainly spiritually.
Gameplay was okay... felt to me like a less polished and slower moving DC Online system where you have loadouts but they change if you change weapons, and most of your skills can be used while moving. It is nice that you can switch weapons and your loadout will switch automagically; no doubt they developed this in feedback to the AoC system which doesn't do this despite many moves being only compatible with certain weapons.
One of the best things about the game is that that the quests are spread out and not terribly linear. I found myself running around in any particular direction and finding things to do. I also found that I had chewed up most of the scenery and side quests before moving on past the 3rd tier of the main quest. THIS IS A GOOD THING. But there's a problem.
The quest limitation is the problem. It was exactly the opposite of the kind of system this game needs. To have to cancel another quest to pick up these remote quests makes no sense whatsoever. I know they probably want to keep you focused on a few goals at a time to keep the story straighter, but this isn't the way to do it. I really hope it's a beta thing.
Another concern I had... almost every quest was repeatable. I HOPE this was just for sake of beta testing, which is certainly possible. Because usually when so many quests are repeatable, it's because there's not enough content.
On the question of this being an MMO... from playing the whole thing(pretty sure I played most if not all the available quests), I have to say that thus far, this is the least group based MMO I've yet to play, including TOR. It looked like Priest Island might be a MP haven, though no missions pointed me there. Again, being less than halfway through the main zone quest may have something to do with this.
Based on what I played, I would in no way expect to stay subbed to this game indefinitely. It suffers from the same issue that TOR has, which is:
Once I've finished Kingsmouth, will there be any reason to go back there? Not just for some higher level return mission, I mean to actually go there and wander around. LotRO has this, and it's one of the reasons I've been subbed for over 3 years. Once completing the Shire content, I still go back there often. Same for Bree, Rivendell, etc. Will there be a reason to return to Kingsmouth just for the halibut? I don't think so. TOR has this same problem. See yourself going back to Tattoinne to hang out? No? Me, either. Once you complete the content, it just feels like an empty shell. Once you've saved the day, I doubt it will feel like home, the way cities in LotRO do. And I didn't see anything in London that created that feeling, either.
But the content was certainly interesting enough to where I may want to play for a month or 2 to munch through the single player content. The investigation/puzzle based missions were pretty interesting, though one was a bit too "read the devs mind" oriented(example: when talk of "golden girls" and "white ravens" begin, there's something you have to do that makes little sense outside of the dev's mind.), but still interesting. I suspect that all factions will have the same path, though maybe their main quest will be different; basically, TOR with only 3 classes. But that may not be correct.
I do look forward to more beta weekends, and I hope many of the assumed negatives I've considered don't pan out. I'd love to be proven wrong on some of these cases.
Thats a very insightfull negative critic of the game. I tend to agree with most of it. and I would add the poor customization of the character, specially char creation.
I dont see myself returning to Kingsmouth neither, however I think London will be the Bree thing... And by that we can assume we will have also Seoul and New york... I just thought it could be bigger.
The game WORLD felt pretty good to me. I didn't think the animations were horrible, but not great either, though the fast moving zombies were a definite exception; they looked like the Scooby Doo gang guest starring on Benny Hill. To be honest, the game feels more like "The Longest Journey" than AoC, mechanically, and certainly spiritually.
Gameplay was okay... felt to me like a less polished and slower moving DC Online system where you have loadouts but they change if you change weapons, and most of your skills can be used while moving. It is nice that you can switch weapons and your loadout will switch automagically; no doubt they developed this in feedback to the AoC system which doesn't do this despite many moves being only compatible with certain weapons.
One of the best things about the game is that that the quests are spread out and not terribly linear. I found myself running around in any particular direction and finding things to do. I also found that I had chewed up most of the scenery and side quests before moving on past the 3rd tier of the main quest. THIS IS A GOOD THING. But there's a problem.
The quest limitation is the problem. It was exactly the opposite of the kind of system this game needs. To have to cancel another quest to pick up these remote quests makes no sense whatsoever. I know they probably want to keep you focused on a few goals at a time to keep the story straighter, but this isn't the way to do it. I really hope it's a beta thing.
Another concern I had... almost every quest was repeatable. I HOPE this was just for sake of beta testing, which is certainly possible. Because usually when so many quests are repeatable, it's because there's not enough content.
On the question of this being an MMO... from playing the whole thing(pretty sure I played most if not all the available quests), I have to say that thus far, this is the least group based MMO I've yet to play, including TOR. It looked like Priest Island might be a MP haven, though no missions pointed me there. Again, being less than halfway through the main zone quest may have something to do with this.
Based on what I played, I would in no way expect to stay subbed to this game indefinitely. It suffers from the same issue that TOR has, which is:
Once I've finished Kingsmouth, will there be any reason to go back there? Not just for some higher level return mission, I mean to actually go there and wander around. LotRO has this, and it's one of the reasons I've been subbed for over 3 years. Once completing the Shire content, I still go back there often. Same for Bree, Rivendell, etc. Will there be a reason to return to Kingsmouth just for the halibut? I don't think so. TOR has this same problem. See yourself going back to Tattoinne to hang out? No? Me, either. Once you complete the content, it just feels like an empty shell. Once you've saved the day, I doubt it will feel like home, the way cities in LotRO do. And I didn't see anything in London that created that feeling, either.
But the content was certainly interesting enough to where I may want to play for a month or 2 to munch through the single player content. The investigation/puzzle based missions were pretty interesting, though one was a bit too "read the devs mind" oriented(example: when talk of "golden girls" and "white ravens" begin, there's something you have to do that makes little sense outside of the dev's mind.), but still interesting. I suspect that all factions will have the same path, though maybe their main quest will be different; basically, TOR with only 3 classes. But that may not be correct.
I do look forward to more beta weekends, and I hope many of the assumed negatives I've considered don't pan out. I'd love to be proven wrong on some of these cases.
You pointed out some good issues
Personaly,i found the game good enough to keep playing for more than 2 months,im waiting untill the release tho to come here and speak about my experience,i think its too early to form a acurate final opinion,however,obviouly you can get some ideas just based on beta,for exemple,the bunny jump,fast zombies
The quests number limitation is quite a issue to me,i remember to pass by lot of random missions that find in the path for a missions you are working on and cant even get the quests to resolve later,i just miss the spot where they are to pick later,now i will remember to add map marks to find em fast on the next weekend
Finaly and again,just by this beta weekend experience im more to keep playing the game
WoW 4ys,EVE 4ys,EU 4ys FH1942 best tanker for 4years Playing WWII OL for some years untill now many other for some months
The game WORLD felt pretty good to me. I didn't think the animations were horrible, but not great either, though the fast moving zombies were a definite exception; they looked like the Scooby Doo gang guest starring on Benny Hill. To be honest, the game feels more like "The Longest Journey" than AoC, mechanically, and certainly spiritually.
Gameplay was okay... felt to me like a less polished and slower moving DC Online system where you have loadouts but they change if you change weapons, and most of your skills can be used while moving. It is nice that you can switch weapons and your loadout will switch automagically; no doubt they developed this in feedback to the AoC system which doesn't do this despite many moves being only compatible with certain weapons.
One of the best things about the game is that that the quests are spread out and not terribly linear. I found myself running around in any particular direction and finding things to do. I also found that I had chewed up most of the scenery and side quests before moving on past the 3rd tier of the main quest. THIS IS A GOOD THING. But there's a problem.
The quest limitation is the problem. It was exactly the opposite of the kind of system this game needs. To have to cancel another quest to pick up these remote quests makes no sense whatsoever. I know they probably want to keep you focused on a few goals at a time to keep the story straighter, but this isn't the way to do it. I really hope it's a beta thing.
Another concern I had... almost every quest was repeatable. I HOPE this was just for sake of beta testing, which is certainly possible. Because usually when so many quests are repeatable, it's because there's not enough content.
On the question of this being an MMO... from playing the whole thing(pretty sure I played most if not all the available quests), I have to say that thus far, this is the least group based MMO I've yet to play, including TOR. It looked like Priest Island might be a MP haven, though no missions pointed me there. Again, being less than halfway through the main zone quest may have something to do with this.
Based on what I played, I would in no way expect to stay subbed to this game indefinitely. It suffers from the same issue that TOR has, which is:
Once I've finished Kingsmouth, will there be any reason to go back there? Not just for some higher level return mission, I mean to actually go there and wander around. LotRO has this, and it's one of the reasons I've been subbed for over 3 years. Once completing the Shire content, I still go back there often. Same for Bree, Rivendell, etc. Will there be a reason to return to Kingsmouth just for the halibut? I don't think so. TOR has this same problem. See yourself going back to Tattoinne to hang out? No? Me, either. Once you complete the content, it just feels like an empty shell. Once you've saved the day, I doubt it will feel like home, the way cities in LotRO do. And I didn't see anything in London that created that feeling, either.
But the content was certainly interesting enough to where I may want to play for a month or 2 to munch through the single player content. The investigation/puzzle based missions were pretty interesting, though one was a bit too "read the devs mind" oriented(example: when talk of "golden girls" and "white ravens" begin, there's something you have to do that makes little sense outside of the dev's mind.), but still interesting. I suspect that all factions will have the same path, though maybe their main quest will be different; basically, TOR with only 3 classes. But that may not be correct.
I do look forward to more beta weekends, and I hope many of the assumed negatives I've considered don't pan out. I'd love to be proven wrong on some of these cases.
Comments
Very cool game. Yeah, it needs some tweaks, but that's what beta is for. The fact that it's 3vs3 pvp, no levels with the skill wheel and you can make your character look exactly how you like despite the gear and I've already pre-ordered.
Walking through New England killing zombies, I felt like I was in my own episode of Walking Dead.
Quest system is a little wonky, but workable. The character animations....meh. The main bits: ie: combat, progression, etc are what work.
Never thought I'd hear myself say this, but I me thinks I'm going to put down TOR for this.
"Basically, it becomes more difficult to structure animations that always look perfect when the characters can't move during the animations."
Typo "can't" for "can" I believe
It's a modern game, so the use of internet technology, which can take you to fake sites set up specifically for the game, isn't exactly immersion breaking.
Then again, I guess every time I use my iPhone to check a website, I'm breaking the immersion of my real world existence...
There are also in-game computer terminals that can be hacked for specific information, much of which can be pretty amusing, i.e. Madame Roget... Dyn-na-mite!!!
Or, after acquiring the video cameras from around town and hooking them into the security system at the police station, it allows you to get video from those cameras.
Or, you can actually see the pictures taken by the RC plane.
In fact, they did do a lot of in-game use of tech creatively, which is contrary to the claims you're making here.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
To me this game fell into the same trap that SWTOR did, they became to focused on "solobility" where every swinging dick was running around on their owm OFP and that bout every player pretty much ignores the other. I really love the quests and the story but am no about to pay a sub on a single player feature.
Combat was a bit meh on, too much felt like was frantically trying to keep track of 5 different things at once and felt like the typical fomula. There does need to be better scaling though. In one moment I was face rolling mobs and in the next moment was getting fucksored in the same zone. While I do enjoy a challenge but there is a total lack of a tutorial for various things like gear cusimization or proper syncing abilities.
I am not a PvPer and never tried the PvP in Beta but does it really bring anything new to the table? Don't quote me 3v3. What I'm getting at is for instance GW2, the WvWvW brings a lot of "new flavor." Holding keeps, assaulting keeps, DEs within the PvP zone amongst other things like siege weapons and so on so forth. I wonder if TSW will just be a typical WoW BG copy just with an aditional faction involved. Two faction warfare is bad enough with numers tilting which both SWTOR and Rift are prime examples of and three factions will just make it worse I think.
Sorry but this Article is poorly structured and often wrong. There is a headline about the Tokyo Flashback and it says during this scene the player sees his character developing his powers by jumping through few days showing singel scenes.
This is simply wrong, the Tokyo Flashback is actually described in the next paragraph which ironically starts with "after the tokyo flashback" which is wrong as the following lines describe the tokyo flashback.
You see that incident while inhabiting another female person, this is what you see by your character and another flashing around. You then play with 3 different NPC's which are one from each faction. You even can see those NPC's in cinematics if you would so some research.
You get preset abilities which you try out, this is not even London underground and not other Templar rookies, it is a completely different story in Tokyo.
After those two paragraphs I had to stop reading.
To the writer: Do you happen to be a GW2 fanboy?
To everyone else: You won't notice the animation issues...if you do, like another poster said, this game just isnt for you. Go play Tera where you can kill mobs all day and do x and y quests.
I heard someone call the world uninspired and dull....ARE YOU CRAZY????? This is the most unique MMO world since....Im not sure...maybe AO.
PLEASE DO NOT LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE are saying here and try it out for yourself....the writer is definitely not a fan of this breed of MMO....it's obvious by the way he's able to constantly hark on what's wrong and use one of the worst games of the year as an example to support his argument. Then to write a few short sentences about the questing and story does this game NO justice....this is the first game since WoW where you can actually wonder off and find a quest in the middle of nowhere.
I played, and noticed the animation issues before I left the flashback sequence. I noticed the lack of impact in combat, the horrible palceholder animations, the rather dull combat that is mostly about spamming an aoe until everything falls over, the fairly limited ability menus that didn't give nearly as much flexibility as I'd like, the lack of decent character options.
OK fine, they say that will all be in release which is what...3-4 weeks? OK cool. In 3-4 weeks, let me play a free trial so I can see these things in palce. I'm not paying for the game as it currently is. And FC< sadly, has a history of launching games with major compenents missing or broken.
Again, like I said, go play TERA or GW2 and have fun.....Funcom has always brought something to the table that those devs can't hold a match to.....ingenuity, sincerely unique gameplay and an unmatched atmosphere that draws you in at every step.
Id just say this kinda thing isn't for you....you want something familiar....go get it.
What unique gameplay, care to elaborate a bit?
Combat - boring and not fun
Quests - aside of story-telling mode aka SWTOR - boring and not fun
Atmosphere - boring and not fun (how long people will keep create zombies? I thought nobody cares about zombies any longer, but no, lets make another MMO with zombies...)
lasting value - zip (I've played 2 hours and uninstalled it)
One of the most boring games I've tried so far. Even TERA is more fun. Secret World lacks big time in something that would keep subscriptions rolling. A lot of people will cancel after first 1-2 months.
FALLEN EARTH - years old game of similar setup is more fun. Wish people would stop making MMOs with old boring mechanics and pretend that their game is better than anything out there.
Skill system? Yeah you can hybrid, but amount of time required to raise your skills will make you SW slave.
Moving on.
Combat-it really does suck.Only thing i liked about it, was the indicators of where an enemy aoe was gonna land,allowing you to manually "dodge" it.
Setting-its pretty good.I really like the town ive seen (new england one,forget the name).You cant enter many of the buildings,which is a major flaw, and nothing really happens npc wise,which is another major flaw, but other than that its done pretty well.
Char-sub par
Skills-sub par,the skill deck is so tightly controlled by the point costs,the wheel has very little effect at the lower play.Which is what this beta weekend gives us.
Quests- about average,whith some exceptions.The Follow the Ravens quest was a nice standout.As was the security equipment quest with all the traps in the cellar.
Balance- there doesnt seem to be any.....BUT then it IS a skill deck system,so there really isnt any.
Overall, ill pass.
Theres just nothing ive seen that makes this game anything special.I cant even get excited ebough to log in today,the last day.
This would have been a much better game, had it used a "realistic" fps style combat system.
Now, I'll grant you innovation. FC was the first (or second, did DAoC come out first? I forget) developer to create 3-faction pvp. The first AAA sci-fi MMO. Randomly generated quests. Pretty sure the first instanced dungeon was in AO too. AoC had the first game where directional swings mattered in melee. And boobs We can't forget the boobs.
AO, however, was unplayable (literally, due to crashes, mem leaks,and fps issues) for nearly a year after release. The company made much of their 5-yr storyline where players could participate, but by Notum Wars (the first expansion) GM-run events had nearly died out. They then tried to "reinvent" the game over a series of other expansions, bringing it more in line with what they thought players wanted. And failed. It still exists, a pale shadow of its former self.
AoC, now that game had promise. Real adult gameplay. Remember the prostitutes you could pay for buffs? FC promised those at launch, but never put them in. Seige gameplay was supposed to be present at launch, nope. something like 20% of the models and animations at launch were placeholders, some STILL such until nearly a year after release. Those boobs? quite a bit of teh nudity in the game was stealth nerfed, and to the best of my knowledge FC has still never even admitted it happened. Let's not forget they merged something like 15 classses down quite a bit because they couldn't get them all working. Oh and the massive lags, crashes, etc. And the fact the game more or less died off by 30 for quite some time after release. In fact, once you were out of Tortage the game was boring and horrible for a long time. It's gotten better now, with the expansions and f2p....but it suffered for a long, long time.
Don't get me wrong. I praise Funcom's ingenuity, and I honestly LOVE that they constantly think up new clever ideas. The problem is they tend to implement them poorly, and release poor product and expect players to pay for it.
It's not that the game is too "cerebral" or "doesn't hold my hand enough", or whatever claptrap people such as yourself like to post. It's broke. Missing animations. No character customization. The "intellectual" bits you reference are about 10% or less of the game's content, the rest is basically rehashed MMO staples, and poorly done at that. Combat is, once again, utterly boring and without challenge. The skill system lacks the depth I had hoped for (something more like AO).
Let's not forget this is a game that not only has a sub, but will also have a cash shop? FC plans on taking that much money from people, but is about to release the game missing so much? (a FC dev was recently quoted as saying that the product we're seeing in beta currently is more or less what will launch)
I'm kinda tired of (God I'm about to sound like a typicall MMORPG.com poster, shoot me) fanboys of this game red herring any complaint made against it that the game's just "for a different kind of player" Maybe it is. But it's still broken. Until it is, I don't caer whether I'm that kind of player or not. I will not pay a cent for it until it's fixed. Nuff said.
Just spent the weekend playing this amazing game. I can't wait to see more zones, and more of the combat wheel in the coming weeks.
I already purchased the lifetime sub, and plan on playing this game for a long time.
Can't wait until June!
Just played the beta for a few hours, it's not bad, but other then the setting, it's pretty much like every other MMO that has come out since WOW.
Might give it a try when it comes out at some point.
The game needs more to offer and more time to be developed. They release their games too early.
I'll make it short - the game has great potential, but I think it lacks a lot on the technical side, and I don't see how all the problems will be removed until release.
atmosphere: the game excels here, the setting is great and you do have the feeling that you are entering a "secret world". The apocalyptic feel and modern setting go a long way;
+ skill system: even though it is not something extremely deep, it does offer a lot of choice, and it is not difficult to get into. Probably some people expected a lot more, but I think it would have reduced immersion, because this way it's fairly easy to make a build yourself. If the system were more complicated, most people would just use builds recommended on fan sites;
+ you get to use your brain (occasionally): I like the approach that you are actually required to pay attention to what is going on in the game. This is very much the approach of adventure games, where dialgue and surroundings matter a lot. The downside is that this type of content is not prevailing in the game (from what I've seen so far);
- client stablity: maybe this was something specific due to my system, but the game client was extremely unstable. I don't think I've spent more than an hour before the client crashes. This is a huge issue, at least to me, and I don't see how it can be resolved in five weeks. I understand there were a lot of players over the weekend, but there may be even more at launch;
- ugly character models: I am not referring so much to the limted choice of customisation,but rather to the ugly animations. The backgrounds were fine, but the character models seemed much more like placeholders, rather than the true character models. I don't expect too much, but in my view, this is graphics at least 10 years old. Looking my character in the back helped, but still, I am unpleasantly surprised;
- quest management: I don't mind the tiered quest system. I think it is nice, and once again much akin to adventure games. However, I don't understand why I can't have more than four quests active at the same time. I think it makes sense, it's too limiting;
Overall, I expected something more from a beta five weeks before release. One would think that Funcom would try to present the game in its best light, but I still have the feeling that the game is in early beta stage. I truly hope the game is successful, because it is definitely something different, but I am afraid it is technically not ready for launch yet. Comparing only the technical side, Guild Wars 2 gives the impression of a much more finished game, and it doesn't even have a release date yet.
Very immersive mmorpg. I am really enjoying the beta. And I really appreciate Funcon letting us play/try it without having to preorder. I thought that was a very greedy what GW2 did...
Heck I have played TSW game more than any other outside of EvE this month.
Only thing that concerns me is this game feels more like a single player console game with live chat than a mmorpg.
I suppose there are group PvE "dungeons" and such, but outside of the PvP warfronts (which need some work btw
), I found myself pretty much playing it solo.
Now with that being said, pretty much all mmorpgs (outside of EvE) now a days are single player linear focused, and I hope Funcon takes that into consideration before rolling out their business model. 15 dolllars a month for a single player game is what drives all of your player base away eventually - 1-2 months and people start bailing.
If anyone has any insight on end game group play content can you post it? I am curious before I invest money into the game.
BigCountry | Head Hunters | www.wefarmpeople.com
I don't see the problem.
Funcom has been working on this for 6 years and from what i can tell,They Delivered the concept they promised.
However people are under this crazy assumption that this game is bad because it wasn't built to their "standards" or "needs". Ie; "combat is boring, why cant it be more like x" - because it was never intended to be like x? and fps wasnt on the cards either.
Combat animations are "chunky" - There mmorpg standard? there not spectacular but they for-fill the role that was intended.
pre orders - = intent to buy...you didn't intend to buy you intended to try...any way you cut it your trying to pull a scam.
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
its funcom, get ready for an endless round of bug fixes introducing more bugs than they fix, information flow akin to chemical ali and the last days of baghdad and the odd funcom employee trying to tell us different on these forums.
The game is a fail and will not last 6mounth/ same as AOC, all it bring on as news, is the pussle system.
End of story
A little long winded. My apollojeez...
The game WORLD felt pretty good to me. I didn't think the animations were horrible, but not great either, though the fast moving zombies were a definite exception; they looked like the Scooby Doo gang guest starring on Benny Hill. To be honest, the game feels more like "The Longest Journey" than AoC, mechanically, and certainly spiritually.
Gameplay was okay... felt to me like a less polished and slower moving DC Online system where you have loadouts but they change if you change weapons, and most of your skills can be used while moving. It is nice that you can switch weapons and your loadout will switch automagically; no doubt they developed this in feedback to the AoC system which doesn't do this despite many moves being only compatible with certain weapons.
One of the best things about the game is that that the quests are spread out and not terribly linear. I found myself running around in any particular direction and finding things to do. I also found that I had chewed up most of the scenery and side quests before moving on past the 3rd tier of the main quest. THIS IS A GOOD THING. But there's a problem.
The quest limitation is the problem. It was exactly the opposite of the kind of system this game needs. To have to cancel another quest to pick up these remote quests makes no sense whatsoever. I know they probably want to keep you focused on a few goals at a time to keep the story straighter, but this isn't the way to do it. I really hope it's a beta thing.
Another concern I had... almost every quest was repeatable. I HOPE this was just for sake of beta testing, which is certainly possible. Because usually when so many quests are repeatable, it's because there's not enough content.
On the question of this being an MMO... from playing the whole thing(pretty sure I played most if not all the available quests), I have to say that thus far, this is the least group based MMO I've yet to play, including TOR. It looked like Priest Island might be a MP haven, though no missions pointed me there. Again, being less than halfway through the main zone quest may have something to do with this.
Based on what I played, I would in no way expect to stay subbed to this game indefinitely. It suffers from the same issue that TOR has, which is:
Once I've finished Kingsmouth, will there be any reason to go back there? Not just for some higher level return mission, I mean to actually go there and wander around. LotRO has this, and it's one of the reasons I've been subbed for over 3 years. Once completing the Shire content, I still go back there often. Same for Bree, Rivendell, etc. Will there be a reason to return to Kingsmouth just for the halibut? I don't think so. TOR has this same problem. See yourself going back to Tattoinne to hang out? No? Me, either. Once you complete the content, it just feels like an empty shell. Once you've saved the day, I doubt it will feel like home, the way cities in LotRO do. And I didn't see anything in London that created that feeling, either.
But the content was certainly interesting enough to where I may want to play for a month or 2 to munch through the single player content. The investigation/puzzle based missions were pretty interesting, though one was a bit too "read the devs mind" oriented(example: when talk of "golden girls" and "white ravens" begin, there's something you have to do that makes little sense outside of the dev's mind.), but still interesting. I suspect that all factions will have the same path, though maybe their main quest will be different; basically, TOR with only 3 classes. But that may not be correct.
I do look forward to more beta weekends, and I hope many of the assumed negatives I've considered don't pan out. I'd love to be proven wrong on some of these cases.
You know what I loved in this game more than anything? It is scaring off the kind of gamer that this game do not need:-)
Said that I am amazed as the community bought FC idea... They also gave hints about the puzzles, not the answer directly... The community blended in the atmosphere of the game. Good perspectives from the community, no goons there, we can wait a critic approach of the game without the selfish feeling of mostly games, we can wait RP, we can wait a good development because the community is much more mature and tend to answer properly to the problemas ahead... I just hope FC understand this.
Thats a very insightfull negative critic of the game. I tend to agree with most of it. and I would add the poor customization of the character, specially char creation.
I dont see myself returning to Kingsmouth neither, however I think London will be the Bree thing... And by that we can assume we will have also Seoul and New york... I just thought it could be bigger.
You pointed out some good issues
Personaly,i found the game good enough to keep playing for more than 2 months,im waiting untill the release tho to come here and speak about my experience,i think its too early to form a acurate final opinion,however,obviouly you can get some ideas just based on beta,for exemple,the bunny jump,fast zombies
The quests number limitation is quite a issue to me,i remember to pass by lot of random missions that find in the path for a missions you are working on and cant even get the quests to resolve later,i just miss the spot where they are to pick later,now i will remember to add map marks to find em fast on the next weekend
Finaly and again,just by this beta weekend experience im more to keep playing the game
WoW 4ys,EVE 4ys,EU 4ys
FH1942 best tanker for 4years
Playing WWII OL for some years untill now
many other for some months
X2
BigCountry | Head Hunters | www.wefarmpeople.com