Returned after long break...

Papaprika

I have level cap in RIFT. I have beat GW2. I have a level cap char in all mmorpgs. I come back to this game for it"s longevity. Amazing social aspects, over all best mmorpg experience and getting better with each update:

 

It has one of the most top mmorpg google search results on the internet. It has a long running history and one of the most played Chinese mmorpg’s on the market. Perfect World also carries with it a very strong reputation and most people are very opinionated about the quality of this title. The game’s name alone is used as the company’s slogan “Perfect World Entertainment”. But the biggest question is: “Is this game any good?”  Here is my Perfect World article / Review.

Before I get into the categories of a review (character creation, game play, etc..) I prefer to start this hybrid article (half review / half game experience) off with a brief history of how I got into the game. 
I was fresh off the mmorpg subscription boat. I was that guy that was playing Xbox, playstation, and had a gaming PC for my single player titles and only went online to play HALO, Battlefield 2, and other shooters online. I knew EQ existed but the pay model and box price turned me off usually. And I just sat there with the box in my hand at the game store absorbing the images and convincing myself Diablo will be a better purchase… Then I found myself finished with HALO, done with Baldur’s Gate, Finished the space sims, waiting the next consol release and just over all sitting and waiting for a game to seduce me. Elder Scrolls 4 was a rumor and in development and so I jumped into WoW. 
WoW was making it’s addicts and I always had a friend that had backed out and said “No, I do not play anymore. My wife won’t let me.” “No I do not play anymore, I was to drawn in”, etc etc.. I stuck it out until I was no longer attracted to WoW (it’s updates, break away of original community, etc.). It just started feeling different, level capped out with predictable log ins… small world (last updates made wow very “teleportable” to all events, dungeons, and zones). I quit and really had nothing to play. I also was in an apartment transfer and needed to save money.
Along comes a wild family member that said: “Have you tried PW? It is a great game I have been in for years. Before wow”. Sure, why not. Entertain me. I got in. At this time Perfect World (PW), was only hosted in English in Malaysia, leaving it the “official, non official” global version. You needed passport ID and other sign up things that were easily avoidable (but created nightmares if trying to open tickets / Security changes). I was signed up and in the game. I approached it as an ex wow’er, which hurt allot. I will always have WoW withdrawals and will re-sub at least 4 more times on a whim, only to quit at the next level cap.  That said, I entered perfect world with the backing of a dedicated guild. My family member was leader of a guild, and is a very motivational person. The guild started off as a small group that lived in an game that had all the territory owned by a power  guild. With a positive attitude, my family member rose a small group out of the ashes, kept positive, motivated, social, and built his small army. He snuck in, took territory back, and through heavy dedication as a free play (other guildies paid, and shared the wealth), they retook the map and evened it out 50 /50, then 70/30 then 90/10 (as the defeated older guild had it’s members leave.)
My family member and his guild became a legend on that server. They were the example of positive and small guy rising up and throwing over douche bag PKers. They started to get to know GM’s, get certain “privileges” (like account unlocks if they forgot their password, without having to wait for the fake passport ID number to be validated). They made a mark. They were thriving! And PvP and PvE was exploding. I was lucky enough to start the game out and explore what it had to offer but I would be called back to WoW and leave the game when a grind kicked in (I had WoW head, and had no time for mmorpg grind). 

(A random story arc can pop up at certain places. Very cool idea)

 

I left. Life changed. Fast forward a few years later. PWI is launched. I ask my family leader if he knew about the new PWI. He said yes, and that the guild had no interest as they carved a name for themselves in Malaysia servers. I was now back out of wow and had tested several other mmorpgs on the market (F2P) as the explosion of post wow F2P games was on the rise. I had done my tour testing out games like Runes of Magic, 4story, Requiem, Gpotato and Aeria games titles, etc.. I was now hooked to mmorpgs and testing out several titles all over the place. But still, I was not as saturated and WoW still had an effect on me. I can tell you, I understand why people bash WoW allot, it will leave you spoiled to other mmorpg experiences. The rhythm of getting rich, rewarded and pushed to solo content is very attractive in WoW, and the old community I had in WoW will never ever be replaced. To this day, community s so mechanical. Join up, get on VENT, stay quiet unless help , off topic chat, or that is it. No more “Owlbear chat” no more “Barren chat drama”. Games in general were turning into stale biscuit clones. I would go back in the PW Malaysia server once more but finding the atmosphere changed. MY family member guild leader was tired, and let the new power shift to co leaders. The MY GM’s disappeared, the game was in a company transition and the PWI release sucked most players over…So the guild was splitting and the choice was made to start new in PWI.
They started over. I went along later, after they had farmed their way to mid end game (level 80 90ish). It was not the same feel. They had a head start and knew the game a bit better than the new comers. I was proud to be there too with a little more info under the belt to help others. But then PWI made updates that would work against players. The hard core guild I was in that was used to farming for months to obtain 1 item, then investing over 5,000 dollars a year to maintain guild funds, items, and resources and hold all territory by making international friends to be on in rotations at different time zones to make sure territories are guarded and guild is progressing…was removed. PWI was nerfing, swapping, patching, and over all trying to “wow-itize” slightly the game. For example, the new Tideborn race brought the need to have players get them to mid level faster than PWI ever knew. Usually it took a few months to level 40. Now, it took just about 2 weeks doing tideborn quests. This PISSED OFF the people that had worked so hard. Where was the money going? GM’s were also befriending the guild, then creating drama and hiding behind the power shield of GM. The resetting of PvP map to give unfair advantages. Ignoring cheaters (The goon cheat where exploiters used a broken game mechanic to power level, and never banned for it.) Etc etc.. My PWI guild will disband. Well, at least my Family member stayed, but the key investing players left. 
So did I as I did not like where I was, I had spent cash and had used charms and other power ups to attempt to push myself to end game. This is because I still had WoW, and WoW clone mmorpg mentality and did not understand the nature of this game. I just wanted to be top, and top now with everyone else. I got frustrated, and left the game.

Fast forward. It is now the start of 2014, At least 3 patches and content rounds have passed into the Perfect World. The game still holds power, but a trip through the forums will paint a very ugly picture. I was curious now that I am 100% out of wow, tested almost all the mmorpg son the market, and have a more neutral open approach to games. How would a return to Perfect hold up? I got in and am surprised! Here is where Is where I Start the game review parts:

(Dat NPC though...)

Character creation:

 

Hands down the best on the entire mmorpg market. If you have not seen the youtube videos or have had hands on experience. Install the game just to play with the character creation. The choices are AMAZING. AION get’s close, but lacks allot of features. DCUO get’s a little closer but has a little different approach and over all does not hold up. We begin by choosing race. Humans, elves, Beastkind, Tideborn, and Earthguard.
This choice will affect your physique. Your posture and stance and over all “form” is slightly effected. For example you can make a skinny earthguard, but tideborn have skinnier models since they are naturally a slightly thinner race. The posture while standing idle is effected as well.
Next is sex. There is no gender lock and the Beastkind, although masculine for the panda, tiger, wolf, lion barbarian, the women have a cute half female half animal race that is class locked (Venomancer).  The class choice is generous, and there are about 2 class choices per race. Feel free to check out the website for the list of classes.
Now the goods: Character creation. I cannot write allot to justify it. It is just something you have to experience. Basically, you are given almost FULL control of your customizations.  You can take the model, and thanks to slider bars, customize just about every single point on the body. I could be mistaken, but I thought PW Malaysia had more selection including vertical size and breast siza, and more hair and and color styles. PWI seemed to lack some of the features, but they were such a sidepoint and long ago, I could be confusing games. The point is, I was told on starting this game: “Bring a photo of yourself, you will need it to reference the game model to mold it to your face”. They were not lying, I had created my Perfect World clone of myself in game…I also learned I share more of an elf race face structure than a human. I was never able to shape the bone structure of the human to look like me. The Elves had more my bone structure, and a few hours behind the character creator, I made my clone!
I recommend you check out the youtube videos of Perfect World character creation.

(Stranger Danger)

Gameplay:

 

I will be the first to admit it. This game is generally HATED! Hatred comes from dynamic sources. And I understand all angels. 
1) The Jealous hater: This guy, like how I was, is a subscription gamer coming from WoW, Everquest, etc.. They have been defending their title against other subscription games “WoW is better than EQ2” “Sub games are better because we get better quality and customer service”, etc.. F2P games generally piss these people off. But they have reason half the time. Allot of F2P are in the market of cloning and getting the drop outs of other sub games. They can feel shallow in their attempt to copy and clone. So when you have a F2P that was already out before WoW, and is very “independent” and has it’s own style, large world, time tested model, and heavy investment…It is a curve ball at this kind of hater. He does not know how to handle Perfect World, it is the variable in his hate equation, and this guy just throws Perfect World in with the other F2P categories and hates.

2) The Rumor follower: Allot of people on the market rely on rumors, trends, game articles, and over all crowd following as their next title. This player might have some time spent in a game, and hop around all the other titles testing it, or just following trends. He compares his experience on the first 5 levels and quits. Falling back to his old title, which is causing a cycle of frustration because the market is always telling everyone the “next new and better thing is here”…and it ends up not all wonderful (cough GW2 cough). This guy either played the first 5 levels of PW, or never touched it and just recycles the hate that is spewed out by the guys in group 1) above.

3) The ex players. Three players exist. The one that stays despite the problems and is a lifer. The ones that stay and go and complain and whine, but always come back. The ones that burn out and leave. And join another game thinking they found the cure. Like ex WoW players joining Star Wars the Old Republic thinking they saved themselves from wow addiction, and now sign in to Star Wars just as much… but since it “looks different” they convince themselves the problem is “solved”. Perfect World is not perfect. There can be issues that piss people off. One of these issues happened recently in the new expansion. A server roll back had to be done and players lost 48 hours of game progression. Pissed off, allot forum raged that they left and never would comeback as they do not like this quality.

The fact is, all Subscription based games suck in generally the same areas. I was a WoWer since Open Beta, and I paid the most on any mmorpg in World of Warcraft Online. The customer service, despite being on the of most rich mmorpg on this planet, was horrible. Promises never made. Bad transfer service. Account breaches (So bad they hired Battlenet, keychain ID log ins, and several other attempts to curb the attacks). My account disappeared and re-appeared several times. I have built 3 PCS, and ran separate accounts on 4 different credit cards using 3 different addresses and play in 3 different regions in my city (friends, and families houses) so “oh it is your computer. Oh it is your IP, oh you shared your credit card with a hacked site and now”…NO! I am the most secured player in probably the world. The only thing I have not done as a measure was move into the WoW studios and hook up to the main frame for my account security. The Truth is. They are not perfect and suffer the SAME PROBLEMS all F2P games suffer. Your subscription does not give you god stauts, privileged status, nor any other access benefits any other website of game has to offer. I have never, once, been effected by hackers on anyother game. Even sketchy F2P games I have tried over seas, and online. I have steam accounts, and during those “steam users accounts compromised” moments, I am never effected. In my subscription MMORPG games…I get hacked (never in F2P). So before starting Perfect World Gameplay, you have to get out of your head right now that it’s quality is effected by it’s F2P status. No. Go to any mmorpg RIGHT NOW. FORUMS. And “BUG RELATED ISSUE” topic. There is just a fraction of the problems that exist in all games. No more, no less than others. 
Ok, on to game play now that, I hope, your mind is clear, open, and logical.

(Please, tell me how you killed 5 rats in your mmorpg...)

PWI, the old version, dropped me into a starting area that told me I was a lost soul that was re-incarnated into the perfect world and the forces of good and evil fight for power. There are habitants in this world and you must go forth and discover the world and yourself and your potential. Now, this is not just chit chat. This actually will have importance mid end game and end game. But before that, let’s get back to being a noob. As soon as I started walking around a few things were obviously different. My jump was very high, and “floaty”. I could not drown or take falling damage. I asked why, and the response was simple: “This is the Perfect World. You cannot die like that. You are not held to human physic rules. And although your body can die, your soul is re-incarnated, but in a semi perfect way.” It is in the story. So you get these semi god powers of high jump, and no death through “imperfections”, but death through being killed in combat. This makes sense, is in the story, and makes up the living breathing world. It was not just a “oh the programmers screwed up” as I have read before. This approach right off as level 1 sets itself apart from other mmorpgs. The dream like music and rhythm of game makes this entire game feel dream like, fantasy bound, and ambient. 
No, the old version had me start off by killing odd grouped mobs of penguins and other silly beasts. This was a bit of a turn off for me since I was coming from wow, where I start off with rats, move on to wolves that match the environment, and then humanoids. Old PW had penguins on grass…in the forest…and then moved on to bigger beasts and humans mid game…So, I was a little ircked there. The new Perfect World since, has changed the entire noob experience and overhauled the game several times to get with a better experience over all. Starting as an Earthguard recently, I am spending my entire low to mid game in the correct surroundings, fighting correct mobs, and everything is perfect and “logical” and feels good. Depending on your race, you will start at different areas of the map and slowly be brought towards the main city areas and then pushed out in all kinds of directions. Nothing turns out to linear. The map is HUGE. I can spend half a year just exploring 50% of the map.
The richness is insane. The games giant jumps and flying mechanics (everyone get’s a permanent flying device at level 30 quest line. A temporary flying device around level 15, and always the chance to buy a Perm. Whenever you want.) and despite the ability to reach the highest mountain…it is never enough. Everything scales to real life size so you feel like an actual being in a large planet. The world is HUGE, and just because you can fly or jump does not mean you can easily explore. There are so many crevices, canyons, and it is not just stretches of copy and paste land (cough Burning crusade cough), it is well plotted IN depth google map ish mob infested, structure infested land. I have spending the last few months only in a little patch of the map, lost in the mountains, doing quests that take me through dangerous mountains. I discover new caves, passageways and forest all over. The land distracts you with it’s beauty. I could easily keep flying to the quest, but to see a hollowed out enterence in a mountain face makes me want to drop down and explore, taking the risk of possibly getting ganked. 
After spending a year in Perfect World and getting mid level and talking to other end game players, they tell me there are Heaven and Hell dungeons, and they are located under a mountain I was familiar with…but I never knew there was a battle of darkness raging on underneath. This ties in the to stories all the wise men were telling me in the lore. And only though level and game progression will the world reveal it’s secrets to you. That blew me away. It was not the linear game experience most poorly made mmorpg maps have to offer.

(Fashion is serious business in this game.)

 

 

That entire “good vs. evil” talk is not all lip service. As your noob transition fades away you have things like spirit cultivation to sharpen your powers. This is tied in with the lore of spirituality, re-incarnation, and good vs. evil. And you will have to chose between Sage and Demon mid game. They are character skill and attribute compliments. For example, as an Earthguard, Demon gives me faster and more critical attacks with other bonuses. Sage will give me a defense and debuff build. Build is not the good work, they are more perks and enhancement to your character. But it is an important choice for all Perfect World inhabitants in their voyage of online life. The one thing I can say, as a noob, this is not evident. This is something learned through patience, practice, attention, and playing. It is not the carrot dangled in front of your face. It is the experience awaiting your hard work. THAT IS WHAT seperates PW to other mmorpgs for me. 
Sorry Wow, GW2, and other insta reward gimmie da dolg kids. This game will require thought, patience, and dedication. “Oh, but I am looking for a game that is not a chore. I work all day and just want to play a decent game”. I had this mentality, but it is how you are given the standard. As an older PW player, I worked and was busy with school, as were most our guildies. We log in, and we do what you do as well. A casual run through, that can end up an all nighter once we get sucked in. There are things to do. This game will not disappoint. But it won’t give it to you in big flashy numbers, or giant purple stats. It gives it to you in other forms. We worked, mid game, for signing in, chatting with others, making relations, while exploring new mobs to hunt or out materials or exp. This means we get rewarded not watching “DING DING DING” you are now level 12, 14, 15 in one night. No, we get rewarded watching the EXP bar go from 10% to 20% in one nights casual run. This is rewarding. Death causes EXP loss, so you have to change your mind set. You can not enter the game expecting a RACE to the end, but rather a slight progression in stats and character development. The off setting to this pace is that there is ALLOT TO DO at each level bracket, and the world is gorgeous to take in and the game is balanced on social aspects as well.
That said, the last updates have tweaked the game to give the low to mid game experience more of a faster flow. I have been playing a new character 2 weeks and am already level 22 and on a decent progress. I noticed an entire new quest insertion, story, mob, weapon and armor system have all been implemented to leave no one behind or feeling left out now. The game is opening it’s doors a little more to the insta crowd, but not heavily. This is nice because I find the balance rewarding. However, I have heard the complaints of purists, like my old guild, say the new kids do not know the dedication before. But all in all, it is all about mind set. And you will be rewarded for actually reading, understanding, talking, exploring. 
Somethings that have been ironed out. Bad quest dialog. Allot was left in Chinese. But I have not ran into this problem any more. Before. No explination as to where to go, what to do was given. You can get a few hints in your quest, but allot was left up to you exploring, talking to NPC’s, pressing buttons and testing markets (unless you had an experience player help). Now, there are in game help boxes and the quests and mechanics have been tweaked where you will not feel lost. Mostly because this game does not dumb down it’s NPC’s. A vendor is not always a big smiling idiot under a roof that says SHOP in big words. A vendor is simply a well dressed towns man that has the name: “Merchant Yin Lee Woo”. Over his head, and can be missed if you are not used to this presentation. Most people want a big wooden shop and a fat man with a sack full of goods and the words SHOP around and NPC. This game blends the real life look of people, and brings them to size so unless you read the map, or attempt an auto route, you could miss the merchant.
That and the game architects are design gods! The game is BEAUTIFUL! Top notch graphics that rival all modern AAA titles. And this game is pretty dated. I play on top settings and my system does not chug at all. Once of the beauties of running an older system that has graphic updates. They do not demand High end specs, but give you high end spec results. A welcome for those with poor people PC’s. 
The city design is MASSIVE and EPIC. “Oh but in GW2 we have epic desing”. Yes, but in most MMORPG it is just a pretty backdrop. If you cannot access it, what good is it if it is just in the backdrop. This game balances it perfectly. The NPCS are spaced out perfectly to do your errands, so they do not over complicate the size with long runs to burn you out. The size of the place is left open to compliment the world and your character. Flying allows you to inspect every crevice and corner. Every screen shot is post card worthy. The meeting of other players, the place to call home, the epicness and over all sense of the size of the world is felt in the architecture of most places. And with the last updates, I have seen more interesting design, themes, and just over all jaw dropping images. It is one of those “WOW, not even a screen shot can do this justice” moment.

(Evlish kind are single and ready to mingle)

In addition to the thousands of quests (you will have more than you know what do with). You will have the choice of crafting. ATTENTION all you “artifact” hunters of RIFT, and other players that enjoy collecting and be rewarded by harvesting your resources you worked hard to find…this game will get you hooked. Once you have the items that drop from mobs, you can start right away crafting things. And not just “Plain white T-Shirt”. Things that rival the cash shop. As level 1-mid game, I can make charms, potions, and other items that will give me the same advantage as some one who ignores collecting and just cash shops. I can harvest casually, and get stuff. OR I can spend 1 week doing it, and then spend the next week enjoying the fruits of my labor as I stay HP buffed downing all the mobs on my quest list. REWARD for PLAYING = good system.

The skills, abilities, and combat: 
The game is very open when it comes to building your character. For those of you people that have had your hand held in character skill points. Prepare for a shock. All classes have base stats and it is up to you how to spend 5 points per level. Strength, Vitality, Magic, etc… You will want to use, as a guide, armor requirements, your class, and abilities. Weapons and Armor cannot be worn if you do not meet the stats. Example, if a magic wand has 10Magic points + 4 Dexterity as a requirement to hold it (understand it), and you have 9Mag, and 4Dex, you cannot use it until you up your mag. This leads to hybrid builds, pure builds, etc. The choices are out there, and you are free to hybrid and test. In the end though, there are great guides that you should follow to unlock the pure power of your character. So read up on the kinds of class you are playing, think about your end game goals, and figure out how you like to play (ranged, tank, etc.) This sounds restrictive, but Perfect World hides gems in progression. As a Healer, sure it will be tough damage wise, but pay attention to the guides and abilities, and soon you will be one of the most powerful characters (Clerics are known to kick ass…well everyone does, but they get a whopping magical attack later on). 
This game is not a hot bar button filler. In RIFT, WOW, you have all those buttons to look at, watch the timers turn as cool downs tick off….But half the time, you really only spam 1-2-3-and occasionally 4 and 6 in emergencies… Perfect World (older than these games) already knew that smart play does not mean lots of flashy button mashing. And no, that does not mean “skill” either. They have allot of skills to chose, but if you start buying all skills and slotting them, you will be at a disadvantage. It is possible to get all skills, but combos, and skill building is key. You will not have all the resources to buy all the skil levels or all the skills all at once. So you will have to think of a build early on.  Get that build down, and test it out, this will scale with mob difficulty. So if you have 10 spells, and only afford Level 5, 3, and 1 in them…5 being highest, and the mobs get harder. You should have stuck with only 3 or to spells at level 10 power level, making them your principle attack and heavy hitting. Again, a design less around “I need all these buttons and all these spells to feel good about myself” and more about “think about it”. The combo systems are key, what spells SPARK off the traits of other spells. EXACTLY when to use is and how is where this games spells and abilities is where the SKILL of this game kicks in. Spark a spell at the wrong moment and it is not good. Judge your mele vs cast time = victory. Using the right combo at right moment = good. This leaves exceptionally fun PvE combat and even more fun in PvP.  You will not in most games like WoW, RIFT, all kind sof UI clutter for nothing. Half my spells in RIFT end game were for nothing but to look at the cool down time. All the spells were MACROd in RIFT, so I did not even need them on the hot bar, I simply put them there to see which ones were lagging behind others in the cool down rotation… WoW, same thing. I moved a little but more in the wow hot bars, swapping out to SHIFT+F1 to get that next bar up…but over all, It was a mess, and the mods are the proof. You can make the buttons round, small, large, etc..and 90% of the time, I usually just have spells untouched, I use my main ones and have 3 bars of “emergencies” or “maybe one day I will actually need this spell” sitting there…. GW2 attempts to remedy this by putting 3 or 4 spells max with combo …Wait…that sounds familiar! Yup, Perfect World did it already. Of course, end game, your hot bar and skill thinking will have to evolce. If I could wrap up the game in one word. Enjoyable Evolution. The entire experience evolves as you go. It does not insta reward and linearly change the environment as your hot bar get’s bigger.

(Fighting below you think you are in some kind of ruins. Once airborne, you will discover a whole new perspective on the world..I was under a giant cooking pot the entire time!)

The End Game: I have to address this because people are afraid to play due to end game beast. Allot of people complain (see haters part above), that this game has a horrible end game due to:

 

1) You need X armor or leave.

2) I get ganked over and over

3) Pay to win

The truth is, the end game had challenges. You can play regularly, do dailies, and over all enrich your character. Which has nothing to do with actual end game content other than you will have higher end mobs than before. The armor race to het the best is based on elitist guilds. I have ran as a F2P and my family member that had the epic guild in MY never spent a dime and has level 100 character with top armor. How? Socializing. Being nice, positive, aggressive when needed. Playing politics, and overall getting people that DID pay and DID have increased sets, to help him do a dungeon run. For fun, he ran my low level 30 in one of the first end game dungeons. Although the mobs 1 shot me, they had enough people from guild and friends outside guild, used to get me in. It was silly, I gained no EXP, just some gold. They did it just to show me how the mechanics work in the dungeon for later. I saw the drops, I have been given Fashion (cash shop) clothing. I have never felt left out unless I made myself left out. And if you are not social then these aspects of the game are not for you. You do not need to do these dungeons. There are tons of crafting, dailies, helping others, and other things to do end game as well.
Getting ganked over and over can happen. But because of the size of the land, you can hide, run, and play very strategically. I used to get ganked while questing by flying high lvel players. The next time, I snuck back under bushes knowing they are too high to see everything. I hid under rocks, and when I saw them leave, I continued to quest…the complainers usually just die, and walk right back to the quest place in the open and threaten again: “Why did you kill me you  à-_ç_ç(!” Well, duhhh because PvP is in the game and you are standing in the open. Learn to use the land! I never had a problem In a PVP server.
That said, the politics are fierce! You can make truces with guilds. Guild A said guild B is ok, do not kill them. In general, most people are respectful and cool. PvP death results in a chance of item drop, etc.. so it is serious business. But if you LEARN. Key word LEARN, the map, politics, etc. you can get along. Or understand your enemy, and if you think you can, FIGHT BACK. There is a level of skill in combat, counters vs attacks. Armor does not win the day all the time. 
Pay to win. Never. End game, all free baby! Pay to BOOST to win is there. But again, it is enticing if you have NO PATIENCE and are not here to be immersed in the game, i.e. if you want a semi WoW experience, you will have to pay for it. You can trade in game earnings for cash item items as well, and almost all cash shop items are tradable. And hand me downs are typical. I have fashion pieces that were the property of who knows how many other players. It all get’s circulated. The market is important, and in this game you can put on your accounting hat and play the merchant game if you like. If not, a simple asking and testing will usually get you results.

 

(Combat is rewarding and feels good. Especially for tab targeting systems)

 

Think of it this way. Map out your gaming activity on a chart. You are sitting. In front of your PC. Clicking away. It could be SKYRIM. PACMAN, TETRIS, WOW, LOTRO, anything. The fact is, your butt is on a seat and you are clicking away. You are either paying for the flashy, or you are building up to F2P restrictions before paying. RIFT has content and builds blocked by cash. Almost all games have money barriers or a cash shop. You can enjoy a F2P ride for a long time, and, like in Turbines case, usually have to grind out stuff to get cash shop privilages. PW does nothing that is not different except give you a longer lasting and richer free to play experience. Spending cash all depends on your psychological approach to the game. If you want instant rewards or attempt to be king of the mountain (but failing to do so) without actually playing and building up, you will open your wallet in PW.
You can play 50 titles in one year, and that changes nothing. The only thing that changes is the flashy images on your screen and your knowledge base of a game in your head. The actual fact you are experiencing something “different” is not really happening unless you change to consol, to stand up arcade to PC. So if you are looking for a one stop title to click away in, this game will reward you for your time. The map will open up and give a beautiful world to play around in. Learning the mechanics will improve your survival, and help others. The progression is for the long term. Casual play is rewarded, but not over gloriously, you will notice rewards in other forms, percentage increase, a few more stacks, a new friend added to friends list, a new part of a map discovered, a few quests down…it creeps up on you, and it’s lulling physics engine and music lull you into a game that is designed for the long haul with more and more casual based elements added each update. 
Events are things to actually participate in that will pay off big. Perfect World is not a sandbox by definition, but how you carve you’re your presence is very unique giving it a sort of psychological sandbox approach. Solo Pker, group supporter, Of my own exploring and screen shooting, linear get my quests done, hunt for materials. Crafter. Etc.. it is all there, and how you balance is up to you.

The performance is nice enough to run in the background with other games if you like to spend time in more than one title.

(Kids are creepy in PW...just a heads up)

Conclusion:
The Good

A great title and an MMORPG I call “home”. It is a digital place I have and will spend years in. It is comfortable, fun, and evolving. Whether you have just a few hours a day to log in or spend long dedicated time in. This game gives back. The casual person working all day spending 3 hours before diner will find a relaxing calming world as he combats his way through his quest line. The dedicated player that logs in over  50 hours a week will find deep systems that will show to others his dedication, while not giving him god status over others in a week. It feels balanced. And sometimes, slight shift in the balance through content updates, community drama etc..cause big changes. Chang e is hard, and you might read allot of negative stuff when change happens. I lived through it through 3 different game servers. In the end.  Those people usually come back and the changes are just that. Adjustments, and the world evolves on.

The Bad

The game can be addicting. Thinking about what is going while I am offline is pretty bad. Reminds me of my early WoW days. I had to be connected. This game is the same. The relations we make, the size of the territory, knowing I have all the little items to get, mobs to kill…You really have to maje goals for yourself and discipline yourself. 
The community plays a large role and when you have been logging in for so long and then not being accepted right away, failing at something, or feeling under powered can lead to allot of bad rep and rage quits. I recommend playing this game with another game to the side to take a break with. I play defiance as a complete opposite gaming experience so I do not burn out in PW. I also take breaks every week. This game can pull you in and literally chew you out.

For every legit reason to bash this game “Population is falling, economy ruined, Gms gone”, there has been always a time period that passes before it is fixed. Malaysia had 0 GMs, and bad economy before we left. It is back on it’s feet. Over all the years this game has run, it is not shutting down it’s doors but opening more…so be careful of toxic community and your own frustration tackling a game that is bigger and more complex than most.

(My camera can not take in all the awesome...)

I give this game a 4/5, There are ALLOT of features I have not even touched on. But  look at all the text I wrote…That is the poetic beauty of this game. You can put so much into it, and not even scratch the surface. This can be a well invested title, and a solution to all the “clones” and “mmorpg hoping” or this could cause you anxiety feeling of a bottomless pit. In the end, the one word I always walk away with is what keeps here. Fun, family, and ….furries???? no. But yes, the fun factor and longevity and sense of belonging keep me here. So far, no other mmorpg has been able to keep me that much glued in. I also am not a fan of allot of Oriental themed games. But this one has a delicious balances of lore, and design of fantasy world very epic, and in the end, there really is no other title you can compare it too equally.

 

(This looks and feels so much better than my other gaming experiences. I look good and epic. Not bland and boring *cough RIFT*)