Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen Early Access Review-In-Progress | MMORPG.com

System

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen Early Access Review-In-Progress | MMORPG.com

Pantheon: Rise of The Fallen entered early access this month, and Kevin is taking it for a whirl to see whether this early version of Visionary Realms' MMO is worth the price of admission.

Read the full story here

mitech616

Looks, feels, and plays like a 20-year-old game. Think Everquest 2, but alpha.

Wha... why? Just, WHY?

Hartack

mitech616 said:

Looks, feels, and plays like a 20-year-old game. Think Everquest 2, but alpha.



Wha... why? Just, WHY?

Because this is the EQ2 we should have gotten.

"Think EQ2, but Good", would be more appropriate, at least if you were a classic eq player.

The Graphics are fine and progressing nicely.

mrneurosis

I would be really shocked if this game lasts more than a year with few hundred players playing it. Its way too niche and that's never a good thing for MMOS.

Sovrath

mitech616 said:

Looks, feels, and plays like a 20-year-old game. Think Everquest 2, but alpha.



Wha... why? Just, WHY?

Because games that play like older games seem to be better, more interesting? Not sure the confusion?

I just watched a video where a young guy, 20's, had his teen sister play skyrim. At the end she said she'd give it a 3 out of 10 as it seemed like a game that would take too much time and she couldn't skip over the dialogue at times.

She hated the walking and that it wasn't multiplayer. So there we have it, the future of video games.

I wouldn't be surprised if future elder scrolls games started becoming just what she described.

mitech616

Sovrath said:

mitech616 said:

Looks, feels, and plays like a 20-year-old game. Think Everquest 2, but alpha.



Wha... why? Just, WHY?

Because games that play like older games seem to be better, more interesting? Not sure the confusion?

I just watched a video where a young guy, 20's, had his teen sister play skyrim. At the end she said she'd give it a 3 out of 10 as it seemed like a game that would take too much time and she couldn't skip over the dialogue at times.

She hated the walking and that it wasn't multiplayer. So there we have it, the future of video games.

I wouldn't be surprised if future elder scrolls games started becoming just what she described.

Better in what way? Because from what I see it's:
- Ugly
- Janky
- Bland
- Simplistic
- Lacking depth
- Lacking creativity
- Lacking content

EQ2 isn't a bad game. There's nothing wrong with GOOD old-school games. But that isn't an excuse to crap out an uninspired clone of a dated genre, while offering NOTHING the other games don't. The MMO genre is super full, and the last thing it needs is something slapped together that doesn't improve upon the 2 decades old tech it claims to have been "inspired by".

It looks like the devs have no experience making video games, and more resembles something a few college students slapped together in a month.

Sovrath

mitech616 said:

Sovrath said:

mitech616 said:

Looks, feels, and plays like a 20-year-old game. Think Everquest 2, but alpha.



Wha... why? Just, WHY?

Because games that play like older games seem to be better, more interesting? Not sure the confusion?

I just watched a video where a young guy, 20's, had his teen sister play skyrim. At the end she said she'd give it a 3 out of 10 as it seemed like a game that would take too much time and she couldn't skip over the dialogue at times.

She hated the walking and that it wasn't multiplayer. So there we have it, the future of video games.

I wouldn't be surprised if future elder scrolls games started becoming just what she described.

Better in what way? Because from what I see it's:
- Ugly
- Janky
- Bland
- Simplistic
- Lacking depth
- Lacking creativity
- Lacking content

EQ2 isn't a bad game. There's nothing wrong with GOOD old-school games. But that isn't an excuse to crap out an uninspired clone of a dated genre, while offering NOTHING the other games don't. The MMO genre is super full, and the last thing it needs is something slapped together that doesn't improve upon the 2 decades old tech it claims to have been "inspired by".

It looks like the devs have no experience making video games, and more resembles something a few college students slapped together in a month.

Ugly - I started video games when a dot and two rectangles were amazing so going to agree to disagree.

- Janky - There are new games that are janky

- Bland - There are new games that are bland

- Simplistic - I feel modern mmorpg's having you run around to do very little only to rinse and repeat is simplistic. Keep in mind that for me, Lineage 2 was on the right track for an mmorpg where a player could live.
- Lacking depth - Your going to have to be more clear on this because so many people think breadth is depth.
- Lacking creativity - That's beyond not true. Older games had to summon a LOT of creativity in order to create things with very little. Summoner was creative, Morrowind was hellah creative. Heck, original Baldur's gate was creative. I'd say the orignal Everquest was creative but they were under a deadline and had to rush things before putting it out.

- Lacking content - Your mileage may vary on that. If you mean awful quests ad nauseam and you consider that good content then good on you.

Now keep in mind with my statement I'm not talking Pantheon though it's look is "fine." Not great as I'm a proponent of the original look. I'm talking "older games."

But currently I'm playing Daggerfall and there is quite a bit of creativity and content Interesting enough there is also climbing.

I'll also give a huge shout out to Dread Delusion a "modern" game that hearkens back to older games.

enesisxlr8

For EA its great, ignoring everything else that has occurred. Alot to improve on and needs to be added prior to release...

justdrop

That final screenshot is absolutely horrid. Between the shack that looks like something Nickelodeon would've drawn in the 90s and the ground texture, I'm glad I opted out of all testing.

Sarla

Are you all forgetting that this is TEN YEARS of work?

Adamantine

Sarla said:

Are you all forgetting that this is TEN YEARS of work?

Your point being ?

Sovrath

Sarla said:

Are you all forgetting that this is TEN YEARS of work?

But it's not 10 years of work.  You know that as it's been talked about ad nauseam over the years.

Kyleran

justdrop said:

That final screenshot is absolutely horrid. Between the shack that looks like something Nickelodeon would've drawn in the 90s and the ground texture, I'm glad I opted out of all testing.

You did see in the review some zones have more placeholder graphics like this one, yes?

Not likely to be the final take on it.

ValdemarJ

Sovrath said:

mitech616 said:

Sovrath said:

mitech616 said:

Looks, feels, and plays like a 20-year-old game. Think Everquest 2, but alpha.



Wha... why? Just, WHY?

Because games that play like older games seem to be better, more interesting? Not sure the confusion?

I just watched a video where a young guy, 20's, had his teen sister play skyrim. At the end she said she'd give it a 3 out of 10 as it seemed like a game that would take too much time and she couldn't skip over the dialogue at times.

She hated the walking and that it wasn't multiplayer. So there we have it, the future of video games.

I wouldn't be surprised if future elder scrolls games started becoming just what she described.

Better in what way? Because from what I see it's:
- Ugly
- Janky
- Bland
- Simplistic
- Lacking depth
- Lacking creativity
- Lacking content

EQ2 isn't a bad game. There's nothing wrong with GOOD old-school games. But that isn't an excuse to crap out an uninspired clone of a dated genre, while offering NOTHING the other games don't. The MMO genre is super full, and the last thing it needs is something slapped together that doesn't improve upon the 2 decades old tech it claims to have been "inspired by".

It looks like the devs have no experience making video games, and more resembles something a few college students slapped together in a month.

Ugly - I started video games when a dot and two rectangles were amazing so going to agree to disagree.

- Janky - There are new games that are janky

- Bland - There are new games that are bland

- Simplistic - I feel modern mmorpg's having you run around to do very little only to rinse and repeat is simplistic. Keep in mind that for me, Lineage 2 was on the right track for an mmorpg where a player could live.
- Lacking depth - Your going to have to be more clear on this because so many people think breadth is depth.
- Lacking creativity - That's beyond not true. Older games had to summon a LOT of creativity in order to create things with very little. Summoner was creative, Morrowind was hellah creative. Heck, original Baldur's gate was creative. I'd say the orignal Everquest was creative but they were under a deadline and had to rush things before putting it out.

- Lacking content - Your mileage may vary on that. If you mean awful quests ad nauseam and you consider that good content then good on you.

Now keep in mind with my statement I'm not talking Pantheon though it's look is "fine." Not great as I'm a proponent of the original look. I'm talking "older games."

But currently I'm playing Daggerfall and there is quite a bit of creativity and content Interesting enough there is also climbing.

I'll also give a huge shout out to Dread Delusion a "modern" game that hearkens back to older games.

If the original claim was "I think this is great and all those points appeal to me.", then I would probably pass on by. However, the claim was this this game is the EQ2 we deserved and implies it's better which is an insult to the SOE dev team that built EQ2 and to the community and fans.

This hulking piece of dollar store trash is nowhere in the same league as EQ2, which has actually innovated and brought great systems to the genre; like it's instanced housing system with scaling free-form placement and integrated broker where visitors could get a discount on the players wares. EQ2 was beautiful, while this looks horrible.

Subjective is fine, but false equivalency is just wrong. People can like this game all they want for all I care. I'm not going to tell others what to play or not, but lets not also start pretending it stands equally among its betters, like EQ, EQ2, or Vanguard. It's like comparing a beginner junior high orchestra to an elite professional symphony.

Sovrath

ValdemarJ said:

If the original claim was "I think this is great and all those points appeal to me.", then I would probably pass on by. However, the claim was this this game is the EQ2 we deserved and implies it's better which is an insult to the SOE dev team that built EQ2 and to the community and fans.

This hulking piece of dollar store trash is nowhere in the same league as EQ2, which has actually innovated and brought great systems to the genre; like it's instanced housing system with scaling free-form placement and integrated broker where visitors could get a discount on the players wares. EQ2 was beautiful, while this looks horrible.

Subjective is fine, but false equivalency is just wrong. People can like this game all they want for all I care. I'm not going to tell others what to play or not, but let’s not also start pretending it stands equally among its betters, like EQ, EQ2, or Vanguard. It's like comparing a beginner junior high orchestra to an elite professional symphony.

Commenting on games playing like older games is good. I even say I’m not specifically talking about pantheon but it playing like an older game is good. It’s just not done if it will ever be.

Also in truth this is closer to EverQuest than EverQuest 2. If it can be completed it might be the EverQuest “2” an acquaintance actually wanted.

skeaser

Hartack said:

mitech616 said:

Looks, feels, and plays like a 20-year-old game. Think Everquest 2, but alpha.





Wha... why? Just, WHY?

Because this is the EQ2 we should have gotten.



"Think EQ2, but Good", would be more appropriate, at least if you were a classic eq player.



The Graphics are fine and progressing nicely.

Vanguard was the EQ2 we should have gotten. I'm still bitter that it died the way it did. By far my favorite MMO of all time. I still jump in the busted emulator on occasion for the nostalgia hit.

Sovrath

skeaser said:

Hartack said:

mitech616 said:

Looks, feels, and plays like a 20-year-old game. Think Everquest 2, but alpha.





Wha... why? Just, WHY?

Because this is the EQ2 we should have gotten.



"Think EQ2, but Good", would be more appropriate, at least if you were a classic eq player.



The Graphics are fine and progressing nicely.

Vanguard was the EQ2 we should have gotten. I'm still bitter that it died the way it did. By far my favorite MMO of all time. I still jump in the busted emulator on occasion for the nostalgia hit.

Vanguard was amazing. I thinks there is still an emulator but I don’t believe they ever finished making it complete.

justdrop

Kyleran said:

justdrop said:

That final screenshot is absolutely horrid. Between the shack that looks like something Nickelodeon would've drawn in the 90s and the ground texture, I'm glad I opted out of all testing.

You did see in the review some zones have more placeholder graphics like this one, yes?

Not likely to be the final take on it.

I've been in relationships with two professional artists, one of which went on to do work for Pixar. I don't expect that quality of work from every artist, but you're going to be hard pressed to convince me that the work in the screenshot above took years of effort.

Kyleran

justdrop said:

Kyleran said:

justdrop said:

That final screenshot is absolutely horrid. Between the shack that looks like something Nickelodeon would've drawn in the 90s and the ground texture, I'm glad I opted out of all testing.

You did see in the review some zones have more placeholder graphics like this one, yes?

Not likely to be the final take on it.

I've been in relationships with two professional artists, one of which went on to do work for Pixar. I don't expect that quality of work from every artist, but you're going to be hard pressed to convince me that the work in the screenshot above took years of effort.

Probably took a few hours seeing that it probably is one of the many placeholders in one of the newer zones.

Basically they restarted all graphics about a year or so back, tossing out all previous graphics work to date. 

Scot

We have a real clash between classic and modern with posters here, I don't think either is the best way to make a MMORPG. There are many ways you can take a hybrid approach, from having no corpse runs to having no loot boxes.

Wargfoot

Scot said:

We have a real clash between classic and modern with posters here, I don't think either is the best way to make a MMORPG. There are many ways you can take a hybrid approach, from having no corpse runs to having no loot boxes.

Right now, I'm on a bit of tear about people picking the wrong games.

If exploring a world, or learning some mechanics, or doing some hunting to get some good gear is a too much of an inconvenience, then these people shouldn't be in a MMORPG. 

They need to go back to Bejeweled.

Furthermore, they should be ignored in Discord and on forums and so forth - if a person has a track record of buying and completing a dozen "MMORPGS" per year then getting advice from that person on game design is like getting marriage advice from a Elizabeth Taylor.

There might be some fun observations in there, but nothing about long term success.

Slapshot1188

skeaser said:

Hartack said:

mitech616 said:

Looks, feels, and plays like a 20-year-old game. Think Everquest 2, but alpha.





Wha... why? Just, WHY?

Because this is the EQ2 we should have gotten.



"Think EQ2, but Good", would be more appropriate, at least if you were a classic eq player.



The Graphics are fine and progressing nicely.

Vanguard was the EQ2 we should have gotten. I'm still bitter that it died the way it did. By far my favorite MMO of all time. I still jump in the busted emulator on occasion for the nostalgia hit.

Yes exactly!
EQ2 was to EQ1 what Aliens2 was to Alien.  A very different game set in the same universe.  

Vanguard was the true EQ successor and light years beyond anything Pantheon shows.  I have zero doubts that Brad would be embarrassed by what Pantheon has become.

I think people are giving far more positive weight to the community than to the game.  The community is good because it’s largely old school gamers who were the target audience.  So you get more helpful, group minded folks as opposed to the ADHD crowd.  The community is great.  The game however, is crap IMHO. And it’s not just the graphics.

justdrop

Kyleran said:

justdrop said:

Kyleran said:

justdrop said:

That final screenshot is absolutely horrid. Between the shack that looks like something Nickelodeon would've drawn in the 90s and the ground texture, I'm glad I opted out of all testing.

You did see in the review some zones have more placeholder graphics like this one, yes?

Not likely to be the final take on it.

I've been in relationships with two professional artists, one of which went on to do work for Pixar. I don't expect that quality of work from every artist, but you're going to be hard pressed to convince me that the work in the screenshot above took years of effort.

Probably took a few hours seeing that it probably is one of the many placeholders in one of the newer zones.

Basically they restarted all graphics about a year or so back, tossing out all previous graphics work to date. 

You're not informing me of anything new, I backed it in 2014. They restarted the graphics years ago, the excuse holds no water.

jwaber

It's Alpha

olepi

It looks like everything isn't finished, except for the price. They want full price.

Neoyoshi

Anyone remember when Pantheon was supposed to be this amazing ground-breaking next-gen open-world MiddleEarth-like game??

I remember.