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Horizons reviews a little harsh Imho
Razorback
Member, Newbie CommonPosts: 5,253
Well after 3 months of playing Horizons (2 months longer than SWG) I have to step up in a minor defense of the game against player and website reviews.
I thought some of the player reviews that rated it as one of the worst launches of a MMO said more about the experience of the players than the condition of the game. I have been a Beta tester for just about every MMO released starting with NWN(CGA version) way back before UO even, which I also Beta'd from B3. Anyone who has been through releases like UO and AO in particular would never even begin to make a call about release quality that is so harsh on Horizons.
The game itself lacks content especially after about level 50 that is undeniable. Like most games though they made it a little too easy in the first 60 days to get to level 50 and beyond, this is now tightening up quickly. I was amazed to see level 60+ players running about within 2-3 weeks of release. What this says is two things. Firstly that the game must be stable and playable or these players would have never got this far this fast, but also that more time should have been devoted to leveling rates in the beta. Having said that I repeat if the performance and playability were as bad on release as some players have painted then no one would have got so far so fast.
In summary if Horizons had been released 12 months after EQ it would have blown it away!! As it is, to be released some 4 years later it is just another in a fairly long line of similar experiences including SWG which for my money deserves much harsher treatment than Horizons.
If you are looking for a rewarding and entertaining MMO and you like the fantasy setting then give it a go. Try the 7 day trial and I am sure you will find yourself playing at least a a few months. As time goes by this game will get better and better, the question is will it maintain a base of players long enough to get that far? My guess is yes. Mainly because the RPG enforced servers with No PVP are appealing to a section of the market that is not well catered for in other games.
The description of the game by MMORPG.com would leave you believing it should rate about 8.5ish or more. I am puzzled by the fact that some very kind and well thought out words resulted in a similar score to that given to AO by most sites only 30 days after release. Anyone who was there would tell you that anything above 5.0 would have been very generous for that game at that time.
Check out Horizons if you have not yet done it. Its worth a look and who knows you like me may be playing it longer than you expected.
Footnote : Ill be leaving for CoH as soon as my Beta Disks arrive LOL
I am somewhat of a Bull$shitter myself, but occasionally I enjoy listening to an expert. Please go on.
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Comments
I for one do not think its the worst mmorpg ever .But I think there are other better options then horizons.
You said it.It came out 4 years too late .It is sad because horizons is a game which has struggled to get released and it took way too long to do it.
Also it was a game with this romantic aura about it when still in concept.That is another of its downfall.A lot of players forgot about the game after it appeared to go down and were only left with the image of the original concept and ideas.
On buying the game many were horrified to find almost nothing of the original ideas survived.
It is an average mmorpg with little to offer extra but to say its th worst mmorpg ever I think not.
I agree and disagree. I played Horizons for a month and a half. I tried many different things, fighting, exploring, crafting, I joined a guild, went on quests, etc. It was alright. I had no problems as far as lag, or very bad bugs, the game seemed like it was in good shape, so here I agree with you Razor. UO and AO, in particular, were just horrible. Horizons was no where near as bad when it released. However, I don't think the game is very good. Objectively, I can say it was mediocre at best. I had some fun, but lack of content (I could participate in) I think is what made me lose interest. I like the ideas behind Horizons. PvE against the Undead, players (crafters and adventurers together) trying to rebuild cities, it was a lot to look forward to. I think the implementation was not done nearly as good as it could have been, and in the time it took to get this game out, it should have had at least twice the content. The graphics are poor compared to other MMORPGs that have been released even before Horizons. The scenery and backgrounds are nice, but character models are terrible, and there very few animations. Fighting is standard, if not too easy. One thing I did not try out is spellcasting. My favorite part of the game is the crafting/player economy. It was well done, but could have been so much better still.
I really worked hard to keep up with my guildmates when trying to build a city. I spent a good amount of time and still lagged behind, therefore not being able to participate as much as I wanted. What this boils down to is that the game requires you to be there and play a lot in order to really feel like you're contributing to the over all story of rebuilding, fighting back the Undead, and finding lost races. If you are behind, others will complete the goals before you can take part in it, and you'll miss out. I really like the idea of content added weekly and a whole background story that develops as you play, but I think it needs to be more personalized towards players to allow everyone to participate.
Another important issue I found when playing is roleplaying. I played in Expanse, supposedly a RP server. There was really no roleplaying going on that I witnessed. My guild did some, but when we tried to roleplay with others, it didn't happen. In Star Wars Galaxies, the game lends itself to roleplaying. It focuses on it, incorporating game mechanics with RP opportunity (dancers healing in Cantinas, Doctores in Med Centers, Chefs behind the bar in Cantina, Mayors of a player city, Faction leaders in officer uniforms at the HQ, etc. If SWG did everything else wrong, at least they got this right, so far the only game to really take game ideas and think about the roleplayers. There isn't a hint of this in Horizons.
My feeling towards Horizons is mixed. I had fun, but I wanted something more. Don't take what I have written to be offensive, it is just my opinoin. I know some of you would like it if you tried it, so I think if you interested, go ahead and try. I am glad I tried it, it was just not the game for me.
(I an am currently enjoying Final Fantasy XI, but will be shifting gears to try out Lineage II when my CD's arrive)
For community projects, large events, and crafting Horizons is a superior product to most on the market today.
For individual achievement and challenge, Horizons has a long way to go and a lot of potential.
I think that's the simplest way I can summarize my view of Horizons, which I still play every day and am still enjoying.
Well, just to add my opinion to this thread and not meant to criticise people with a different opinion:
I think Horizons is one of the bad game releases we have had to witness recently. Horizon was hyped up but released with just too many bugs, with too many missing and broken features. I played Horizons for 3 weeks but didn't subscribe to it, I thought it was just too bad a game. I did like the concept of Horizons, I've no problem with PvE, but AE just didn't deliver the game they are still advertising on their website.
There are countless features advertised as being in-game that are not even implemented, other features are just broken or completely untested. And I think there's no use in waiting for AE to fix all these things. They spent 3 years to deliver a half-finished game, I won't pay them for another 3 years to get the other half of the game done.
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Is it any wonder that games get hyped? I'm not trying to single you out, ghog69; this is nearly a mantra of so many MMOG players...how can games live up to the hightened expectations that people have of them?
Is it any wonder that games get hyped? I'm not trying to single you out, ghog69; this is nearly a mantra of so many MMOG players...how can games live up to the hightened expectations that people have of them?
Totally right.
This is the problem everyone says games do not live to their hype-horizons,shadowbane lala.
But who hypes this games?players.
I mean look at a poll for favourite mmorpg you have people voting for WoW!!!
How can you say this game will be your favourite when you have not even seen it in action since it has not gotten to beta.
This is how games get so hyped in players minds that when it is released people feel so let down.
Sure I can sit down and imagine how great the gameplay of WoW would be like.But in reality thats another matter.