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Shadow of Legend gets an A for effort
xiefeng807
Member Posts: 3
Having to carry around a Cingular 8525 with Windows Mobile 6 for work, and being a gamer myself, I was automatically drawn to Shadow of Legend, not just as a game, but also for the concept: SOL's PC-to-mobile and mobile-to-PC cross-platform capabilities. The concept is innovative and promising, but it just may well be too idealistic.
My first encounter with Shadow of Legend, I was actually having lunch with an avid gamer friend of mine, where we came to talking about MMORPG gaming in the future. How long will it take for MMORPGs to get to the level that will simulate The Matrix? Would it be a good idea for Nintendo to make an MMORPG for the Wii console? What kind of technology will MMORPGs have to cross into to evolve as a genre of gaming? These were the type of questions we were asking ourselves and discussing about. I went back home to do a little research for my own person insights. I stumbled upon Freewareppc.com, and lo and behold, Shadow of Legend was first on the list! Curious as I was, I decided to give it a shot. Why not? I have all the equipment for it anyways. Turns out this bad boy game was quite a handful when it came to installation. After downloading 2GB worth of data, an hour of reading the official website's forums to find out how to install the client, and registering for an account, I was ready to roll.
Now I'm standing on the magical land of Agnes as an elf mage. The first thing that struck me was clarity of the graphics and the scenery, which were very vibrant and colorfully displayed on my pocket pc. The next thing I noticed was that you had to figure out the controls for yourself. Although, there were instructions of the interface on the website, I didn't feel they were sufficient enough, and besides, using it probably took you less time to learn the controls than reading about it. I just wish the game was designed with a beginner's tutorial like most every new game nowadays. Anyways, on to playing!
As I journeyed through Agnes, questing and trying out all the features, I realized that driving force of this game is the desire to continually reach higher levels. You can view the Top 50 ranked players on their website, so if you're on top, then you can have bragging rights and act as if you rule Agnes. The desire to get strong and be on top has you continually seek more experience points, so for the most part, you'll be spending countless hours questing, crafting, and participating in the “Mushroom Cultivating” event in order to gain those experience points.
However, you also realize that while this driving force is the where the strength of the game lies, it is also the game's folly. If you compare Shadow of Legend to such games as Diablo 2 or the MMO, World of Warcraft, you can see that the appeal in those games were a playable storyline, puzzles, interactive maps, and most importantly, the game design facilitated team work and team building. Shadow of Legend attempts to do that, but as you can observe, no one is fighting each other on the battlefields in great numbers. There is no supposed war going on as what their website purports. I don't mind that SOL hasn't implemented those aforementioned features yet, because the game is still in beta, but as the final release comes along, the players will be the ones to judge.
Well, I have to say that Shadow of Legend certainly gets an “A” for effort and for innovation. I like the idea that there will be a graphical MMO for mobile phones. However, the real question is whether the developers are trying to advance that technology or enter the PC videogame industry? I think most of the original beta testers would like see the advancement of mobile technology, and believe that SOL can only survival in that industry, unless the game is stepped up to current MMO standards.
If Shadow of Legend is going to take on the PC videogame industry, then I'd like to see the game take a more direct approach to dealing with the major needs and wants that MMORPG players require out of an MMO, instead of continuing to develop new features that are irrelevant to the existing elements that make successful MMOs successful. Yet, despite SOL's shortcomings, I still feel as though this game has begun a revolution in the mobile device industry. I do recommend giving it a spin.
Comments
You people get an "A" for effort of promoting your game without buying ads.
I really like the idea of a simple, light and crossplatform game, and i kinda liked this game from what i've played it.
But c'mon, if you are a dev and want to promote the game, make ONE account (perhaps called SolDevs) and do so. You can argue, explain your reasons, get true impressions and improve the game.
Making tons of accounts to say nonsense on forums and raising the game's hype will only get REAL people to avoid the game, and to vote the game 1 while it probably deserved a good 7.
The game is OK. Deserves a good 7! But the ways you adopt are wrong.
Quoted for truth
I think 'A' is not proper, we should learn to be a modest one, In real life no one can get an 'A' even they had worked very hard, more or less some mistakes would happen.
Quoted for truth
And I re-quote for truth.
Pay a proper advert thight bastards
Why would an advertisement admit to "shortcomings"? It doesn't even seem like its aimed towards PC users, which own the MMO market. Also he didn't seem enthusiastic about trying it when saying he recommends "giving it a spin."
Maybe he just likes the game.. and writing long articulate descriptions of everything.
_______________________________
Gahhh!
I want an MMO where I can have in game chat on my cell phone with my guild and do crafting from my cell phone, mobile device..
Then I can devote actual in game time to playing the game rather than grinding crafting..plus I won't be bored when I'm ...ah, who am I kidding.
I'll never use any of the mobile crap.
If I"m not in my house I"m driving, if I'm not driving I"m at work and can't play games.
D.