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My mini-review
Kien
Member Posts: 520
I just started the game. I plan to play for a few more days, but quite frankly it's already apparent this game isn't for me. My review of the game is largely negative. Some people will attack the negative review because I "didn't give the game long enough" and because "it gets really interesting at level 90 you freaking noob!". My response to that is, with as many games as there on the market, and with as little time as I can spend playing a game, I'm not willing to invest weeks of playtime before I am allowed to get to the good stuff.
On to the review...
The Pros
-- The UI is clean, simple.
-- The art department did a good job. Heck, the world looks better than a couple other games I can think of that have a monthly subscription.
-- Game appears stable.
-- I loved the Christmas-theme music
-- at least at the lower levels, if you've only got 30 minutes to play, you can log in and start playing immediately. You don't need to worry about hunting for a group.
-- you control three characters!
The Cons
-- The game plays itself. You move your characters with a point-and-click command. The characters do the rest (fighting, casting, etc). You can take control of one of your characters and issue a special attack, but for me, it just wasn't fun ping-ponging between characters and mashing buttons.
-- The mob spawn rate is insane.
-- There are boss mobs, but for the most point you'll be fighting angry swarms of monsters. Hello, Diablo.
-- a few bugs, mostly regarding keeping the party together. There is a command you can use to encourage lagging characters to rejoin the lead character, but you shouldn't need to use it, and on at least one occasion it didn't work (two characters hung back for almost the entire time I spent in a timed dungeon). On one occasion, one of my characters darted ahead of the group for no apparent reason, and died a quick death.
-- Support seems slow, but perhaps the slow response time has something to do with Christmas being just around the corner.
Comments
I agree with pretty mucheverything you said..
Although there is obviously a point for the fast mob respawns, they have to be that way. If they took to long the players would be bored lol, with the three characters the monsters die easy. The only solution for that is to make monsters more powerful and less of them, but maybe the developers wanted to be different.
The characters do for the most part do the attacking for themselves but I mean if they dident it would be kind of hard to not constantly be dying dont you think?
Anways I havent played this game a whole lot yet either my characters are only 19,19,18 but im not bored at all im liking it.
The most important thing is that it's free to play. The reason I was turned off by it immediately was the god-awful translation.
Comparing to pay to play games, it blows. Compared to all the other F2P trash, it's a gem. That's really about all you need in a review for this game lol.
"god-awful translation"?
I'm not sure what you are talking about. English is my native language and I had no trouble whatsoever understanding all the in-game text. In fact the npc dialog is more clear and engaging than what I've seen in most western-developed games.
I've been playing for just a few days and I'll probably uninstall soon. But I don't regret the download. The art in this game is simply stunning! Character models, animation, scenery, it's all amazingly beautiful. Everyone should try this game even if it's just for a day.
But the combat is just not to my taste. Most mobs die in one shot and even the toughest mob I've yet encountered was dead in less than five seconds. None of this is due to my skill. The avatars auto-attack everything and it all dies in a flurry of flash ... bang ... flash ... bang. There might be some thinking and strategy involved at higher levels but the first 15 levels could be done afk.
It's a shame, really. The backstory is actually very interesting and the whole concept would have made a great rpg. But instead they made something much less. I don't mind the point-and-click movement but I need some character customization and a combat system that is more involved than just watching as my little trio of avatars auto-decimates wave after wave of attacking mobs.
Still, it's worth the free download just to see the art for a few hours. Do it!
QFT
No truer words have been spoken, for what it is, it is the best.
---
Bartle Test Breakdown: Achiever 20.00%, Explorer 86.67%, Killer 26.67%, Socializer 66.67%
This game can easily hold its own against p2p games. It's unique, different, fast paced and fun. It's a breath of fresh air in a stale genre.
/agree
Yeah, they could stand to turn down the mob spawn rate just a bit. Being attacked by one mob of angry wolves just after getting rid of the last of the previous mob of angry wolves makes moving on through a level extremely difficult.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Playing: Nothing
Played: Champions Online, CoX, STO, PSO, WoW, lots of free-to-play crap
Looking Forward To: DC Universe Online, Blade and Soul
I play this game while I wait for Age of Conan and Warhammer.
I do in fact like the fast pace of spawns and there are thougher mobs as well. I am only lvl 35 now but I have seen quite a few tough mobs already. There are Elite Mobs that are tougher then your usual mob and then there are Bosses that are really tough.
For example there is a lvl 14 HellHound Boss (the one thats on fire) in the "Al Quelt Moreza - Nartex" Dungeon that you will probably have a hard time killing with your lvl 15 family. If you don't have a fighter and scout you'll probably be killed.
I couldn't kill it at that level. It even took my lvl 25 figher/wizard/scout team some time to kill it
IMHO, it's sort of like a John Woo movie (or HK action movies in general). You have a huge amount of easily killed enemies, but then some tougher guys. Usually one boss type per map (which can be really tough but always drop something), plus occasional elite regular monster which seem to have about 4-5 times as many hit points
Honestly, the crazy spawn rate is why I like the game. I was getting tired of high level play with guild wars, where it takes you forever to fight a mob of 24-28th level critters (since you and your group are only 20th).
R.I.P. City of Heroes and my 17 characters there
I think in general a lot of players have made the mistake of considering Sword as more of a MMORPG and not realizing there are a LOT of RTS elements to the game.
Players familiar with RTSs who play Sword THINKING it's a RTS acclamate to the game better than those who think it an RPG.
I don't know, it is definately and interesting marrage between the two.
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RTS games require a lot of micromanagement, that is why people like them, I dont see the parrallellism. If the game was more about travelling from group to group rather than waiting for single enemies to spawn, and if there wasnt a bot feature and you actually needed micromanagement it would be a lot more fun. It would also attract those that like a challenging game rather than a game you dont need to play.
But you lose those people that want to just afk level, so its best to just decide who your catering to and go through with it. Halfies just makes it so no ones happy.
Neume,
I don't see the RTS elements at all. Maybe I'm missing your point. In an RTS I'm controlling dozens of units which can be widely separated doing unrelated tasks. In SotNW we have three units which generally must be at the same location if they want to survive. Now that autodefend is removed they cannot fight without our supervision either.
Lock Defend mode was removed in January.
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Assign individual or multiple units to selection hot keys - check
Ability to switch quickly between individual units and give different formation commands to each unit - check
One thing I have always loved about Sword is it plays more like an RTS than an RPG. Many players are just not fully aware of the amount of control they have. Generally I find it easier to spilt tasks up between my team.
For example, I have a Wizard, Lorch and a Scout. The Scout is usually assigned to #3 and the Wizard and Lorch are assigned to #2. I then assign Lorch by himself to #1. While hunting I will keep my team in defend mode, BUT, when things drop I hit #1 and assign Lorch to harvest while my Scout and Wizard continue to attack (this works VERY well in the Coupon Bonus Dungeons).'
That's just one example, there are many times when I use my Wiz to round up mobs and bring them back to my teams location with little to no issue.
Maybe I am the only one that sees stuff like that much closer to an RTS than an RPG.
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OK, I see what you mean. Controlling the movements and actions of your three characters is a lot like giving commands to units in an RTS game.
I simply meant the auto defend not the defence lock, RTS players want more to do than tapping the spacebar. That is the whole point of an RTS, strategy and micromanagement, not tapping the spacebar and watching your units fight, and atm thats all this game requires.
But again, I do recognize that this is not always the case especially if you are leveling -8 below.
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So if most the game doesnt require RTS style management why give classify it was an mmorts? Thats all im wondering.
Its like 2moons calling itself an action rpg or dungeon runners calling itself an mmorpg, all it does is confuse players.
I guess that is where we disagree. I think that most of the gameplay does require RTS management.
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