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Any unbiased reviews?
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Member Posts: 1,101
Can anyone point me in the direction of an unbiased, player (non-press) pre/re-view? I am sick and tired of the fanboi-gushing and the h8tr-bashing. Anyone?
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http://www.keenandgraev.com/
Short blurb about it on a blog I visit sometimes. Not really a review.
Here is my unbiased review, if you are bored with the mmorpg you currently play or just love the genre in general I'd certainly try this game. That is assuming you have a semi decent PC, I wouldn't want to play this on a substandard setup.
Whether or not you like the game is going to come down to personal preferece. It has a new take on the combat system that most seem to enjoy at least at the early levels. The graphics are pretty good though I don't like them as much as some. The instancing and Zoning is kind of annoying but I hear that is mostly the level 1-20 area so will have to wait and see.
My real question is what end game is going to be like, I haven't seen any closed beta comments about high level play yet so it is a complete unknown and that is what will really make or break the game for me.
There aren't any and there won't be for some time. We're still in "early access" meaning the regular joe on the street who doesn't follow mmorpgs like us hasn't even logged in yet.
I would wait at least two weeks after launch before I even started looking for something unbiased.
That being said, biased opinions can be useful too.
To be human is to have bias. But official reviews won't hit for a while... personally, I always look forward to game reviews over at gametrailers.com. I think they do a very good job of informing people exactly what they can expect from a game, pros and cons.
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
It's a beautifully done MMO with all the standard fare and some extras. There's nothing really ground breaking or revolutionary but some nice tweaks to make it fun. The combat system (for melee classes, anyway, keeps you busy as opposed to button mashing) is a high point in my opinion. Everything else is what you would expect. Deliver this message, kill this mob, find this trinket, etc.
You can start gathering at 20, crafting at 40. Guilds can potentially have 2 cities. PvE cities to hang out in (even though NPCs will attack at times). If your good you get a PvP keep in the border lands.
Like I said before, it's nothing revolutionary but it's a well polished, mature MMO.
To not get biased review, it would require guy who get WAR and AoC or even more MMO games same time, try them all equally one month (activating them all about same time) and writing review from them all after month playing. Also he must not be fan of any series where MMO is based or otherwise it ruins entire idea of reviewing them.
ok here is the most unbiased review you will read since it went live..........
and you will have it in 4 months and change, since i am waiting that long.
bahahaha.
and remember, just the facts ma'am.
can you smell that?!!...............there is nothing quite like it.....................the smell of troll in the morning............i love that smell.
Here's my unbiased viewpoint. Game looks pretty. Character animations slightly remind me of Dark and Light(scary). The inventory items remind me a bit of Dark and Light(still scary).
When I exit the game properly it always crashes upon exit then wants to recheck all the files everytime I start it back up(this takes a long while - game is like 16 gigs).Otherwise game ronly crashed on me one time while I was watching cnn videos on my other screen. Something that CoD4 and CoX would never have a problem with, but AoC and DnL do.
I'm not that impressed with the level up and automatically receive skills with the level. I get defeated constantly and even in the main town you run the risk of death if you go down the wrong street or happen to be mid battle and a guard walking by gets caught w/ some of your aoe accidentally. I'm torn between that sucking and it fitting really well with the storyline.
I'm not sure how to go further with pointing things about because I need more time to play the game and I don't want to say this area is too small or that quest has too many items to collect from too small of a spawning area. I'm sure things like that will get worked out soon enough.
I'd post my small "review" too, don't know how unbiased.
Graphics: game looks and feel amazing as long as you have a good rig (my girlfriend just got an alienware m15x as a present from me so I saw it there). On low settings is still decent though and not a bad gameplay experience.
Gameplay: the "new" system is not that new after all but it does feel great. You don't really get your typical skills that you mash on the buttons but it still keeps a bit that way after a few. At least at lower levels when the combos are just press the combo and the followup direction.
PVE: the starting area features a main quest for each class and I have to agree that I didn't feel bored so far. You still get the go there grab this and bring it back type of quest but since the main line of quests are class specific you get it in a bit of different flavor (kill if you're a killer, help if you're a healer, sneak if you're a... sneaker
).
PvP: a lot of fun! not exagerating, loads of fun. It will eventually wear off but still. And so far I've been ganked a lot, never atacked myself and I can still say it was fun. Unfortunately there's some spawn camping reported since there is no protection to that and if someone puts his mind to it he/she can keep you dead till you log out. Also there's kinda no point in the pvp yet but hopefully it will be some nice stuff later...
All in all the game is totally worth it, even if you're still playing your old mmo but just to see something fresh.
Disclaimer: all my chars are up to 15-17
This is actually tough to answer in all honesty since a lot of people are still within the lvl 20 area meaning we havent really seen the actual game just the starting area.
In my opinion the game has actually suprised me more then anything but like I said yesterday I just built me a new rig so it is running very nicely. Is there a lot of load screens in the lvl 20 area, yes and to be honest I wasnt to thrilled about them myself but I can see why they are doing it. This of course doesnt mean you have to like it but unfortunately a lot of games nowadays are doing it.
You will see a lot of small videos as you talk to quest givers. I didnt like this so much at first but then after a while I found myself sitting back and watching and listening to them and allowing them to draw me into the game as if I was actually there. You can always just click through them to go faster, this of course depends on how you want to do it.
Do these exists as much after lvl 20, I honestly cannot say as I am only lvl 12 but that is because I am enjoying the game instead of rushing through. I am hoping this game allows me to enjoy every bit of it instead of trying to get to max lvl.
Am I a fanboi, hell NO, but I do like to check out the new games to see where the gaming industry is going. AoC was not the top of my list as far as games coming out but it was worth checking out and I am very suprised by it and who knows if it has what I am looking for in a game at higher levels I may stay with it, if not then I move on.
Graphics arent everything to me, gameplay is more of what I look for but I must say that the graphics in this game are amazing and I look forward to seeing what the upper levels bring.
Out of every 100 men, 10 should not be there,
80 are nothing but targets, 9 are the real fighters.
Ah, but one, ONE of them is a warrior,
and he will bring the others home.
-Heraclitus 500BC
I am out of tortage, and the loading screens are now few and far between. Wait till you see Old Tarantia. It's like 10 Stormwinds layed out side by side in a square.
I made a separate thread for this one:
http://mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/191/view/forums/post/2017036/thread/180340
/J.