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Review at Level 20
Annekynn
Member Posts: 1,437
The following is a review of the game after level 20 (human paladin).
Graphics - If you don't like the style, that's fine. But don't say the graphics suck. The game looks stellar. The most detailed, colorful and atmospheric mmrpg ive ever played. The detail in the game is just staggering. The entire world has this hand crafted feel to it, with no areas looking like they were made by a random terrain generator. I have fully explored 5 areas so far and am truly impressed by the attention everything has received. Every bit of the world has something in it, carefully positioned to add flavor or serve a purpose. There are no endless fields of fodder just to make the game bigger.
Sound/Music - Very appropriate for the game. The ambiance is great. No overpowering/annoying music. However there is some lack of music when you're out hunting. Some quiet/light tunes to strengthen the mood would be preferred, but not necessary. Overall im quite happy with all the sound effects in the game.
Interface/control - The chat interface could use some improving, and it would be nice if the radar showed monsters you have line of sight to (so it would be easier to navigate around hostiles). Would also be nice if the taskbar at the bottom could be made to show 2 rows at once. However the controls in the game are superb, as every key and option can be remapped to your desire. The game even supports extra mouse buttons (3, 4 and 5 on Logitech MX500+ mice for example). Little touches such as showing where all your party members are on both main and mini map, and allowing you to place temporary locators on the mini map for the whole group to see, are very nice.
Client/Options - The client works very well. Simple login procedure and character selection with some spiffy graphics. The game has lots of options for boosting performance or graphic quality, with all the resolutions supported especially 1280*960 which many devs leave out. Even a built in FPS meter (ctrl+r). I am not aware of any options that are missing from the game that I would like to see.
Character - Although the game could use some more character customization, all the races are very unique and look superb. Overall this area is quite good, though atleast a tiny amount of height/weight variation would be welcome.
Combat - The combat in the game is a straightforward affair with you engaging an auto attack on an enemy and while its in progress using various skills or items such as potions. It works very well, and the simplicity of it is VERY welcome when the fights get fast and heavy and you have to worry about healing and what not. Some classes are a bit boring to solo with (like the paladin). But once in a group the fun factor increases exponentially. As far as I know every class can solo with, though some can handle tougher mobs sooner than others. The game features a locking/tapping system, whereby the first player or group to attack a monster claims it as theirs. Anyone is welcome to kill it, but as long as that person/group is still fighting it when it dies, all experience and loot goes to them. This simply makes kill stealing and griefing none existent, and is an example of one of the many touches in the game to improve upon the system.
Questing - The game is heavily based on questing, and I for one find this WONDERFUL. Probably the best aspect of the game. Instead of wasting your time grinding to get the next level, you simply quest. Quests force you to go to various locations and perform various tasks, and if you complete many of them they can account for almost HALF of your leveling experience. While youre doing the quests, even if they are a kill quest, rarely are you thinking about 'the grind'. Usually youre thinking about the quest, trying to get the components/items you need to complete it. This makes leveling your character a much more fun affair as killing the monsters isn't the focus, instead completing the quests is. Sure the game may have plenty of fedex and kill quests, but there are also many others. There are escort quests, there are search for treasure quests, find lost/missing items, resurrect fallen npcs etc. The scripting that has gone into these quests is phenomenal. The npcs simply don't go "go kill 10 bees". They give you a story and purpose behind it. There is a reason for every quest. Oh and, you can have a limit of 20 quests accepted at any given time and there is a seemingly endless supply of them as as you level up more become available.
Grouping - As you level up, you'll realize that its often more fun and easier to get into a group. Many of the quests are better off done when there is a group of lower level players versus you doing it solo at a higher level, as often the sooner you complete the quest the more useful the reward will be. Grouping works quite well, but its limited to only 5 players. I find this limit too low, and would prefer 6-8. Nonetheless you see all the portraits of all the members in your group on your screen along with their health/mana and status. This along with showing their location on the map makes grouping a very fun thing to do in the game. Furthermore as a group you can share your quests with those that dont have them (as long as they are eligible) so everyone can do the same quest together.
Fun Factor - Is the game fun? Personally for me its a BLAST. Its extremely addicting as there is so much to do. Between leveling up my character, searching for good loot/treasure, flying gryphons across the lands, doing massive amounts of quests, exploring the world and discovering new locations (for which you get some experience), searching for herbs so I can make new potions with my alchemy skill, and grouping with players to complete difficult quests, I was simply never bored. Ever. There wasnt 5 minutes spent going "jez, so what do I do now?". Big thumbs up to Blizzard, even though this game may not be revolutionary, its so super refined that it breathes new life into the 'old school' mmrpg genre.
Community - As an open test, there is bound to be plenty of good and bad players in the game. I ran into quite a few a-holes, but also plenty of great people ive been repeatedly grouping with. Thus the retail community should hopefully do quite well.
Crafting - Crafting is divided into two skill groups, the collecting skills and the crafting skills. My experience is with herbalism (collecting) and alchemy (crafting). The system works extremely well and is an excellent activity to do outside of combat or between fights. Ive spent hours just searching forests and mountains for various herbs. As most things in the game, the crafting system is very refined, easy to use, and just plain fun.
PvP - The servers are either Regular or PvP. You can fight alliance vs horde on both types of servers, but in PvP servers various zones are designated such that horde can attack alliance players at any time and vice versa. On the regular servers, if you dont want to fight you dont have to. However once you conduct a hostile action (attack an opposing npc, heal a player thats in pvp, enter enemy city etc) you are marked for PvP for an X number of minutes. During that time any of the opposing side players can attack you. Overall the system works very well and is reminiscent of DAoC, without the dedicated frontiers. Do expect to see raids upon the newbie lands, but as stated, if you dont want to participate you dont have to.
Not Covered In This Review - Mounts, Classes. Ill leave it to others to explain these in detail.
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For the record, through my 20 levels I only spent about 2 hours doing boring grinding on purpose. All the rest of the leveling/experience was gained through questing, and not once did it feel like a pointless grind to simply get to the next level.
Thanks for reading!
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Played: Asheron's Call 1, Dark Age of Camelot, Earth & Beyond, Star Wars Galaxies
Tested: Asheron's Call 1, Asheron's Call 2, Dark Age of Camelot, Eve Online, Lineage 2, Risk Your Life, Saga of Ryzom, World of Warcraft
Uninstalled ASAP: MU Online, Knight Online, Rubies of Eventide, Priston Tales, Star Sonata, DarkSpace
Comments
Nice review, I totally agree with what you said about the graphics. Some people are too quick to judge, i've seen a few posts where people are saying ''played it for 5 mins, graphics crap, boring, im not playing it anymore''
Their loss!
Very good review. Once you hit lvl 20 the game goes from cool to awesome quickly!
Xanthorn
http://www.otsguild.com/ -- Future WoW guild upon release, check it out! If you want access, please put refered by Xanthorn on mmorpg.com. Thanks, Xanthorn.
Xanthorn
http://www.otsguild.com/
I found it to be awesome from the get go. Unlike many mmrpgs, in WoW you dont have to attain a certain level before it gets fun
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Played: Asheron's Call 1, Dark Age of Camelot, Earth & Beyond, Star Wars Galaxies
Tested: Asheron's Call 1, Asheron's Call 2, Dark Age of Camelot, Eve Online, Lineage 2, Risk Your Life, Saga of Ryzom, World of Warcraft
Uninstalled ASAP: MU Online, Knight Online, Rubies of Eventide, Priston Tales, Star Sonata, DarkSpace
Great post ....almost lvl 10...almost...damn server is down
Comming from EQ, AC2, AO, DAOC, EVE.....etc.
I can say this for certain. your review is right on the nose.
The graphics are flat out amazing. The game is in my opinion (2 days worth now) very entertaining.
The community on the other hand is very loose this is from a limited chat system. (being a massive chat whore in EQ for 5 years, I can say this will be improved, like AO did. or I just have not found how to mod the chat window yet hehehe)
Blizzard needs a massive pat on the back and a good shot in the wallet as they sure as heck will be getting my $50 bucks.
D
To mod the chat window, turn off Simple Chat in the options. Then hover your mouse over the chat window until the General tab appears. Right click on that tab, and you get a zillion options for customizing chat.
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Played: Asheron's Call 1, Dark Age of Camelot, Earth & Beyond, Star Wars Galaxies
Tested: Asheron's Call 1, Asheron's Call 2, Dark Age of Camelot, Eve Online, Lineage 2, Risk Your Life, Saga of Ryzom, World of Warcraft
Uninstalled ASAP: MU Online, Knight Online, Rubies of Eventide, Priston Tales, Star Sonata, DarkSpace
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Which FF Character Are You?
-DaemonBarber
Fleet Street, London
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I'd love to have a battle of wits with you, but you appear to be unarmed.
MYSPACE ACCOUNT
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Which FF Character Are You?
Good review, everything is true.
The only thing I hate is how EVERYBODY says character customization could be better. It's not complete yet, and it's just fine for now.
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The sheep in the meadow go bah.
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The sheep in the meadow go bah.
Yes it is fine for now. Just some more options for retail would be nice.
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Played: Asheron's Call 1, Dark Age of Camelot, Earth & Beyond, Star Wars Galaxies
Tested: Asheron's Call 1, Asheron's Call 2, Dark Age of Camelot, Eve Online, Lineage 2, Risk Your Life, Saga of Ryzom, World of Warcraft
Uninstalled ASAP: MU Online, Knight Online, Rubies of Eventide, Priston Tales, Star Sonata, DarkSpace
Updated the review with a bit more info on crafting and pvp.
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Played: Asheron's Call 1, Dark Age of Camelot, Earth & Beyond, Star Wars Galaxies
Tested: Asheron's Call 1, Asheron's Call 2, Dark Age of Camelot, Eve Online, Lineage 2, Risk Your Life, Saga of Ryzom, World of Warcraft
Uninstalled ASAP: MU Online, Knight Online, Rubies of Eventide, Priston Tales, Star Sonata, DarkSpace
i love the review and agree with jsut about all of it, only thing that i disagree with a wee bit is the simplicity of combat, i have a level 10 humana paladin (w00t for the hammers!) and yes his comabt is simple but when it come sto my hutner or rogue things ebcome more of a chalenge and tactical
i love the review i jsut wnated to add this becaus eim not sur eif you have tried a secondary melee
DM-"If you roll a natural 20 its almsot gauranteed for something to die"
Boreas- (calls lightning from storm) *rolls a 20*
DM- ".......you nuke the damn area wityh lightning, are you happy now!?"
DM-"If you roll a natural 20 its almsot gauranteed for something to die"
Boreas- (calls lightning from storm) *rolls a 20*
DM- ".......you nuke the damn area wityh lightning, are you happy now!?"