Nice review of 1-20. I pretty much agree with all of it, other than the comments about replayability. The differences in the quests between the four classes I took through those levels were minor.
The combat system is fun to play. My main is a 61 Barbarian, but I'll be canceling and checking back in six months to see if things have improved. I'm tired of grinding. There is no siege battle or other PvP to break up the monotony. The crafting isn't working right and I'm not going to waste time on it as it is. I leveled all my gathering skills as far as they will go, but for what? Can't sell the stuff. The auction system is buggy and I finally got to the point where I stopped trying to use it. There's just not enough non-grinding stuff to do in AoC yet. The combat is really fun, though. Hopefully, things will be ironed out in the future.
I am begining to think that AoC has not got enough "grinding" things to do. Thats where its starting to go wrong. there are enough quests etc to keep progressing, so far at least i still have a full journal at 54. But other than that theres no grinding like in eq for example i could go and faction grind to gains quests i shouldnt be able to have due to faction. i could just go and grind cash in solA. in AoC theres just no grinding to be done and that's why players are simply burning out to fast. i'm having a few days on AoC then few on EQ to grind my AA's.
The trend will change again soon, first it started as we dont want grinding in games ( other than me ) but now players look at games like AoC and jump straight on the old grind bandwagon! but lets face it these easy quest orientated games dont need you to grind for yourself they will lead you along the way. And i am missing one huge thing on AoC....... FACTION! Like a others have said i can insult npc's then reopen chat and they will still give me the quest lol. Why cant they refuse to give me the quest due to my actions against thier faction group? i just have to face it..while i do enjoy AoC for what it is. there will never be a game like old eq again .
Originally posted by Stradden As the content is properly completed, we will update the review.
Oops... that's the very point people are making: the game you pay for Now, and therefore reasonably expect to be able to Play Now, isn't feature complete.
Thanks to the review i'll hold off making a purchase until more of the game is Properly Completed.
Someone else said: make a world, not a game, As the article stated, it seems mmog makers have abandoned this noble vision for what the genre might have been.
Originally posted by Stradden As the content is properly completed, we will update the review.
Oops... that's the very point people are making: the game you pay for Now, and therefore reasonably expect to be able to Play Now, isn't feature complete.
Thanks to the review i'll hold off making a purchase until more of the game is Properly Completed.
Someone else said: make a world, not a game, As the article stated, it seems mmog makers have abandoned this noble vision for what the genre might have been.
There's plenty of content already in the game. There are a few areas where you have to grind levels, but the combat is so fun that it's not the same old crap over and over again. Particularly if you play on a PVP server.
No MMO is ever completed. That's kind of the idea. But ultimately you're the only one who can make the decision on how and when to spend your money.
I think Funcom has made a pretty gritty and enthralling world. There's plenty of places to go and plenty to see. Sure, it's not seamless and wide open, and that's something that I definitely lament, but once I'm in the game, I forget about it pretty quickly.
Originally posted by Stradden As the content is properly completed, we will update the review.
Oops... that's the very point people are making: the game you pay for Now, and therefore reasonably expect to be able to Play Now, isn't feature complete.
Thanks to the review i'll hold off making a purchase until more of the game is Properly Completed.
Someone else said: make a world, not a game, As the article stated, it seems mmog makers have abandoned this noble vision for what the genre might have been.
When you buy a MMO, you aren't buying the whole game, are you? You buy the first month, and this is easily the review of that free month, by then you know where you stand.
Review should be most useful to people who haven't played the game yet, who cares what the rest think, I didn't buy it yet and thought this review is very useful in helping me with decision making.
i agree, if you only plan on playing the first 20 levels, the review is helpful. that is all the review covers. if you plan on leveling a bunch of characters to lvl 20, and seeing all there is to see from 1-20, then, from the review, we see that you can level 4 characters to 20 (at least) in the first couple of months.
if you plan on playing beyond lvl 20, then this review doesn't provide any information for you because after level 20, you're not playing a single player game (optionally) and you have to interact/world build/etc.
could we please get correspondent writers and moderators, on the eve forum at mmorpg.com, who are well-versed on eve-online and aren't just passersby pushing buttons? pretty please?
Seems to me like hes written his review on what he thought of the game! how unfair lol. This is another one of those games where so mny people have so different experiences of it. Personaly people say there is no content after level 40! i am a level 53 Ranger now and currently am playing in the snowy mountian area, eligolithian mountains or something cant remember at work at min but my biggest bug bear is that the quest list is just too small. I'm having to delete quests just to fit others in.
i had to stop reading your post here. why are you talking about the game post-20? this review isn't about the game other than levels 1-20. so, in your post you both support the review and then go on a tangent talking about things that have nothing to do with said review.
perhaps, instead of commenting on how your level 53 ranger is doing, you could comment on your level 1-20 toons and how your experience there compares/contrasts to the reviewers' experiences? for example, at a low level, did you find someone RP'ing on an RP server?
could we please get correspondent writers and moderators, on the eve forum at mmorpg.com, who are well-versed on eve-online and aren't just passersby pushing buttons? pretty please?
Originally posted by Stradden As the content is properly completed, we will update the review.
Oops... that's the very point people are making: the game you pay for Now, and therefore reasonably expect to be able to Play Now, isn't feature complete.
Thanks to the review i'll hold off making a purchase until more of the game is Properly Completed.
Someone else said: make a world, not a game, As the article stated, it seems mmog makers have abandoned this noble vision for what the genre might have been.
When you buy a MMO, you aren't buying the whole game, are you? You buy the first month, and this is easily the review of that free month, by then you know where you stand.
In that case this review is fairest of them all.
that argument is nonsensical.
most mmos intentionally fast track you to their "grind for gear" levels. maxing a toon (or getting pretty darned close to max level) in pretty much any mmo, within your free 30 days, is quite the rule and not the exception. unless you're truly a casual player, or you're making a bunch of alts, or you're just exploring and looking around. but there's a whole lot of people just grinding for the sake of grinding.
could we please get correspondent writers and moderators, on the eve forum at mmorpg.com, who are well-versed on eve-online and aren't just passersby pushing buttons? pretty please?
When you buy a MMO, you aren't buying the whole game, are you? You buy the first month, and this is easily the review of that free month, by then you know where you stand. In that case this review is fairest of them all.
that argument is nonsensical.
most mmos intentionally fast track you to their "grind for gear" levels. maxing a toon (or getting pretty darned close to max level) in pretty much any mmo, within your free 30 days, is quite the rule and not the exception. unless you're truly a casual player, or you're making a bunch of alts, or you're just exploring and looking around. but there's a whole lot of people just grinding for the sake of grinding.
Yes, I know that, but I strongly dissagree with "most mmos intentionally fast track you to their "grind for gear" levels", that is all up to you. Most MMOs actualy let you play the way you want, slow, fast, stupid, smart, every road takes you to the max level, eventualy.
If you choose to rush it, you can blame it on EQ, your friends, your personality or whatever, but blaiming the game is nonsensical.
Seems to me like hes written his review on what he thought of the game! how unfair lol. This is another one of those games where so mny people have so different experiences of it. Personaly people say there is no content after level 40! i am a level 53 Ranger now and currently am playing in the snowy mountian area, eligolithian mountains or something cant remember at work at min but my biggest bug bear is that the quest list is just too small. I'm having to delete quests just to fit others in.
i had to stop reading your post here. why are you talking about the game post-20? this review isn't about the game other than levels 1-20. so, in your post you both support the review and then go on a tangent talking about things that have nothing to do with said review.
perhaps, instead of commenting on how your level 53 ranger is doing, you could comment on your level 1-20 toons and how your experience there compares/contrasts to the reviewers' experiences? for example, at a low level, did you find someone RP'ing on an RP server?
Your right i lost track of the thread there ! sorry. i was more replying to the posts after the OP which were talking about the game past level 20 and i fell into the same trap.
Sorry about that but thanks for bringing me up on that .
most mmos intentionally fast track you to their "grind for gear" levels. maxing a toon (or getting pretty darned close to max level) in pretty much any mmo, within your free 30 days, is quite the rule and not the exception. unless you're truly a casual player, or you're making a bunch of alts, or you're just exploring and looking around. but there's a whole lot of people just grinding for the sake of grinding.
I think he means that when you buy an MMO, you are buying a game that never actually becomes complete, but constantly has changes made and features added.
I don't understand how people (legitimately) get to level 80 within the first 30 days. Do people not have full time jobs? Friends? A social life? Other interests? I just don't get it. Surely few people really have tha kind of time, and if they do, I question their work ethic and their participation in their community.
Good review but I have to say selecting to review levels 1-20 I really have to question mmorpg.com's integrity. It is a completely different game to say levels 70-80. Actually there really is no game there yet, none. It is really lousy, a real stinker.
I understand that it must be tricky for journo's to review later stuff in games but leves 1-20 are gone in I dunno 15 hours or so and imho probablly worth the box price. Jon, beg steal or borrow a high level character and do your end game review, I'd like to see if you award more than a 3 for gameplay. There is more do to in ....I dunno.....Dark & Light. The contrast between begining and 'end' is stark. (Yes the game does end) Never have I seen such an extreme difference in a a game. Unless FC can really start cranking out content, and core gameplay I can't see people sticking around for long.
I look forward to your 70-80 review Jon, though I doubt you can fill 3 pages on it
"Once the company resolved the latency issue, I was left with only one technical stumbling block to overcome in the form of frames per second that didn’t really pass 30 on low settings. That being said, I didn’t notice any huge slowdowns and it was completely playable. I am told that this particular problem on my server and with my computer is rare and Funcom is looking into the issue."
Actually believe it or not their is a bug that actually gives you worse FPS on low settings. So to increase your FPS substantially you turn all your settings on high and turn shadows off. You get very good fps doing that. Hope it helps!
I do appreciate that you all noted right away that this was a review of levels 1-20.
I simply have to question the value of a such a review of a product in which so many people have complaints POST level 20. I hope that we can soon get a review of the same quality on the game as a whole, not just the intro levels. I suspect that would be much more valuable for potential customers trying to make up their minds whether to spend their money on this product at the moment.
Jeff I agree completely and suggested as much a few posts back. I'd just like to see the 70-80 review or 80+ review. Starkly different 'game' .....actually its more a case of "game what game?". Didn't MMORPG.com do a mini review of the character genertion screen a while back? Come on guys get a few more freelancers!! The early game justifys the cost of the box (imo) but as a 'long term'' (more than a month or two) MMORPG it fails in its current form. It seems to me that most will arrive at that conclusion for themselves pretty shortly depending on how actively they play.
I am new to this site and all and well as new to the AOC mmo. But i have reached up to lvl 25 and i belive that the reviews chould be placed whenever they need or want depending on whos writing them and what type of players there talking to. For instance i belive there to be alot of problems with the game so far such as pvp... and it still being pretty under populater compared to its other mmo counterparts. But for new players such as me at this game i am so far content in the play style and the combat engine used in the game.
It's the new trend now to only reviewi 1/4th of the game ? Yeah today I bought a new car and the car salesman had me sold when he only showed me 1/4th of the car. The rest of the car is missing though. No wheels, no engine, no brakes and the transmission needs a complete overhaul but other than that I am a happy buyer. If people are going to review the game then review ALL of it or don't even bother ya know ?
Actually, with the unique nature of the 1-20 campaign, a review on that aspect of the game is appropriate.
Also, given the amount of time that it takes for someone writing a review to move through all of the content of a game is quite substantial, we wanted to provide our users with something opinion-wise until we can do a full and complete review of the entire game.
MMORPGs aren't the same as single player games and shouldn't be reviewed in the same way and certainly can't be reviewed in the same amunt of time.
Comments
Nice to see someone actually telling you what they're reviewing (levels 1-20), thanks for informing people.
Most reviewers will make blanket statements about the game as a whole based on the first 1-20 levels which is just misleading.
Nice review of 1-20. I pretty much agree with all of it, other than the comments about replayability. The differences in the quests between the four classes I took through those levels were minor.
The combat system is fun to play. My main is a 61 Barbarian, but I'll be canceling and checking back in six months to see if things have improved. I'm tired of grinding. There is no siege battle or other PvP to break up the monotony. The crafting isn't working right and I'm not going to waste time on it as it is. I leveled all my gathering skills as far as they will go, but for what? Can't sell the stuff. The auction system is buggy and I finally got to the point where I stopped trying to use it. There's just not enough non-grinding stuff to do in AoC yet. The combat is really fun, though. Hopefully, things will be ironed out in the future.
I am begining to think that AoC has not got enough "grinding" things to do. Thats where its starting to go wrong. there are enough quests etc to keep progressing, so far at least i still have a full journal at 54. But other than that theres no grinding like in eq for example i could go and faction grind to gains quests i shouldnt be able to have due to faction. i could just go and grind cash in solA. in AoC theres just no grinding to be done and that's why players are simply burning out to fast. i'm having a few days on AoC then few on EQ to grind my AA's.
The trend will change again soon, first it started as we dont want grinding in games ( other than me
) but now players look at games like AoC and jump straight on the old grind bandwagon! but lets face it these easy quest orientated games dont need you to grind for yourself they will lead you along the way. And i am missing one huge thing on AoC....... FACTION! Like a others have said i can insult npc's then reopen chat and they will still give me the quest lol. Why cant they refuse to give me the quest due to my actions against thier faction group? i just have to face it..while i do enjoy AoC for what it is. there will never be a game like old eq again 
.
Oops... that's the very point people are making: the game you pay for Now, and therefore reasonably expect to be able to Play Now, isn't feature complete.
Thanks to the review i'll hold off making a purchase until more of the game is Properly Completed.
Someone else said: make a world, not a game, As the article stated, it seems mmog makers have abandoned this noble vision for what the genre might have been.
Oops... that's the very point people are making: the game you pay for Now, and therefore reasonably expect to be able to Play Now, isn't feature complete.
Thanks to the review i'll hold off making a purchase until more of the game is Properly Completed.
Someone else said: make a world, not a game, As the article stated, it seems mmog makers have abandoned this noble vision for what the genre might have been.
There's plenty of content already in the game. There are a few areas where you have to grind levels, but the combat is so fun that it's not the same old crap over and over again. Particularly if you play on a PVP server.
No MMO is ever completed. That's kind of the idea. But ultimately you're the only one who can make the decision on how and when to spend your money.
I think Funcom has made a pretty gritty and enthralling world. There's plenty of places to go and plenty to see. Sure, it's not seamless and wide open, and that's something that I definitely lament, but once I'm in the game, I forget about it pretty quickly.
Oops... that's the very point people are making: the game you pay for Now, and therefore reasonably expect to be able to Play Now, isn't feature complete.
Thanks to the review i'll hold off making a purchase until more of the game is Properly Completed.
Someone else said: make a world, not a game, As the article stated, it seems mmog makers have abandoned this noble vision for what the genre might have been.
When you buy a MMO, you aren't buying the whole game, are you? You buy the first month, and this is easily the review of that free month, by then you know where you stand.
In that case this review is fairest of them all.
i agree, if you only plan on playing the first 20 levels, the review is helpful. that is all the review covers. if you plan on leveling a bunch of characters to lvl 20, and seeing all there is to see from 1-20, then, from the review, we see that you can level 4 characters to 20 (at least) in the first couple of months.
if you plan on playing beyond lvl 20, then this review doesn't provide any information for you because after level 20, you're not playing a single player game (optionally) and you have to interact/world build/etc.
could we please get correspondent writers and moderators, on the eve forum at mmorpg.com, who are well-versed on eve-online and aren't just passersby pushing buttons? pretty please?
i had to stop reading your post here. why are you talking about the game post-20? this review isn't about the game other than levels 1-20. so, in your post you both support the review and then go on a tangent talking about things that have nothing to do with said review.
perhaps, instead of commenting on how your level 53 ranger is doing, you could comment on your level 1-20 toons and how your experience there compares/contrasts to the reviewers' experiences? for example, at a low level, did you find someone RP'ing on an RP server?
could we please get correspondent writers and moderators, on the eve forum at mmorpg.com, who are well-versed on eve-online and aren't just passersby pushing buttons? pretty please?
Oops... that's the very point people are making: the game you pay for Now, and therefore reasonably expect to be able to Play Now, isn't feature complete.
Thanks to the review i'll hold off making a purchase until more of the game is Properly Completed.
Someone else said: make a world, not a game, As the article stated, it seems mmog makers have abandoned this noble vision for what the genre might have been.
When you buy a MMO, you aren't buying the whole game, are you? You buy the first month, and this is easily the review of that free month, by then you know where you stand.
In that case this review is fairest of them all.
that argument is nonsensical.
most mmos intentionally fast track you to their "grind for gear" levels. maxing a toon (or getting pretty darned close to max level) in pretty much any mmo, within your free 30 days, is quite the rule and not the exception. unless you're truly a casual player, or you're making a bunch of alts, or you're just exploring and looking around. but there's a whole lot of people just grinding for the sake of grinding.
could we please get correspondent writers and moderators, on the eve forum at mmorpg.com, who are well-versed on eve-online and aren't just passersby pushing buttons? pretty please?
that argument is nonsensical.
most mmos intentionally fast track you to their "grind for gear" levels. maxing a toon (or getting pretty darned close to max level) in pretty much any mmo, within your free 30 days, is quite the rule and not the exception. unless you're truly a casual player, or you're making a bunch of alts, or you're just exploring and looking around. but there's a whole lot of people just grinding for the sake of grinding.
Yes, I know that, but I strongly dissagree with "most mmos intentionally fast track you to their "grind for gear" levels", that is all up to you. Most MMOs actualy let you play the way you want, slow, fast, stupid, smart, every road takes you to the max level, eventualy.
If you choose to rush it, you can blame it on EQ, your friends, your personality or whatever, but blaiming the game is nonsensical.
i had to stop reading your post here. why are you talking about the game post-20? this review isn't about the game other than levels 1-20. so, in your post you both support the review and then go on a tangent talking about things that have nothing to do with said review.
perhaps, instead of commenting on how your level 53 ranger is doing, you could comment on your level 1-20 toons and how your experience there compares/contrasts to the reviewers' experiences? for example, at a low level, did you find someone RP'ing on an RP server?
Your right i lost track of the thread there ! sorry. i was more replying to the posts after the OP which were talking about the game past level 20 and i fell into the same trap.
Sorry about that but thanks for bringing me up on that
.
I think he means that when you buy an MMO, you are buying a game that never actually becomes complete, but constantly has changes made and features added.
I don't understand how people (legitimately) get to level 80 within the first 30 days. Do people not have full time jobs? Friends? A social life? Other interests? I just don't get it. Surely few people really have tha kind of time, and if they do, I question their work ethic and their participation in their community.
Good review but I have to say selecting to review levels 1-20 I really have to question mmorpg.com's integrity. It is a completely different game to say levels 70-80. Actually there really is no game there yet, none. It is really lousy, a real stinker.
I understand that it must be tricky for journo's to review later stuff in games but leves 1-20 are gone in I dunno 15 hours or so and imho probablly worth the box price. Jon, beg steal or borrow a high level character and do your end game review, I'd like to see if you award more than a 3 for gameplay. There is more do to in ....I dunno.....Dark & Light. The contrast between begining and 'end' is stark. (Yes the game does end) Never have I seen such an extreme difference in a a game. Unless FC can really start cranking out content, and core gameplay I can't see people sticking around for long.
I look forward to your 70-80 review Jon, though I doubt you can fill 3 pages on it
Cheers.
"Once the company resolved the latency issue, I was left with only one technical stumbling block to overcome in the form of frames per second that didn’t really pass 30 on low settings. That being said, I didn’t notice any huge slowdowns and it was completely playable. I am told that this particular problem on my server and with my computer is rare and Funcom is looking into the issue."
Actually believe it or not their is a bug that actually gives you worse FPS on low settings. So to increase your FPS substantially you turn all your settings on high and turn shadows off. You get very good fps doing that. Hope it helps!
A nice review, thanks!
Hi Jon,
I do appreciate that you all noted right away that this was a review of levels 1-20.
I simply have to question the value of a such a review of a product in which so many people have complaints POST level 20. I hope that we can soon get a review of the same quality on the game as a whole, not just the intro levels. I suspect that would be much more valuable for potential customers trying to make up their minds whether to spend their money on this product at the moment.
Best,
Jeff
Jeff I agree completely and suggested as much a few posts back. I'd just like to see the 70-80 review or 80+ review. Starkly different 'game' .....actually its more a case of "game what game?". Didn't MMORPG.com do a mini review of the character genertion screen a while back? Come on guys get a few more freelancers!! The early game justifys the cost of the box (imo) but as a 'long term'' (more than a month or two) MMORPG it fails in its current form. It seems to me that most will arrive at that conclusion for themselves pretty shortly depending on how actively they play.
Please re-review this game in 2-3 months.
At the moment, AoC is not worthy of a review.
It’s not really a gameplay feature, so it won’t effect your game mechanics
I wouldn't expect it to create or cause the game mechanics, nor would I expect it to affect the game mechanics.
Hi,
I am new to this site and all and well as new to the AOC mmo. But i have reached up to lvl 25 and i belive that the reviews chould be placed whenever they need or want depending on whos writing them and what type of players there talking to. For instance i belive there to be alot of problems with the game so far such as pvp... and it still being pretty under populater compared to its other mmo counterparts. But for new players such as me at this game i am so far content in the play style and the combat engine used in the game.
Spc Bowerman
Actually, with the unique nature of the 1-20 campaign, a review on that aspect of the game is appropriate.
Also, given the amount of time that it takes for someone writing a review to move through all of the content of a game is quite substantial, we wanted to provide our users with something opinion-wise until we can do a full and complete review of the entire game.
MMORPGs aren't the same as single player games and shouldn't be reviewed in the same way and certainly can't be reviewed in the same amunt of time.
Hope that clears things up for you.
When can we expect the complete review?