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Ryzom: My review after extended play
I originally wrote a "problems with ryzom" post and now that i've played more I would like to say i'm sorry for posting with only two weeks of play time under my belt. Now that I've had more time to explore ryzom and figure out all the mechanics I feel I can give my honest opinion of the game.
Character Creation and Customization: 8/10
Ryzom gives you four races to choose from Fyros, Zorai, Tryker and Matis you will notice right away that this game has a cartoony artstyle you don't get alot of hair and facial options on creation which is a downer until you relize you can basically adjust your avatars facial features, adjust charater hieght and even make your character fat which is cool. It may not have the customization of SWG or CoX but its still better than most mmos. Once in game you can also get a hair cut and buy a different tatooe which adds even more customization (the game has tons of hairstyles, I found a fyros male hair style that went great with my helmetless fyros caster, I even crafted armor to match my tats and hair color).
Graphics, UI, Sound : 7/10
The graphics in Ryzom are good overall, while the character animations, effects are all average the game world is truely a sight to behold. Realistic weather, foilage, realistic mob movement makes Ryzoms world come alive. If I was rating the game world only it would get a 10 easily. Now to the UI, The UI isnt anything special its the run of the mill action bar and chat box. I feel the map screen can be redone and it would be great if the new devs let you have more than two action bars on the screen at once. the one good thing about the UI is that its pretty customizabe you can rebind buttons and move anything on the screen to a new location. Music in the game is standard mmo fare, All in all its decent.
Combat: 8.5/10
Ryzom uses a skill system unlike the majority of todays linear class based games, You can build all types of characters the options are limitless really.
For all you players out there that love to just kill stuff you wont be disapointed in Ryzoms combat. While Ryzoms combat is a tad on the slow side it lets you que up a secondary action and you can totally customize every attack you have (add a bleed and + damage to a strike or increase damage and range to a spell). My one gripe with Ryzoms combat would be its lack of ranged weapon skills early on, only having a auto attack for a while isnt fun but as you increase in skill level you have the option to buy better abilities it just takes a while to get to that point.
Crafting & Gathering: 10/10
Ryzoms crafting is absolutly amazing, you can tweak stats on armor so no two peices of gear are alike, You can craft jewels, weapons, light, medium and heavy armor. just playing around with all the different materials and getting a different end result is great fun and having the 99% of all items crafted means everything you create is usable in some way by another player.
Gathering in Ryzom is like a fun little minigame, using abilities to track and create mineral deposits has you exploring every inch of ryzoms game world. you need to learn what materials are available during a particular season and time of the day its really complex. you really need to pay attention when you dig or a resource may explode and damage you and at higher levels kill you in one shot. Gathering also has a great group mechanic you can have one digger and the rest of the party healing the dig site so it doesn't explode once the digging is done everyone gets experience its genious really.
PVP: 8/10
While pvp in Ryzom isn't hardcore like eve or uo it does give the players a decent amount of options. There is faction pvp (Kami vs Karavan) guild vs guild pvp with capturable outposts, arena pvp, duels, two dedicated free for all pvp zones and the ability to flag yourself for pvp action everywhere. While this game doesnt have player looting i personally feel it isnt needed since a pvp death gives an XP penalty and a durability hit, after a while gear breaks and is gone for good (gear cant be fixed) so this puts some type of risk in ryzom pvp.
PVE Content: 8/10
While this game is a sandbox and most players feel linear content doesn't belong in the genre Ryzom does offer optional missions for reputation, a encyclopedia for lore and progression, Named mobs, Four truely epic boss encounters that drop really nice armor crafting recipes, small group boss mobs, kitin lairs, dev run player events, player apartments, social clubs, Large explorable game world and more. This game has enough to do to keep you busy along with the leveling of skills.
Community: 9.5/10
Ryzom has to have the most helpful community I have ever seen these players go out of thier way to help new players, the majority of them are polite and all in all the community as a whole is very mature. Even the official game forums are helpful and not full of trolls its crazy.
Overall score 8.4
Playing: Nothing
Looking forward to: Nothing
Comments
I hope this means you will stay with us for good now! It is refreshing to have gotten both the good and the bad from your reviews. While your "needs to be fixed" review got alot of heavy traffic I am hoping this review gets just as much, even though most of us agree with you wholeheartedly on this one.
Many of us have missed Ryzom and the close bounds we formed before its shutdown and while this has made us appreciate its return it has had the ill effect of blasting anyone who sees the flaws in the game. Yes, we know they are there and yes we want them corrected but, lately the attitude seems to be don't tell us about them and to heck with someone who does.
Your two-sided reviews are what we need both new and returning vets to work on so we can possibly help these new owners get it right this time and put Saga of Ryzom up there in the listings where it should be.
Again, thanks for your insight both for and against. And I urge all players to read both sides and move forward for the sake of the game.
Bosse
Fluffy Bunnies (running wild in the sands)
Thanks for the reply.
Yeah this time I reviewed what Ryzom was and not what I wished and thought Ryzom should be.
I still wish ryzom had customizable apartments, more armor sets, more optional storyline missions and more non-instanced dungeons (lairs). Even without that ryzom is a really good game and I'm sure that the ryzom devs in the future will add even more goodies to ryzom.
Playing: Nothing
Looking forward to: Nothing
I have tried Ryzom three times and each time for some reason I just couldn't get into it. Its NOT a bad game. It's got great mechanics, the skill system is second to none. The community is great and the world really does seem alive. I just didn't have fun playing it for some reason. I am however very glad that the game got bought and is back up and running so those that enjoy playing it can continue to do so. Good look homins!
-Currently looking forward to FFXIV
-Currently playing EvE and Global Agenda
me too
and glad you are enjoying things a bit more
Hopefully the appartments will get more uses beyond simple storage but will have to wait (and keep poking the devs :P) Nice to see you've grown to appreciate life on our little rootball
One thing struck me in your review though: the thing about the Death Penalty. I could be wrong, I don't PvP much, but I don't think there is one...
you got a few things wrong but a generally good review, glad you getting into it