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Atlantica Online: Atlantica Online Review
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com's reviewer Lisa Krebs writes this look at NDoors' Atlantica Online.
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Atlantica Online is a strategy, turn-based MMO with a lot of really good points that make the game almost, but not quite worth playing. My one belief in games is that, no matter how hard-core you want your player base to be, no matter how well you treat them in the higher levels, no matter how unique your game... If in the beginning, you don't hook them, it doesn't matter. This game has loads of goods but it's hard to find the fun. There is, however, one area where this game shines, and explains why so many players enjoy it; the combat system.
Read the Atlantica Online Review
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
This game is alot of fun. Although I am only level 20 or so myself and have lots left to check out. The combat system is what really makes this game great though. Pairing this up with a typical p2p game and you got yourself a really nice and free side game I think.
A couple of comments from someone that played much deeper than level 20:
The appeal of the item mall starts to become a lot more important after level 20 or so when the convenience of being able to teleport places instead of running everywhere starts to really come into play. You never need anything in the mall, but you'll sure want it.
The gifts you received weren't out of pure generosity. Higher level players get quests to send lower level players gifts; the recipient is random so you can't gift someone specifically. You also get rewarded with experience based on the value of the gift.
When I first heard about Atlantica, I thought it sounded interesting.
After visiting the website, however, I was very put off by the whole thing.
The mercenaries, the character models, the story -- the whole thing just looked really dumb.
Thanks for the review, though. It confirms that this is not the F2P for me.
P.S. You might want to correct the "Reivew" misspelling in the title.
The game is fun but dont let the free to play fool you, it can be expensive, the item mall prices really need to drop. I got to the part of your review where you stated you liked to jump around like a fool for no paticular reason and remembered I hated you annoying ppl and stopped reading.
When I said i had "time", i meant virtual time, i got no RL "time" for you.
I am a maxed level 120 in this game. The 9 vs 9 is really fun but i don't recommend playing it, you will just be wasting your time. There is no PvP, in free league noone plays normally they go auto battle and go afk. There is no PvP outside free league apart from war (you never lose items). You need to be a guild leader in an extremely powerful nation and own a town to even attack someone and get no loot, getting the items for a town per month is $50 or months of grinding, then you need to do the same next month.
The developers only care about maximising their income, look on the main page at recent updates all you will see is item mall promotions, new wings or new mounts. Bugs have been in this game for up to 4 months and the developers aren't even trying to fix them, the bug in question completely kills all PvP in the delphi server.
To just play the game normally you need to spend a minimum of $15 a month on a warriors package. An extra $15 a month at higher levels on boost (which is essential) and if you want to get anywhere fast...let me put it this way. The "elite" band of players have spent over $5,000 on this game so don't consider it a free to play game.
It is a really fun game to start out but once you get towards endgame you realise there is no endgame content, nothing at all. Before you start playing read the official forums first to see how poor the state of the game is or take it from me.
EDIT: As a response to Channce
The item mall prices on ori stones have dropped a lot but they have also been uber nerfed. Many people used to use ori stones to get their gear to +10 before the nerf. 100 ori stones [adv] which costs $50 is what it used to cost for a +10, maybe more (based on statistics from official forums and ingame players who have ori'd many +10 items.) but now you can buy thousands of stones and end up with worse gear than you started. The developers don't care about you they just want your money, hense the partnership with ijji.com
This review is awful. I'm sorry, but micro paragaphs for every section? Did Atlantica skip out on advertising with you guys?
This game is a truely unique experience, and you guys get a reviewer that played 20 levels (takes like 3 hours) then types up a tiny review in half an hour?
There are numerous facets to this game that go unmetioned. People don't read reviews for to see how the items work, or the basics of combat... they read reviews to review the game AS A WHOLE. There is no mention of PvP? That's a gigantic part of the game, but I guess the noob quest to level 20 is all that matters. I'm all for honest reviewing, but I feel my intelligence being insulted when the reviewer's main complaints are no jumping and auto-walk. Holy cow... you don't have to autowalk and go AFK, you as the player choose to.
Seriously, MMORPG.com, get some reviewers with the slightest interest in getting to know a game before throwing a halfassed review on your site.
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Funny, the thing that really turned me off in this game was the combat. If you are going to have strategic combat you need to let me move my pieces. The limited movement you can do in Atlantica really made me dislike it . Even chess has far more movement in it.
The big problem with big battles was there was far too many pieces on the board and when I left they were talking about bigger battles. 9 mercs is just too many. I think Sword of the new world hit the max with 3, because you really run into major logistic problems when you have 4 or more combatants.
Some, like the reviewer, like the combat design, for me it just does not fit in a MMO setting.
I think the one point the reviewer missed though, is that if you want to pvp, expect to spend significant sums in the item store if you want to be competitive.
your statement is quite interresting because i felt the oppositehappened. i expected the game to yeild a much lower rating and considered the final score to be very generous.
i consider this beeing because it is very difficult to rate games from your own customers. remember the countless advertisements of this game on this site! and please remember that this site is THE microtransaction games advertising site -> look at the countless adds.
so what? maybee there should not be revies of games this site advertises?
I thought it was a great review.
As an avid player of the game, I think the Article has pretty much got it right, and gives a good beginners review of the game.
It is a hard game to get started in, but as you get toward lvl 50, you find yourself becomming hooked more and more. I loved it from the start myself, but getting some of my friends, to start, and keep playing for long enuf to get hooked, can be a battle with some people.
I will have to disagree with one pont made, and some of the other players comments. The item mall is almost completely unnecessary if you learn the game to even half of its potential, unless you are one of the people who HAVE to have the latest thing, NOW(and generally, these people are not the top PvP players).
The fact of the matter, is that all item mall items are available in-game, to buy of other player with game gold.
After about lvl 100, you have all you need to make enuf game gold to buy your item mall items with in game money, and there are plenty of people who seem willing to sell item mall and make game money the easy way.
There is a gap, between when you start and get all you starting freebies, and level 100, where I wud recommend paying the 15 dollars for the good pack to make the game more easy and fun rather than waiting to autorun everywhere.
I think I mentioned, I still believe, reviewing it as a player/customer, if you can't hook a player in the early levels, the higher levels don't matter. You want players to stay and level because that's in most games where your money is. I think the game industry is sometimes the only industry where players (customers) are expected to sift through uninteresting play at early levels to get to the good stuff. That being said, the game is based on micro-transactions and the entire point of a so-called free-to-play game is to get you hooked enough to spend money. I saw no reason to indicate staying and paying would be fun. I see the appeal to some players of the game, but, I reviewed the game from my experience coming in, playing and deciding if I'd want to stay. For my main complaints... uninteresting story line, generic feel of the world and again, the 'fun' doesn't happen until levels of not so much fun. The combat was the only reason I gave it the rating it has. I happened to like it. It was one of the few things besides the tutorial-style of quests I enjoyed. Auto-walk actually made it easier for me to simply close the game mid-play . The goal of a good game is to keep players interested from level 1, and this game didn't do that at all.
LrK
So, out of curiosity, at what level would you say you really got hooked... was it really evel 50, or did it start picking up before then? I think this game has so much potential and it was frustrating seeing what I thought were 'little things' that made the game less fun than I felt it should have been.
LrK
I agree with you about it not having early hooks. The story line early on is very tutorial based, and there is more story as you get on, but for me that's not what I look for, and if it was any good I wud have payed more attenton, and you also mentioned that the quests are a pain to read.
In my opinion, up to lvl 20 can be a bit of a chore, as you pretty much plow thru so much learning, and that turns some people off the game. At lvl 20, it starts pickin up, with a bunch of goodies sent to your mail at lvl 20, like a free 7 day pack, and a bunch of magic scrolls to use ( no point saving them as they are level limited ).
Once you about lvl 20, you got most of the basic learning out of the way, and you get more time to open up to the game.
Lvl 20-50 go pretty fast, with the help of the 7 day pack you get at lvl 20.
Once you get to level 50, your gonna have a pretty good idea weather you like the game or not, especially if your not scared to try everything out. By then you shud have experienced Free League, hopefully have joined a guild that will take you on the early dungeons, have made some friends you met on the way ( lvl 44 Quest to get one of the more exciting mercs pushes you to party up to help questing), etc etc etc.
To be true, the early levels are when most people drop off, and I think it is a game flaw, but it seems they have cottoned onto it and have extra events for newbies now to help keep them in longer.
Hopefully in the future, they will improve this further, and thats a good thing about Atlantica, is that there always improving it.
Very solid review. I agree with most of what was said and I am happy that she comments on the cash shop. Wish she would focus more on just how expensive the game can be with some examples but nothings perfect. Its about the score I would give the game all in all with the high level rip off prices to compete.
Good review. Atlantica is a nice game, if you like the combat style implemented. Fast strategic turn based. I quite like it myself, something different then the usual "click-monster-dump-all-skills-on-it".
One thing the review didn't mention too much is pvp. That's one negative point for Atlantica. There's either the "free" pvp in free league matched, where there's nothing to loose. This part is quite fun. But no real challenge then just try to win a match. Then there's the open-space pvp and hunting. That part really suxx in Atlantica. It's as if it was thrown into the game without much thought. Only the guild leader can hunt-pvp, and only 10 times a day maximum, with a maximum will. Jeez, how worst can it be?
I enjoyed the combat system of AO very much, but the story was spread far too thinly, the quests very poorly thought out & it all got samey & grindy & lacked any kind of engrossing qualities, by 65 I was bored to death & the PvP at the time I quit was ruled & ruined by item mall shoppers abusing scrolls.
The game needs a "middle" it has no guts to pull you through the grind of the middle levels to reach the uper end game, & the bugs take way too long to be dealt with, if they ever are, adding new content does not equate to solving existing issues, but this practice seems to be "how things get done" in the eastern MMO's, & this papering over the cracks approach is par for the course.
My verdict, great combat mechanic severely let down by the rest of the game.
F2P and Turn based says it all for me. No thank you
..its a guideline, not a rule, as players we must remember: Its a Game.
I think this review is very late. The game will be a year old at the end of October.
Instead of rehashing what many already know provide a link to an old review, then talk about the recent patch that brought on a slew of changes that impacted the game greatly.
I do like the point that many commenters have provided, this game indicates f2p, but to get anywhere without grinding costs.
Do us a favor MMORPG, stop putting out new reviews of games that have been on the market for a while already.
This is just my personal opinion, if you disagree just tell me and I will think about it.
Atlantica Online is special game because of combat system. Turn based system reminded my of FF series (sort of) and I stayed till lvl 114.
Game is enjoyable from lvl 1 to 100. Quests are nicely done and takes much from mythology. I really enjoyed visiting locations from mythology I read in books. It is quite unique experience in MMORPG as we get fictional ( and usually boring) experience most of the time.
I mention lvl 100 just as guideline to understand as it may be lvl 96 or lvl 110 depending on your gameplay. For example giving power levels: lvl 99 boss have 1000 power, lvl 100 boss have 10000 and lvl 101 boss have 100000. Just imagine how many fucking grind you must do to defeat another boss.
Crafting is nothing special: choose item to craft, defeat 100 monsters groups and find guildie who ups your craft lvl. Craft usually isnt worth money as you spend 100M for 80M equipment but you can hope for +1 which will double your gains, +2 which will triple, +3 which bla bla bla.... You should get main picture. IT IS JUST A GAMBLE. (Materials for items are mainly in shops for fixed price or people will sell it (and for very low price :P))
System to gamble loot destroyed game for me. Materials extremely cheap even ones harder to grind. Boxes remaining same. Try it over lvl 100 and see what shit it is.
Overall it is addictive game. Enjoy it for some time and later hate. Or just enjoy or hate it. It is your choice.
10/10 or 1/10, I really cant choose :P
I think the review was a bit sparse (especially considering the game has been out a year+), but generally correct.
I first tried it in during the second closed beta. After a few days, lost interest. Went back to LOTRO and Sword of the New World.
Then 5-6 months later, decided to try it again, after getting burnt out on Sword (no new content) and slogged out in LOTRO (slow leveling). And this time I got hooked, for whatever reason.
I think the auto-move is a godsend. Admittedly, it takes the exploration out of the game, but at the same time, if you only have a limited amount of play time a day (like me), it gets you to the quest area and back within a few minutes. Part of my frustration with LOTRO was literally wandering around in a virtual wilderness for hours, without seeing anyone, fighting a mob every 5 virtual feet, no idea what I was looking for. And then not remembering where the heck to turn the quest in, since the names are all so similar (Elf/Dwarf ones, anyway). (The recent quest tracker in LOTRO has helped a lot, though)
The item mall really isn't necessary until high levels. I'm 116, and I've never used a Warrior's Pack (or whatever it's called). Sure, some of the things in it are handy, but hardly necessary.
On the other hand, at about 98 or so, when you hit Constantinople, and the leveling curve starts going up and up and up, you really do need a Blessing LIcense ($15 a month). And past 100, gear becomes so rare (nothing past 105 drops,and 105 is rare), you really do need to us CS to be competitive, or even do some of the higher level quests.
Still, I've played for 8 months now, and have spend $80 in the cash shop ($20 for merc rooms, $45 for 3 months worth of blessing licenses, and $15 for an extra inventory license, which is pretty useful). Which is pretty good, in Sword, I spent like $200 in a year, and LOTRO, $260 ($200 for lifetime sub, $20 base game, $40 for moria, and only gotten about 300 hours of play out of it, only up to 44th level. Really was optimistic when I bought Moria, only need 6 more levels. Maybe sometime in 2010, I'll get there)
I would say only the 3 BL was necessary. And at the point where I am in the game, I can buy $15-30 worth of CS items a month, just from normal play (albeit at the cost of getting better gear, but still, $15-30 worth of CS won't buy you very good gear, either). That's actually the trouble with the game. Unless you can make billions in game, you almost have to buy a lot of CS items (or buy gold) to keep up at high level. And since selling CS is actually not a very good deal, you really do have to buy gold (was common in my old guild, I think me and one other guy didn't) or spend a lot on a gambling box and hope you get the big score.
R.I.P. City of Heroes and my 17 characters there
I agree 100%! The combat is fun and is the thing that I liked right off the get-go. It's not a main mmo, but it is something to play around with for a change of pace.
It's a proven historical fact that beer saved humankind.
As a Final Fantasy fan, this game looked awesome, but when I tried it out (about 5 months ago now), the download client didn't come with an .exe to play the game, and when I asked where can I download just the .exe file, they said just download the client again, and being in Australia with our crappy internet speeds, this is highly annoying.
However I might give this game another chance while I wait for Aion, very nice review btw.
this game is fun until u get tired of grinding
dont say i gave up too quickly
i was lvl 98 in sikyon, 111 in argos, 110 and 109 in delphi
I won't say anyone gave up on this too early. By level 40 (about 10-15 hrs play time) it gets grindy, by 60, it's nothing but grind (the quests get really slow, and you have to kill a lot more mobs). I've not gotten past there and can only imagine what it gets like once you get to 90 or 100. (Reminds me too much of the early days of EQ and 35 to 50.) I understand that the nation and guild dungeons are well worth the grind, but it's only PvE. It's not THAT exciting.
PvP, while interesting, had a really bad tendency to be completely unbalanced in favor of only one or two merc party builds. They'd change something, and it'd just switch to something else. I might consider coming back to the game again later if I can hear some positive reports about improving this.
From what I saw of the item store, everything you could buy was tradable in game, so if you didn't want to spend a lot of cash on items, you could always grind out gold and buy them off other su... err players.
I'm not sure that the item store is that overpriced, though. From the looks of it, you could easily get by with only spending $10-$15 US every month on the game (same price as a sub) and less or more as your desires. It is a lot better than some of these other games where you can easily spend $30-$40 a month or more. (I think of that article I read about Puzzle Pirates where Three Rings said that a few of their players spent a thousand or more a month... yeesh.) There are items that are immediately consumed, but they weren't absolutely necessary to buy when I was playing.
Crafting was quite interesting. Some of the crafting skills at the time I played were quite useless early on. I'm sure that if you went through the expense of grinding up the craft, you could probably make some good gold off the higher levels. Others, such as weapon and armor making, were almost absolutely necessary early on. Some items are only available through crafting. I mention gear specifically because you can enchant your items from drops, but they start out at 0. If you craft, you get a chance at a 'critical success' getting a +1, +2, or higher (I've crafted up to a +7). Given that it takes two identical items and a special stone to enchant, getting +3s and higher are, which can become fairly common, really start to save money on the crafting process for gear. To highlight this.... It takes two +0 items and an enchant stone to make a +1. To make a +2, it takes 2 +1s and 2 enchant stones to make. To make a +3, it takes 2 +2s and 3 enchant stones. In total, for that +3, you took 8 +0 items and 6 enchant stones. If you crafted it, it only took the materials for one. Now, it is chance based to get higher than +1, and I'm not sure on what the odds are. Even if it was only about 10% to get a +3 (which 'feels' about right... never really tracked it, but it seemed to be a bit higher), you'd come out about even (figuring in the cost of the enchant stones, too).
Overall I enjoyed the game, but because of the fact that you had to grind out levels for not only your character but also your mercenaries, I really get tired of it. The rewards from PvP helped (xp books your mercs can use), but you can only use so many rewards in an hour. The unbalanced PvP was quite the turn-off, too. If I had taken the time and worked in a guild or nation, I might have found something a little promising in it.
As another long time player, here's my comments. I began playing about 5 mins after the doors opened over a year ago on the first server. I have 2 characters on the Thebes server. A lvl 107 spearman and a lvl 50 Chainsaw. I was first hooked by this game due to its similarity in many ways to Ragnarok which I have been a freak over for about 8 years now. So here's my 2 cents.
Free?..well, not hardly, you can play without ever spending real money but you will never play without using item mall items (even if you buy them from the market for in-game gold. IF that is, you stick around for moroe than a month. I have spent my share, though only the basics. I have my teleport license every month (could not/would not play without it). I have admittedly also done the asthetics. I have a war griffon, armed raptor and my Mars Rider along with other lower mounts. I have the Wings of Light and my scarlet costume and horns set. So I am guilty of using the item mall.
As I saw a couple others say, the game really is dependant on YOU ignoring the underlying motives and WAY too obvious greed of the developers. Everything in the game is targeted in one way or another to make you very frustrated into using item mall items...whether you buy them, or buy them for in-game coin from someone who did...NDoors gets the money one way or another. Likwise to the the reviwwer, it is indeed the combat model that hooked me, and why I still play...likewise the "Stuff" i own. I would never leave Atlantica, I look too damn good to never be seen idle on my Mars Rider in Kuala Lampur (The town I chose for some reason to homestead in..lol) again. I do love the game, but as many players would agree, I despise the company behind it. The mobs are extremely overpowered at high levels, the bosses almost impossible to beat without massive upgrades and item mall super potions and scrolls. (None of which can be crafted). And the grind is enormous.
Those of us who are still around from the opening day, are "those" kind of players, who find something, fall in love, and then stick around even when feeling abused by the folks behind it. The reviewer was aslso right about something else...the FUN is there, but you just have to work hard, long and wait to find it. Attaining high crafting levels is an endeavor that takes months. Attaining a high levels character is rewarded with actual respect form players...because they know how hard it is...the community is a real plus in Atlantica. After lvl 50, you find yourself in a pretty interesting family like community, espcially within guilds and nations. Players show alot of respect for high level characters, they know how hard it was/is to achieve, and it's one of the few MMOS I've found, (Ragnarok is another) where the community shows respect for its elder players...a lvl 100+ character is actually appreciated, and you are given the reespect you deserve for all that hard work...this is a nice personal plus for many of us.
In conclusion, yes, the game is great, and if you try and work hard, you will and can have a great deal of fun in Atlantica...Despite the fact, that you will find after awhile that you LOVE the game and yet HATE NDOORS..a rather strange dicotomy.
Though accurate and fair, I find the review to be rather shallow.
Unlike most MMORPGs, Atlantica actually has the framework/potential to be a compelling game, or at least a game that can push or expand the genre further than the genre's currently somewhat narrow confines.
On the negative side, it is unfortunately currently damaged by sloppy updates, medicore developer/publisher communication/interaction with the user-base, lack of design focus after level 100, and not enough content (little dynamic content) after level 100 .
But it is at least a living MMORPG with new updates coming regularly enough. :] It's an MMORPG, that can be enjoyed.
Oh and btw, to all who believe the item mall IS necessary, the item mall is never necessary, unless you want to be at the extreme top at PvP and don't have superfluous amounts of time on your hand. Item mall use can make your life easier, but keep in mind (almost) everything is trade-able in game, and if you stay patient, you'll realize many items such as Warrior's Pack are hardly necessary.