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Open Beta review - long and longer
acolorado
Member Posts: 22
To begin I offer my qualifications - 4 years in EVE, 2 in WoW, 1 in EQ2, and have tried WAR, AOC, Lotro, Ryzom, SWG, COH/COV, BG:E, and a few others not worth mentioning. This is my first review though so please forgive me if I leave anything out. I will try to address concerns I've read in other reviews.
First the graphics - WHOA! These are in my opinion some of the best graphics I've ever seen in an MMO, almost up to par with AOC. I don't find it very comic-like as some say - but it is very detailed and really works. The animations are excellent and look very natural (as opposed to say WAR). The immersion factor in this game is amazing and I credit the graphics to a large extent. The enviornments are very well done and the maps are pretty darn big. Parts of the game are instanced - I would say about as much as WAR is. The way the instancing is done though is tied into the flow of the game so it's not terribly noticeable with a few exceptions (my pet peeve is that when you go to train skills it's done in a very cool facility which is instanced - and you have to pick the shard to go to which breaks the immersion). On lag - I've played over 20 hours so far and have had literally less than 10 seconds of lag. It surprised me when it happened because the game had run perfectly up until then! Then it went away and no problems since.
Sound and music - I differ here with some other reviews I've read. I love the music! It's very dramatic and always fits in perfectly with the world - so it just kind of blends into the background and becomes part of the immersion. The sounds are very well done and also really fit in with the universe. The only downside i've found is that right now most of the early skill noises sound very similar, but the devs have promised that a system to edit your combat skill effects will be out at lauch which should fix that so far as I understand it.
Customization - this is just amazing. The options to build your character really do seem to allow you to do nearly anything you want. At first I had a tough time doing this until I realized I had missed several drop down menu's and was only using about 10% of the available skins. Now I've been able to make several characters which look just as I wanted them to going in. With the option to edit your combat effects added, this will be even better.
As for skills - as you progress you can choose any skill from any of the many "frameworks". To offer a WoW comparison imagine being able to choose any skill from any class and mix and match! They aren't just cookie cutter replicas either as some have claimed - they all have distinct flavors and advantages with tons of variety. I love this.
General gameplay - For the first 5 levels you run a very well made tutorial. To make another Wow comparison think starting zone - everyone has their most basic skills and all the quests revolve around game mechanics. This part can get pretty repetitive but no more than starting a character in any other mmo. The only downside I find is there is only one starting zone - I wish you had a few more options but perhaps that will be added down the line. After this you have your choice of 2 extended tutorial areas that take you to about lvl 10. Both are very cool and get you introduced to crafting, travel skills, training up, and ways to recustomize your character, as well as offering some pretty entertaining quest lines. After this you get into the real open game areas.
Some little stuff - travel skills are very cool but a few seem overpowered - the same goes for some of the skills. Balancing will ensue. Crafting is very simple - no EVE depth here, more like WoW, which is a bit disappointing but many have said so. Hopefully this will get some love down the line. On the plus side the crafting does actually help your character, as opposed to say AOC. PvP is fun, but very simple. It reminds me of BG's when I first started WoW - pretty simple stuff. I always think though if you really want hardcore pvp play EVE - nothing else will compare after that.
Some have complained that the only thing you need in this game is dps. That's true in any MMO - I wonder if these folks have 8 Rogue alts in WoW and wonder why they hate it! All the mechanics you could want are here - healing, CC, pets, stealth, buffs and debuffs - all in several flavors and all working quite well so far as I've tried. The most fun I've had so far is making a Healer/CC/AOE/Summoner (seriously !!). Most of the other people I've seen are using a very simple and straight-forward single target dps model, and stop to watch as I pull in a ton of mobs and blast them all at once while healing myself and looking cool as I do it! I almost feel bad doing such cool things they obviously haven't tried out yet, but it's a blast. This game really does give you tons of options.
Concerns of mine and others - first, the content. There's actually a fair bit of content here, especially with the citizen missions and nemesis system which kick in as you progress. It doesn't have the huge massive world WoW has today, but then again WoW has had years to build that. I expect this will grow, my only concern is how quickly. This is one of the things you will only find out over time. Next the cash shop - right now it works like EQ2 - only fluff is offered such as costumes. Some worry this will expand and take over the game but realistically with a monthly sub crowd this won't likely happen. Very few would keep playing if they had to use it to compete, and the devs seem well aware of that. System specs - my system is a few years old and struggled with AoC on moderate settings, but I'm playing this fine on higher settings that I usually play other games - it seems very well optimized and in fact runs better than WoW for me at the moment. Finally, bugs - I've been amazed in this department. It's still pre-release and this game is more polished than most other games I've tried were 6 months after release! The devs seem to be quashing those that do remain with a vengeance. I feel like I'm playing a game that's already been through the bug quashing phase which is wonderful. Finally - a few have complained that there is alot of pop culture content - otherwise known as fun factor. Yep this game has it - lots of funny easter eggs - characters similar to those in popular TV shows and movies - quirky quests that make you chuckle. This is what makes WoW great, and this is what makes CO great as well - you have fun playing it!
To sum up - I've already bought my copy. I haven't had this much fun in a game since my introduction to MMO's. I absolutely love it! I can easily see how someone who is looking for awesome pvp would be disappointed. I can also see how someone who loves crafting would be let down too. For both of these I suggest EVE - but for anyone looking for a just plain fun experience I would say this is definitely worth a try, if not an absolute must play. I've been a fanboi of EVE online, EQ2, and yes WoW and Lotro also (they are very well done), and knocked WAR and AOC mercilessly - because they deserved it - but this is my new baby and I hope everyone has a chance to enjoy the fun I've been having here.
Also please feel free to flame and call me a fanboi or dev or so forth - I've been to Jita local, barrens chat, WoW trade, and the Darkfall forums - I can take anything.
Comments
Well we all know some people can't respond politely in any forum so no doubt you will be flamed about your post.
I'm not going to buy this game, yet , but will wait to see how it improves/changes with all the balancing you are quite rightly predicting. It nice to see why someone likes it and explain what they like about it.
I'll be back in about 6 months time to see the changes. In the meantime enjoy, it's a game and these things are totally subjective a point many people seem to miss.
I like your review. It is pretty upfront and with your experience I wouldn't say it is biased either.
I did find it funny that I found a quest mob named Furley and he looked like Hurley from LOST. And the quest regarded Flight Oceanica ### (forgot the numbers).
Anyway, the only thing I would add on is that the game doesn't seem to intrigue me in the long term. I don't see how end game content being there....raids? Farming? What will keep me playing this game longer than a month or two?
What a poor review. Why didn't you start of by saying that you are a fanboi, instead of ending with it. That way I would have skipped the review entirely.
My gaming blog
That's a good question Shadout. I think that's one of the big problems MMO's are facing right now. No one can keep content coming as fast as people will burn through it - and grinding is not much of an end game. Just look at Lotro - awesome until Moria when the devs turned to the daily quest model. But then again how can they afford (or even find the time) to make all the content we hope for!
Personally I feel that there's real potential in a system like the citizen quests - but they would need to be randomly generated or such with a ton of variety - not seeing that happening in any game right now. The COX player-made content system is an awesome idea that is failing totally I think because people can use it to game the mechanics for rewards and xp. That would be a great deal if some limits were set and would solve the end game problem in a big way. Why wait for the devs to make the next Naxx when you could find one made by another player? It couldn't be that hard to put reward limits by level or such in place for that kind of builder.
I'll need to see the endgame content here to judge but yeah - not many games out there with good end-game right now and if CO has followed the template then that could be a big bummer.
Hmm, and now to play devil's advocate to my own worries! I've gotten to a high enough level that I can try out quite a few of the skills - and I have definitely made some very different builds which play quite distinctly. With the huge customization available I think there's some great replay value here, but it will be up to the player to enjoy it as in any MMO. I could see myself doing that - I'm old enough to recall when a game like this was only in my imagination - so I could dust off the old grey cells and play with my tailor made character in a way that would be more difficult in Wow or Lotro where the character is basically made for me as I progress. Every Hero becomes a very unique one if you put some thought and creativity into it, and I could definitely play several.
And thank you Yamota for reminding me why my stay in Beyond Protocol lasted less than a week
Probably cause the game was way too complex for you.
My gaming blog
What a poor post. Why didn't you start of by saying your a hater. That way I could put you on the ignore list.
Im in the beta too and has been for about a week.
What OP failed to mention is the unique combat implaced, mobs doesnt just have 1 attack, most of them have several, bosses often uses hold,charged up and aoe powers. This might not seem very special but keep in mind you need to counter all of these powers and you cant simply buttom mash through it, for chargs up you need to block and hold ye need to spam the use key to get loose and aoe... well keep yer distance.
This is something huge, combat no longer revolves solely on getting aggro and keeping it to win (party/tank).
Now for the lesser good part, the character buildup and abilities. At lvl 20 you can have the best skill of one powerset (there are 2 in every set) which is kinda boring since well it may be good but.. its not awsome in a bottle if you get what Im aiming at.. a bit mediocre to say the least.
Anyway after lvl 20 or so youl need to start another power set to build up as there are no more abilities left in the one you started out with. Basicly youl have a lot of different abilities with only 2 or 3 you use... not very good.
And then theres the fact the game is more like Guild Wars then say Warhammer or WoW etc. Its not exactly instanced as in say AoC but it uses some kind of shard system, ala one big server but when you go to a zone you get to pick a shard to join. Its not something I wish to dwell so Il provide a link on it at the bottom of post.
To add the game has no pvp apart from tiny bg instances (no other mmo has so small bgs) and basicly those are just zerg, everyone for themselves. So this is a pure PvE game.
This is clearly a CoX 2, no a CoH2 and you can expect to have the same development as before, but theres something majorly different about this game compared to CoX, its so much less repetative, missions isnt all about go here, kill everyone, there are PQs and world events.
As a fan of CoX Im unsure as of yet to give it a final aprove stamp but what I can say its pretty dam descent and one of the best MMOs Ive played in a really long time. Its new and different, sure I may not like everything bout this game but in a whole its good enough for a buy.
http://pc.ign.com/articles/979/979834p2.html
(that is if game isnt behaving like beta, hopefully it wont... among the worst experiences Ive had, constant server kicking one out, today the chat system shut down for 2 hours, insane lag spikes at times and so on... most likely this is just them testing out the system... or so one can hope)
@ Yamota
You my friend are an idiot. but there is always somebody like you spamming their love/hate crap...
im not a fanboi, and ill sign this review. its straightforward from casual gamer, not some pro-writer. game is worth checking. its good that i got 2 weeks of holiday next month. ill have time to think if im gonna buy CO or not. we will see what ppl will write about this game after 14 days.