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Battle of the Immortals: Closed Beta Preview
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy writes this quick look at the upcoming Perfect World Entertainment MMORPG, Battle of the Immortals that he garnered from a few hours of play in the game's closed beta.
I know that there's a certain level of hesitation from a lot of long-time MMO gamers when it comes to free-to-play titles. The common belief is that while the quality of the imported titles may be climbing, the amount of money needed to spend on each game to actually play it fully is not something many are willing to spend. Perfect World Entertainment's newest title Battle of the Immortals, at least in its early hours of play doesn't seem to share quite such a fate. Without delving too much into the value and necessity of its cash-shop items, I can attest that after a few hours of play BOI seems every bit as engaging as many of the industry's recently released F2P games. Similar in style to single-player offerings like Sacred in terms of gameplay, with a rich back story and dozens of unique and promising features present, Battle of the Immortals may be another in a growing list of F2P games in my regular rotation.
Read the Closed Beta Preview.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Where is it Jon?
Another F2P tossed onto the pile. I wish it the best, but it really amazes me how many F2P games get churned out every year, and how they all happen to look and feel so similar.
I don't know what disturbs me more, the fact that one user beat me to posting the article with a reply to this thread, or the fact that another one bashed the game before I had even posted the article...
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
What can I say, my rage for F2P games requires no reading. I faceroll and out comes a post about F2P games.
I really wanted to like this game.. but I have to totaly disagree with this preview. There is no place here for people who like action RPG's. Everyone may as well fire up sacred or diablo 2..hell, even diablo 1... because they are far superior games. This is a normal asian grindfest MMO with an action mask over its face.
It sound like to me you didnt even play this game...This game has both Character level and Skill level...You can level your character all u want..But it dont mean squat if you dont have the Skills to match it..It kind a put the pkers on edge..Sure you can be a lvl 50 character but it dont mean you can pawn a lvl 20 who has more power skills..The playing field is how you make it..Also it dont take long to team up with others to do bigger boss quests..Sure the game needs tweaking here and there..But this game is a lot better than most Free to play games...
Some people rob you at gun point..Others will rob you at "Ball Point Pen"
Messy, dull and generally schizophrenic game imo.
It's a miracle this guy even lasted 3 hours really
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
After messing with their goofed up installer and getting it to finally work I tried the game out. I uninstalled it pretty fast. PerfectWorld Entertainment keeps churning out terrible games. Another Asian MMO that really just doesn't do anything for me. I keep wanting to like their games they import over here from asia, but they are boring and not inventive at all. The only game PWE has left I remotely have hope for is Forsaken World and I know they will probably hose that game, too.
Well gee, sorry you did not like it, but I heartily disagree with you about their games, they are some of the better f2p games on the market. The big problem I have found with Perfect World games is that their item shops are too pricey. Have to wait and see if that continues with this game, but you can generally play their games without the item shop.
If you enjoy sub par games and grindfests then more power to you, sir. I prefer actual gameplay that is fun and doesn't make me rely on paying for items in a cash shop just to play at higher levels.
Glad to hear they don't restrict you with beta agreements and such.
I went to lvl 41 - I came out of it as a decent grinder. Lots of things you loot need explanation. You will quickly run out of storage capacity which I suspect is by design. (so you can buy more space).
Events are a loose term in this game. Means a multi arc mission instead of a scneario. Crafting is there but it is something that needs to be more clear in describing how to do it. Upgrading mounts/ gear seems easy enough. Upgrading pets is more vague. i ended up releasing pets when I wish I could have "converted /(crystalize?)" them into materials to upgrade pets i wanted to keep.
Guilds have little function as far as I can tell at this time.
Levelling is easy but you are limited in what powers you get, so reaching end level doesn't seem so urgent,
Coins is the limited resource as far as I can tell. you need coins to purchase skill/gear/pet upgrades.
Finally - Best site for Chuck Norris
http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com/
Alright, I'm going to give you guys a bit of in-depth, as someone who got a Heretic to level 55 in TWO DAYS:
1) No, it's not grindy - In fact, I wish it was harder to level, because I was in my 50s just from doing events with PUGs, and had quests from my early 20's I still hadn't gotten to. It was frustrating. Around 55 it became much less insane to level, but when you're given 300 minutes of free double exp a day and getting around 20k exp per mob in a dungeon, only need about 1.6mill to level, you can still manage several levels a day easily.
2) No, it's not that much like Diablo - I actually didn't care that much for D2 because of the skill system (I am looking forward to D3 though, but that's a whole other topic). As everyone kept comparing BoI to Diablo, I was going to pass, but I was bored. I expected VERY little of this game and actually ended up liking it quite a bit. I intend to play more once OB hits, and have stopped for now since everything will get wiped. Anyhoo, Diablo was more hack and slash; few things needed to be hit more than a couple of times to die, and there are AoE's to go around. There are AoE fests in the game, but every class only has a couple at most (Heretic only has one, I wouldn't get my second till level 70...mages don't get any at all till higher levels). So, monsters still die fast, but you'll mostly be picking them off one by one. Also, monsters in dungeons tend to take a LOT of damage before they go down, but they don't hit too hard so you can safely sit surrounded by things and just peck them away bit by bit.
3) Pet system is thuper! - Everything in the game can be a pet
Of course, this assumes you're patient enough to grind on things till a pet drops, and I think it's been confirmed that quest-summoned mobs don't drop as pets, but otherwise there are screenshots posted of even the really big bosses being pets. No one knows if that was just a GM thing though...can't say for sure. I do know for certain that normal mobs in and outside of dungeons are tamable.
4) It's fun, but has SERIOUS issues - Gold and Loot space. These problems are the only thing that could make me walk away from the game. I love the gameplay, so much to do, so much to complete, more events than you can fit in a day and still get your scenario quests in...but when you only have two rows (out of like, a dozen) in your bag open to collect all the loot that drops, you start to get pissy. Also, there's only 2 rows in your stash, as well. So, you have 4 rows total to start, 2 of which you need to be in a town to access, and lots of quest/gift/random loot. There is speculation in the forum that slots are supposed to open at level intervals (30,60,90) but it's not confirmed, AND it even looks like it might be necessary to spend 1500 or more ZEN (cash shop money) to open them. This is extremely greedy, as inventory manageability is pretty crucial to a game like this. You will find yourself throwing away important things, things that could be important, and things that you don't even understand the use for (items desperately need better descriptions) but that you got through a big event and thus are afraid to throw away. But, what choice to you have? VERY frustrating.
4b) As for Gold, there is so very, very little of it to be bad and it is so very, very important. It's not even a cash shop issue, because I don't see a way to get money from the cash shop unless you buy things then sell them, though most seem to be BoA. Mobs OCCASIONALLY (like, 1 out of 20) drop an item that can be sold for gold, but it is very little. The mobs my level were dropping things I could sell for about 68 gold, and certain mobs dropped a scroll that could transmute 10 of them into 1 larger item that sold for me. The problem is, leveling skills past 2 or 3, especilly my Heretic Buffs, was 12k+. This leaves me with a critical choice; level buffs for my team, level heals to keep myself and others alive, level attacks so I can actually play the damn game, or save the money for things I'll need like equipment, MP regen, etc. Money is frustratingly tight, and is an issue that needs major addressing. But then it's a CB, hopefully that will change.
Okay so, dassit. I enjoyed it, but it has issues. If they're addressed, I'd add this to the list of games I keep on my HD, even if I'm not actively playing.
"Forums aren't for intelligent discussion; they're for blow-hards with unwavering opinions."
Show me a RPG game where you dont grind in something? If you need money you grind..If you need better armour you grind..If you need items you grind...People just need to look at the item mall stuff to see if its enhanced the Character or not..Before you download and play..
Some people rob you at gun point..Others will rob you at "Ball Point Pen"
He just meant he prefers to play to pay rather than pay to play (the irony).
Anyone that says that this game is grindy has NO idea what they're talking about.
Battle of the Immortals is extremely easy to level in. I have not had to grind ONCE, and I have two characters that are level 60 currently.
My favorite thing about the game is that if you want to dungeon crawl with your friends, you can do that. If you want to play it like a traditional MMO and quest, then there's that for you as well.
Those of you who are knocking the game before you even try it. You're really missing out.
I'm tired of all of these ignorant gamers that as soon as they say "Free to Play" they scream HATED IT.
Props to the author of this article.
The opening reference to a ...
made me lol, I have to admit. Understatement much? :-)
I can't say I'm interested in this game, as it sounds ... unappealing ... to me, but I do think that the "hesitation" you refer to is more than justified.
I have to agree - Asian MMO's all basically play alike and they churn them out like they are on a conveyor belt. In fact I think there must be some simple game engine they all use to trun out these games as we get so many new ones every year. Most are utter garbage and geared for the Asian gamer who likes the kind of game play these games offer. Let them knock themselves out playing them.
Thanks gaean for this nice review. I downloaded and played about 3 hours like the OP - didn't hated it but didn't loved it either, but maybe i 'll give it another try after reading your review.
"Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars combat, exploration and character progression. In Alganon, in addition to these we've added the fourth pillar to the equation: Copy & Paste."
I dont trust anything Perfect World makes anymore. After Jade Dynasty being such a horrible game, and the item mall shop dependency to boot, I'm going to have to pass on this particular title. Its a shame, too. Perfect World International was such a nice game. Then this group went all Giant Interactive on the public and started publishing games with greed to rival ZT Online.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Laudanum - Romance. Revenge. Revolution.
Crappy, petty people breed and raise crappy, petty kids.
Well at First i was excited about this game it was pretty neat. then after about 1 week it started getting seriously boring. you have the same player base as wow or something, i was in an event as a high lvl champion lvl 60+ and i had used all my mana food thinking the event was gonna be shorter than it was. so i asked for more food from my fellow players. HELL NO.
sharing mana food for the common good of the grp. so i couldnt aoe taunt and we lost.
Then you start to realize its , Event grind , event grind , event grind.
This game might be ok for those people out there who strive to be the best of a game and have people stop and Gawk in awe at there superior nerd. but me personally i have to use my brain. This is a game for some but not me.
Plus dont pick a champion as your main chracter, Serious repair bills then food costs will kill the experiance for you.
That coming from a player with currently 919 hours played of WoW on his X-Fire? [...]
What was fun in WoW: vanilla world pvp; gates of ahn'qiraj; wiping non-stop @ C'tun and Naxx; blood corruption plague.
What is grind today in WoW: everything.
What is fun today in WoW: moon guard goldshire and some achievs.
The first run to 80 can be fun, but even that, reading all quests and taking ur time, doesn't take more than 50 hours. And i know about that because i've always played WoW, my account is credited right now, but u can't say shit about grind if ur a wow player. Cmon... if it was UO in ur X-Fire, then OK. I played UO for more time than WoW and that game never felt like a grind. Now for my little review of BoI.
==============================================================
First of all, it's a F2P game. And for nowadays standards, its really great. I leveled one toon to 30+ and i'll look forward to play this game seriously.
PROS:
- Fast-paced action from level 1. The rythm gets more intense in higher levels, because u have more skills to manage.
- Good skill system, it has complexity (each skill has a different goal) and variety (u can choose which skill to level up). Combined to the stat system it adds some good depth to character tecnical customization.
- Isotropic view is so rare nowadays. It helps a lot the fast-paced action feeling and it's unique. Some players have complained about it but i dont see any problem.
- Every monster in the game can be your pet, thats awesome. I have a spartan warrior. Mounts already on level 25, very good.
- The questing system can prove itself very useful if ur tired of reading and all, but that's a negative point too, more further.
CONS:
- Messy and ugly UI. It really needs some upgrade, there are things scattered through the entire screen and it looks old, like 6 years old.
- The graphics in the trailers were looking AWESOME. When the camera is zoomed in, it really does indeed. But when the camera is zoomed out, they are not as good as i thought it would be.
- This game really need a button to target and attack the nearest monster. When u go into some dungeon with your group, there's like 5 players and 5 pets in the screen at the same time, u can barely see anything! Just keep clicking until u ocasionaly target a mob. It's hella fun though haha.
- The questing system works like this: u get ur quests, the objective appears in your screen, u click the objective, your toon walks for himself to the objective spot, u do whatever u need to do, u click the NPC name in your screen, your toon walks for himself to the NPC, end. This is really good when u are lazy/tired and are trying just to have fun, but it sure does kill the quests. I didn't read a single quest to level 30. Some players complained about mobs being too weird (there are spartan warriors in the freaking atlantis sea WTF), but I can't say anything about this, because i don't what the quests said.
- The game is too complex to me. This game for me would be perfect if they fixed the problems stated above + making it less complex. I just want some casual fun, action awesomeness. There are a TON of things to do in-game: economy, crafting, gearing up, improving ur gear, getting pets and mounts, improving them, leveling, quests, a lot of events, dungeons... i just want some hack 'n slash =[
Playing: Starcraft II.
Played: Tibia, Ragnarok Online, Ultima Online, Guild Wars, World of Warcraft.
Wanna play: Guild Wars 2, SW:TOR, Final Fantasy XIV, Diablo III.
Since everyone is doing a review and im currently unable to play atm ill share a bit of my experiences.
Yeah ive played most of pwe's games. PWI, Jade Dynasty, Ether Saga (hated it) and did CB for Kung Foo (hated it). Battle of immortals is by far more addictive then any of the others, but for how long.
One thing I have to mention is the helpful Growth Aid. This is a menu which is accessed by an icon by the mini map. It gets updated as you level with relevant information that pertains to your level range. Topics that it covers are: How to level, How to earn money in game, social relations like master/disciple, recommended instances, recommended eq, recommended pets, how to gain pets, how to gain power for rankings and how to find relics (special in game items that upon completion of a quest you receive. one early relic grants more xp) This is extremely helpful on those off the top of your head questions and can shed some light on new features. The gear part was a big help for me and detailed what to get when and what pieces give.
UI- I have to say its the norm you would see in most of their free to plays, but even though its in closed beta this one i find a bit messy. The chat window is kind of stacked on the left on top of the hot bar containing keys 1-0 on the left and the standard party, friends, trade, craft etc., buttons on the right. The quest tracker is no better being as it is stationed on the right side of the screen over top of your hot key bar containing keys f1-f8? (f8 is there but isnt labeled atm...cb after all). So yeah its a bit messy to me right now and needs some work. chat interface is okay and easy to use, but a bit in your face and as i said stacked ontop of the hot bar on the bottom.
Graphics- Now this isnt the type of game i would enjoy for its "2.5" D view but i have to say it was refreshing from the 3D titles ive played. ITs colorful and engaging, and pretty detailed. Yeah if you zoom right in the quality seems a bit less but its still top notch. Character faces are mannequins with not even a blink but have some details. Hair looks atrocious like in many games ive played lol but thats trivial. Mobs are reminiscent of movies ive seen (mummy series anyone?) and based in a myriad of cultures...egyptian, chinese, atlantean? yeah a bit made up but they made some mythology there, and ive yet to get further into it from there, which ill get into more.
Sound/Music- Admittedly i was not expecting much here and i only had a bit of a positive on the music. Even though a tad bit repetitive in its neverending loop, it had some nice music in the back ground. Atlantean music was one of my favorites. Each area had a its unique soundtrack but carried all the tired old combat sounds and mob vocals. From bad sounding high pitched "agggh" from the Nagas or the Metal on metal sound of swords on a mobs hard hide? The skill sounds were okay, but were over shadowed by the bad mob sounds and some of the action sounds.
PvE/Questing- Well questing was nice and easy to get into at first, i had a main story line to follow which was somewhat engaging to read and progressed me through a couple lands quickly...which i did revisit along the chain. The main scenario quests are often started off with a quick fade in of the title of the chapter on your screen for "effect" that its a story and you continue along until you finish a chapter. This gives you a chance to read the chapter in a "book" menu. Its a small read with an illustrated page and will be awarded points along the way. These Scenario points are then traded in to a special npc who has various goods like potions for trade. I got myself a nice mana battery there with those points and trust me mana is good in this game for healers. All the quests are mine these things, kill x number of Y mobs and kill X ,Collect Y from them, quests. This did not surprise me in a pwe game whatsoever and im quite used to it by now. However with the speed at which we are leveling at the moment this easy flowing quest chain gets swamped fast. Quests back log from the 20's and you are getting rounds of 30's and 40's quests on top of them. It is indeed overwhelming at first and can get a bit frustrating when you know you need these quests for xp but dont want to do 30 quests that are 20 levels below you. Part of this reason was because of the dungeons given to you from 20 and on wards. Which brings me to:
Dungeons- Very happy to see this in a pwe game again, made in a more DDO style and are mainly referred to as events you can run different types of dungeons certain amounts a day in different settings. The first dungeon is more of a small arena and when i mean DDO style i refer to its 'choose a difficulty' and forced group modes offered on some dungeons. The most basic dungeon starts when you need a mount and they give you a free way to do it. The dungeon is a Jail where you calm the rioters (x60) and some bigger bosses with a final boss at the end. Its an organised affair where you will need to kill certain amount of mobs, kill a few bosses and some with a time limit. The very first dungeon run you ever do can be run solo as long as you are a party leader (which you can do without members) and its aimed towards that since they are scaled with party leaders level. The rest (5 per day total) need to be run with at least 2 other members. A handy event tracker will keep track of how many runs you have done for that day.
Dungeons are also the main method for getting nice gear. Running the lower dungeon i described earlier is the way we all get our starter 30 Green set, which brings me into:
Gear- Gear was hyped big for this game. Well you wont see alot of it all at once any time soon. The main gear we have easy access too which offers really good bonuses is the Green sets. These are 8 Piece affairs that with every 2 Pieces a new stat is added, and you can get the accessories set (2 rings, a necklace and an amulet) with its own attributes along with it. And a nice part was the ease in which to get these well endowed sets, in only 10 dungeons you can have your 30-45 gear and so forth every 15 lvls. The mighty soul gear which was mainly advertised is the moving intricate 'blue' gear. You get a taste of this gear early on at lvl 15 with a moving weapon. I as a heretic got a staff which at the end had an eagles claw, and the claw would grasp and open as if it was alive. Thats the beauty of this armor...it has a visual life of its own, and every piece of it can move. And yes there are bonus adds on each piece as well just like the green sets, with every two pieces, and they also have higher stats. These are more difficult to acquire however. The method is of course a dungeon and there seems to be no roll when it comes to hand outs....you get what you get. Which is unfortunate since (we hope this is a bug) if your a champion with heretic gear you cant trade...its yours....joy. But hoping thats a bug, we can also hope this will continue the encourage grouping, to help players get gear.
Skills- These are being debated right now among players. Some hate the system some love it. I am one who finds it...again refreshing. Unlike many f2p where skills are in bucket fulls and you have to pick and choose the useful from the waste, BoI gives you the skills every 15 lvls (1, 10, 25, 40, 55, 70, 85) until you have 20 skills which can go to lvl 10 in rank. These cost money and xp so spend wisely is the key here and get what you find more useful early on and max out the rest in priority to you. All classes get a special "xp" skill, which is a special bar that fills up over time and when maxed at 1000 xp you can unleash a devestating aoe attack. It normally one shots the monsters my level and is good for a sticky situation or for a quick pick me up to a "kill X amount of Y mob" quest. Its nice just to worry about how high i want the skill and when versus what skills to get and how high to get them. Its up to you to decide how strong and at what pace it is you want to be. Its a love it and hate it situation and i think its a type of thing many will have to adapt to but should be able to appreciate.
PvP- Honestly its early but i have no idea about what pvp is going to be like in this game. Its not pointed out very clearly how to pvp or where its applicable for a new player. For a game that says its pvp oriented it definately feels as the other games they have made where as in there will be optional pk servers and for now on this server its pk optional and very few have chosen the option. Battlegrounds are of course forced but being closed beta, imbalanced with levels and gear sets. The taste i did have of the pvp was a duel i had with a class with whom the games says is naturally weak against my class. Now playing pwe games and being involved in two of their games pvp i can say im used to fast duels, either side getting at most 3-4 hits and then over. Well here i enjoyed it immensely. Being same level and similarily geared we had an extended fight. I didnt heal even though its a class skill and the fight lasted a long while. Being able to run and still fire off normal hits is great for ranged mage classes and heretics, allows me to do dmg so i can get distance and fire off a good skill. Time well spent and i would greatly enjoy a large scale battle in this game, seeing how the terrain affects your skills (it does if a target is blocked by a tree or large rock, heals as well are affected by this) watching all the ranged running around for survival firing off bolts or whatever it is they fire lol. It will matter of course on gear, but also on whos skills are what level. Which also shows that time is power with this game. Gear needs two days time and your set to hunt even better free gear. More xp you have the more skills you can get, as well as higher level the more access of skills and higher character power you get. It will be an interesting balance for all of us. From what ive seen there isnt a whole lot that is going to show the cash shop as being the way to become powered in this game. I saw many advance potions which speed up tech craft research times and such and the normal batteries, but nothing that would offer an overpowered advantage. New things pop up in cash shops all the time and can piss alot of people off. Ill still be watching the cash shop closely.....
Yes a wall of text, im not used to doing it but i thought this game was different enough for me to write about. Yes i see things that are reused, but they took alot of good things from other games and did a well enough job of putting it in one package. Any review you read about this for now is half assed and cant be taked as a full take ont he game. Its been in closed beta for less then a week and has so much to learn in it that no one can be accurate enough to be fully geniuine in their review. My personal predictions on this is positively high. The game is....is......engaging. I dont know how to put it. I cant say its the most action packed, thrilling adventure fest of the century, but i cant say also that i bore from just logging in and standing in game for 5 minutes. You just log in and have a need to do something, and sometimes the list is so full it gets overwhelming on what to do first or what to engage the majority of your time in. Crafting will be this way for me for a long time in this game, many options to enhance and trades to specialize in.
If my first impressions of the duel i had are correct, pvp should be fun. More action oriented but that mostly relies on the player and how they use the skills given and how much they have invested into them. Like i said before terrain can affect you so positioning comes into play, mostly so on a larger scale battle....which i have yet to see and would love to be part of if possible. I thiink that could be a highlight of this game.
If there are beta keys left, which im unsure of since they had to open a second server to handle the surge of players, get one and try it. Closed beta is slated to end april 30th but things may change at their notice, however it all looks like the 30th for now. More reviews can be done on the cash shop this week sometime as they will be giveing free zen to try out their cash shop, something that pwe does for all their games and is a nice way to gauge how overpowered one can become using cash shop goods. Definitely a time to try it out, and see if it fills a void or two in your mmo heart
EDIT: some edits on the gear section on blue soul gear sets and green sets and a quick reference to the helpful growth guide.
Hold up, WHAT.
What game is that in your sig?
Only on MMORPG.com folks.
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"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
Good F2P titles are casual fun, on my HD are D&D and Atlantica Online, both good casual fun games to dip in and out of when I need a break from my main subscription game, I spend VERY little on either, hell I'll even dip in to and enjoy Free Realms every now and then. It's pointless being a snob about F2P titles when you are denying yourself some good honest FUN. That's something us 'serious gamers' sometimes seem to forget about. Most P2P titles can end up feeling like work when you get stuck on the raiding or PvP treadmill, games like these offer a nice FREE alternative to get you out of that rut. That's the way I look at it anyway
I've been having a blast in this game, agreed there are flaws but if you look at the official forum and the most recent GM posts those flaws are being addressed, as long as the cash shop isn't over priced this one will stay on my HD too. It could be another game for me to dip in and out of when I need a break from the more 'serious' immersive games I love.
Edit: cjy420 you must have been typing that when i posted, great review
Sounds like another cookie cutter themepark MMOG with a cash-shop tacked on it. Next!
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