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Craft of Gods: First Impressions
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy gives us his first impressions of the upcoming MMORPG, Craft of Gods.
Craft of Gods, developed by the independent studio Cyberdemons and published by the Italian company Kalicanthus Entertainment, has the distinction of being the world’s first Slavic mythology-themed MMORPG. Now, that right there can probably set the tone for the rest of the article. CoG is not a game looking to burn down the successful juggernauts already commanding the market, but instead it is a game that hopes to provide a unique take on some of the genre’s standards and provide an engrossing PvE and PvP experience on a smaller budget than that of the industry’s larger titans. And while there are certainly some kinks that need to be worked out, and some archaic systems that could use updating, Craft of Gods seems to be offering quite a few things that today’s players are asking for. The problem is that Craft of Gods may have trouble convincing many of today’s players to fork over their cash unless a healthy dose of polish is added in the coming weeks.
Let’s get the least important factor out of the way first. Craft of Gods suffers from some seriously dated-looking visuals. The animations on characters seem to be well done enough, but the models and textures themselves are little more than a tribute or representation of a slightly more advanced Asheron’s Call. I know it’s a small quibble compared to the gameplay for many folks, but as a matter of taste I prefer that my 2010 games look like 2010 games. This was the first hurdle I had to get over during my initial play-through of the game’s beginning stages. But it wouldn’t be the last.
Read First Impressions.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
Exactly how I felt in so many areas, theres no way I could bring myself to play past level 4 because I never felt there was purpose, nothing drove me to want to keep playing.
Also the graphics and the somewhat boring combat was another reason I just couldnt bring myself to play this game.
As far as the few quests in the game, I did enjoy having do figure things out on my own, but I am doing a level 3 quest that rewards me with something I cant use till level 17, couldnt quite figure out their reasoning for this.
Was hoping this would be a game that could fill my time till something like Guild Wars 2 came out , but theres no way I am giving these guys my money.
Honestly, I don't like the game overly much, but I didn't think the graphics were all that bad. I was actually impressed with some of it.
It's mainly the gameplay (which isn't TOO bad, but still...), and the lack of players keeping me from playing it. Also their trial server is dead, so not sure if the damn game is even much more populated or not on main server. It doesn't help that with the few people on the trial server, the global chat is unavailable, so you can't even talk to them, bounce questions off each other, etc., to try and figure things out.
This seems like a game that has a major need for a tight community, and right now, it doesn't seem to have much of one in my eyes.
CoG seems, from my few hours spent playing so far, a very old school affair.
Oh; Please don’t pin this as “old-school” appeal, because it isn’t. Its not an “old-school” affair; appeal, or anything of the like. Just because it’s a skill-based game, doesn’t make it an appeal to “old-schoolers”, like UO folks.
CoG is not a game looking to burn down the successful juggernauts already commanding the market.
It seems that that right there is an observation on how mediocre this game is, and/or CoG self-proclaimed statement that emphasizes how shallow the content, direction or game-play mechanics are.
The problem is that Craft of Gods may have trouble convincing many of today’s players to fork over their cash.
Rather no, not “may”, so lets not sugar-coat it, but “is”. The game lacks any game-play direction, substance, motivation or content that would be considered anything remotely akin to even sandboxy “polish”. Your first several hours are spent as a toon running around aimlessly killing 5 wolves, then rabbits, then foxes, then (insert mob here), rinse repeat.
This game with its lack of player-base, not only doesn’t have the population to make one server seem as though its alive, due to lack of players, it splits the trial accounts and paid accounts into 2 servers; a huge mistake since it just compounds the empty feeling.
Quests give vague hints on where and what to look for…
The vast majority of quests, out of the gate, are “kill 10 rats” quests. And this games quest log enables you to click a button that opens the main map to highlight exactly where to kill the quest targets. Hardly a throw-back to an earlier era.
Let’s get the least important factor out of the way first. Craft of Gods suffers from some seriously dated-looking visuals.. . .but as a matter of taste I prefer that my 2010 games look like 2010 games.
I believe that an Indie mmorpg enthusiast would have commented on the visuals, but wouldn’t consider it a game-play “hurdle”.
. . .for the life of me I can’t understand why there is not more explanation present when creating one’s character.
Yes. And this is actually a perfect set-up for the review; complete lack of game-play elements explanation and mechanics detail that directs a player or hints at what the game-play has to offer, aside from skill-sets. And after a couple hours of play with the Psi-set, the only thing to rise skill-wise was my “close combat” skill. Again, confusing the player into wondering where to look (because it doesn’t exist) to see how my magic-based skill is progressing.
And absolutely no direction on the characters “professions” or how to utilize them. Again, just complete lack of informative and directional content that should have been ironed out in beta.
This game really isnt refreshing, but a huge 1/4-baked disappointment; an empty world of content, game-play direction, avatar motivation, achievement and no players, from what I experienced.
Things like graphics and no explanations/manual can be fixed, and few players is hardly their fault. What I'm curious about is that as it isn't based on Western European or Oriental worlds like all the other MMOs-how different is it? Sounds like a very intiging premiss.
Yeah, not a review. It's a first impressions preview. Not to nitpick, but it does help to actually understand what you're criticizing before starting a long rant criticizing it.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
honestly the graphics are not that bad but the game play meh
People just need to start populating Dark Age of Camelot and i wish Mythic would do more to that end
Excellent first impression. I too had the same experience and will not be supporting this one. What I find comical about this whole thing, is that FTP games usually offer the exact same gameplay, they give you no driving force and just throw you into a world and have you go kill creatures over and over. Yet, at least those don't charge you for it.
I just have to wonder, why make games at all if they have no "driving" force or story to pull you in? All that wasted development time and money. I just don't understand it. And yet, "they" keep churning these poor excuse for games out left and right and are now being so bold as to start charging for them i.e. Mortal Online, Star Trek Online, Craft of Gods.
I really hope these other indy games coming up in the next 2 years don't follow this trend. Guess we'll find out.
So is this playable now?
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
nevermind, I suppose it is for 10 days
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I've actually been enjoying the game. I've consciously tried to put myself back in the late 90's early 2000's mindset of gaming, and due to that I don't find the game all that disappointing. I get a strong sense of nostaligia from playing and it's been a pretty joyful experience thus far. I really get a UO-EQ hybrid feel to it.
I admit, there are definitely some buggy issues and lack of direction, but there was for UO as well. If you take the time to explore, do your quests and get out of the WoW-theme park mindset, then this game is very enjoyable. I'm actually enjoying the sense that I don't feel like I need to rush to max level.
Also, the community in this game is fantastic -- albeit super small.
This game is currently in the "paying for beta" stage, but if you check them out online, you'll see that they've been very responsive to the community (which does seriously rock, btw, maybe *because* it's so small atm).
Yes, the graphics are an odd mix of old-school and recent graphics (advanced shaders are used, wind-in-grass, but then all shadows are stencils, models/meshes are a bit shy of detail, mob/character animations are laggy/jerky). There seems to be an unusual mix of client side and server side asset and action management going on, which puzzles the heck out of me -- there are a lot of glitches that can be solved by going to the system menu and reconnecting, which seems to synchronize the client and server databases and straighten you out. I am not a game engine internals person -- I know just enough to be a danger to myself and others -- but this speaks of something truly unusual in their architecture.
One of their major issues is that they are trying to (presumably) stave off goldfarmers and such by creating a test server, and without significant player guides, the community /global *is* their player guide, so the trial server sucks.
That said, if you want story -- go read the lore on the game site. Everything that you are doing as a low level character is building up to a demigod-level conflict in the world, but unlike seriously story-driven games like LOTRO, you are not likely to be familiar with proto-slavic mythology to pick up cues. The cues are there in the lore, and they don't go beyond stating your destiny as a hero to get you involved in the melodrama before you have proved yourself, explored, integrated in the community, and established your character. And that's a plus in my book.
The game is not terribly grindy if you do the quests, explore just a bit (gather crafting resources, say!), and then at around level 7 or so, go from one starter area to the next (running a small gauntlet of red mobs, unless you are human, on the bright side. If you are human, good luck!). It doesn't hold a candle for grind for most PVP games I've seen come out lately.
The game will include player housing and player election villages (this is to say, not dictated by guild affiliation) which sounds to me like SWG housing. The skill system is far more level dependent than SWGs (*sigh*). The factional warfare is two player factions and a neutral faction coming soon (which, I'm not clear if Atlantis faction is going to include players or not).
I love the mount system. So far, I've had a brown horse, a red and black giant tarantula (my favorite for awesome looking ride), a snow leopard (my favorite for performance), and a red fox. In less than 4 days of play. To get a mount, you walk up to it and charm it. If it is tameable (not every critter is -- this might change more as they get more models in game as the riding models are waaay different from the mob models), you get some number of seconds that it gets to attack you before it is tamed into a mount. My experience is that I can charm a mount about twice my level without dying before I get it.
There is no "bank" system, but each village has a chest for *local* storage. Although this is also a bit buggy (they lost my entire inventory my second day, in one chest), the GMs are very responsive, and can get your inventory back for you in a couple hours. Did I mention that "playing for beta" thing?
It's a wonderful game so far for those of us who rate high on explorer and socializer on the Bartle tests. Lots of stuff to kill. Achievers might want to wait a while, since the game's sandboxy, undocumented bits don't lend well.
This game seriously needs more wiki-like resources, but the server just opened, and most of us are still under lvl 10. We'll probably do more metagame when we stop rushing to 20, to get the first dungeon runs together. Then, the metagame will likely start expanding, as it does in games with strong internal communities.
Shava
I my self is somewhat enjoying this game. I like the freedom in the skill system and the stats, also the idea image of becoming a Demigod my self. Yes the graphics is not that great but also not that bad, the combat animation has upgraded from beta but need to be UP more and the spells and spell casting both needs new spell animation and casting animation.
This game will be upgraded and I am going to support it, when that day come... this MMO will be HUGE! I cannot just turn my back on something that was our wish to have just because of the graphics and combat animation, no, no.
This game company has a master piece in there hands and need to UP GRADE IT NOW. The huge part of it is done! now they just have to "Enhance" it
"The tried and true quest system that’s been kicking around may just be disguised grinding, but the sense of purpose it provides is well warranted and I’ll be a little disappointed if I should have to resort to slaying countless leopards to advance my character. As always, your mileage may vary."
I think that the current quest grinding is no different than mob grinding of the past. Instead of fighting mobs randomly you get quests to fight mobs that is not so randomly, it is just the same thing in a different skin. Exception to this are those very few quests that are chained and result in a climax fight with some boss but that is not the norm of the current games.
As for the game, I tried it and couldn't stand the gfx. This is not the time where MUDs were the MMORPGs of the time, GFX is important and Craft of Gods GFX doesn't hold its own. Not to mention the sound that is basically non existing.
My gaming blog
Guys I love sandbox games but this game is about two years of dev time away from being in a release state.
Honestly I see no reason Why I would ever leave a game like Ryzom or Eve for this.
Both games a leaps and bounds better than CoG.
I'll revisit in a year or so to see if its actually playable.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
I played this in beta but I could find very little I liked about it . In fact I would say I've played better free to play games an I was a little shocked that it was ment to be a p2p game . I can't see them being able to maintain the subscription based buisness model more than a few months .Having said that I wish them luck .
Really? Who's fault is it, pray tell?
-Letting Derek Smart work on your game is like letting Osama bin Laden work in the White House. Something will burn.-
-And on the 8th day, man created God.-
Honestly... I'm enjoying my trial play time. The GM's on their forum are very helpful and knowledgable. Just need to see if they come through on promised improvements.
"So far as I can surmise this early on, Craft of Gods is a compelling game that needs more time baking."
Hmmm, imagine that.
Your fail comment, failed.
Shava learn to press return ...
Well it is a shame that this game has turned into a generic MMO, I strike another one off the list
YES!!
LOL The graphs arnt that bad what the hell we are in 2010!!!Yes the graphics are horrible.Seems like this game is tryin just not gettin,i no i wont be playing anymore
I spent 15 minutes in game, the graphics are not this game's major problem. You can't even lend this game out to the exploring type, unless you like limited, empty worlds. Here is the sum of my time wasted (trial server btw):
Landed in game, made a toon that just looked horrible...pink beard on a pig face anybody? Anyway, once inside the world, I notice a familiar object over the head of an npc next to me. Quest? Could be, I'll go check....nope. Its a huge window that says one word on it, with three buttons on the bottom (don't remember the names). Pressing any of three does....nothing. Ok, no problem. I don't need my hand held. Let's find something to kill and see how that goes.
I see a couple of wolves near me. I've got a basic bow attack and melee attack on the hotbar. Skill error when trying the bow attack...Apparently I have no bow equipped (though the error does not tell you this). Equipped the bow and kill the wolf. Not bad, animations are chunky, as has been stated.
With the wolves dead, there was nothing else around me. Time to go for a walk. Let me look at my map and pick a direction. Where am I on the map? Good question...I'll just start walking any direction then. I'll follow this river to what looks like a small valley. Great! A plan. Along the way I find some ore to mine..Simple enough.
When I get there, what looks passable from a distance is certainly not. Why? There is some ranch-style looking fence blocking that whole side of the map off. I run along the fence, seeing if I can hop over it. Though I seem to jump higher, this is obviously an artificial block. FIne. So much for exploration.
New plan. I'll run along the fence and see where it goes. I found a floating, spinning blue ball. Cool Imma click it. Bam! Teleported to...somewhere. Let me bring up that map again to see where I am. Def a new map, no clue where I am on it. Great!
I'm gonna run down this hill....nevermind. I'm stuck on a rock after trying to jump over it. Got over the rock after some keyboard pounding. Ran for five minutes. Found a camp. No mobs, no npc, no players, nothing. /logout.
looks interesting! But i'll pass, dont seem to have the time nowadays
Couldn't agree more!
LOL Spikers! i Had a similar ordeal.
Created Toon<--Wolf Man with bad hair in need of dental work.
Logged in..Nothing around me so i ran and ran and ran on a trail i prayed would lead to something. it lead me to what looked to be a portal sooo of course i clicked it and zoned into another map.
once there i see a "Small Fox" i went to fight it and got Pwn'd in 3 hits.
I ressurected and ran some more. came to a small town with quest givers. Overjoyed i accepted the first 3 quests only to read that i had to kill 7 of those "Small Foxes"
I Cried, I logged, and proceeded to uninstall