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General: Sword 2 First Impressions
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy has been spending some time playing Sword 2 and has some first impressions to share with those curious as to how the game plays. While Bill hasn't taken on the new political PvP system yet, he's got some thoughts about the K2 Network (GamersFirst) game that you won't want to miss.
Sword 2is a misleading title. Let’s get that right out of the way from the start. Think of Sword of the New World 2 as a sort of a re-launch and you’re more or less on the right track. Published by K2 Network (also known as GamersFirst, a sort of launching platform for all of K2 Network’s games), the original Sword of the New World hit the hungry MMO crowd with a lot of hype surrounding its multi-character control system and action-RPG style of play. Sword 2 is the publisher’s attempt to revitalize the game’s following by adding some new features and focusing on the game’s competitive nature. I’ve spent a few hours tooling around with the recently rereleased game, and so far I’m having a bit of trouble figuring out just why they needed to add the “2” at all.
Check out Bill's first impressions of Sword 2.
Comments
Well. I have to call that review valuable as a potential time-saver, whatever one considers the actual verdict to be. Thanks for spelling it out, BIll.
Christ what is going on with game developers now a days? They push out garbage onto us and unfortunately people lap it up as their tastes have been so ruined by the bad wine that is WOW.
All I see is endless point and click shitty button mashing EQ clones with kill x, fetch x quests and mindless level grinds.
There are however a few and only a few games breaking the mold and going back to the original free form game play of Ultima Online. (Darkfall, Mortal Online, Xysom).
How anyone bought the first game is beyond me, anyone that buys Sword 2 is just plain stupid.
Well, glad to be plain stupidd then.
I love this game. While the re-launch has me confused, seriously, it is one of the most unique F2P MMOs out there. And I really don't get your point about the music: I always found SOTNW to be the MMO with the best soundtrack ever.
Probably for the same reasons that the developers thought by adding 2 to Tales of Pirates 2, which is nothing new except new features; think of it as a way to get new players and maybe some of the old players back.
--
Michael
I hope they didn't server wipe everything?
It is silly to just add a 2 and hope for good results.
I thought along with everyone else I know who played Sword that the music in it was fantastic. Maybe you just ran across the wrong songs early on because some of the zones later have great music.
I found the game to be very grindy. I also did not like that the outside areas were very confining, there was very limited area to play in. You were channeled to the end of the area, very similar to what AoC did.
Cute game just far to eastern grindy. You can spend days killing in the same are just for a few levels. Adding 2 to the title was more a merchandising gimmick than anything else.
I used to play this a couple years ago, it was grind intense and could be setup to let run for a day with no interaction while your characters auto-faught. But the soundtrack was killer and totally meshed with the environment and ambiance of the game itself. PVP was rather fun as well.
"Yea, I've been drinking again.."
I think the biggest draw back to this game is the host. They are abysmal. This is just another cheap trick by a money grubbing company that cares nothing for its customers. They are years behind the game this is based after and this game has only been released for 4 years. Their hosting method is a complete embarrasment.
I'll never play a k2/gamersfirst game they dont care about bots or hackers.
i'm still trying to figure out how they fight in those outfits....
It won't run in winXP 64-bit btw... just found that out
"Yea, I've been drinking again.."
Another week, another review of a 3rd rate F2P MMO.
Another thing about Sword2 it is not free 2 play it is pay to win. If you want to see end game or raid at all expect to spend some major cash.
the game was kinda fun with the companions and weapons, sets, etc, but until mid 20s it started to grind too much, i could've put them auto-attack in a dungeon but it got boring =/
Damn right! Great comment. Look at what MMORPG.com has become over the past couple of years. Look at Aihoshi's 'Free Zone' articles. Look at the stupid full border advertisment for too many no-quality/no-fun F2P MMOs. This site is losing it's credibility.
MMORPG -- Where's the RP?
When did the game ever have a monthly fee? I played for a bit at launch and it was purely a cash shop game.
Being able to afk level was an actually feature of this game. Enough said. Game over.
When your game is so grindy and shallow that you actually feel the need to give people the ability to set up their chars somewhere and level on their own, something is a bit wrong.
My most vivid memory of this game was the temper tantrum that occurred on the forums shortly after the cash shop opened. The tantrum wasn't over prices, which seemed unreasonable to me. No, the source of the outcry was due to the company that actually handled processing the transactions putting a monthly limit on spending. The processing company only allowed players to spend something between $120-150 in a 30 day period. First off I was shocked that anyone would spend this much in a month, but floored that people were outraged that they weren't able to spend more!
It's funny, people bash games for being clones. But then when something is different (this game), it gets bashed for being different.
Yes, the interface isn't like other games. That's because in other games you don't control three characters at the same time. Explain to me how you would use the arrow keys to move three characters at once? Press three buttons at the same time? So yes, it has to use point and click movement.
And the AFK leveling. Do I like it? No, that's why I quit playing, I couldn't really AFK level. But it's meant for people who want to play a game but don't have time to play a game 20 hours a day like other MMORPGs. You can leave it running while you are at work or class, and come back and either gained some xp or find them dead.
Anyway, when I played it, PvP was a lot of fun and so were the raids. But then for a like a year and a half, there was basically no updates to the game, because K2 is a lousy company and alienated the company that actually makes the game.
I haven't played "Sword 2", but in Sword 1 at least, the soundtrack was anything but generic JRPG-ish from the 90s. It was classical, then in some places it was trance (yay) and on a few maps some sort of weird Scandanavian heavy metal or something weird.
R.I.P. City of Heroes and my 17 characters there
dunno, i'll still be tempted to have another go.
I cant remember much of the original, but I think I hit a limit where I'd had to pay to carry on, and never felt it was worth it.
Then I tried it several times after then only to hit some strange problem with not being able to run it with my particular setup.
Since nothing was reviewe about the PvP, which would be interesting in a game like this, I'll reserve judgment. pvp is often what makes or breaks a game.
it was a pay to play game. this was waaaaay back then though.
ill admit... i was lured into thinking sword 2 was a completely new game, even from the audio interview i listened to. after reinstalling, it was the same crap. they said they completely redid the direction of the game but everything does look and feel the same.
auto-battle is also a stupid idea, from any company. the point of playing a game is to play. its like if i bought super mario world and let it run all day n night long. 'oh the computer finished the game already?' i hear you cant auto-battle at higher levels but why not just lower the required xp to lvl and take auto-battle out? my opinion, along w/many others: auto-battle=stupid.
also, ill have to agree with splitcold on the company not caring about their customers as they should. i remember playing knight online when k2 was the publisher. bots all day n all night long in abyss (i think that was the name of the tower).
I tried it.
I played this game as granado espada published by IAH back when the game was new, it was bad back then, stupidly grindy, and as many people said before, autobatle is stupid, I quit that game when I reached a point where I had to grind 2 days in one room just to move to the next room, to fight the same mobs but with different names, and completing a quest meant parking my party in some mob spawn place for 3 or 4 days.
I downloaded and installed this so called "Sword 2" and I was surprised to see that the only saving grace of this game, the large roost of characters you could choose to form your party, is completely gone, you are limited to just 4 character slots in your quarters, if you want more you have to drop cash in the shop, the same second I found that out I uninstalled.
Well, as a Sword of the New World Player(That is Sword 2 old name), Some of the complains I read here, are kinda like judging a book by the cover, like the sentence that it takes 2 days to get 1 level, well, only saw that at 90+, if u want end game leveling, to be ten levels per minute, stop looking, you wont find.
And the saying that this game you are forced to use CS to go Forward, well, Im the Playing Proof that it isnt 100% Correct, since the only stuff I bought at CS, were costumes, I got all the so Called "Cash Shop" Characters, the harder way, farmed a lot, and used my Brains(something that sadly gamers nowadays seems to lack) to get good trades
And Saying that it didnt get Updates on last Year, is a Big Lie, since the start of the Year, it already got 2 updates, and a third one coming, and the only versions it is really far behind, is the Korean one(you cant get past this one), and the Japanese one, the rest is more or less around the same version.
Been Playing for around 2-3 Years, not quitting anytime soon
awesome ! one word
Call me LeDommM
I happen to think that the game is pretty high quality, especially the music, but like all f2p play games grinding becomes an issue. Eventually u get tired of killing mobs and stop playing(like most F2p games).
I have to say that I only ever played the Singapore/International version (Granado Espada) which didn't have all the problems SotNW had, but I would imagine this version uses the exact same interface. As someone mentioned before the interface is different for a reason. And once you understand it, it works like a charm. Perfect interface for controling 3 characters.
Other than that, what I did not see in the review: is it subscription based or cash shop? Do you have to buy a copy of the game or not?
For the singapore version you did not have to buy the client but it had a cash shop. Also in that version the music was superb.
Anyway after getting to Veteran Level (lvl 100+) with a few characters, the grind was too much for me to continue. Great game before Veteran, but after that point too much grind. Exp might be different in the US/EU version so I would have liked to see info about level 100+ exp.
For anyone who wants to blast through lvls 1 - 100, get yourself a "Catherine the Summoner" char. It's very overpowered below level 100 and you can use it to PL other characters. You can level fastest if you solo with Cathy.
This game is so old it is ancient. Basically Sword 2 is the same old Sword of the new world for EU/US and it is also called Granado Espada in SEA region. What changed? they added an update to EU/US version and decided to fool players by adding a new title to it making it seem like new game but it is just the same old game.
Now that is out of the way lets talk about this game, i have an account for this game and got just about every playable NPC collected, as much as i love this game for being different i hate the company that runs it, the game is ruined by bots and dupe hacks and they dont do anything to fix it. the community is so small that it feels like privet server and the raiding PvE content in this game is sooooo much item dependant that is unbelievable and the items are like 0.0001% drop rate.
in SEA this game is known as fashion game, basically every month they add new fashion and players buy it and they enjoy it like that and meanwhile they can buy their super rare items with 0.0001% drop rate from cash shop. on EU/US you can not buy your items (good or bad who cares) so you are just forced to grind it out for months and months and months till you are bored to death. They are not even considerate or smart enough to realize this to improve the drop rate.
PvP in this game is just horrible it all comes down to who clicks whom 1st, if i click you 1st you will die, everyone is one hit KO in good equipments there is no skill involved in killing your opponent.
I give this game 4/10 just for the interesting storyline.