Simple Evaluation

Well, I just recently bought the game; I don't regret it. What I regret is buying it so early, the game has too many issues. But I understand that happens with any newly released MMO.

-Chopping. When I first loaded up, it was pretty thick; the chop that is. I have a 3.0 gig P4 with 1 gig of ram and a 256 ram video card. So, after playing with all the various settings, I fixed my chop issues. Now I'm running smooth. My girlfriend has a 1.8 gig P4, 512 ram and same video card. Even with the settings way down, it was not fun. And If you can't get the chopping down, then the cool fights you have in combat are 4 frames and A$$. So as long as you're in the 2.4 gig and up range, have a bunch of ram and an ok video card, you'll be fine. It's very reminiscent of EQ2.

-Lag. I walk into a room and no one is there. I have to wait for the person to spawn before I can continue. Most of the time, it's in a building, so I keep searching the building for loot. Then I go back through the rooms, and the person is there by then. But the lag is tolerable and it won't keep me from this game.

-Camera. Oh my god... Depending on what settings you have, it will either not move so you're not entirely sure what direction your character will run off, or follow where the action is, which isn't always you; I've had the camera start following the enemy I was attacking. The last camera setting is one they call "scripted." WOW, it's buggy. Like strapping a camera on a roller coaster and waiting for it to swing back around so it was aimed at my butt. But even with the Camera issues, it's tolerable. Though they need a free float camera that will follow you and not get hindered by objects around you, such as a street sign or light post. My favorite is when my character gets stunned (it doesn't really tell you you're stunned... you just kinda stop doing everything) and since you are stunned, the camera is stunned as well, and may stop in a wall that is 2 sided; so for some reason all you will see is your UI and Gray thats all, till you can move again. But even the camera issues are not enough to make me stop playing the game.

-Crafting. It's kinda neat, aside from the fact that you need code fragments in order to build the ingredients for anything from clothes, weapons and tools to class skills. The issue I had is that whenever you log out, what ever code fragments you had disappear.. That's right. Apparently code fragments are no-rent right now. Meaning if you load up on code fragments and log out or crash, they're all gone, all of them. So I'm sure the coder class is SCREAMING right now, but only in the crafting sense.

-Pathing. Sigh.. now it's not disgusting, but it could use a little help. I can jump over a wall thats 3 feet taller then me, but I can't jump over a garbage dumpster that only comes up to my chest. There is a minor issue with invisible walls in various areas, some you can jump over, some you can't. You can jump off any building and you will take a bit of damage; but not much aside from the fact that the animation sequence for jumping off a building needs help. When you have a character following you - whether it's your pet or it's part of your missions saving a redpill - for the most part they stay on your heels. Sometimes they get lost. Oh, and don't climb a ladder, they won't follow. But otherwise its not devestating.

-Animation. Well, I must admit they did a really great job of animation in the fight scenes and with PC to PC interaction. I mean, you can initiate a hug that the other has to accept, and the 2 characters actually hug each other, which is really cool. There are a bunch of interacting animations, including some disturbing ones.. i.e.: the dog greeting. I don't want to see another guy sniff my crotch ever again. Of course the PC to PC animations have been needed in MORG's for ever, as they do add life to the game. The fight scenes are very well done, something trademark with The Matrix. Now I just wish they would have done that same quality of animation with the rest of the normal game, like the dance animations. A guy should never, EVER damce like that. Oh heck, just walking around as a girl is... mmm yeah, well, lets just say it doesn't look right. I'm an animator and so could talk all day about the animation issues, but the fights are so worth seeing. I especially like bullet time. it's very cool.

-Graphics. Not bad. They put a lot of work into the clothing, and the characters are actually pretty good looking. So I have nothing overly good or bad to say about the graphics.

-Early game. It's not easy, you feel way lost. I don't know if they had planned to do this from the start so that you feel just like your character or of it was just a complete fluke and they just haven't finished the game yet. They need more tutorials for the game, all they give you is the bare basics; there's a lot more they could touch up on.

-Later game. I haven't gotten that far yet, but I plan to, regardless of the game issues. Now, the one thing I'm going to freak about if it doesn't get fixed is the crashing issues. Now It may be just me, but I can play the game for about 30 mins to an hour at the most before it crashes.

This game will not be for everyone and I know this. It's very obvious that the game was released way too early. I don't know how the beta went, but if it was like this, it should never have gone gold.

In my evaluation, this game has HUGE potential. It could be one of the top 5 MORG's out there, but not if they don't fix some of the issues I've addressed. I'll keep playing til my free month runs out, but after that, it depends on how much they can fix in a month; even if it's just the crashing, then I would feel it would be worth my time.

Well, I'm no expert but I do have a Ginormous amount of MORG's under my belt. So when I say this posting is my review, it's nothing more then my opinion of things I've noticed in the game. If you agree, cool. If you don't agree, cool. If there are issues or cool things I didn't mention, please add them in a post, as I'd enjoy reading other's opinions or reactions.

Grey