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A REAL review of FFXIV. Post Patch.
I haven't been on here in a while and I haven't looked at any reviews in a while either, but I will keep this as short as I can.
First and foremost, we all must remember this game just released, so if anyone wants to list a game out there that has had a great release that was bug free without flaws please let me and everyone else know.
Also, I consider myself to be a FFXIV fanboy, but I'm not anywhere near the asshats everywhere else so I guess I'm really not.
I also don't grade on a 7-10 scale like all the websites and magazines do. 5 is average, 10 doesn't happen, 0 is as rotten as things will ever be.
The review.
short version is past the long one.
Graphics 7/10
As we all know are nice and polished. The world itself looks good. A lot of people have said that things get re-used a lot. this is true to an extent. When I first started playing I looked for this and didn't notice it until I started entering the small caves scattered throughout the game, there are maybe 2 different types and you see them everywhere. That's about all I have noticed and it's not annoying; it's not even a thought in my mind except when that topic comes up.
There is a line that I can visibly see where the rendering brightens up. While running it's always in the same spot off in the distance and I don't like it.
It does take a good computer to run this game decently. My friend has a decent system, i7, 2 gtx 275's, 8 GB compared to mine that is 4 GB, a Q6600 Quad Core, and a single GTX 260. His runs it a little better, but they are at about the same; I have no idea what is bottlenecking his system, but something is.
Sound 5/10
The sound is good, music is nice for the game and it's a good score. The sound effects that I hear a lot of complaining about are just taru footsteps, which are really bad and it is your own fault for picking a taru (sorry falaffle). they are repetative, but let's be honest what isn't in any game. It's a good average set, nothing to bad and nothing too good, it sits where it should be. The music, though good, is annoying. Yes I did say it was good and it is, but there isn't much difference. It's the same few songs looped and a lot of people have something in the background instead of listening to it. I know I myself do.
Gameplay 3/10
-Combat
It has it's ups and some serious downs. The combat is a good idea, the whole system is, and it works pretty well. It's like AoC where you have to hit a button to attack, but you also have a stamina gauge to keep attacks away from being just spam fests. It works really well. Being able to get other classes abilities is awesome and this also works great. It's also completely broken after and before the patch. Before the patch grouping to level was better than soloing, but you could still solo well. Now instead grouping is a waste of time completely, in fact adding anyone to a party ruins the SP (class experience points) entirely. Soloing I get 230 a kill on average, good rate, grouping everyone gets maybe 90 usually more like 70 a kill. So soloing is the only way to level. This also isn't an all the time every level thing. I hear that after 20 nobody gets good SP no matter what, it sits at 90 from there on out. I've also heard it's 32 instead of 20. I haven't tried it personally as I stick more to crafting this early in the game.
-Crafting/Harvesting
The crafting and harvesting is unique, it's like a little mini game and it's fun for a while at least. It will start to get boring pretty quickly. Crafting still takes forever even after they made it a lot faster than it was. Harvesting on the other hand isn't as bad, you have to actually pay attention somewhat to what you do which makes it less tiring than crafting. Crafting I can usually watch tv and sit and spam enter and level up just looking at the screen to pick items and what I want to craft. Harvesting I have to run around and pay attention to what I'm doing. You level quicker from this than anything else imo, at least past the first few levels. The crafting is also broken. You can create something for a while really easily and then fail it for no apparent reason even if you pay attention. Some things are also just incredibly difficult to craft at their levels and past. I'm also not getting into the crafting support and training books which fix this and make it a whole lot easier.
Content 2/10
This is where the game fails miserably. There is no content, yeah it just got released and we shouldn't expect any, but we should still feel like there is something to do other than just grind which is where this game leaves you. There are the story quests, they are fairly short at certain levels that you can do them, and they are also a lot of fun. There are also the leve's, the quests that you get 8 of every 36 hours. The time frame works for them, sometimes I even wish the reset timer was longer. These are also extremely repetative. It's the same few quests all the time, even with the added ones. It's boring and they take all of 5 minutes to complete; you just have to sometimes run to another town to get a leve for the class you want to use them for.
The Short Version.
There are a lot of bugs, the game is good and playable. The bugs aren't bad and usually not noticable at all, NO game breaker. The surplus system is there, people hit it, it's not so bad. I have never hit it myself and I play quite a bit, but I also play a lot of different classes. Fatigue on the other hand people hit often, it takes awhile though. The AH, which is non existant, there isn't one, instead we have the market wards, a hallway so packed full of npc bazaars for players that it's a pain to walk through, it's laggy, VERY LAGGY, There is still no search function (something that is being added this month) so to find anything you need to look at each bazaar. It takes a long time and it sucks. There is absolutely nothing good about this system, whatever anyone tells you. This system is awful.
The game is getting a bad rap over a few things, no AH, no content, and lag. The lag has been mostly fixed. The others haven't. I would give the game a good 5/10 for release and please remember that this 5 is average not a bad score. The game is where all mmo's are at release.
Sorry it is so long, but I hope you enjoy it.
Comments
Really, now? I would say the opposite.
Sorry, but you can't rate sound/graphics equally to the whole of gameplay/content expecting your score to be realistic.
Also, your scores average out to 4.25, which should be rounded down if anything. Even if you did round up to 5, I don't see how you can consider FFXIV "average" compared to the rest of the mmos available on the market.
Sorry but I have a problem with this 1 statement, becuase these 3 patches (Nov, Dec & early 2011) are fixing or adding things like a sort function or Notorious Monsters that should have been in the game before release. When this game released people were complaining that they didn't know "how" to do certain things and a month ago people were already complaining that there isn't anything to do. No raids, no dungeons, no PvP... just grinding and a few spares story quest. That just isn't enough for an MMO these days and FF XIV will remain an example on "how not to release an MMO".
But apart from that, a good and objective review.
I liked your review. It was short, to the point. I don't agree with all points you made, but I thought it was a fair review overall.
My meaning to that is a little skewered. What I meant is that the current set up as it is now, is around where most are at release. I haven't seen a good release on an mmo ever. The best I have seen was FFXI and that was crap. So it is obvious that no games are being released the way they should be, but there is also a lot of problems that don't get seen until there is a vast amount of people running around.
As far as the bugs comment, there isn't any major bugs, the minor ones, you know the ones that are so miniscule it's not on anyone's priority list, not even the players, those exist. the major ones were fixed with the last patch. Now there are just broken mechanics like the SP bit and no AH or search function, which yes they should have been in the game during beta nevermind the release.
And for the other guy that didn't like my 5/10. Cool story bro.
I probably should have put this in the opening post, but this is also my first review so if I miss anything I'm sorry and will try to go back and fix whatever it is.
Don't sell us gamers short. We should definitely expect content in a game.
I meant just the end game. There should still be other content yes, that is why I said it failed miserably.
Past mmos had more content at launch than FFXIV have right now. Content is a lot more important than sound and graphics, especially for a pve only game. So in your rating content can't have the same value as sound.
At that point he has to consider what kind of content we're talking about.
Most MMO's have more content at launch than XIV, but you will still never run out of stuff to do in XIV while other games may barely keep people playing until the next content patch even with more initial content, especially if you don't want to play alts.
It's not as good as real dev-made content, but should not be ignored regardless.
"Guys, hey, here's my review. So there's no content, the sound is repetitive and awful, the combat is uninspired, grouping is useless and there's a lot of bugs. BUT, HEY, THIS IS A GOOD GAME, THIS IS WHAT ALL MMOs ARE AT RELEASE: Buggy, content-less, joyless, single-player atrocities. =P
5/10 guys, good game. You know, good like a 5/10, good failing grade, guys."
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Everyone on this site:
1: MMORPGs are DOOMED, and I have the answers to save them!
2: THIS game's gonna kill WoW!
3: I wish things would go back to the Golden Age of MMORPGs, which only existed in my mind...
Well on the upside, the market ward have gone through a much needed overhaul, and a search function is being added with the patch today. The've made considerable progress in adding content and features to the game, but more work is still needed. I am confident the devs will continue to add to the positive aspects of the experience.