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Mini Review of Launch Day
JIUBHUNNY420
Member Posts: 131
Below I have written a condensed review, basically a rough overview of my launch experiance and of what I found favorable or otherwise about Darkfall. Remember this is my Personal opinion, and although I tend to be very objective I also will say things that are subjective. I will reiterate my point more clearly on the more subjective topics, but anyways heres my Mini Review!
(WARNING: I did not play DF 1.0)
Purchasing/Downloading Darkfall Online
I purchased the game at around 4PM this afternoon and didnt experiance any trouble with my purchase whatsoever. I then quickly began the Torrent Download which was reccomended as the quicker option. I went out to dinner shortly after starting the DL and when I got home at around 6:30PM the Download was complete.
Quick Note: Many people did cite problems with the torrent download speed. I did not experiance these issues but have a very fast internet connection (RoadRunner Lightning: Brighthouse Networks) which most likely aided me in finishing the DL in under 3 hours.
The First Hour of Gameplay
I logged into the game at around 7PM and created a Mahirim Skirmisher with a specialization in Deadeye (Bows) as my main skill and Brawler as Secondary skill. At this point I entered into the tutorial, the game seemed to be running fine but I chose to lower my graphics down only slightly from the Medium setting (Mainly tuned down the shadows). The tutorial was rather easy but a good first entrane into the world, I continued through the combat tutorial and into a giant cavern where I had to sneak past the... *Wont spoil it for you guys 
and make a break for a portal to the first major city.
From there I was only able to purchase some basic equipment before the first time the NA servers went down. Instead of waiting around on the internet during the downtime I did some late night errands and got back on finally at around midnight.
The Meat and Potatoes (3 hours of Gameplay)
After logging back on excited to continue where I left off in the city, I was a bit saddened to find that the game hadnt saved my characters progress when the servers disconnected and I was sent back to the beginning starting zone and had to run my way all the way to the portal once again. It was unfortunate but only a minor inconvience as I didnt have to fight anything or do any of the missions over.
*Although I did kill the Shadow Golem outside the Cave Entrance after hitting him with over a hundred shots of magic missle from my staff
Once I was back in the first city I found myself doing something awesome that I havent done in a Modern MMO save for maybe EvE Online. I found myself actuallywanting to Experiment with the game mechanics and conrols.The game gave me a direction but alot of what youll learn of the diverse intricate system mechanics present in Darkfall: Unholy Wars you will learn yourself by doing or from Veteran players. The game, because of the pace of combat and the ease at which a simple mob can kill you (I died in my second fight simply because I didnt pay attention and ran out of arrow), Forces you to Perfect a playstyle and control Scheme early on. I even ended up replacing a major mouse key with the parry button, although I later retracted that change because of the lack of viability for a ranged character to have a mainly close range defense move.
And even more importantly to me that experimenting I just found myself Exploring the game world around me. One of my favorite moments was trecking around the mountains where the first city lay on top, thinking it was impossible to get back up, only to find a giant lift that takes you up to the top of the city and Seemlessly I might add. To me the open world aspect of MMO's is something I have missed for a long time, and with Darkfall you do have that sense that the world is open to great possibility because you dont go thorugh a loading screen constantly, the boundaries are as far as you can see in Darkfall.
The End of Day 1
After finally allocating some Prowess points (Skill points gathered from crafting, harvesting, etc) into my skills, purchasing some more crafting equipment, and talking with people in the general chat, the game servers shut down for the second time, and are not back up yet as of me writting this at 5 am.
To me this Beta experiance was a veyr positive one, I know many other people experiaced problems with the downloads and the launcher, to me these were only minor incovniences (possibly because the problems were less severe for me). I did have a problemstarting up the game after the initial server went down but after only a few trials of valdating the client it worked and hasnt stopped since.
In conclusion, Darkfall is an extremely unique game, gameplay wise, Lore wise, and yes even community wise. But what it has is something different, a challenge, sometihng fresh but with an old feeling to it. If your someone who is sick of WoW clones and sick of being handfed everything Darkfall is for you. Just try it out for yourself, and take the negative cristism only when its made by a reliable source and not just someone caught in a bad position with no patience for an indie game thats doing alot right and taking alot of chances.
Thank you guys, hope you enjoythe mini review and have a great rest of the week! Hope to see you all in game! 
J-Hun Lookin to Creep Yall!
Comments
To us Darkfall and Aventurine veterans, this one statement says it all.
This has been my experience.
1) Very long download time. Did not get on till late at night. After it finished downloading I got the protocol error. Also it takes a long time for it to validate the files. After a restart and many times trying to restart the client I validated and repaired the files and was able to get in. Was very frustrating.
2) Once in, I noticed that the loading into game was twice as fast as it was in beta.
3) No lag or stuttering with very smooth gameplay.
4) I heard the server crashed during the day, but I was still downloading the game. No server or client crashes for me.
For those interested, I was playing with default settings at 1080p and was getting a steady 30 fps and a steady ping.
My Computer: E8400 Dual Core 3.2 ghrz, 8 gigs ram, SSD drive, GTX 460 SE, Vista 64 (very old and time for an upgrade, which will be needed if I get involved with large sieges).
So aside from the really long download and initial problems trying to get in, once I was ingame I had a very positive experience.
I've been avoiding beta since my early experiences with it were less than stellar. Glad I saw this thread. Downloading and plan to hop in game tonight.
Thanks!
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Just seems a bit small but am sure extracts quite a bit.
Looking forward to giving this a go.
While I don't think they run the business side very well , my desire to support a company that at least tried something more niche and not bland , try to please everyone game , makes up for their rough edges atm.
I think it extracts to 18 gigs but I could be mistaken.
Course I have to remember there aren't 10gbs of voice overs and movies that are necessary in this game client.
and that's a good thing to me
The definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.