Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
[General Article] Age of Wushu: Review in Progress #2
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
We move into our second week of Age of Wushu and have experienced more of the game outside of the initial training grounds. See what we have to say in this week's installment of our Age of Wushu Review in Progress. Do you have thoughts to share? Head to the comments!
After my last review in progress, the lovely folks at Snail Games reached out and offered to walk (and talk) me through some game time; in order to clear up some of my confusion that I might, in turn, clear up some of yours. We got together on Monday and spent an entertaining hour (or more) discussing Age of Wushu, its particular perks and quirks, and the challenges of translating an import game for a new audience. Tyler, John and Steve could not have been more helpful, or more informative. To them, I doff my cap.
Read more of Lisa Jonte's Age of Wushu: Review In Progress #2.
)
Comments
I can't agree that it's silly. Sure, it's not gameplay but it does make you feel very connected to your character - as though he or she is actually someone in that world who doesn't just go to sleep when you stop playing him or her. When you log in and it tells you that you worked as a tea boy for 5 hours, it actually means your character was in game occupying that role for that time.
One of AoW's big successes in my view is creating a very living and vibrant world, and seeing offline players everywhere going about their tasks is what makes this. Also, having to interact with these offline players when kidnapping, spying, giving alms, saving them from bondage etc. is another excellent feature.
These are not big things, but they add richness to the game. Something a number of recent releases have overlooked in the rush to try to be good games and nothing more.
Lisa should just join a guild. The top tier ones would set her straight in a couple of days...
I strongly suggest that she looks up some of the very well written resources already out there - like the Art of Wushu. She still seems very lost.
I was in a guild. All of the guildies were playing. Quite a few were lost. Even after it made sense to me, it didn't make sense. The fact that the game company had to come out and EXPLAIN to her tells me it wasn't EXPLAINED in the game. I spent about 3-4 days in this game. It has since been uninstalled. It was ok at best, terribly translated at worst.
Edit: Heck, just wait. Once she figures out the bound v. unbound Liara and then finds out that you are LIMITED to how much you can buy/sell (money spent).....
Having played the beta... I also found the game as a whole confusing. Yeah, I understand the controls and the mechanics on their own. I just couldn't understand how everything tied together. It was very odd and overwhelming.
I also strongly dislked that fact that items from the cash-shop (clothing for example) were rented. I don't know if that has changed - but I did find it disturbing.
@Ikeda:
I must be a genius or something, because I never found this game to be THAT complicated. When I first joined, I buddied up with a higher level beggar who showed me the ropes on how to level. From there, it was 60% me and 40% the community I played with. You say that even "after it made sense, it still made no sense". That statement makes no sense, you obviously never understood the game.
There's nothing special about us other than a general curiousity that led us to figure out how AoW works. Nearly all of the information is in the game, properly translated, people just have a shocking inability to read. Even when I try to teach people in proper English I get the impression that they have a napkin on their lap to catch the drool.
EDIT:
I also specifically said a top tier guild. You know, the ones that have a lot of max levels 300+ people, ect.
gogo lisa! Can't wait to see where Bo's adventures lead him in the next segment.
My best advice to Bo is to learn a couple systems, how to do a few things, enough to make it through the day. Don't try to learn everything now. I'm almost 6 months in, and there many things I have no clue about.
Don't forget you can buy the cash cosmetics with in game silver aswell.
The most over the top gold spam I've even seen finally killed it for me.
I shouldn't have to turn off chat , nor see an entire screen full of gold spam , literally , and entire screen can be blocked at times due to the gold spam.
I just don't see them that concerned about doing anything about it unfortunately.
I have been playing for 2 weeks now and during the first week i probably spent more time out of game trying to figure it out than in - lots of very helpful people on their forums that obviously love the game and want others to do so - quite a few youtube videos too
Though all that information is available it isn't "in-game", and that is this games biggest problem
I''ve paid for VIP, as i am enjoying myself and certainly don't mind paying for it but i definitely will not buy gold to purchase temporary items from the shop - they also hit you up for "real money" in odd places that tend to tick me off - the last time was just last night when i finally had the "in-game" money to purchase a book that would double the yield in my farming - turned out that i had to use what is called "player money" - the kind you buy with purchaed gold or have traded for by selling stuff to players
It took a week but i think i've got most of the game down now but still can't play a good portion of the game because i haven't joined a guild - i don't mind grouping but joining a guild is a big deal to me so i usually don't - one of several things i haven't figured out is escort missions - not sure where to join one to do the escort but conversely they make it pretty easy to join in on attacking one - a sometimes annoying pop-up window shows up and by clicking join you are whisked away to wherever the horse and wagon is to show up
The offline play is pretty cool to me - love logging in to see what i was up to while i was away and hopefully earned lots of experience as i don't tend to get much while actively playing
Probably won't be a long term game despite the whole world feel if AOW, but i'm sure the many frustrations will build up enough to cause me to jump ship when something slightly better comes along
hey, are you Shaolin?
could swear i've seen that name in school chat
Nah tangmen.
Played it for an hour and to be honest, the whole skill system was quite complex and I couldn't understand it. Call me dumb but I prefer the old talent tree systems, where they're very linear and straightforward.
Also, I'm not much in to asian stuff as I was in the 90's...
Tried the game, too different for me. The worst is the Cash Shop...OMG, this is why I dont like F2P Cash Shops. Totally Pay to Win.
HAHAHAHAA wait till Lisa logs in and finds her character was kidnapped and sold to a brothel....
Now her character will:
Yes. The first part of the review.
There's a link to it at the bottom of the article.
argh this game is really making me interested in trying it
I downloaded it but all I did so far was walk down the road to a martial arts school. That was many days ago, after reading this I wonder what I've been doing in there, haha.
The game is cool and I enjoy my time in game regularly...
With that..
This game is dangerous for your pockets. Not because of spending / purchasing gold, but because of the current hacker / gold selling issue. This games needs some serious security improvements in ALL areas..
Be careful with your information, be even more careful with your purcahsed gold and for goodness sake please don't buy gold to convert into in-game coins. You can make money in game fairly easy once you choose how you want to make it.
A 200/200 stack of the most basic gathering items can make you 20L a pop and take little to no time to collect really.
I hope people enjoy the game tho, because like I say its a fun, interesting and most importantly different title for us Westerners, but be headstrong in not giving up too much of your hard earned IRL cash to Snail Games.
Not until they've given us proper security measures and have at least updated the client with something seriously impactful. In my 5 or so mo's of play there has yet to be any significant patch to hit this game.
From my understanding we are playing on a very, very passey version of the game. The CN version has many of the updates people have been clamouring for.
i.e Team Practice immunity to stop the lames from interupting TP's..
PM before you report at least or you could just block.
They wont. They expect you to learn. Not everyone will. This is what happens when something new and different comes along. Either you will take the time, or you won't.
I was busy being a servant at the Tea House. Had to try this out more, does feel like there may be some complexity to it. Hopefully a ton of complexity, may draw me in further if so.
So far, fun. But I am only up to the part where I will soon be picking a school.