Prime World - Two Steps Forward, Twenty Steps Back

Have you ever played League of Legends and thought "Gee, all this game needs is a couple of Facebook games and more grind?" If for some reason this ever occurred to you, you're in luck, for Prime World is that game.

Let's start with the good, because this can be taken care of quickly, and who doesn't like starting off on an optimistic note. Prime World's character customization is flexible and potentially deep. The ability to customize the stats of your character, along with what items are available for them is a unique take on character progression. Also, Native Terrain is a simple, but intriguing innovation with a lot of potential to create interesting gameplay.

Now that that's out of the way, I'm going to bring up why I feel that Prime World is quite possibly the worst commercial MOBA/ARTS/POTATO on the market (and I've played and enjoyed almost all of them). The short answer is that it cannot be competitive because it does not put players on an even remotely equal footing.

Why? Because the very same character progression systems that make it innovative also make it bad. Have you ever seen a fight (in League of Legends) between a player with no runes and a player with a full rune page? The difference is pretty large. Now multiply that difference 2 to 3 times over and you have an approximation of just how important Skills are in Prime World. While Runes become less and less meaningful as a match goes on, Prime World's Skills dictate the entirety of your character's performance. The power ratings of Skills dictate how much damage you do. The skills dictate your stat bonuses, your items, and your performance at all points of the game. A player with upgraded skills will not only start out several times stronger than one without them, but the gap will only grow through both inevitable differences in feed and in the quality of items available to them. 

This wouldn't be so bad if the matchmaking system wasn't absolutely useless. It makes no effort to balance teams based on any criteria. ELO does not matter. Account and character levels do not matter. The game will not hesitate to put teams of blue players (almost fully upgraded characters) against teams of new, undergeared characters. The results are catastrophic for the disadvantaged team. It's like queueing up for your first match in League of Legends and ending up against a full team of level 30s, only several times worse. 

But surely you'll catch up soon, right? Wrong. The grind in Prime World is immense. Basically, Skills (essentially items that you equip before the match starts) are obtained at a rate of a few for a loss, and a few more than that for a win. The ones chosen are random, though the quality of the ones you gain is generally low without the use of cash shop boosts. But you'll eventually obtain all of the skills you need (in theory, at least). Unfortunately, the grind doesn't end there. Now you need to destroy unwanted upgrades by fusing them into the ones you do want to boost their performance. This increases the bonuses of that Skill, as well as increasing the Power rating (which makes a HUGE difference in your character's damage numbers). This process is a lengthy and arduous one.

Now take the above grind and do it for EVERY character. That's right. Every character requires their own grind. In addition to account levels, each character has an innate character level of its own (much like Rise of Immortals initially did) and has its own Skills inventory. You cannot unequip a skill from one character and give it to another without the use of real money. 

Well, all of that sounds pretty bad, but it gets even worse. I haven't even touched on the tacked-on Facebook games, the connection of your account to Facebook, the permanent account identification with one faction (which dictates character base appearances, available skins, who you get matched up against, and even some exclusive characters). So let's get into that, because it's pretty bad.

Oh, the Facebook Games:

First off, you must build your castle (the Prime World equivalent of Farmville) in the lobby. This allows you to produce Skills, currencies, and other important features, including some small combat bonuses.

You can also play Zoomba in the base - IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MATCH. That's right. Instead of playing a moba, you can be rewarded for playing a Facebook game instead. Sure, you earn things for your team, but it's an arbitrary mechanic made to work this embarassing game into the larger moba match.

Quite frankly, I'm surprised that you don't destroy opposing towers by shooting Angry Birds at them.

Permanent account loyalty:

When you create your account, you must choose to permanently identify with other the Imperium or the Keepers. This dictates:

The appearance of your heroes.

The skins available for purchase for your heroes.

Who can be on your team.

Which players the matchmaking will try to throw you up against. (You can fight your own faction, but the matchmaking attempts to pair you up against the opposing one, even if there is a significant power or ranking differential between the two teams).

FACTION EXCLUSIVE HEROES. That's right. Your choice of faction actually bestows you with heroes that you can't get if you choose the other faction. Each faction has 2 unique heroes. And these aren't fluff - they're some of the most overpowered characters in the game. 

To change faction, you must spend real money.

Oh, but it gets better. Bad mechanics expand directly into gameplay:

Characters are picked BEFORE a match starts. In solo queue, this means that you can't pick around your teammate's character choices. You can never counter-pick the opposing team in both solo and premade games. 

In solo queue, the same character can appear more than once per team because of the aforementioned picking system. 

The game punishes you for repeatedly using the same character by lowering that character's Stamina after each match. You must pay silver (earned currency) to replenish their Stamina in an inn. If it runs out, you can't use them until the stamina replenishes over time (or via Inn). 

TL;DR: The title is not without reason. This is, in my opinion, a strong candidate for the worst (commercial) MOBA/ARTS ever made. Extreme grind, retarded, immersion-breaking mechanics, terrible matchmaking, and other fundamental flaws ruin an otherwise quality game.