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ESO, FF14 ARR, LOTRO or TSW?
Getting bored of WoW already two weeks into renewing my sub and wanting to go and give one of these three games a proper playing through this time around. My experience with them is as follows:
ESO - Loved the skill progression system, probably the best I've seen in an MMO. The pvp looked like fun too however I never got that far. The world and graphics were beautiful too from what I recall. My main gripe with it was that it felt like one huge quest grind.. while on the surface it tried to add in exploration and lots of random dungeons to visit, early on it felt very linear. The quests were a notch above most MMOs however and many were very enjoyable.
FF14ARR - Played at launch however if I recall, it came at a bad time for me so I never gave it a proper chance. The main attraction for me was the Final Fantasy name and in some ways, it delivered however I got to level 20 I think and felt the storytelling left a little to be desired. The graphics and world though were on a different level to anything I've seen, combined with the weather system and day/night cycle made for a very immersive experience.
LOTRO - Played in the beta and gave the f2p thing a small try a few years back however I was put off with the combat. The animations were terrible and the delay in pressing buttons to character action really left me feeling detached from the experience. What draws me to the game though is the world and lore. The game looks really nice plus I'm a huge LOTR fan. When I last looked at it, it had a good community too but don't know how badly effected that was with it going F2P.
TSW - From what I've read about this, it seems like it's more of a thinking man's MMORPG experience which sounds like a breath of fresh air seeing how the genre has progressed to such a simple theme park quest grind. The setting sounds really unique and cool also that definitely interests me. Investigation missions also sound like an absolute blast. What put me off is the complaints people have about the combat and the fact you can only pick like 4 or 5 combat abilities at one time.
Any thoughts or suggestions? Would be interesting to know what state each game is currently in also. I know FF14 has created a lot of buzz lately with proposed features plus they''re adding ninjas which is a bonus but I'm not sure about the other games.
Comments
I will also throw in my support for TSW.
Gameplay-wise FF14 is a lot like WoW, or at least it felt that way to me. The whole "job" system is different of course, but the actual combat and everything is very WoW-ish. Probably not the best choice if you're burned out on that game to begin with.
As for the state: TSW has had its share of updates. They recently released a large one that introduced Tokyo, along with some mission packs.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
I played the beta of ESO...logged out in 2 hours, I had read about it, had hopes for it but it offered nothing new. Felt nothing like any eldar scrolls I've played (oblivion / Skyrim). No sense of adventure.
FF14....errmm again I read about it, sounded promising, logged in, literally ran around some stupid multi-tiered town for about 30 minutes fighting nothing whatsoever........finally got bored, ran out of the town to fight something, very excited to swing my mighty 2handed axe only to hear some childlike "whack a mole" noise? I loved final fantasy 7....holy crap this game felt nothing like it. Maybe I was too old (28) but it just felt like a child’s game? Very disappointed.
TSW....Haven’t played this in years but when I did, I didn’t really feel like I was having any fun. Full disclosure, I knew nothing about this game and certainly didn’t wait around long enough to see what the game actually offered, which of course can be a mistake in any game. However it felt pointless and I didn’t feel immersed in the slightest, so logged out.
LOTRO...of the 4 I liked and played this the longest, a few days. I liked how the game felt, combat was too slow for me and felt almost turned based! (An exaggeration) But the game did feel nice and felt like a place I was happy to be in.
Then however I discovered ArcheAge............this game offers something entirely new and completely different. I have never in my memory had this much fun in an MMO. I wouldn’t suggest playing for free because of the labor infringements. However I encourage you to get into the beta, ignore anything but the Main quest and the quest to get your farm. Explore, level with crafting, gathering, farming, taking trade packs across the world and trade it for riches and vital ingredients. I don’t want to make this an ArcheAge thread, but out of the 4, I would say no to all of them. People don’t realise just how high WoW set the standard for conventional MMOs. ArcheAge made nearly no effort to try and beat WoW at what WoW does so well (questing / instancing), instead it actually thought up an original and fresh idea and made the most beautiful and instanceless world out of it.
I'd say TSW too, with LotRO on a close second.
TSW is closer to an adventure game sometimes than an mmo, in that sense it could called "a thinking man's game" indeed. Good writing, nice setup, some mind-blowing puzzles, and also a unique experience if you go deeper (the ARG, the website connections, etc.) The combat is a matter of personal taste, it's better if you try it for yourself, to see how you like it. (btw not 4-5, you can have 7+1 at at time, and you can change those any time if not in combat, so inbetwwen two mobs even.) At the end region the game is very grindy unfortunately, but apart from that it's a great game.
LotRO, maybe I like it a bit more than TSW (depends on the current mood
). If you don't like the combat, then there's not much help for it... However, the community is still good, especially on the Rp servers, the f2p had only minimal impact on that aspect. It's still one of the most mature playerbase I think. F2p had a much heavier impact on the game itself, slowly, but steadily there were changes during these years.
Still, if you love the world and the lore, maybe it worths a shot. There are plenty of new folks in there currently just for Tolkien and the lore due to the course: https://www.coursera.org/course/onlinegames
Another vote for TSW. The strongest reason to play through TSW is for its setting and story, the core of which can be gotten through in about 2 weeks as a glorified single player game even if you don't pick it up as a regular MMO. If you are the type to want one game to immerse you for years then TSW isn't it, in terms of content it's better as a side game or a complimentary game to something like WOW. Could be a good or bad thing, in my case I dont have room in my life for anything all encompassing like EQ or WoW anymore so TSW fits the bill nicely
The other, perhaps stronger reason to play it is that imo it has the best endgame of any MMO I've played, and by that I mean in the experience, skills and personal skill growth. Unlike other MMO's, you dont essentially keep playing the same character build and keep using the same skills that you used throughout the game. From the beginning of the game to the end, you'll be using very different skills (previously thought useless skills will become essential for example), builds and the endgame requiring different setups for different dungeons and you'll be essentially learning a new game at every difficulty until nightmares where you could be learning a new game arguably per dungeon. This to me has been much more interesting than just pursuing gear and stat upgrades and helps give some meaning into otherwise still a pretty substantial gear grind.
Feel free to PM me with your email for a buddy key invite if you need one
OP - try the free trial, but it probably won't solve your issues regarding the start of the story line. This only gets going as you level a bit higher, but in my opinion it is one of the best main stories in an mmo (for those who like this aspect of things).
In fact it felt a bit of a finish when the story came to it's conclusion - but they have now added to this in subsequent ptches.
The game is FF and doesn't attempt in anyway to cater to the action rpg elements seen in the recent mmo's. Nor should it, if people want one of those there's enough to go at with the recent crop.
FF ARR is unashamedly an old school tankhealer/dps tab target mmo, and it does this extremely well.
I had fun once, it was terrible.
Well put. And it seems the underdog (TSW) is winning.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
ESO+
Graphics
Crafting
Lore
Huge world worth exploring
Well done large scale pvp
FFXIV+
Graphics
Crafting/Gathering/Economy
Progressive Raids
Guild Housing
Numerous side activities
Small but pretty world
LotRO+
Tons of content
Decent graphics
Fantastic Lore
Great RP Community
Player Housing
TSW+
Skill Based Progression
Great Graphics
Unique Setting
Great quest system
Very well designed dungeons
You have to try GuildWars 2 and may be SWTOR.
Also if you like WOW-style games, then try Rift.
If you accept extremely cartoon-grafix and WOW-style also you can try WildStar
Definitely, both are great experiences. I just limited myself to the four he was asking about.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
Pretty much the most accurate and detailed explanation you could hope for. He hits the features of each game well. If I had to recommend out of those 4 I suppose I would choose FFXIV ARR. It's somewhere in between WoW and ESO as far as gameplay goes imo. That and it's the first MMORPG that has had me jumping for joy to get off work in years. ESO is a great game as well, and I enjoy my time in it. LotRO is a very good game too. I have not played TSW so I'm not 100% on that one, but I do have a friend that loves TSW.
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
Have played: You name it
If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
Thanks for this. you mention the FF14 economy, care to expand on that? Are many of the desirable ingame stuff player crafted then? I figured as it was more theme park, the economy wouldn't even be worth a mention. I really miss the old SWG style economies.
Also thanks for the GW2 and SWTOR recommendations. I've got both, didn't really get into GW2 but one day I'll fancy it and probably have a blast. SWTOR I've played the hell out of competing it with every class storyline, kind of like with WoW, I've just played it too much and need a break.
I'll download TSW and give it a go. Fingers crossed I'll enjoy the combat as it really does seem to be my only gripe other than the lack of skills which I believe I was corrected. I hear it's quite system demanding, my laptop has handled every game I've thrown on it on max settings so I'm interested to see how it holds up with TSW.
In this forum everyone tells you TSW is so nice I listen to them and bought it and IMO it's not a good game and it doesn't feel like mmorpg but like a zombie single player game.
It felt like AOC to me so it feels like your characters movement is bad like you don't weight more then 5 lbs and combat is crap +1 so are the graphics ugly overall. I liked the quests but again the story in game makes you feel like you are playing single player game.
Storyline in ffxiv is much superior mmorpg feeling and good controls and graphics.
"mmorpg.com forum admins are all TROLLS and losers in real life"
My opinion
I'm also in the ARR and TSW boat.
ARR is a fantastic game all around. Sadly, you have 15 level of bad quests (mostly currier and tutorial quests) before the game really opens up. Once your there though, there are so many options on what you can do, you will literally never not have something you can go do.
TSW has some of the best quests ever seen in an MMO. Immersive world with that "Silent Hill" feel to it. Its only downfall, imo, is the combat. It is really repetitive and somewhat clunky. And you are almost always fighting something. Like, mowing through 50 mobs between quest objectives. But that is the only bad point I can think of. They were struggling with client stability a while back, but they have that mostly fixed.
SWTOR Referral Link
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There are problems with all these games that prevented me from staying with them for a significant length of time: -
ESO:
It was mainly the bugs and bots but they are getting fixed. Otherwise it was just a generic mmo with little in common with ES games other than a superficial veneer. The end game was lacking, but I know it is receiving attention. I tried it again about a month ago and rolled a new character, and the lower level zones felt incredibly empty.
I see myself returning after a few more patches or once it goes F2P.
FF14 ARR:
For me it became very grindy very quickly. The starter quests were a long process of running around talking and delivering, and the the subsequent quests were the classic kill and gather through each map. The world was heavily instanced and felt disjointed and the layout was just a bit of a confusing mess which never gave you any sense of 'place'.
It was one of those games I wanted to like but found myself rolling alts very quickly which is a sure fire sign I will not stay with it.
LOTRO
It has been some time since I have played. I remember the characters being fugly, combat being sluggish and dull, and the general advancement via the story felt like a single player game.
Then it became F2P but with a cash shop that kept intruding into your game trying to extract money; this annoyed me beyond any remaining patience I had for the game.
TSW
I like a lot about this game, the quest types, the modern day setting etc etc. Unfortunately the fugly characters dampened my enthusiasm a little, but then I tried the clunky combat and that just killed the game outright.
Herald of innovation, Vanquisher of the old! - Awake a few hours almost everyday!
For me:
ESO: Could not play it without feeling like so much was missing. Could not get away from the illusion I was playing Skyrim but without all of the stuff in Skyrim I loved.....like freedom.
TSW: Just could not get into it personally, but I am more of a fantasy MMO guy.
FFXIV: Stuck with it longer than all of the others, but it turns into too much of a grind after a while.
LOTRO: Really tried to like it but the world feels so empty and dead for a new player. The community is supposed to be the best thing in this game....but there is soooooooooo much content which means the already small population is spread thin and mostly at the higher levels.
If you mean rolling alts in the literal sense of creating brand new characters, then you're doing it wrong. FF14 was designed that you do everything on one character.
My thought is that you tried ESO and you Tried LOTRO and they haven't changed drastically in design so you already have made your decision about them.
You tried Final Fantasy, indicated that you didn't really give it a chance (though you made it to 20 so I don't see how that isn't "giving it a chance") but you at least have some idea as to what it's about. If it was so compelling you would go back to it.
By process of elimination, "The Secret World".
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I mean rolling alts as in messing around with sliders in character creation. That was becoming more fun than the game.