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Review in Progress Part 2
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Review in Progress Part 2
Another week, another several levels on my Blade Dancer, and I’m still enjoying my time with Blade & Soul. In some regards, my experience with the game has improved, while with others I’m left in the cold. Read on for more adventures of the Grasshopper in my ongoing review in progress.
Comments
I have to disagree here. Many players are able to reach gold easily at level 25 and above. I've run into a number of them, and they are good. While it's true that you may not have access to all your skills, that doesn't mean you can't be competitive. It just means you have less to work with.
However, I haven't grown bored of it yet and the PvP is awesome. Genuinely, incredibly visceral and blood-pumping.
You will be grinding away at your Faction dailies, then doing all the major dungeons for coin while playing Storage Wars "bidding" for gear with some asshole you may or may not have carried the whole way. Most of us are doing this so when it's time to do faction OWPVP you don't get smoked by the guys who get top end gear first and build huge pads of progression. The problem is, there's no reason to OWPVP in the game so after you achieve this ceiling what's left?
I joined this game at the call of a couple friends who wanted to join the Mushin server. I was going to stay TF away. Yeah the combat is fun as hell but that's about it. My friends have since ditched the game (m#%therf%ckers).
I don't know what the future play is, but right now the game is the contrived empty shell many of us already thought it would be. It's something new to do.
I cant' speak for everybody, but if I could get Archeage w/ B&S story and combat, minus the F2P and cash shop gambling RNG foolishness I'd be a pretty happy man. I guess happiness breaks the Matrix though.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
This is a fair review in my opinion, well done. Great for a "In progress" review.
Crafting is definitely important at max level. If Bill was a bit more hardcore about it, he would have been more profitable in the mid-game as well, but most have moved on from that point, unfortunately.
Looking forward to: Crowfall / Lost Ark / Black Desert Mobile
And that's not even a problem. Except that you don't go into the thing that the developer seems to have excelled at: the combat and the competitive play. I know you've experienced the combat, but maybe not so much on the arena aspect?
Here's to hoping a part 3 will be all about those two things.
I fail to see what being gold has to do with being competetive... There are two divisions above that, where most people who take pvp serious are at. Myself not included as Blade Master, since I'm stuck in lowly Gold.
I agree with you (2nd time ever, I believe).
This game reminds me a lot of Neverwinter. Neverwinter had mediocre PVE, but great (for it's time) combat and strategic PVP. Blade and Soul takes both the combat and strategic PVP to a whole new level, as well as improving on pretty much every other aspect (graphics, music, overall theme) and adds in new nice features like gliding and the cross-server dungeon finder.
Now Neverwinter is (rightly) rated pretty low, but nonetheless I spent a good amount of time in that game and played the hell out of its PVP.
Ultimately, the blatant p2w/exploitable nature of the PVP in Neverwinter drove me away.
That can never happen in Blade and Soul since the main PVP is equalized (which to me is genius and a bold move for a f2p game).
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I have also found that the AI is much better then what I thought it would be. Eventhough a lot of the mobs are the same as you level they level as well and they just dont get more HP, their mechanics change a bit, which make you change the way you have to fight them. It may be just a added block or may be a new combat move but it's enothong to change the fight a bit. I wish more games would do this. Just adding more HP to a mob to make the fight a bit harder is just lazy game development.
All in all I am really enjoying myself but I'm not sure how the end game will keep me logging in... will just have to see.
Finally a fair review in which the reviewer reviews BnS for what it is, what it does, and how it does it, and not for what it isn't, what it doesn't do, and how it doesn't do it. It is obvious that BnS is not a full-featured MMORPG so it should not be judged on that scale. What it is, is a hybrid MMORPG that features excellent action combat, very good arena PvP, and OwPvP for those that chose to engage in it. It also features a very unique system of PvP engagement requiring those who do not wish to engage in PvP to simply not wear the required PvP outfit which is a system that can be very appealing to the PvE centric player, and heads above any other system of OwPvP used to date (Ie., flagging, OwPvP @ Level 30 etc).
There is also the grouping dynamic that allows a player to find groups not only within their own server (F7), and across servers (F8), but it also allows a player to make their own groups if they so desire. The cinematics and voice acting are also very well done, and the world is aesthetically quite pleasing offering a variety of scenic settings.
I've said it before but it bears repeating, a fair reviewer does not compare an economy car against a luxury car and then detracts points in their review of the economy car because it isn't luxurious. It compares the economy car to other economy cars and renders a fair review based on that comparison. BnS is a hybrid MMORPG. It does an outstanding job of accomplishing to do what it intended to do very well. And that is the barometer by which it should be reviewed.
Ummm sorry but you only need to level to cap and your on an even playing field besides the fact the game is balanced around level cap 50.
At 50 your blade master will be balanced out and in a better shot pvp wise than at 45.
Have you not heard of the appeal to fighters that remove the difficult barrier of entry of quarter circles, half circles, and such to basic one button comands and frame perfect links?
Basically a fighter like street fighter only starts when you can dial in fireballs and BnB combos with minimal effort. That is when a player can actually start playing and getting into the game.
The idea behind BnS PvP is the low barrier of entry with a higher focus on meta and braking another players composure. (Meta meaning getting the opposing player to react how you want them to)
For instance a KFM can do a 100-0 combo but only if they manage to get the opposing player to blow all combo breaks and defensive cooldowns while also messing up.
So as a KFM your job is to create the situation to make that happen, while the opposing player knows this, they counter by avoiding such a situation and trying to force their own. This creates a constant ever changing meta to the current battle to force the opponent to create an opening.
This is all done in regular fighters only there is a much much higher barrier of entry to play them due to how special move inputs work and how precise some combos can be to use. (1/60th of a second; which if I remember correctly was what frame your had to hit in SF4 to correctly jab combo)
That means at 60FPS you have zero room for a mistake. While many fighter purists will say that's a measure of skill, I'll tell that same person that all pro's can do it with little problems, it only effects the players below that thresh hold of muscle memory and creates a giant slippery steel wall that is only there to drive a larger player base away. (Because all combos are learned through repetition and put into muscle memory)
As such the combos in BnS are to the fighter purists "dialed in" but allows for the actual real battle to happen. Hence why it's been such a big e-sport in Korea, because it's about playing a much larger number of players and being better than your typical fighter due to the lower barrier of entry. (along with amazing visuals; if you like them over the top)