(at least not for a while yet)
As the blogosphere is already overflowing with the details, I'll try to keep it to a minimum. If you are interested to read more, visit my kin or ask in the comments:
After my previous post, I'd like to only expand on a few parts.
Game World:
It looks great, it feels great, the mood is just right. Special comment on London: As a Londoner, I expected some disappointment, but I must admit, they captured the essence well. Even the Templar HQ gives the same feeling I experienced when I visited...
...imagine it should. Jokes aside, the world looks great. On the other hand, what I have seen from Agartha (the city inside earth - read as 'Quick Travel') is a bit stupid, I don't want to ride the rollercoaster every time I travel between the zones.
Skills/Ability wheel:
I like it. A very good and flexible way to improve your character. On the other hand, I've been somewhat annoyed when I realized that elementalism, the skill tree I chose, is not exactly suited for survival. I couldn't find a decent claw weapon until I arrived to the camp of the survivors, which was a slow process. Luckily there were quite a few other players around who cleaned up some of the road.
Putting this aside, I spent quite some time with checking the skills I can learn, trying to find good combinations, etc.
Combat:
This was a bit of a disappointment. After playing Tabula Rasa and The Chronicles of Spellborn, I have a good idea what dynamic combat is about. This is something utterly different. You might be required to run around and find a better position for combat, but you (at least, I) need 3 hands to be able to do that effectively: one on the mouse to control the direction and camera, one on WASD to move about and one on 123456 to activate your skills. I used my left for both wasding and 123ing, but it's not fun.
Inventory:
It's big, you can easily reorder, etc, I liked it.
Crafting:
Couldn't really make it work. I understood the basics, but the panel didn't seem to do what it was supposed to. Also, there are a few control refresh issues with it. Again, a disappointment.
Quests:
The limitation of quests might sound like a good thing (more focused on the current one, etc) but it's not. At least put a mark on my map that there is a quest here or something. (Update: Obviously I'd like to see this marker only after I've found the quest)
The quests themselves are good, I really like how the story opened up. They are really great.
World Events:
Didn't see a thing that looked like one. Possibly not in, or very limited.
Generally annoying/cool things:
- The zone map is cool.
- The character animation and modelling is ugly.
- The UI for me is non-intrusive, others told me that it's ugly.
- Moving around is slow. The speed difference of the speed mode is so insignificant, that several times I tried to turn it on while it was on.
- Quest limitation requires you to return to the same spot again and again and again and again.. (and moving around is slow, as I mentioned)
- Quicktravel is not quick enough.
- The environment is very well done, I've found a lot of funny and/or interesting details in the world.
- Lore pieces are hidden in very interesting places (I've found one in the toilets and another on the roof)
- Dialogs are slooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow. Sometimes I simply didn't talk to someone because I didn't want to spend so much time on it.
After reading through all these, you should have the impression that it is a good game. If you don't, then be assured, it is. But the reason I decided not to buy it is the monthly fee.. it is a very slow paced game, and considering the time I have to play, I'd rather choose something with a bit more to achieve in two hours.
If you are curious about something specific, feel free to ask.
I agree with you on the quest markers. Not seeing available quests might become bothersome. Of course, it might be part of the philosophy to keep quests hidden, but combined with the restriction of having only a few missions active, it would be helpful, if they would at least a marker after you have discovered a quest giver.
ReplyDeleteAs a casual player, I find it really hard to remember such things after not logging in for a few days. I don't usually play for hours in one sitting, thus I need a kind of reminder about the things I've seen.
ReplyDeleteObviously, this is not true for all people, but I expect that more people would like this feature than not.
I won't be buying it because a) Funcom and b) I found the oral sex cutscene was a little too much for me. Not a prude, but it just seemed more sexploitive than actually decent writing.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I going to pay attention to its mechanics. Skill-based and more open than most other MMOs, it definitely has some potential to affect how investors invest in the types of MMOs I like. Hopefully not for the worse.