Blade and Soul Review by a Lv 45

Battousai28

Ahoy,

I have seen lots of reviews of this game from 5/10 to 8.5/10. However, I don't believe the people reviewing the game got to the end before the review. I wanted to give everyone my review of the game after hitting Level 45.

Here is the link to the video, but I have listed my opinions below in case you don't want to watch the more detailed version.

CONS

Very Linear - Game has a very linear progression. At some points you can't even proceed without completing the main quest line. This really takes away from an Open World feel.

Gold Spammers - The games has been plagued with Gold Spammers. I block 5-10 each day, but they keep coming back. It is manageable now versus before, but still takes away from the community aspect of the game. 

Sending Mail - You cannot send mail in game unless you buy $5.00 worth of NcCoin. This by far is the biggest BS ever. 

Marketplace - You are limited to what you can sell on the marketplace (auction house) each day. In a game where money is very hard to come by, this is a real drag.

Outfits - I love the outfit idea, but rewards in this game usually are outfits, so everyone is wearing the same outfit if they don’t want to pay real money. Also, if you want to participate in World PvP, you need a certain outfit on. It would be nice if you could change your look of your outfit, like you can your weapon. The good in this is the customization is good, so at least you look different, even with he same clothes.

Repetitive Questing - This is in many MMORPGS these days, but the quests are mind numbing. Also, I don’t like the minimap telling you where to go and what to do. I think questing would be better if it were like the old days, where you actually had to listen or read the quest to know what to do. Might make questing more interesting instead of a grind.

Level 45 Wall - At level 45 you hit the wall. Everything gets 4 times as expensive, so you have to grind the same dungeons over and over. Since the loot system is an auction, you are competing with others for the same materials, so the price to win is steep! Wish there was less of a Farm fest at 45. I think this is why people say there is no end game. Hopefully the patch will change that....

PROS

Combat - The combat is still amazing even at level 45. As you level up you get new skill points that modify your current skills. This makes for a constant change and a lot of fun. and it’s free to change you skills around as you like!

PvP - The PvP in this game is a lot of fun. The 1v1 arena, and 3v3 arenas are great, because you are all scaled to the same level. Yes your amount of skill points matter s you have an advantage at lv 45 over a level 20, but your gear doesn’t. So with the endgame the way it is you don’t have to grind to compete in arena PvP. Also, the World PvP is a lot of fun. There are "Raid" bosses to kill as a certain faction that you compete with other factions over. Everywhere I go there is someone to fight as long as I have my outfit on!

Dungeons - The dungeons especially at End game are a lot of fun. Because there is no real tank or healer, you have to be very interactive and move out of the way. And the Bosses are no push overs; you have to time your knockdowns and stuns. The video shows a boss fight if you want to check it out.

Crafting - This is more of a PRO than a con. I think it is a con because how difficult it is to farm and make items, but the PRO is that it is actually lucrative. I made the most money from crafting. It is not an in depth crafting system by any means, but the actually use of crafting is a vital part of the economy, which I like. 

FINAL REVIEW 

Even though there are more CONS than PROS, some of the cons are more of a pet peeve. They do not take away from the fun that the PROS have to offer. Yes this game is tailored to a very specific crowd, but I think if you can get through some of the cons the game is A LOT of fun. As an old school gamer and PvP lover, I would give this game an 8/10. However, I think that number changes based on who you are and what you enjoy. 

Cheers!

VanvierseGaming

JDis25

I approve this review!

The only thing I disagree with is that Outfits are a con - I think outfits are done very well in this game. There is a good mix of in-game rewards, random drops, and cash shop outfits available.

Another thing I don't mind is the bid wars in dungeons.  Not much that drops in dungeons is THAT rare at all, and if it is, the winning bid amount is shared by all parties in the group.  A couple of dungeon runs where something nice drops can net you some good gold. I have made 3 gold from just two quick runs from bidding as rare outfit pieces dropped twice in a row, plus the daily quests and such.

While bidding on the fly sounds scary, it isn't any scarier than dice rolls I have come to realize.

Good write-up though

simsalabim77

I think this is pretty fair. It's a four year old MMO with a lot of "outdated" MMO tropes like pretty much every other MMORPG to come out in the last decade. At least B&S is carried by the best combat to exist in an MMO. Like seriously, the combat blows every other game out of the water. A sandbox, it is not. A decent themepark, it is. The only MMORPG that has combat that doesn't put me to sleep. For sure. 

rojoArcueid

Fair review, there are a lot of valid points.

I dont mind paying the $5 to unlock mailing because i knew i was going to spend $5 on an extra character slot. 

They should have locked the Wardrobe behind those $5 dollars instead of (or along with) mailing. That is my biggest problem with the game right now. I LOVE the outfits, but i will not subscribe just to clear up my inventory from outfits. And to add insult to injury, outfits are not tradeable so i cannot make an alt character to use as a bank.

Im happy i paid $10 dollars for 2 character slots and also got a couple of inventory lines, if they want to see more of my money they have to do something about the wardrobe. I would purchase the wardrobe for a fixed price, but i wont subscribe to get that basic feature.

Mikeha

Good review.

LacedOpium

You did a much better job with your review than many so called professionals do with theirs.  And you get extra credit for  adding a video to supplement your review.

simsalabim77

0/10 there are boob physics!

holdenhamlet

simsalabim77 said:

0/10 there are boob physics!

Great combat- who cares?  There are jiggly boobs.  5.2/10, and it's lucky to get that much!

simsalabim77

holdenhamlet said:

simsalabim77 said:

0/10 there are boob physics!

Great combat- who cares?  There are jiggly boobs.  5.2/10, and it's lucky to get that much!

The .2 is because he secretly like boobs. 

Axehilt

Battousai28 said:

 I think questing would be better if it were like the old days, where you actually had to listen or read the quest to know what to do. Might make questing more interesting instead of a grind.

Still strange to me that people want games where you spend a good chunk of your time looking up locations on a wiki.

The internet is mature now, so "here's a vague description, go find what I'm describing" is no longer a good quest design.

simsalabim77

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

Axehilt said:

Battousai28 said:

 I think questing would be better if it were like the old days, where you actually had to listen or read the quest to know what to do. Might make questing more interesting instead of a grind.

Still strange to me that people want games where you spend a good chunk of your time looking up locations on a wiki.

The internet is mature now, so "here's a vague description, go find what I'm describing" is no longer a good quest design.

If the quest text is well written, like e.g. during Vanilla WoW, you don't need to check a wiki... and part of the fun is to figure out eventual riddles in the text, too.

Questing will always be a boring grind. SWTOR was about as good as MMORPG questing gets, and even with all the VO and storylines, killing 10 womprats was still a snoozefest. I never liked questing in MMORPGs. It seems really hard to make a quest that's supposed to be epic actually epic. 

"The hero of the galaxy is here! Our main operating base is under attack. You are our only hope..."

Queue epic music
Me: This is going to be epic!
Reality: Go kill 10 mindlessly easy enemies and bring me their pocket lint. 

It just doesn't work very well, IMO. 

anonentity

Got to level 7 i think and uninstalled.

Just not my cup of tea anymore. I used to think it was fun to play mmo's like this but no longer.

holdenhamlet

simsalabim77 said:

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

Axehilt said:

Battousai28 said:

 I think questing would be better if it were like the old days, where you actually had to listen or read the quest to know what to do. Might make questing more interesting instead of a grind.

Still strange to me that people want games where you spend a good chunk of your time looking up locations on a wiki.

The internet is mature now, so "here's a vague description, go find what I'm describing" is no longer a good quest design.

If the quest text is well written, like e.g. during Vanilla WoW, you don't need to check a wiki... and part of the fun is to figure out eventual riddles in the text, too.

Questing will always be a boring grind. SWTOR was about as good as MMORPG questing gets, and even with all the VO and storylines, killing 10 womprats was still a snoozefest. I never liked questing in MMORPGs. It seems really hard to make a quest that's supposed to be epic actually epic. 

"The hero of the galaxy is here! Our main operating base is under attack. You are our only hope..."

Queue epic music
Me: This is going to be epic!
Reality: Go kill 10 mindlessly easy enemies and bring me their pocket lint. 

It just doesn't work very well, IMO. 

Yeah I agree.  I've played a lot of MMOs and the only ones where I actually enjoyed the leveling were ffxi and Warhammer.  The reason I enjoyed them is because they had nothing to do with quests and involved working with other people.  FFXI was group grinding and Warhammer was group battleground pvp.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

simsalabim77

blueturtle13 said:

Everquest 2's Heritage Quests to me are the best quests in any mmo. They are multilayered, multi zoned and require a long detailed list of things to do and not just kill quests. Great stories behind them and you get the legendary whatever it is to keep for your home after it is all done. No other mmo in my opinion can compete with their Heritage quests. The chain of quests involved feel epic. Besides crafting, that is my favorite part of the game and one of the reasons I have stayed subbing for 10 years now.

That sounds pretty cool. Are there a lot of them or few and far between?

netglen

simsalabim77 said:

That sounds pretty cool. Are there a lot of them or few and far between?

There are quite a few. Here is a link to the EQ2 Heritage Timeline. 

"These quests are all heroic or epic in nature, and are more difficult to complete than normal quests. The rewards are familiar items from EverQuest. Signature Quests, which are similar in length and difficulty to Heritage Quests but reward items unique to EverQuest II"

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Scripture1

I was looking for a review like this. I'm only lvl 23 but I can already agree with much of what you said. Thanks!

Axehilt

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

If the quest text is well written, like e.g. during Vanilla WoW, you don't need to check a wiki... and part of the fun is to figure out eventual riddles in the text, too.

Well wall-o-text quest design isn't optimal either. We can't fully distance ourselves from it yet, because we don't really have the tools to efficiently create enough content to avoid it.

But basically the player inhabits this fully visualized world and it's rather disruptive for story to be told not in that visualized world, but inside a tiny UI text-box.

Instead, games should push more and more to portray their story in the same visualized world that the player lives in.  It'll probably still involve text for along time (until text-to-speech technology is good enough that voiceacting costs can be avoided), but it would be text chat-bubbles in the game world as characters act out the story, rather than just a UI.

ButeoRegalis

Axehilt said:

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

If the quest text is well written, like e.g. during Vanilla WoW, you don't need to check a wiki... and part of the fun is to figure out eventual riddles in the text, too.

Well wall-o-text quest design isn't optimal either. We can't fully distance ourselves from it yet, because we don't really have the tools to efficiently create enough content to avoid it.

But basically the player inhabits this fully visualized world and it's rather disruptive for story to be told not in that visualized world, but inside a tiny UI text-box.

Instead, games should push more and more to portray their story in the same visualized world that the player lives in.  It'll probably still involve text for along time (until text-to-speech technology is good enough that voiceacting costs can be avoided), but it would be text chat-bubbles in the game world as characters act out the story, rather than just a UI.

Not sure about this. Remember how SWTOR originally had almost all quests voiced and played out in little cutscenes? People couldn't space-bar fast enough through these.

Axehilt

ButeoRegalis said:

Not sure about this. Remember how SWTOR originally had almost all quests voiced and played out in little cutscenes? People couldn't space-bar fast enough through these.

1. Well you can see how "stopped gameplay in a real-time interactive world" is the exact same type of problem as "text-box in a visual world". So yes, TOR's quests would've been better had they happened in a non-interrupting way where you're quickly given a place to go and then more story is fed to you during travel and during gameplay, while you're still fully in control of what's happening.  I just had to keep things concise since the prior post really wasn't about going into crazy details on that topic.
2. That said, TOR's quests are generally considered pretty solid.  In fact with the new TOR xpack it's surprisingly only had positive stuff said about it here.
3. That said, TOR's quests fail in one very important way: variety.  Literally the easiest way a quest system creates variety is by having Quest A send you to kill Mob Types 1-3 and Quest B sends you to kill Mob Types 4-6, and have those mob types actually play differently.  In TOR nearly every mob in the game is the same.  So all the kill quests are very repetitive (sure those mobs look different, but the gameplay is identical.) 

WAR was much the same way.  Both WAR and TOR varied mobs in literally the worst possible manner. Most mobs had no special abilities (most boring possible mob design), a few mobs had a DoT (second most boring because you can't do anything about it; it doesn't change how you play), and a few mobs had a stun (the most annoying possible mob design.)

LacedOpium

simsalabim77 said:

Jean-Luc_Picard said:

Axehilt said:

Battousai28 said:

 I think questing would be better if it were like the old days, where you actually had to listen or read the quest to know what to do. Might make questing more interesting instead of a grind.

Still strange to me that people want games where you spend a good chunk of your time looking up locations on a wiki.

The internet is mature now, so "here's a vague description, go find what I'm describing" is no longer a good quest design.

If the quest text is well written, like e.g. during Vanilla WoW, you don't need to check a wiki... and part of the fun is to figure out eventual riddles in the text, too.

Questing will always be a boring grind. SWTOR was about as good as MMORPG questing gets, and even with all the VO and storylines, killing 10 womprats was still a snoozefest. I never liked questing in MMORPGs. It seems really hard to make a quest that's supposed to be epic actually epic. 

"The hero of the galaxy is here! Our main operating base is under attack. You are our only hope..."

Queue epic music
Me: This is going to be epic!
Reality: Go kill 10 mindlessly easy enemies and bring me their pocket lint. 

It just doesn't work very well, IMO. 

MMORPG questing has been, for the most part, boring.  But I don't agree that it will always be a boring grind.  That's a rather pessimistic POV.  As mentioned, there have been a few MMORPGs in which questing has been made interesting, it's just that developers are too lazy to put in the effort to make questing a more enjoyable experiencing.  Secret World is an MMORPG that does questing rather well. Although they may have set the complexity level in them a bit too high for the masses.  There have been others as well, such as EQ2s Heritage quests, and many of the FFXI quests where rather good as well, although too few and far in between.  I think that a good place to start would be to make games with fewer quests, but the ones that are given are chained and more in-depth.  Perhaps giving XP for every section completed as well as gaining XP by killing mobs and completing puzzles and/or finding solutions to problems.  Long story short, I don't think it's an absolute that quests will always be a grind.  They can be done right.  Developers just need to put a little more thought into them and make them a development priority.   

holdenhamlet

Axehilt said:

ButeoRegalis said:

Not sure about this. Remember how SWTOR originally had almost all quests voiced and played out in little cutscenes? People couldn't space-bar fast enough through these.

1. Well you can see how "stopped gameplay in a real-time interactive world" is the exact same type of problem as "text-box in a visual world". So yes, TOR's quests would've been better had they happened in a non-interrupting way where you're quickly given a place to go and then more story is fed to you during travel and during gameplay, while you're still fully in control of what's happening.  I just had to keep things concise since the prior post really wasn't about going into crazy details on that topic.
2. That said, TOR's quests are generally considered pretty solid.  In fact with the new TOR xpack it's surprisingly only had positive stuff said about it here.
3. That said, TOR's quests fail in one very important way: variety.  Literally the easiest way a quest system creates variety is by having Quest A send you to kill Mob Types 1-3 and Quest B sends you to kill Mob Types 4-6, and have those mob types actually play differently.  In TOR nearly every mob in the game is the same.  So all the kill quests are very repetitive (sure those mobs look different, but the gameplay is identical.) 

WAR was much the same way.  Both WAR and TOR varied mobs in literally the worst possible manner. Most mobs had no special abilities (most boring possible mob design), a few mobs had a DoT (second most boring because you can't do anything about it; it doesn't change how you play), and a few mobs had a stun (the most annoying possible mob design.)

WAR was unique because if you didn't like quests, you didn't have to do them at all ever.  I leveled to cap completely through scenarios (group battlegrounds).

SWTOR's questing is often praised but I hated it.  The writing and voice acting was crap, imo, just like all MMOs.  Just because the game had a hell of a lot of it, doesn't mean it's any better.  It actually makes the problem far worse.

I don't know exactly how to "fix questing" other than to find ways to avoid it, or in the case of Blade and Soul, make it relatively quick to get through it.

As LacedOpium mentioned, the quests in FFXI were actually really good.  That's because they weren't the main method of leveling and there were few of them, so they didn't get repetitive.

Even if you make the most fantastic quests full of variety, they're still single player activities, and I don't play MMOs for that.  Neither do most people- that's why they race to cap so they can group with people or fight against people.

tet666

I don't agree with most of it and btw there was allrdy a content patch yesterday so bitching about the lack of content is a bit strange.

xpsync

blueturtle13 said:

Everquest 2's Heritage Quests to me are the best quests in any mmo. They are multilayered, multi zoned and require a long detailed list of things to do and not just kill quests. Great stories behind them and you get the legendary whatever it is to keep for your home after it is all done. No other mmo in my opinion can compete with their Heritage quests. The chain of quests involved feel epic. Besides crafting, that is my favorite part of the game and one of the reasons I have stayed subbing for 10 years now.

I could not agree more, nothing has ever come close to the immersion into the world that those would give, and the memories that came along with them. I remember standing atop the spiral stairs in Stormhold and my friend said "I'm going to get that sword one day" before either of knew the epic journeys we were about to embark on. I imagine that says it all right there, you weren't really playing an mmo, you were on a Journey, adventuring throughout the world and it's stories.

azurrei

One of the few complaints I have about BnS is the community - it sucks, horribly.  The number of *#$@ heads in game is astounding...well, maybe not as usually games popular for its PvP have a lot of *#$*# playing them - so maybe I shouldn't be all that surprised - I usually go for the PvE-RP servers as they tend to be more friendly...sadly didn't have that option for this game.