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Albion Online - Fresh Review
SirAgravaine
Member RarePosts: 520
VISUALS & SOUND 6 | This game was built to be a crossover between mobile, so for anyone that personally can't stand mobile compatible graphics (very low end) or the Albion Online art direction (like myself), I would give it a pass. The zones have a sense of scale that a lot of other isometric games do not have, however, and I appreciated the effect of harvesting materials from the world (chopping down trees, breaking stone, etc.). Sidenote: The customization of characters and the variety of armor also leaves quite a lot to be desired.
GAMEPLAY 6 | The gameplay is very repetitive and very grindy. This is coming from an MMORPG veteran of 16+ years to include a variety of grindy games (Asheron's Call being my first). Instead of utilizing levels, they basically compacted levels into "Tiers" and gave you objective-oriented tasks to grind to unlock access to the tiers (gear, tools, materials etc.). Everything in the game is slow and repetitive. I found myself looking at zones not based on how interesting they might be (they aren't) but based on what tiered materials (listed on the map) that they offer.
PVP is the primary focus of the game and as such lends itself to a simplistic version of an isometric MOBA or ARPG. The PVP is more about zerging and ganking than it is about skill, strategy, or alliance-based warfare as it tends to be in other PVP focused games.
POLISH 7 | While the game's visuals are limited by the crossover compatibility, the game's polish overall where I would expect a mobile-friendly game to be. This rating will likely go up post-Galahad as they are further polishing the UI and PVE mechanics.
LONGEVITY 7 | The longevity of this game depends on the player's habits. If they are into mobile games, find themselves on their phone or tablet more than their computer or console, I would say this game will definitely carry them through a few years.
VALUE: 4 | Currently listed at $30.00 for initial (read: early) entry to the game, I don't think that the value is quite there. If I could send myself this review, prior to purchasing it, I would probably not have shelled out $30 to buy it.
| Pros |
 Easy to learn Classless Game is nearly ready for launch Crafting intensive/player ran shops |
| Cons |
 Too simplistic Grindy in a bad way Repetitive content PvP is meh |
Recommendations (genre-specific):
MMORPG vet: No
ARPG vet: No
PVP vet: No
Crafting vet: Maybe
Mobile Gamer: Yes
Comments
Based on your description my scores would be lower.
Visuals:I have seen better more than 15 years ago,so their standards are way outdated and therefor not even a 5 but more so a 3/10.
Gameplay:I would have to play it because your description does not really tell me much,so i can't rate it.In all honesty gameplay is such a massive discussion you would likely need 10 pages to describe i properly under each and every facet of the game.
Polish: i have and always will hate this aspect of game scoring.Th simple reason is because if dev A is using dated old and simplistic coding/animations/scripts etc etc,they SHOULD be able to polish it with near flawless results.Then you get dev B who goes way beyond the efforts of DEV A in trying to create the most immersive and content rich game ever known to mankind is way more likely to have bugs,errors whatever,so it is NOT a fair measuring tool.
Personally i auto give the better effort a much higher score than the dev just doing dated basics.Sounds to me like this is not a game that is tough to polish,so i give it low marks like a 5/10.
Longevity/value :They go hand in hand,if there is longevity then it most certainly has value.This again is an area far too big a scope to explain in a few paragraphs,so i cannot rate this.
There is way more that i look at when i enter a game,it is like i see something i am judgmental on every few seconds.My eyes and brain are scanning everywhere in a game and if i see too many areas that turn me off,i am logging out quickly.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
It's been well-populated and empty at different times during the development cycle. A lot of people got sick of the endless beta. I'm guessing that it will be very populated at release.
Ashes of Creation: https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Archangelus/
Worst decision they have done is "Wanting to be a truely cross plattform game" - which by the way. no ARPG game has ever achieved yet, beside card games. This led to those "simplistic features" in nearly every aspect, e.g.
I for myself saw improvement over the last year or so, but if you ask me "What was your takeaway experience" it would be:
- Grind Driven
- No Learning Curve as Solo player - so no real Skill involved (nothing to master)
- Group PvP might involve at least some setup / tactic
- mostly ruled by big Alliances / Zergs (e.g. Russians seem to dig it) - that will most likely cockblock you as small guild to progress further into the game
For me it would end like1.) The game-play is nothing more than that of a pvp MOBA, League OF Legends, DOTA 2, or Smite, with like 5v5 duels and fights / skirmishes.
. Speaking of such Albion has watered down character - models, and graphics compared to that of Heroes OF Incredible Tales, or a MOBA, even Android versions of MOBA, such as vainglory have better graphics and models.
. The skill system also operates exactly like a MOBA.
2.) Mobile Gamers are at a serious disadvantage compared to those of a PC I tried it on my android device, and playing the PC version had an advantage over those who use a Mobile device.
3.) I guess the best part about Albion is the crafting system in general, this is the main and only reason I played the game was to be a crafter because I quit Arche Age and got bored and I was a big Crafter over there.
4.) The game is P2A (Pay 2 Advance Faster)
. Its F2P but the resource gain values are huge vs those who don't pay for at least one premium account when gathering, if you just combat 24/7 get free gear its not problem though.
. Farming its always best to have a minimum of 3 characters and max level farms + Premium on all 3 characters.
. If you don't pay don't expect to enjoy some people might be able to but I personally couldn't if I didn't pay for a premium subscription.
5.) Additional problems with the game between Alpha / Beta and lame things the developers have done.
. Removed most the housing aspects / blueprints from the game.
. Removed resource transmute / downgrade of higher tiers to lower tiers.
. Threw in Food to feed buildings as a way to make sure buildings keep getting used or get demolished.
. Give very little space on Private islands to build your own complete island for crafting.
. Fix it so once you have an island in a city you can't freely move it its instanced makes no sense.
. Server / Game has open exploits, hackers, bots, and cheaters, with no anti-cheat as well as the ability to commit fraud, they have no anti-cheat or way to fully control this vs smart people.
6.) Over All the game has brought nothing new to the genre.
The Crafting system in General is not amazing its not unique, I explain why.
. Dark Fall, Rise OF Agon, might have been an older game, but it has major differences between a quality game and Albion Online, in Dark Fall for example you can have 50 vs 50 Sieges / fights for a castle, you can fight on the sea, and you gather resources from trees, and mines / quarry just as you would in Albion Online.
Dark Fall, has failed before, but the graphics, and character models as well as game play and crafting are still better in general than in Albion.
Final Fantasy XIV, I don't exactly love the game but even this game has just as good of a crafting system than Albion Online and similar gathering methods except a bit more with a controller instead of a mouse and keyboard.
Arche Age, Although IMO it was ruined because Trion, the crafting system was just as good as Albion Online
Upcoming Games, Personally I think the upcoming games, Crow Fall, Ashes OF Creation, Dauntless, Life is Feudal, will all have a better crafting system than this game, or equal to such, so if the only reason you are thinking about playing this game is because of the crafting system, then there are plenty of newer upcoming games to give a try if you are a PC Gamer. Oh and I forget Camelot Unchained maybe on this list too
7.) Personally I think to myself 4 years, your releasing this game next month, and this is all you have come up with. And then I watch the videos of actual game developers, and I am just like WOW the graphics are beautiful, like Black Desert, but only better, and these are actual talented artists, not someone who sits behind a computer for 4 years "Scripting a Door" to open in a game engine, or writing a few lines of code to tell food what to do in a game, but actual artists who do the work , make it look beautiful, and write the lines of code.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4rcj63qwUI
I am likely not a game developer but my friend who programs sure the hell is on the level of coding, and I have seen how game code is wrote myself to understand that 4 years and this is all that has came up with it imo makes Entropia Universe, and Second Life look like a better game considering people over there can write a few lines of code and make a door open or close, and about 50 lines of code to make a carrot refill a HP-Bar and spells attack and lower HP, not to mention the character models are custom mode mesh these days so its 100x better than Albion even being a virtual simulator from 2000, and Entropia has better models too.
If you want to be a plate wearing wizard or a stealthy medium armor with a greataxe you can. I think there are 200+ combinations and they ALL matter. If you look at the kills feed on the main website you can see everyone wears their own customisable setup. I've seen Wizards with a few armor plates and warriors with medium armor because medium/light armor is more dps. On top of that you can switch your armor on the fly. Say you want to specialize in axe fighting. There are great axes, battle axes, halberds and many many more. I say axe fighting because thats all im limited to because i don't want to spend 2 days leveling up my swords maces hammers beyond tier 3 because as a t5 fighter i dont want to go on an expedition using crappy weapons but thats just me....
Guilds that matter
So many games where guilds are the biggest asset to the player. In Albion Online, you are an asset to your guild. The guild taxes you on every silver you aquire in turn funds putting a new set of sparkly armor on new recruits to fight wars for them. It's like the government in a way. Alliance's make getting into ANY guild worthwhile. In all the precious resource areas there's full on pvp. Meaning you have to have back or you lose a day's worth of grindin. Sounds like fun right? Anyway, coordinated efforts can mean you can progress in the game instead of being stuck in t4 like a choir boy. Being able to get access to different crafters can mean weeks to months saved trying to do it yourself. I'm telling you! You try crafting your own set of armor plus the essential needed to survive with options is near impossible. I've only leveled up ore mining and lumberjacking and that covers axe's and mace's. If you want a full repretoir of options in weapons you need on the fly you need someone else to aquire it for you. You gain about 50 fame out of one node and you need around 30000 just to mine something else or lumberjack higher material. It's tedious to think you can do it by yourself which brings me up to the next topic......
Time worthwhile
Every action you do you gain fame the game's experience points. Everytime you smelt some copper ores you gain experience towards smelting the best ore i forgot what its called. There is no point of no return. Everything is worthwhile to do. And all your progress is saved along with your character. You can play this 10 minutes a day and those 10 minutes are meaningful. It's not just about hitting the numbers. It's about what you want to do with your game the journey that makes it worthwhile. If i want to dedicate a day of farming, it increases my combat who would have thought!? the chicken omellets reduces cooldowns and plus with the game economy you can sell your feed to other people to gain silver to fund your weaponry plus farming is needed to maintain your laborers. Anyway, farming along with lumberjacking and iron mining is interchangeable to your main goal. As long as you have a goal. Setting goals and working every day to achieve them is what makes this game worthwhile. It's time well spent.
Cons:
3 ability combat
There is nothing worse than a shallow game. Beyond the things you can do in this game if the method to aquire those things ends with a game that plays like Minecraft then i can say abandon ship. Luckily, this ain't minecraft. But the thing is, its probably only 2 levels above minecraft. I don't know where to start...Let me see, Tanks that don't taunt. enemy mobs that go straight for the healer or dps ignoring the tank's plea to attack them. Mages being OP and tanks being utterly useless. There is limited tank abilities to make tanks feel like, well tanks. I'm a raid character in Everquest, WoW and Rift. I know how to tank. First off, everyone starts off with 1000 hit points. The difference between a t5 plate wearer like myself and a similar tier mage is 200 hp. There's not enough meat in this armor Captain! This is probably the biggest turnoff in this whole game.
Moba like trinity mechanics (Dps are gods)
There is NO trinity! Im not saying there is no use for different classes, they have many which you can make up but they will NOT attack you if you are wearing plate for a good 15-30 seconds which is not good for high tiered expeditions. I've literally died in the first 10 seconds of a fight that had many enemy mobs and everytime dps will survive and the healer will outtank me and im just the most worthless thing to have ever existed in Albion. They need to balance the classes. There is a reason why few people queue up as tanks. In LoL tanks are so worthless unless you get to the end, Same here as Albion! I bet 2 healers and 3 dps can survive and outdo any expedition normally set up for tank, healer 3 dps.
Being a Niche'
Thought i'd add this for you guys...Being a niche means you don't get the popularity of being mainstream. This isn't a mainstream game. And it will never be one. There is no eye popping visuals or heartstopping combat. There is nothing valuable in this game and offers nothing of value to the player or the genre for that instance. It just exists and that leads me to my conclusion...
Conclusion:
Coming from a mainly mmorpg background since 1999 and playing many games rpg or mmorpg alike im preparing to give this game an average rating. But play it anyway though! There is not enough fun factor to justify it and all the time spent playing it but its different enough. There is no comparison to this game to any game out there. It's lackadaisical, boring but the mmorpg player in me says Play it until you get level 100 in knights combat specialist. Which i will. It's different enough to try, not different enough and very simplistic in the destiny board and skill trees to play this while a better mmorpg comes along...I will be main gaming this because there is nothing else to play in this market until Pantheon RotF comes out. This is a better Runescape i can guarantee you on that.
One thing i strongly disagree with is
"This is a better Runescape i can guarantee you on that."
Runescape imo is better in every conceivable way an MMORPG can be .
This takes the cake.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
What are the main differences?
P.S.
They are resorting to outright LIES to get some last minute cash before the ship sinks. Late 2016 they advertised it as "final beta", then broke that deadline by another few months with final beta 2. Now their frontpage is advertising the game as "brand new game 2017". It is a travesty to call this comatose vegetable "brand new". It's been stuck in development hell for 3 years due to incompetence, and they have the nerve to advertise it as brand new.
even autistic gathering resources is suicidal when done on mobile, you will die constantly.
And I have PvP'd in 3D in mobile, it's just a different reality and it adapts to the platform.
I was optimistic and gave them the benefit of the doubt for a very long time. In the current state, if this game is still alive 2 months after release, I'll be a monkey's uncle.
Maybe they call it a sandbox because every zone is shaped like a sandbox!
Silliness aside though it does offer more than other games of the same type in certain areas like character progression and group pvp.
I agree it was a huge mistake to go the cross platform route and make the game look/play more like an app game than PC game but if you can overlook that like I have there is something there that doesn't completely suck.