In any case, I suggest steering clear of any games involving Alchemic Dream. It seems they have a jinx about them...lets review their mots recent 4 games-
RF Online- lawl, damn near dead as DnL last I checked.
Archlord- again, damn near as bad as DnL with the same bugs since the beginning of beta
Seed- Cancelled, nuff said
DnL- Biggest piece of shit to grace the MMO scene in a long while
SWG- They weren't part of it but I bet one of them had an SWG acct they played on...
Could just be coincidence that they decide to get a contract with bad developers, but I can't help but feel they've somehow infected these games with their poison and killed them.
Originally posted by n00bit In any case, I suggest steering clear of any games involving Alchemic Dream. It seems they have a jinx about them...lets review their mots recent 4 games- RF Online- lawl, damn near dead as DnL last I checked. Archlord- again, damn near as bad as DnL with the same bugs since the beginning of beta Seed- Cancelled, nuff said DnL- Biggest piece of shit to grace the MMO scene in a long while SWG- They weren't part of it but I bet one of them had an SWG acct they played on... Could just be coincidence that they decide to get a contract with bad developers, but I can't help but feel they've somehow infected these games with their poison and killed them.
I had my run-ins with AD on the DnL forums and in-game. All I can say is that I won't take part in any game that they are involved with in the future. I won't say that my experience was bad with each and every individual from AD but overall it was bad enough!
Played Wow, D and L, AOC, GW, Eve, Rift and many more insignificant games.
Originally posted by Naar You gotta love the fact that these jokers are still making money while the honest abe devs over at Runstone are cleaning out thier desks right now. Life is not fair FTW
100% agree. Seed was very cool, and worthy of more of a chance than DnL.
---------- "Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
A very supeficial review IMO. I expected to learn something about gameplay, but besides stuff like "level 1 mobs are intermixed with lvl 5s" and for "crafting you need 4x4 ingredients" I didn't learn anything from this review. Anyone who read one of their press-releases knows about the promises made, then anyone who read a couple of fanboy - anti-fanboy threads knows about the bugginess and lack of features.
I have played the downloadable Tour, and was in awe at the quality of the engine, EQ2 eat your heart out. And I have the hardware to properly test: E6600/3GB/7950GX2/1600x1200 flatscreen. Best graphics to date (not talking about the animations though). I was even tempted to give the game a try, how bad can it be if it looks so good ? Then I remembered it was a pure PvP game if I'm not mistaken; thanks, I have my PvP fix killing nazis in WW2OL, I don't need any made-up conflicts in a sword-and-board fantasy game, I live in these games to kill dragons and free princesses.
Now, more to the point, I expected the review to give me an insight into the actual gameplay. The review says the gameworld is empty. But how empty? Empty as in Horizons, with huge stretches of land and no mob in sight? Empty as in AC2, with not a single NPC to liven up the world and give a quest? Empty as in Ryzom, with hordes of un-connable mobs around the city but only half a dozen kill tasks - not quests - to do per 50 levels? Empty as in: go kill this fellow player so that we can avoid spending money on making quests and other 'real' content?
Bugs I don't mind, last time I checked even games that had what looks like 100x DnL's budget like EQ2 and WoW had tons of them. But what does DnL play like? Do you just run around killing mobs to increase a few counters as in EQ1 and DAoC? Run around fixing hatches and fighting against the interface as in Seed? Trying to explore and avoid the occasional unconsensual PvP encounter? Setting up huge sieges on a rival guild's castle? What is a DnL player's day like?
Ask a question like that and you're going to get a thousand different answers. I wish I could help you but I haven't played since early June so whatever info I have is obsolete!
Played Wow, D and L, AOC, GW, Eve, Rift and many more insignificant games.
Sorry to see this game fail. I myself is a SWG refugee and was hoping this would take over the spot from the old days of latenight gaming for my part. *sigh* back to WoW.
I purchased and installed this game recently (1 week ago). It's money poorly spent.
Great idea ..huge world ... Everything else is cr4p.
I have played many betas and many online games over the years and I would have to say this is one of the most disappointing releases I have come across. The developers of this game should be emabrressed to release such a poorly written piece of software to the market.
Originally posted by TarquinNZ I purchased and installed this game recently (1 week ago). It's money poorly spent.
Great idea ..huge world ... Everything else is cr4p.
I have played many betas and many online games over the years and I would have to say this is one of the most disappointing releases I have come across. The developers of this game should be emabrressed to release such a poorly written piece of software to the market.
Needless to say I will not be playing it again.
Dan
New Zealand
Well Dan. If you decide to read some of the threads you will find out that there is so much more to this game than just it being crappy! It's actually like a big soap opera that is real life. If you investigate you will probably be very surprised at all the ebbs and flows that this game/companies have caused. But then again... maybe you should just leave well enough alone.
This game kinda reminds me of the song "Hotel California" by the Eagles. I'd hate to degrade a great song by associating it with this game but this one line says it all. "You can check out any time you like but you can never leave..."
Played Wow, D and L, AOC, GW, Eve, Rift and many more insignificant games.
Lets not forget when the official site had a virus. Still no response about that whole debacle & since that entire forum was "archived" they hope everyone will forget about it, along with the hundreds of negative threads. Real professionals at work
Originally posted by JelloB2000 Lets not forget when the official site had a virus. Still no response about that whole debacle & since that entire forum was "archived" they hope everyone will forget about it, along with the hundreds of negative threads. Real professionals at work
Yes! Those were good times. Seems like only yesterday I was purging my computer of the Dnl virus. In fact, it wasn't until recently that I had gotten rid of the last ghosts of DnL with the help of a couple of good samaritans from earlier in this thread...
Thanks again Treysmooth and Razorback! You 2 may have saved my computer!!!( at least from DnL!)
Played Wow, D and L, AOC, GW, Eve, Rift and many more insignificant games.
AD has been flaking for NP3 for a year now. I was in the old beta and can state, without reservation, that the game was completely broken last August. Broken means not working in English for our French speaking friends.
Last January 2005 AD had told the community that the game was nearly finished. April 2005 was a milestone month, it was supposed to hold the last beta wave invite prior to Dark and Light going gold.
April came and we saw no beta wave, in fact AD / NP3 waited until the last minute to announce that the April 2005 beta wave would be delayed, so the community went along with it, we all talked about how we would prefer a well built game and that AD/NP3 should take their time and craft the great game we all expected. The launch of the game was backed up until late Q4 November 2005
Not long after the April 2005 beta wave cancellation NP3 released E3 screenshots of a few racial models. The models had no shading and had a very blocky appearance, the community was split, many thought they looked fine, but others believed that the models looked crude for such a late date in the development of Dark and Light. The models had no armour, they only wore the naked creation clothing that all characters are born with. The only visible armour was worn by the human beta race and it didnt quite fit right and the chest and leg armor mesh didnt line up correctly.
But AD / NP3 told us that they had in house Alpha models that they had to keep hidden from the public because other gaming corporations would steal their bold new graphic models. So we as the community nodded our heads in agreement, the last thing we wanted was some evil company to steal what would be the best new graphic models in a MMOG.
Not too long after E3, AD / NP3 released more game information, we were treated to great ideas about how the super secret tradeskill system would revolutionize the gaming industry. We all cheered and clapped and asked for more information. But, AD told us that they needed to keep the industry redefining tradeskill system secret so evil gaming corporations couldn't steal the grand new system that was finished and ready for the game launch in November 2005.
We all cheered and told them that would be smart, since WoW was our biggest competitor, we all knew that Blizzard would, if it had the chance, steal the industry redefining tradeskill system that NP3 had developed inhouse and was keeping locked down and guarded by a very large Standard Poodle, not the little yapping french poodle mind you, but the freakin big one, the one that weighs 73 kilo and has 4 rows of jagged sharp teeth. We all cheered.
Well late July - August rolled around and the first few cracks on the AD/ NP3 Dark and Light facade began to appear. AD had told us that in late August we would be treated to incredible revelations about the game, new incredible designs and new special game features. But late in August AD told the community that there really was nothing new to announce and in fact it was a rumour or myth that had been started and had no basis in reality. But at the same time AD did announce that they would release new game information in September, new bold game features and crazy great new screenshots, some of us stopped cheering. But other fans, the really wise ones told us to STFU.
August: France goes on vacation so no work on the game is performed. The developers on that cool tropical Island go on a very long holiday as well. But AD has its headquarters in Quebec so they continue the great public relations work they are known for worldwide.
Concurrently, Rogue beta testers begin to post ingame screenshots and tell-all tales of how the game was broken, but the community rallies to NP3 and beats the rogue beta testers down, many fans cheered and clapped because they knew that AD and NP3 would never distribute untruths about the game. We all knew that the game was nearly complete and that a few bad apples always ruin the barrel.
Late September - early October had arrived and AD told us that everything was on track for a November 2005 launch of Dark and Light. We had a few really cool screenshots released by AD, one had an ELF SITTING IN A CHAIR with a FAIRIE, it was fantastic !!! oh the the jubilation!! it was a a MMOG wet dream !!!
Concurently in closed Beta the game known as Dark and Light is utterly broken, stress test is a complete failure.
early-mid October AD announces that they will have a open public stress test client that runs parallel to the closed beta tests, people cheered in anticipation, the grand moment had finally arrived.
Mid-mid October AD announes that NP3 has decided to delay the gold launch until Q1 - 2006 but will have a non open beta beta beta veteran client launch for the real hardcore beta non beta fans.
I just read through this thread because I read the review and was saddened. It seems like the game has amazing potential and just needs a good dev team to finish it up. Unfortunately it has left such a bad taste in so many gamers' mouths that even a buyout might not be able to save it. I must say that the giant argument that took over this thread was by far the most interesting part. I have two things to say about it.
1. In a poll I would vote for Blood.
2. Tep has no room to ever criticize another's English skills.
Liquidmetal - I beta tested this game over 14 months ago and there was nothing in the game world - a few low level mobs was all it had. There was no mock up RvR construction and no NPC's. DnL is a fraud and some lawyer should file a lawsuit against Farlan Entertainment, AD and NP3.
You seem to be incorrectly defining the word potential. I'm fully aware that the game is complete crap. I'm simply saying that if the game would have delivered what it promised it would have been amazing. The world, character development, and seasonal progression all sound like a lot of fun. Just because it was done all wrong doesn't mean that there isn't any potential for the game. If a good game company decided to pick it up and throw a great dev team on it, it could be all it promised and more. Given the amount of damage its done to itself though, I doubt that any noteworthy company will touch it with a ten foot pole.
This game is the same story as SWG, DDO, and I'm sure LOTR will be...
There are plenty of half assed games getting released in beta, but the differance is DDO and SWG have name recognition to hold on to a core fanbase long enough to try to fix things (like DDO is desperatly trying to do in a hurry, and what SWG totally failed at)...
I never thought I'd see a game compared to Mourning... and I never thought I'd see game worse than AC2.
And some people mentioned they will never play a codemasters game: I agree, I'll never play SOE or a Turbine game again (when i heard LOTR was being deved by them I cried and scratched it off of my list)
And to MMORPG.com in general and to the writer of the article specifically:
I understand you are probably not a writer, but a barely literate gamer, but spellcheck will not correct a word further than being correctly SPELLED, if it needs conjugated or put in a different tense it doesn't help.
Epic review review manuver, you phail at english, do a barrel roll!
Of all that is written, I love only what a person has written with his own blood. -Nietzsche
Originally posted by liquidmetal I just read through this thread because I read the review and was saddened. It seems like the game has amazing potential and just needs a good dev team to finish it up. Unfortunately it has left such a bad taste in so many gamers' mouths that even a buyout might not be able to save it. I must say that the giant argument that took over this thread was by far the most interesting part. I have two things to say about it. 1. In a poll I would vote for Blood. 2. Tep has no room to ever criticize another's English skills.
Everyone else was above taking sides...Why weren't you?
Played Wow, D and L, AOC, GW, Eve, Rift and many more insignificant games.
Comments
In any case, I suggest steering clear of any games involving Alchemic Dream. It seems they have a jinx about them...lets review their mots recent 4 games-
RF Online- lawl, damn near dead as DnL last I checked.
Archlord- again, damn near as bad as DnL with the same bugs since the beginning of beta
Seed- Cancelled, nuff said
DnL- Biggest piece of shit to grace the MMO scene in a long while
SWG- They weren't part of it but I bet one of them had an SWG acct they played on...
Could just be coincidence that they decide to get a contract with bad developers, but I can't help but feel they've somehow infected these games with their poison and killed them.
Played Wow, D and L, AOC, GW, Eve, Rift and many more insignificant games.
--------------------------------
Currently Playing: Guild Wars 2 and Path of Exile
Quit: Eden Eternal, Wakfu, DDO, STO, DCUO, Sword 2, Atlantica Online, LOTRO, SWTOR, RIFT, Earthrise, FFXIV, RoM, Allods Online, GA,WAR,CO,V:SoH,POTBS,TR,COH/COV, WOW, DDO,AL, EQ, Eve, L2, AA, Mx0, SWG, SoR, AO, RFO, DAoC, and others.
www.twitter.com/mlwhitt
www.michaelwhitt.com
----------
"Anyone posting on this forum is not an average user, and there for any opinions about the game are going to be overly critical compared to an average users opinions." - Me
"No, your wrong.." - Random user #123
"Hello person posting on a site specifically for MMO's in a thread on a sub forum specifically for a particular game talking about meta features and making comparisons to other titles in the genre, and their meta features.
How are you?" -Me
I have played the downloadable Tour, and was in awe at the quality of the engine, EQ2 eat your heart out. And I have the hardware to properly test: E6600/3GB/7950GX2/1600x1200 flatscreen. Best graphics to date (not talking about the animations though). I was even tempted to give the game a try, how bad can it be if it looks so good
Now, more to the point, I expected the review to give me an insight into the actual gameplay. The review says the gameworld is empty. But how empty? Empty as in Horizons, with huge stretches of land and no mob in sight? Empty as in AC2, with not a single NPC to liven up the world and give a quest? Empty as in Ryzom, with hordes of un-connable mobs around the city but only half a dozen kill tasks - not quests - to do per 50 levels? Empty as in: go kill this fellow player so that we can avoid spending money on making quests and other 'real' content?
Bugs I don't mind, last time I checked even games that had what looks like 100x DnL's budget like EQ2 and WoW had tons of them. But what does DnL play like? Do you just run around killing mobs to increase a few counters as in EQ1 and DAoC? Run around fixing hatches and fighting against the interface as in Seed? Trying to explore and avoid the occasional unconsensual PvP encounter? Setting up huge sieges on a rival guild's castle? What is a DnL player's day like?
Played Wow, D and L, AOC, GW, Eve, Rift and many more insignificant games.
Sorry to see this game fail. I myself is a SWG refugee and was hoping this would take over the spot from the old days of latenight gaming for my part. *sigh* back to WoW.
Wumi
Wumi - SWG - Bloodfin - Cancelled
Wumi - WoW - Eu-Kazzak - Cancelled
Bulldozer - Aion - Eu-Kahrun - Cancelled
Wumi - Rift - EU-Riptalon - Cancelled
Great idea ..huge world ... Everything else is cr4p.
I have played many betas and many online games over the years and I would have to say this is one of the most disappointing releases I have come across. The developers of this game should be emabrressed to release such a poorly written piece of software to the market.
Needless to say I will not be playing it again.
Dan
New Zealand
Well Dan. If you decide to read some of the threads you will find out that there is so much more to this game than just it being crappy! It's actually like a big soap opera that is real life. If you investigate you will probably be very surprised at all the ebbs and flows that this game/companies have caused. But then again... maybe you should just leave well enough alone.
This game kinda reminds me of the song "Hotel California" by the Eagles. I'd hate to degrade a great song by associating it with this game but this one line says it all. "You can check out any time you like but you can never leave..."
Played Wow, D and L, AOC, GW, Eve, Rift and many more insignificant games.
Lets not forget when the official site had a virus. Still no response about that whole debacle & since that entire forum was "archived" they hope everyone will forget about it, along with the hundreds of negative threads.
Real professionals at work
Yes! Those were good times. Seems like only yesterday I was purging my computer of the Dnl virus. In fact, it wasn't until recently that I had gotten rid of the last ghosts of DnL with the help of a couple of good samaritans from earlier in this thread...
Thanks again Treysmooth and Razorback! You 2 may have saved my computer!!!( at least from DnL!)
Played Wow, D and L, AOC, GW, Eve, Rift and many more insignificant games.
Heres a post I made at the stratics.dnl Jan 2006:
Trappin
AD has been flaking for NP3 for a year now. I was in the old beta and can state, without reservation, that the game was completely broken last August. Broken means not working in English for our French speaking friends.
Last January 2005 AD had told the community that the game was nearly finished. April 2005 was a milestone month, it was supposed to hold the last beta wave invite prior to Dark and Light going gold.
April came and we saw no beta wave, in fact AD / NP3 waited until the last minute to announce that the April 2005 beta wave would be delayed, so the community went along with it, we all talked about how we would prefer a well built game and that AD/NP3 should take their time and craft the great game we all expected. The launch of the game was backed up until late Q4 November 2005
Not long after the April 2005 beta wave cancellation NP3 released E3 screenshots of a few racial models. The models had no shading and had a very blocky appearance, the community was split, many thought they looked fine, but others believed that the models looked crude for such a late date in the development of Dark and Light. The models had no armour, they only wore the naked creation clothing that all characters are born with. The only visible armour was worn by the human beta race and it didnt quite fit right and the chest and leg armor mesh didnt line up correctly.
But AD / NP3 told us that they had in house Alpha models that they had to keep hidden from the public because other gaming corporations would steal their bold new graphic models. So we as the community nodded our heads in agreement, the last thing we wanted was some evil company to steal what would be the best new graphic models in a MMOG.
Not too long after E3, AD / NP3 released more game information, we were treated to great ideas about how the super secret tradeskill system would revolutionize the gaming industry. We all cheered and clapped and asked for more information. But, AD told us that they needed to keep the industry redefining tradeskill system secret so evil gaming corporations couldn't steal the grand new system that was finished and ready for the game launch in November 2005.
We all cheered and told them that would be smart, since WoW was our biggest competitor, we all knew that Blizzard would, if it had the chance, steal the industry redefining tradeskill system that NP3 had developed inhouse and was keeping locked down and guarded by a very large Standard Poodle, not the little yapping french poodle mind you, but the freakin big one, the one that weighs 73 kilo and has 4 rows of jagged sharp teeth. We all cheered.
Well late July - August rolled around and the first few cracks on the AD/ NP3 Dark and Light facade began to appear. AD had told us that in late August we would be treated to incredible revelations about the game, new incredible designs and new special game features. But late in August AD told the community that there really was nothing new to announce and in fact it was a rumour or myth that had been started and had no basis in reality. But at the same time AD did announce that they would release new game information in September, new bold game features and crazy great new screenshots, some of us stopped cheering. But other fans, the really wise ones told us to STFU.
August: France goes on vacation so no work on the game is performed. The developers on that cool tropical Island go on a very long holiday as well. But AD has its headquarters in Quebec so they continue the great public relations work they are known for worldwide.
Concurrently, Rogue beta testers begin to post ingame screenshots and tell-all tales of how the game was broken, but the community rallies to NP3 and beats the rogue beta testers down, many fans cheered and clapped because they knew that AD and NP3 would never distribute untruths about the game. We all knew that the game was nearly complete and that a few bad apples always ruin the barrel.
Late September - early October had arrived and AD told us that everything was on track for a November 2005 launch of Dark and Light. We had a few really cool screenshots released by AD, one had an ELF SITTING IN A CHAIR with a FAIRIE, it was fantastic !!! oh the the jubilation!! it was a a MMOG wet dream !!!
Concurently in closed Beta the game known as Dark and Light is utterly broken, stress test is a complete failure.
early-mid October AD announces that they will have a open public stress test client that runs parallel to the closed beta tests, people cheered in anticipation, the grand moment had finally arrived.
Mid-mid October AD announes that NP3 has decided to delay the gold launch until Q1 - 2006 but will have a non open beta beta beta veteran client launch for the real hardcore beta non beta fans.
At this point I walk away from the game.
I just read through this thread because I read the review and was saddened. It seems like the game has amazing potential and just needs a good dev team to finish it up. Unfortunately it has left such a bad taste in so many gamers' mouths that even a buyout might not be able to save it. I must say that the giant argument that took over this thread was by far the most interesting part. I have two things to say about it.
1. In a poll I would vote for Blood.
2. Tep has no room to ever criticize another's English skills.
Liquidmetal - I beta tested this game over 14 months ago and there was nothing in the game world - a few low level mobs was all it had. There was no mock up RvR construction and no NPC's. DnL is a fraud and some lawyer should file a lawsuit against Farlan Entertainment, AD and NP3.
There is no potential. Its garbage.
You seem to be incorrectly defining the word potential. I'm fully aware that the game is complete crap. I'm simply saying that if the game would have delivered what it promised it would have been amazing. The world, character development, and seasonal progression all sound like a lot of fun. Just because it was done all wrong doesn't mean that there isn't any potential for the game. If a good game company decided to pick it up and throw a great dev team on it, it could be all it promised and more. Given the amount of damage its done to itself though, I doubt that any noteworthy company will touch it with a ten foot pole.
This game is the same story as SWG, DDO, and I'm sure LOTR will be...
There are plenty of half assed games getting released in beta, but the differance is DDO and SWG have name recognition to hold on to a core fanbase long enough to try to fix things (like DDO is desperatly trying to do in a hurry, and what SWG totally failed at)...
I never thought I'd see a game compared to Mourning... and I never thought I'd see game worse than AC2.
And some people mentioned they will never play a codemasters game: I agree, I'll never play SOE or a Turbine game again (when i heard LOTR was being deved by them I cried and scratched it off of my list)
And to MMORPG.com in general and to the writer of the article specifically:
I understand you are probably not a writer, but a barely literate gamer, but spellcheck will not correct a word further than being correctly SPELLED, if it needs conjugated or put in a different tense it doesn't help.
Epic review review manuver, you phail at english, do a barrel roll!
Of all that is written, I love only what a person has written with his own blood. -Nietzsche
Played Wow, D and L, AOC, GW, Eve, Rift and many more insignificant games.