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DARKFALL: Beta Review - Buyer Guide (Long)
I've been in beta only for a couple of weeks, but this is not my first beta so I believe I am able to provide a decent review of this one.
I will try to make a review as unbiased as possible, because I don't want people buying this game and being disappointed.
Only certain people should buy this game (more to follow).
But keep in mind that it is my opinion, and I might have missed few things, in which case I will get corrected by more experienced testers.
Just to make it clear, I want Darkfall to succeed but...............there are some buts.
First of all I have to say that Darkfall is not Dark and Light (DnL) by any means, so I am sad to disappoint the haters, but the game exists and it is in fairly good shape, compared to other over hyped and over funded crap.
Unfortunately DF is not what you will call a complete MMORPG either, so haters will have also reasons to cheer.
In my honest opinion DF is more or less at the same point AoC was at release, the PvE content of both games is lacking big time.
Aventurine didn't have the time to fill the world with mobs and quests.
But there is a big difference between DF, AoC and maybe Vanguard.
DF client is solid as a rock, in 2 weeks I never ever crashed, and feedbacks by other testers confirm my point.
So AV won't have to spend 1 year to fix a crappy client, and they can concentrate in implementing content only and balancing the game.
Before I get started with the detailed review per sections, I just want to make a bold statemet: Darkfall is not by any means a game for everyone, just to give you some reference DF is a mix between Ultima Online and Shadowbane, so if you tried one of those 2 games and didn't like them, you won't like DF.
If you are or were a fan of those 2 you will probably like DF.
So let's start with the review:
*THE GOOD*
-CLIENT: Excellent
It never crashes, I tested around 20 MMORPG, this one is the best I tested, Aventurine wasn't lieing on that, well done AV.
-THE WORLD: Excellent
The world is beautiful, it is big and there are some very nice point of interests, detailed and well made.
Unfortunately there is a lot of empty space between those point of interest, but the world is big so it should be obvious.
Another good thing about the world is the fact that it looks handmade not randomly created like in some recent MMOs.
If you are an exploreryou will love Agon
-THE PVP: Good
The PVP mechanics need to be adjusted and balanced a bit, but as it is now is already good fun.
I am in favour to permanently mark as criminal players who kill their own race, but that's my opinion.
Archery is a bit too overpowered at low levels while Magic is underpowered, not sure what will happen when you advance with the skills.
Rogue system needs to be adjusted IMO.
But the good thing about DF is that by not having levels, 1 to 1 fights are always very close
-COMBAT: Good
FPS style nothing revolutionary, some will hate it some will love it.
It is not as straight forward as in AAA MMOs, but if you played Morrowind and Oblivion you will be able to appreciate DF too.
Yes it is a "left click" spam fest, in that sense is not really innovative, but the fact you have to chase and constantly aim the mobs add to the experience.
-AI: Good
Do not expect anything out of this world, but mobs will move around and dodge your hits, they will also run away when they are low in HP.
Mobs who use magic are particularly difficult to beat, they move around constantly, they will drop the nuke and then move away.
Only thing I don't really like is the fact that mobs can see you from miles away, for me this ruins a bit the thrills of sneaking around, I hope they will adjust that.
-CRAFTING: Excellent
Decently made, not too tedious, and the fact that the economy is driven by crafters is a plus.
Generally is good fun and viable by anyone, even people who never crafted
At the moment crafting costs quite a lot and testers complains the items they made costs too much and they are difficult to sell, AV should adjust the costs of crafting in particular at low level.
Also gathering can be a bit tedious, need to be more fun.
Some testers score crafting low, but to me crafting should be for real crafters not everyone, hence it needs to cost a lot to reach the highest level and it needs to take time.
That's why I score it high.
If I say that crafting is viable for everyone I only mean that it is easy to get into it, I don't mean that it is nt time consuming, because it is.
-FULL LOOT: Good
Yes it is annoying to lose your stuff but after you play for a while you will understand that you will loot as much as you lose, and in truth there is very few items you really cannot affort to lose.
So even if you lose all of your precious stuff, you just need a plate run or a gank run with your guild to rebuild your equipment.
Not a big deal
-SKILL BASED GAME: Good
Nothing better than not having to watch the level bar while you play.
In fact you can only concentrate on playing and forget about leveling.
I missed that feeling.
*THE UGLY (Acceptable features which should be better)*
-ANIMATION: Acceptable
Animations are very basic, if you are used to WoW you will be gutted by this, but if you played older MMOs you won't notice it too much.
-CUSTOMISATION: Decent
There is no body customisation as in AoC, but the face customisation is pretty decent.
No you can't morph the different parts of your face either, but there are loads of tattoos, hairstyles and accessories to give you lots of different appearances, the Orc ones are the best IMO, you can get seriouas badass faces
-UI: Acceptable
The UI looks pretty plain, but it is very functional, you can move them around as you wish, resize them, and I find the right click of the mouse quite useful to recall all the open windows.
I believe Aventurine will make a more pretty UI in the future but that's not a priority atm (see the BAD)
-GRAPHICS: Decent
Although the world gives a good feeling about it (the art style is good), generally graphics could be much better, in particular the characters model and armors.
They are not consistent, some are very well done some are pretty average and quite dated, yet graphics are better than most MMOs, but definetly could be improved.
-LAG: Acceptable
Generally is actually quite good, but being a PvPgame you get the occasional lag spike which can be quite annoying when fighting an opponent.
Nothing too bad though (didn't tested the sieges though)
-MAGIC TREE: Acceptable
Many believe that the Magic at lower level (lesser magic) is not very effective.
Not many people reached high level in magic to tell if this changes at higher levels.
Can be improved.
*THE BAD*
-PVE CONTENT: Disappointing
Apart from crafting there is little else, you basically have to PvP or craft in this game............alternatevly you can grind Goblins, which isn't what I call PVE content
-QUEST: Poor
Very few, and uninteresting, although the rewards are fairly decent.
Also they are not repeatable
-MOB POPULATION: Poor
At the moments mobs spawns only in designated point of interest which are constantly camped.
Very difficult to find mobs anywhere else.
AV needs to put many more mobs in Agon, I am not talking about 1 every metre like in WoW and WAR, but surely they need more, at the moment Agon is underpopulated.
-LACK OF BOSSES
The PVE consist in grinding normal mobs.
No Bosses who drop phat loot, so no real reason to group at all except for ganking and the occasional plate run.
I believe what makes part of the PVE experience is killing the final Boss after clearing all the trash, since this element is missing, I believe PVE is missing a big chunk of fun.
Killing a Boss is for PVE what conquering a fortress is for PVP...........hope that makes sense
-WILDLIFE: Poor
Well not existent.
I know it is fluff, but to complete the beautiful world you need some wildlife too.
At the moment the world seems quite empty.
-LACK OF NPCS: Poor
Well in Agon there are only the essential NPCs, the ones that give you quests and the vendors, nothing else.
Cities and villages feels quite dead because of this.
Need to be addressed.
What I didn't try: Sieges and Boat Building and City Building (apparently they are in game though, many beta testers gave several feedbacks about it)
*CONCLUSION*
This is simple.
This game is not for everyone, at the moment is just for few.
If you are an hardcore PVPer this game is certainly for you, the game at launch will be ready for PvPers to enjoy the world of Agon.
If you like also PVE though, you should NOT buy this game.
DF at launch will have very few things to do for PVE players................unless you are a crafter of course.
DF is also a long term game, so if you are for instant gratification you will get bored pretty soon.
Personally I think Aventurine should have delayed the game 2 more months, which would have give them the chance to develope much more PVE content.
They only had to add more mobs, more lore, more quests and more wildlife, the game doesn't need anything else.
As it is, this game can only be enjoyed by hardcore PVPers, in the end was the original target audiance.
But if AV had waited few more months this game would have had the chance to attract a more wider type of player
As I said at the moment DF is a mix of UO and Shadowbane, unfortunately it misses another element........the PVE of SWG pre-cu (although crafting is fairly good).
If AV could implement this last element, DF will have much more potential, then it has at the moment.
Lastly I would like to congratulate Aventurine, yes the game is not entirely complete, but considering the little resources they had, compared to AoC, WAR and Vanguard they did a pretty good job, in particular they could teach Mythic, Funcom and some others how to code a client.
Go indies.
Comments
Thanks for the detailed review. It has been said the mobs will be activated for release, and if this is your only main gripe, then that's good news indeed.
Time will tell however.
Nice to see that the bad things can be fixed in due time. I'd like to see animations to get a touch up, for sure.
I think it would've been a double edged sword to delay the game. Can you imagine the bandwagon trolls demolishing any credit the game initially had? Bleh. I really want to see how they're doing a few months after release.
Come now good reveiw, and i agree on many issues youve focused on, I think your easy on the crafting...
Three days to make 1000 arrows that id burn in an hour.. thats hard..you need wood boards and iron ingots.
15 sec timer to pull one peice of ore or wood, or a reagent and not a peice of ore or wood... plus fails, then processing, 5 ore make 2 ingots or 5 lumber makes 2 wood boards plus fails...
30-40 ore or lumber per node limit then you have to move on, hoping you dont get pked..banking often before yuo get to 100 peices...
then most items cost gold along with the resource...
Its a hell of a hard grind that shouldnt be such a chore for a full loot game especially when you can walk out of town and get owned quick if you in the wrong place at the wrong time. and lose everything. And you know its damn likely to happen.
Still, thats my bitch about df, excellent post mate.
FoE Fist of the Empire
I can tell you that the early videos i saw gave away everything ,i did not need this review to already know what the game was doing.The ONLY thing i knew nothing of was crafting and AV said EVERYTHING would be crafted.
They also said there WILL be elite bosses /EPIC gear,so you did not see them,they will or are there,this same gear i doubt will be craftable.
Many are probably missing the big picture on magic use.The reason IMO that it is so weak at low levels is because it is ranged and gives an obvious advantage to melee.I would bet that as you get it to a reasonablke high level it probably will over power any melee otr at least become a btter option than trading blows back n forth.
The op is also missing out on the obvious that was sort of explained by Tasos,there will NOT be any more mobs,their client can not handle it,the lack of NPC's was also already known and again will not be any better as time goes by.
Personally i have no idea how they plan on implementing this game into the future,i see it as possibly never improving,what you see now is what you will get forever.As for crashes ,whatever i might let the OP know i had zero crashes in Vanguard or AOC,only once got stuck in Vanguard,but being a MUCH more aggressive game in every aspect ,you would expect soemthing somewhere to go wrong.The fact that DF has very little content and the world is for the most part barren,there is no real strain on your GPU/memory to cause any crashes.The combat as i watched was also VERY basic,one constant hammer swing by the melee,only the one animation over and over and the over the shoulder view was bland and very low poly,again no strain on the system.
The OP did not comment on the view distance as videos varied in that respect,the ones i watched from leaked player videos showed a rather short view distance as compared to say VG for example.
When the OP says you pretty much PVP or craft,that is EXACTLY what i expected from this game.such a small developer could never complete massive content as expected from SOE or Square Enix.Not that it is a knock on AV as ANY game predominantly surrounded by a PVP plot will be a superficial game with not much purpose in playing outside of PVP.
Personally i was mildly interested in the game from a PVE perspective,but after watching some leaked videos,it looked bland and really has nothing to offer PVE players.I agree wit hthe OP 100% when says the mob aggro distance needs to be fixed,as that would ruin the gaming experience big time knowing you are always the prey never the predator when comes to mobs,even at that,they always seem to be using ranged to stay hidden for a period of time.I would bet it is also impossible to camp out ,expecting a mob to wander by you so that you could surprise it,they are probably stationary or would aggro you anyhow ,as soon as you are in a certain pre set range.
I am really not sure what Aventurine thought their game is offering that is anything different or better than all other PVP MMO's,all i see is same old and in some areas an even weaker experience.My suggestion get rid of all these PVPMMO's and get back to the routes of making Baldur's gate/Wizardry/Might n Magic/Ultima[w/o PVP]/Everquest type games.I know the people are bored of it,but that is because the developers are looking for the easy way to do things so the games are becoming copies and nothing unique has been brought forth,FFXI is the ONLY game i have seen to bring in thoughtfull ideas,everyone else is just copying boring old ideas.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I have a question about the the lack of high end PVe Encounters.
Has anyone killed that dragon ?
-Darkstar
So do you like PvP?
I know of 1 dragon thats been killed but most likely it's not the one showed on youtube. took 3 player a couple of hours to down him.
While I agree with much of what you said here, I don't agree with everything.
I believe there is a fair amount of mobs for a beta test. I wandered here and there all over the map and found just random things. I found these little brownie bastards that were as big as a flower out in a field that attacked the hell out of me even though I couldn't find them until it was too late, demons on the top of a volcano on a southern island, this CRAZY spire mountain with minotaurs and all sorts of stuff. I would like to see all sorts of fluff animals in the wilderness, but I don't know why there isn't any.
Check out this screenshot of that spire.
pretty amazing if you ask me, you could even scale to the very top fighting extreme mobs along the way, it was like a dungeon of sorts.
The other dragon have been killed. It took three hours.
I'm very happy now, knowing this game isn't false or vaporware. I wish there was a free version/trial debuting at well. But, there's not. So, I'll wait until the NA release to give it a shot. Love the way the combat looks, the crafting, the sandbox. Loving it.
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Telthalion Rohircil - Guardian - Elemandir - Lord of The Rings Online
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== RIP == Torey - Commando - Orion - Tabula Rasa == RIP ==
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Jordaniel Torey - Navy Megathron, Active Armor Tank - Tranquility - EVE Online
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Torey Scott - Rifleman - Fallen Earth
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"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but I know World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein
Il comment you on these issues as it seems you lack experience in the PVE content or you just been hugging the towers. (the other aspects of the game you seem to explain well enough so il just comment the PVE)
PVE Content: There are alot of camps for PVEe's and i would say alot more than most games. The most parts are not for Solo play if your a beginner rather you need to get a group and head off to the wild, I have personally seen maybe hundreds of diffrent camps with mobs in them and some are doable solo, some you need a small group and some you need 10 players or more. These camps are ofc not located 2 steps outside the city, you will need to travel and sometimes for an hour even just to get to the place you seek. Agon is so huge that during my beta about 2 weeks of play i have only seen maybe 15-20% of Agon.
Quests: Very few quests indeed, to some are repeatble and you get a quick buck early on.
MOB Population: As stated above you need to travel to the camps, and there are hundreds of mob camps.
Bosses and group encounters: 90% of all camps are group encounters, unless your a very skilled player can even solo some, but most camps are quite hard and a 3-5 man team is whats needed. Several dungeaons and bosses spread around AGON for bigger raids also.
I hope that cleared some things since the lack of review from poster.
PS. The camps are very nice spots to jump other groups to steal their loot.
It is very obvious that some things are still turned off, like some raid bosses (chain + platform in the middle of the map). Also I like pvp and pve and I have enjoyed the pve in darkfall, even though I know that it is not fully turned on yet.
Please remember the devs have stated MULTIPLE times that the beta we are playing =/ release client.
I found the quests very, very limited in appeal and very few. Human start area sucks for quests bad. They are ok themselves and presented in an ordinary fashion, rewards are standard. I liked how some got you into crafting, but it is all progressive based. Do 1 to open 2 to open 3.
Good to see both sides of a review now that the NDA is lifted. Hope the game does well. I'll wait for a free trial b4 trying the game and other reviewrs opinions 1st though.
Played : WOW, LOTRO, COH/COV, EQ2, SWG, and WAR.
Playing EVE Online and AOC.
Wtg for SW:TOR and WOD
The other dragon have been killed. It took three hours.
I have my doubts about that report, we newer saw any screenshots...
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And when we got more women on the team, it was like No, no, no. We need puppies and horses in there.
John Smedley, SOE
use !=
i thought it was a
Refering to mob population.
There was a day when MMO's weren't covered by mobs at every turn. You could actually avoid mobs and get somewhere without having to run or fight everything on the way. This is fine in a linear game but in a sandbox(PvP) style game you would go ape shit pretty quick.
Sent me an email if you want me to mail you some pizza rolls.
Thank you... decent review.
Im having a blast in-game this is the first fantasy themed MMO Ive ever played and the mechanics are just what I needed
there are some things that need to be addressed before release but its been said that from here to release 3-4 giant patches will be implemented into the game turning on everything addresing exploits which they have done well so far. Heres a pic of a bunch of us going to seige a city there was a lot more but cant get everyone on screen :P
And for those that have seen me post before this is where I have been.
Nice review, this is however now a themeparkgame. It's a sandboxgame where the devs will not handhold you or tell you what you should do through quests. The mobs doesn't drop much items but they do drop resources for crafting and spellcasting There are plenty of mobs but you'll have to find them. They are not scattered around like wow mobs but have caves, camps or ruins they live in. Also there are alot of places where mobs are not turned on yet due to the debug mode.
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And when we got more women on the team, it was like No, no, no. We need puppies and horses in there.
John Smedley, SOE
I would like to point out a few things from your list... Just comparing it to my own experiences in beta.
You say quests are not repeatable. This is not completely true, there is a good number of repeatable quests out there, some on timers with rewards based on your performance. (Say you kill 10 goblins in a hour for 60g, and 20 for 120g... ect.)
You say mobs are hard to find and that there aren't any group encounters. Now, we already know not all the mobs have been enabled for beta, and that the world bosses have also been disabled, but from my experience and simply exploring, I found a lot of "big and bad" creatures out there which would take atleast 6-8 people to take down.
You mention the AI spotting you from miles away. This is correct, they do spot you from miles away in an open field... But they require line of sight to see you, and there aren't a whole lot of open fields without cover.
Finally I'd like to point out that losing your gear in DF really means little after you played the game a few days. By that time you will learn how to keep a backup supply in your bank, so should you get killed your downtime will be short.
Overall, good list.
PVE content is fine, it just takes time getting used to a game not filled wall-to-wall with mobs. There are tons of different types and tons of camps, as well as tons I could name at least 30 different mob classes I've seen myself, all with different models and categories within these models. Also, there are special mobs, I've killed one with my guild and it dropped an enchanted axe. They stated they wanted to leave some of the bigger boss mobs out of beta so beta testers didn't b-line straight for them on release day. The loot tables are fine as well, though some of the really hard mobs don't really have the right loot for their difficulty yet, IMO. I've tested the loot table updates when they were released and they are more on par, so I expect this to continue in release.
I'll say this: If you expect to play solo PVE, you will be dissapointed. This game is like FFXI in the fact that you have to to group to experience high-end PVE content.
My biggest gripe is the AI and water combat. They haven't addressed how the AI deals with water very well so you can exploit some stronger mobs with creative use of the ocean. They recently corrected an exploit known as deathtanking, but now some of the mobs run around like chickens with their heads cut off. I hope they polish the AI a little more.
I would definately wait to play this game, although most wil have to even if they wat to play right away. It needs quite a bit of work and should be delayed. They needed the money i guess, that said I would definately wait a bit and let the hardcore fans pay to test for the masses.
Nice review and I agree with most of what you said. One thing about the graphics that bothers me is the heavy outline around players and things, it's really ugly. I was really looking forward to this game but it's just not ready to be released and I seriously doubt they can fix enough by the 25th for me to drop my coin.
"Censorship is never over for those who have experienced it. It is a brand on the imagination that affects the individual who has suffered it, forever." - Noam Chomsky
The only people that have said any large patches will be released are the ever hopeful fanboys; no one from av has said anything of the sort. They have only ever released information on problems and what was being addressed once it had been patched and released, and never before.
As has happened with several other recent flops, fanboys start up rumours trying to explain away lack of content and/or polish with extravagant claims of extra graphics being patched in, mythical untested mega patches being released and gigabytes of hidden content being switched on, this is just more of the same tripe that has absolutely no bearing on reality.
The only disabled content the devs talked about were dissabled npc spawns, and NOTHING more.
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