I playxed Beta.... The first 15 minutes were so ugly i uninstalled after 1 hour.... The character creation is so poor it is frustrating. The characters look like crap!!! No fun at all! Games like this have no right to exist in the MMO market!
My rating would put it at about 8.5 because of the atmosphere and the missions/puzzles plus the sound is really good.I'm not really a pvper and the animations are fine for me.
Comparing to other games I play or played recently.
Rift I put at 8.5 also because af the features it has and the festival/carnival type things and the ongoing invasions and rift's.On the other hand Rift doesn't have the atmosphere,the missions/quest's aren't as good,so they are pretty even to me.
Lotro I put at a solid 8.2 again because of features the setting/world graphic,festivals,nice quest's,skirmish's,sound.The character looks are meh.The housing is there but it's pretty constrained with what you can do with it.
SWtor a 6.5 I'll be brief,they swung for the fences and imo ended up a popup to 2nd base,fell well short of expectations for me.
So 8.5 for me and one of my two top rated and in my three favorites.I won't put WoW in the mix as I just find it really hard to go back to it.
6.5-7 as the game stands now, anything above that is way too generous imo.Combat is tedious and poor, character creator is lacking,id like to see more weapon choices, world also seems small,pvp also seems lackluster.Everything else is solid though, that I experienced..
I'd rate it a 7.0 becuase combat is terrible and there is very little replay value. It plays largely like a single player game. The quests are for the most part fun but unless Funcom is planning on releasing content fairly quickly and consistently I do not see the game retaining a large player base. I just do not see anything about it that will keep a large number of people playing for an extended period of time.
The description/evaluation you give sounds more like a 3/10 than 7/10.
TSW wasnt that great. I played for a couple days then just quit. waste of money. Nothing really "stood out" to me. I mean there were some improvements from past mmo's, but nothing to "wow" me.
Right now I would rate this game between 8.25-8.5 for me. In the future it has the potenital to go to a 9 depending on the direction this game goes.
This is a hard game to rate because I could see how it would not appeal to some people. When some people have posted their concerns and what they expect/want out of a good game, I understand how this game woldn't fit the bill for them. While I personally am enjoying my experience in game, I do understand this game is not for everyone.
I dropped points for chat issues, some quest bugs and lip synching in cut scenes. However, the atmosphere, story and quests are the best in any MMO I've played and the launch was extremely smooth.
Firstly I should state that I am a long time lurker, and been playing MMOS since vanilla EQ.
I would rate TSW a solid 8, and for the purchase price it represents good value for money.
What actually prompted me to post though were the various comments with regards to its replay value. It is true that it is very story driven and that it may not represent great replay value, but, the way the game is designed there is no need to reroll, or play an alt (you simply buy your existing character some new skills and abilities with exp).
With this in mind I believe that the lack or replay value is a non-issue, the end game however, and its longevity, remains to be tested.
I am enjoying the game, and the min / maxers will love the skill wheel, my only reservation is how it will play out in the long run.
In conclusion, right now TSW represent great value for money, and it's a ton of fun
Flawed chat system and annoyances with friends list/ cabal, intermittent disconnection from social server causing you to see no chats. Rare, but annoying.
Dungeon design - 10 /10
Simply perfect. As seeped in story as the rest of the game, very little trash, interesting encounters, beautiful scenery.
Ability system and combat mechanics - 9.5 /10
Complex as it gets in MMOs. Just because of metagame alone. Tanks might one day stack defence in PvP with Riposte (whenever you are glanced you deal damage back) but then any clever DPS can counter that by stacking crit (instead of penetration like most do) - this doesn't just apply to stats, but all the skills in the game as well. Combat flows really well thanks to the (correct) design decision of unhinging upper and lower body to allow full freedom of movement in combat when casting anything. Some animations may look stiff but that is a more than acceptable compromise for a higher skill cap.
Graphics - 9.7 /10
To me, scenery and monsters are more important than character models, and I was still able to create a fantastic looking character in the current creator. No complaints other than lack of anti-aliasing on most foliage.
Story and missions - 10 /10
Speechless. To keep this spoiler free I won't say anything else, but the game completely changes tone after New England (Kingsmouth, Savage Coast, Blue Mountain - Dawning of an Endless Night) and the story opens up to show it's true masterful face. Personally the best writing I have ever witnessed in gaming. (That's right, not just in MMOs.)
Audio and voice acting - 9 /10
Very few disconcerting voice actors, ironically most of which are found in Kingsmouth, the area which is supposed to "sell" the game. Music and ambience is top notch, while some weapons have a smidge lackluster attack sounds.
UI and systems - 8 /10
Nothing too special. Customization is on the lacking side, but at least the initial product is serviceable and very clean looking.
Progression pacing - 9.8 /10
Theme park that can be played like a semi-sandbox. Faction special assignments always seem to have perfect timing for me, and I usually end up losing track of time because of what's around the next corner.
RPG elements - 10 /10 (got to love an MMO with choices <deeper in main story>)
Not gonna spoil this. Play it.
Overall: 9.6 /10
For me the best MMORPG of all time. Can't really think of a single game with more depth, beauty, immersion factor, wholesom design and spectacular writing between Meridian 59 and now.
My quick rating would be a 7.5. This is a very good score by my standard. It's a good MMO and better than anything released currently (from what I've seen so far is GW2 will probably trump it). It does exceptional on many aspects however it falls short on combat (the way the skill system was designed with way too specific passives and resource builders and consumers) and various QA testing (many bugged quests, many quests that don't work well, quests in groups sometimes don't reward both party members) as is typical of a Funcom game. I'd also have to hack off a bit of a point for how often it throws you into solo instances which can be frustrating if you are trying to play through the game as a group. Character creation needs a lot of work too and the item shop at release along with a sub isn't a good thing either.
Among things it does right: Dungeons are extremely well designed (wished the combat was amazing to go with it), atmosphere, story, dialogue, investigation missions (when they work properly), being difficult sometimes even unforgiving to stupid people, a few other non-standard mission types, mature content, and level design.
Was planning a more detailed review when I'm doing endgame content (though we are about to finish up Egypt and start elite dungeons soon).
I have played beta and currrently having fun in Live. I thought i´d give a casuals aspect of it.
Combat: Abit repetitive but more engaging than a usual tab-target game. It shines alot more in group combat then solo combat where you mash the same old buttons over and over.
Skillsystem: Now the game has these 500+ skills but in all honesty there are only 9 weapons but with this in mind you can choose your playstyle and change it on the fly which I must say is a big bonus.
Graphics: Solid, Funcom have created a nice atmosphere within the game so no complaints here. I don´t feel the animations are that awkward as people say but I guess that´s a matter of opinion.
Questsystem: Absolutely freaking brilliant. The stories created are vibrant and pulls you in the game.
Bugs: I have stumbled upon 8 roken quests so far, 3 in starter area and 4 in the next area. Given that there are alot of quests this doesn´t bother me too much and i´m sure they´ll fix these soon.
Overall impression: I must say I had in my mind a different picture of the games skillsystem and hoped it would allow for more diversity with all these skill choices avalible, but all in all this is a good game that I do expekt to be subbed for for about 6-12 months and i´m perfectly happy with that.
Score: 7 out of 10, with more diversity it could go up to an 8.5
Tough call....about a 7 I guess (a decent score in my book where if you have a scale 0-10 you use it).
Concept 9, execution only a 5. In these types of game you spend half your time fighting - combat leaves a bit to be desired after a while. Whilst the story is good I don't see much replay value.
I love the quests, and the story mostly, the setting, the graphics are also nice, everything feels quite great except when I go to combat. I'm fine with the combat playing out in the traditional target+hotbar sense, but I cant seem to find a set of skills where the animations and effects would satisfy me.
I have two choises, go with a great/OP build that I hate for the visuals and animations, or run with crappy build that makes the game frustrating but bearable or even awesome on the effects and visuals department. And trust me, there's not many abilities to choose from that I like.
Yet another MMORPG that I would love to love, but there's some core areas in the game pushing me away. Having said all that, I will play the game to unlock tons more of the abilities from the overall pool and see if I can find more abilities that are useful (or working combo) while also making the action look / feel awesome.
All these people saying the combat isn't good - have you tried doing two different weapons? When I was trying out the game I tried a pure Claws, pure Blood, and pure Chaos, but none of them really grabbed me. Then I figured I'd try mixing things up and am currently almost at Polaris with my Blood/Sword build. It makes a massive difference compared to a single weapon, the variety and the way the different skills mix together really is good. And if I want to I can switch to mostly sword attacks with healing from the blood line, or lots of blood attacks and damage over time with a few area sword attacks that blood is lacking.
Great system, I think. My personal opinion of the game is it's very very good, probably my favorite MMO since Lord of the Rings Online. Before that was EverQuest. It's a themepark of course, so it's a bit too heavily focused toward solo play for me to consider it a 'Great MMO', but if you look at it as a single player game with co-op then it's really a great game. I've only encountered one bug so far and that was with an investigation mission, a missing white raven. Investigation missions are hard enough to work out as they are, but having them bugged and missing key points is sort of annoying.
The setting is probably my favorite thing. No more elves and orcs, no space ships and aliens, it's modern day with magic, guns and zombies. I like it! If I had to give it a rating after playing for a few days, I'd give it a 7 as an MMO, a 9 as a co-op game.
The concensus seems to be about an 8, but I'd give it a 5.5.....The game has too many issues for me to give it any higher than that......The combat is bad and the animations often just dont feel right......YOu know a game isn't for you when you dont even feel like playing it for free in beta.....ALso the cutscenes get old really fast and theres just too many of them......This game really should have been released as a single player game.
Enjoying it so far, but only ~2 days in so rating doesn't matter much.
Combat is alright overall, although it can be a pain to track down a synergistic build (and there are plenty of opportunities for you to create a build which sucks, which would make you think the game is unbalanced or broken.) Mobs have a variety of tells which lets you avoid their abilities, although overall mob ability variety is a bit on the weak side. Mob visual design is pretty amazing though, and the Lovecraftian vibe throughout the game is sort of amazing.
Love that I get to finally try out a MMORPG with FFXI-like advancement systems (FFXI itself had terrible controls and shoved me away after a mere 20-30 mins.) Being able to do everything on one character, but feeling rewarded for min-maxing the skills I've unlocked so far has been enjoyable. Feels like when I get a solid session where I decide to really optimize my build that I'll be able to substantially improve my char's capabilities.
I also mostly enjoy the quests, as they're exactly what a good quest system should be (although replayability is questionable.) Basically they use WAR's "your quest is somewhere in this section of the map" indicators exactly how they always should've been used: they point you to where you need to search, and then you need to search for those objectives manually (and sometimes they're pretty hidden, like finding a named zombie mob who isn't even visible until you're like 10 feet away from him.)
I also applaud them for putting hard limits on how many quests you can track at once. It actually makes questing a little more strategic (try to find multiple quests in the same area) rather than just "accept everything immediately and have 20+ in your questlog so you don't even know what you're on."
I guess maybe I'd downgrade to 7/10 due to the hassles and broken links I experienced trying to buy the game through their site on launch day, but I get the sense I was almost alone in experiencing that.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Read the review. I probably won't buy it and wait till it is F2P. Two deal breaking lack of featuers:
1) no respec ... i like playing with specs & builds. That is half the fun.
2) no LFD ... don't feel like shouting for group in this day & age. Even TOR is going to have this.
You don't need to respec since there is no cap on points you can earn. It would be like asking for a respec in EVE. The game at it's core isn't designed that way.
No LFD is a odd choice given how that went over in both Rift and TOR. They will add it within 3-6 months I'm sure even if they don't want to. It has just become a must have feature for MMO's these days.
Comments
no. if a company can not make a decent character creation they failed.... easy as that! and they will fail!
Pretty shallow
Cryptic fan are we?
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
My rating would put it at about 8.5 because of the atmosphere and the missions/puzzles plus the sound is really good.I'm not really a pvper and the animations are fine for me.
Comparing to other games I play or played recently.
Rift I put at 8.5 also because af the features it has and the festival/carnival type things and the ongoing invasions and rift's.On the other hand Rift doesn't have the atmosphere,the missions/quest's aren't as good,so they are pretty even to me.
Lotro I put at a solid 8.2 again because of features the setting/world graphic,festivals,nice quest's,skirmish's,sound.The character looks are meh.The housing is there but it's pretty constrained with what you can do with it.
SWtor a 6.5 I'll be brief,they swung for the fences and imo ended up a popup to 2nd base,fell well short of expectations for me.
So 8.5 for me and one of my two top rated and in my three favorites.I won't put WoW in the mix as I just find it really hard to go back to it.
The description/evaluation you give sounds more like a 3/10 than 7/10.
TSW wasnt that great. I played for a couple days then just quit. waste of money. Nothing really "stood out" to me. I mean there were some improvements from past mmo's, but nothing to "wow" me.
Right now I would rate this game between 8.25-8.5 for me. In the future it has the potenital to go to a 9 depending on the direction this game goes.
This is a hard game to rate because I could see how it would not appeal to some people. When some people have posted their concerns and what they expect/want out of a good game, I understand how this game woldn't fit the bill for them. While I personally am enjoying my experience in game, I do understand this game is not for everyone.
I just reviewed it and it came out as 8.9.
I dropped points for chat issues, some quest bugs and lip synching in cut scenes. However, the atmosphere, story and quests are the best in any MMO I've played and the launch was extremely smooth.
Firstly I should state that I am a long time lurker, and been playing MMOS since vanilla EQ.
I would rate TSW a solid 8, and for the purchase price it represents good value for money.
What actually prompted me to post though were the various comments with regards to its replay value. It is true that it is very story driven and that it may not represent great replay value, but, the way the game is designed there is no need to reroll, or play an alt (you simply buy your existing character some new skills and abilities with exp).
With this in mind I believe that the lack or replay value is a non-issue, the end game however, and its longevity, remains to be tested.
I am enjoying the game, and the min / maxers will love the skill wheel, my only reservation is how it will play out in the long run.
In conclusion, right now TSW represent great value for money, and it's a ton of fun
Nuf.
8.3?
How about really good gaming fun?
Social systems - 6 /10
Flawed chat system and annoyances with friends list/ cabal, intermittent disconnection from social server causing you to see no chats. Rare, but annoying.
Dungeon design - 10 /10
Simply perfect. As seeped in story as the rest of the game, very little trash, interesting encounters, beautiful scenery.
Ability system and combat mechanics - 9.5 /10
Complex as it gets in MMOs. Just because of metagame alone. Tanks might one day stack defence in PvP with Riposte (whenever you are glanced you deal damage back) but then any clever DPS can counter that by stacking crit (instead of penetration like most do) - this doesn't just apply to stats, but all the skills in the game as well. Combat flows really well thanks to the (correct) design decision of unhinging upper and lower body to allow full freedom of movement in combat when casting anything. Some animations may look stiff but that is a more than acceptable compromise for a higher skill cap.
Graphics - 9.7 /10
To me, scenery and monsters are more important than character models, and I was still able to create a fantastic looking character in the current creator. No complaints other than lack of anti-aliasing on most foliage.
Story and missions - 10 /10
Speechless. To keep this spoiler free I won't say anything else, but the game completely changes tone after New England (Kingsmouth, Savage Coast, Blue Mountain - Dawning of an Endless Night) and the story opens up to show it's true masterful face. Personally the best writing I have ever witnessed in gaming. (That's right, not just in MMOs.)
Audio and voice acting - 9 /10
Very few disconcerting voice actors, ironically most of which are found in Kingsmouth, the area which is supposed to "sell" the game. Music and ambience is top notch, while some weapons have a smidge lackluster attack sounds.
UI and systems - 8 /10
Nothing too special. Customization is on the lacking side, but at least the initial product is serviceable and very clean looking.
Progression pacing - 9.8 /10
Theme park that can be played like a semi-sandbox. Faction special assignments always seem to have perfect timing for me, and I usually end up losing track of time because of what's around the next corner.
RPG elements - 10 /10 (got to love an MMO with choices <deeper in main story>)
Not gonna spoil this. Play it.
Overall: 9.6 /10
For me the best MMORPG of all time. Can't really think of a single game with more depth, beauty, immersion factor, wholesom design and spectacular writing between Meridian 59 and now.
My quick rating would be a 7.5. This is a very good score by my standard. It's a good MMO and better than anything released currently (from what I've seen so far is GW2 will probably trump it). It does exceptional on many aspects however it falls short on combat (the way the skill system was designed with way too specific passives and resource builders and consumers) and various QA testing (many bugged quests, many quests that don't work well, quests in groups sometimes don't reward both party members) as is typical of a Funcom game. I'd also have to hack off a bit of a point for how often it throws you into solo instances which can be frustrating if you are trying to play through the game as a group. Character creation needs a lot of work too and the item shop at release along with a sub isn't a good thing either.
Among things it does right: Dungeons are extremely well designed (wished the combat was amazing to go with it), atmosphere, story, dialogue, investigation missions (when they work properly), being difficult sometimes even unforgiving to stupid people, a few other non-standard mission types, mature content, and level design.
Was planning a more detailed review when I'm doing endgame content (though we are about to finish up Egypt and start elite dungeons soon).
I have played beta and currrently having fun in Live. I thought i´d give a casuals aspect of it.
Combat: Abit repetitive but more engaging than a usual tab-target game. It shines alot more in group combat then solo combat where you mash the same old buttons over and over.
Skillsystem: Now the game has these 500+ skills but in all honesty there are only 9 weapons but with this in mind you can choose your playstyle and change it on the fly which I must say is a big bonus.
Graphics: Solid, Funcom have created a nice atmosphere within the game so no complaints here. I don´t feel the animations are that awkward as people say but I guess that´s a matter of opinion.
Questsystem: Absolutely freaking brilliant. The stories created are vibrant and pulls you in the game.
Bugs: I have stumbled upon 8 roken quests so far, 3 in starter area and 4 in the next area. Given that there are alot of quests this doesn´t bother me too much and i´m sure they´ll fix these soon.
Overall impression: I must say I had in my mind a different picture of the games skillsystem and hoped it would allow for more diversity with all these skill choices avalible, but all in all this is a good game that I do expekt to be subbed for for about 6-12 months and i´m perfectly happy with that.
Score: 7 out of 10, with more diversity it could go up to an 8.5
Concept 9, execution only a 5. In these types of game you spend half your time fighting - combat leaves a bit to be desired after a while. Whilst the story is good I don't see much replay value.
Action (combat, animations, effects, etc): 6/10
Everything else: 8/10
I love the quests, and the story mostly, the setting, the graphics are also nice, everything feels quite great except when I go to combat. I'm fine with the combat playing out in the traditional target+hotbar sense, but I cant seem to find a set of skills where the animations and effects would satisfy me.
I have two choises, go with a great/OP build that I hate for the visuals and animations, or run with crappy build that makes the game frustrating but bearable or even awesome on the effects and visuals department. And trust me, there's not many abilities to choose from that I like.
Yet another MMORPG that I would love to love, but there's some core areas in the game pushing me away. Having said all that, I will play the game to unlock tons more of the abilities from the overall pool and see if I can find more abilities that are useful (or working combo) while also making the action look / feel awesome.
All these people saying the combat isn't good - have you tried doing two different weapons? When I was trying out the game I tried a pure Claws, pure Blood, and pure Chaos, but none of them really grabbed me. Then I figured I'd try mixing things up and am currently almost at Polaris with my Blood/Sword build. It makes a massive difference compared to a single weapon, the variety and the way the different skills mix together really is good. And if I want to I can switch to mostly sword attacks with healing from the blood line, or lots of blood attacks and damage over time with a few area sword attacks that blood is lacking.
Great system, I think. My personal opinion of the game is it's very very good, probably my favorite MMO since Lord of the Rings Online. Before that was EverQuest. It's a themepark of course, so it's a bit too heavily focused toward solo play for me to consider it a 'Great MMO', but if you look at it as a single player game with co-op then it's really a great game. I've only encountered one bug so far and that was with an investigation mission, a missing white raven. Investigation missions are hard enough to work out as they are, but having them bugged and missing key points is sort of annoying.
The setting is probably my favorite thing. No more elves and orcs, no space ships and aliens, it's modern day with magic, guns and zombies. I like it! If I had to give it a rating after playing for a few days, I'd give it a 7 as an MMO, a 9 as a co-op game.
7.0 It's good in some aspects and bad in other, mostly mmo part is bad for me. would be great as single player adventure game.
Somewhere around 2.5 or 3.0 out of 5. It's not a good game by any stretch of the imagination.
The concensus seems to be about an 8, but I'd give it a 5.5.....The game has too many issues for me to give it any higher than that......The combat is bad and the animations often just dont feel right......YOu know a game isn't for you when you dont even feel like playing it for free in beta.....ALso the cutscenes get old really fast and theres just too many of them......This game really should have been released as a single player game.
only Eve is better
9/10
In context
Daoc 9
Eve 9
Gw2 beta 8
Wow 6
War 6
Rift 6
Swtor 3
EQ 0
8/10
Enjoying it so far, but only ~2 days in so rating doesn't matter much.
Combat is alright overall, although it can be a pain to track down a synergistic build (and there are plenty of opportunities for you to create a build which sucks, which would make you think the game is unbalanced or broken.) Mobs have a variety of tells which lets you avoid their abilities, although overall mob ability variety is a bit on the weak side. Mob visual design is pretty amazing though, and the Lovecraftian vibe throughout the game is sort of amazing.
Love that I get to finally try out a MMORPG with FFXI-like advancement systems (FFXI itself had terrible controls and shoved me away after a mere 20-30 mins.) Being able to do everything on one character, but feeling rewarded for min-maxing the skills I've unlocked so far has been enjoyable. Feels like when I get a solid session where I decide to really optimize my build that I'll be able to substantially improve my char's capabilities.
I also mostly enjoy the quests, as they're exactly what a good quest system should be (although replayability is questionable.) Basically they use WAR's "your quest is somewhere in this section of the map" indicators exactly how they always should've been used: they point you to where you need to search, and then you need to search for those objectives manually (and sometimes they're pretty hidden, like finding a named zombie mob who isn't even visible until you're like 10 feet away from him.)
I also applaud them for putting hard limits on how many quests you can track at once. It actually makes questing a little more strategic (try to find multiple quests in the same area) rather than just "accept everything immediately and have 20+ in your questlog so you don't even know what you're on."
I guess maybe I'd downgrade to 7/10 due to the hassles and broken links I experienced trying to buy the game through their site on launch day, but I get the sense I was almost alone in experiencing that.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Read the review. I probably won't buy it and wait till it is F2P. Two deal breaking lack of featuers:
1) no respec ... i like playing with specs & builds. That is half the fun.
2) no LFD ... don't feel like shouting for group in this day & age. Even TOR is going to have this.
You don't need to respec since there is no cap on points you can earn. It would be like asking for a respec in EVE. The game at it's core isn't designed that way.
No LFD is a odd choice given how that went over in both Rift and TOR. They will add it within 3-6 months I'm sure even if they don't want to. It has just become a must have feature for MMO's these days.