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Early Impressions
Rictis
Member UncommonPosts: 1,300
Hey,
So I know TSW has been out for a week or so now. I know its too early for an official review. I don't own the game myself but I am curious how the game is doing so far overall through launch.
What are your thoughts on the game?
How would you compare this game to other MMORPGS?
What do you consider endgame in TSW?
Are there favorite builds yet?
How is crafting?
Do you like the way Funcom set up the leveling system?
How is the story?
Was the lifetime sub worth it for you?
Your thoughts?
Comments
Love it. Going to buy a long sub......
TSW is a really great game and is kinda unique too. It is fully worth the money of course, however, it is nothing like a revolution that will amaze the world. Really great gaming and Funcorn have done a great job so far. I enjoy playing for now
I'm enjoying it, the quests, the characterisation, the skill system and the background. But... I can't help feeling there aren't many people around when i'm playing. Chat is fairly busy but the streets of Kingsmouth don't seem to be very busy and most people are just ignoring each other running around doing quests. I tried to talk to some people using /say but they ignored me. Feels very lonely to be honest, even more so than ToR and that's saying something.
It is basically another single player online game, not much different in difficulty or depth than all the others. The puzzles are straight out of Silent Hill and pretty easy. Fun for now, but I can't see it holding me for long. It just feels a bit shallow and i'm surprised by those who think it has a rich storyline, I guess they haven't played many other mmorpgs or single player rpgs or don't have much imagination. I think Rift has a richer back story and LOTRO certainly has.
I'm on Arcadia and it's supposed to be the RP server but no one roleplays. It seems like the number of instances to a dimension is stopping a healthy community developing.
In this case, it's really a give it some more time scenario, this is a MMORPG, people need and want to get to know the game abit, know the mechanics. the skills, in short figure out how everything works as from reading it seems different then the current norm in MMORPG yet familiar. This takes time.
Myself when playing a MMORPG I usely get to lvl 10/20 then when I feel I actually know the basics of the game I start getting more social towards other players, I don't think I am the only one who starts of playing a MMORPG this way.
OP: sorry can't add anything more as I am not "yet" playing TSW, but what I said above goes for all MMORPG's that are newly released, don't expect to have a awesome player run economy when a game is just released it simply takes time, some goes for RP and everything else that might be social related. Just give it time.
I think the game is pretty different than the masses of MMO's I've played since 2002. The setting, ability wheel, crafting, and quests that make you think are all different than what I'm used to. There's quite a learning curve, and you see people asking for help in General Chat a lot. What's difficult about the ability wheel is that you only get 7 active and 7 passive abilties. You must build a synergestic build, or else you'll be weak on content past the starter area, dungeons, and PvP. There's more to building a deck than picking the highest dps abilities and slapping them together. You have states to think about, among other things.
I've been playing since the last beta weekend and I gotta say that I'm still learning. The investigation missions are interesting, but hard at times. They expect you to do things that normal people wouldn't think about, such as killing yourself to reach the next part of the stage. Nothing in the journal tells or even hints that you need to die. It's things like this that are aggravating.
I think the combat is fun and satisfying, despite what the masses think. However, I wish different weapons weren't so similar in abiities. Basically, every weapon has various weapon builders and finishers. Some cause or take advantage of a state, and other abilities generate or disipate hate. Then you have your crowd control abilities and heals.
Lots of quests were broken at launch, which begs the question, "How come the cash shop was in good order at launch, but not the content?" Doesn't stop me from liking and playing the game, but it makes you wonder.
I'm currently messing around with the Gunslinger deck (Elementalism, Pistols). A pretty high dmg lethal combo, but I'm squishy.
Overall, I think the game is good and fun. A nice change of pace from the traditional themepark game. However, I think subscription based models are out-of-date, and on top of that, a cash shop makes the fee unfair, especially since the cash shop sells clothing, which is what everyone is striving to get in game. Clothing is how you seperate yourself from others and individualize yourself, yet they stick all the best clothing in the shop.
I plan to continue to play this game until I finish all the content, but once GW2 comes out I'm going to try it instead.
Right now I quite like it. Very atmospheric, which is a huge point for me in any game. In fact the overall mood of the game makes such a strong impression that I can feel the aftertaste of the game all day, something I - sadly - rarely find in games these days.
The long haul? Well, you never know anymore, do you? I love the art, I love the world & the feel, I like the progression system... I am unimpressed by the combat in that it doesn't have the weight necessary to make an encounter immersive and exciting, but I still find I keep playing... So apparently, as of now, I'm not minding the mediocre combat.
It's really good to get something that at least dares to do things differently.
I'm a fan of The Longest Journey games, and I'm pleased to see the same imagination and dreamlike quality in this game.
Ragnar, now you owe us old fans an adventure game (or even better, a series of adventure games!) that take place in this world.
See, there's your next project. Get. To. It.
I was not expecting to like it. These types of stories are just not my thing. But it turns out to be very interesting on two levels.
First, the story is very compelling. I am actually interested to see how it continues.
Second, the open ended nature of character development is very refreshing. I like not being limited in what I can do.
I am also very much enjoying that you are not limited to a linear path though zones. There is lots to discover and a lot of ways to go about thing. Also, because most missions are repeatable, you decide when you are done with a zone and ready to move on. And that extra time spent exploring an early zone is not wasted, exp wise. You continue to get your skill and anima points for redoing the missions and you can simply spend it on learning more abilities.
Crafting is not too complex and probably not terribly useful but it is very different than the standard system. There are no recipes you need to learn you just need to get the right materials laid out on the grid in the right way. And you can learn these patterns as you take things apart. You also are not limited to choosing 2 or 3 types of crafting out of a dozen. Nor are you limited from making higher quality items by needing to build up a skill score. You can make anything in the game at any time. so long as you have found the items needed for it's construction.
I went with the lifetime sub. I suspect that I will play TSW until I run out of story and then I will return as they release new content. I like that I will not need to be unsubbing and resubbing as that happens. I also suspect that it will take me a good long while to earn the 9975 AP needed to completely fill in the ability wheel. It is too early to tell, but I don't anticipate regretting this purchase.
All die, so die well.
What stand out to me as far as this games negatives, isnt the combat, a good build is very fun mechanically, its not the animations ect.
Theres 3 "worlds" no guild vs guild seiging or fight mechanics and no massive person raids.
The game NEEDS a cabal fight system, be it a seige or an open world war (like FFA pvp by choice) or some form of competition.
The game needs more worlds, new england, egypt, and transylvania are a good start but more variety is needed.
It also needs a very hard "raid" mechanic and more than just one raid.
Add these systems and more maps and the games a win over the longrun.
We already know that those who enjoy the game like it, most playing the game i would surmise like the game, its the long run the matters now. Launch was good, not problem free but good enough to not cause droves of people to rage and quit.
They need to kick the games development into putting long term mechanics in the game. Hard mode dungeons and the pvp as it stands will not suffice for an extended period of time for most people.
Other than that early impression is positive just like everyone else whos in game...just it needs to stay that way past the 1-3 month area where people typically lose intrest in mmorpgs and move on.
RE: how TSW compares to other MMORPGs
I'm not sure anything will replace the overall level of fun I had playing with friends in WoW during the late vanilla/early TBC days, but TSW has some of the best solo-play "highs" I've had in an MMO. IMO the quest design is REALLY good, the best solo questing experience I've had to date. It's not perfect, and I find myself dreading the ole "kill 7 of each" quests, particularly in some of the packed areas TSW offers, but enough of them are interesting or clever or just fun to do that I will certainly miss them when I move on to other games.
The area design is also generally superior to other games I've played. I was a bit concerned that too many zones would feel the same, but from what I've experienced they are utilized in a way that makes them feel unique. The trend in MMOs is to make zones into a path the player follows with side areas or "rides" to quest in along the way, and while TSW absolutely has it's rides, it's restored the feeling of these naturally existing as part of the world as opposed to areas manufactured for the player's leveling benefit.
Where TSW hurts is the uneveness of its presentation. The chat, character creation (body and facial model diversity in particular), combat animations, inventory, interface, some of the sound effects, and visual component of the cutscenes all seem to come from another game than the one with the atmospheric setting and quests. TERA is, to me, a great example of a game where it feels like the developers cared about ALL of the game's aspects. You might not agree with where they went with them, but it's hard to accuse them of just slapping something together. TSW is not like that for me. If there was a spectrum for presentation, TSW would be there next to TOR, in the games that do some things very well and other things like total crap.
RE: the endgame
IMO the endgame for most people who stick around is going to be about acquiring the flexibility in builds necessary to make the "nightmare" level of group instanced content something that can be completed smoothly. It will take awhile for the theorycrafters to break everything down, but eventually you'll see ideal builds and party combos for everything imaginable (see GW1 for the lengths such people will go to). I'd like to see more tangible incentives instituted to keep people working toward achievements and such. Not everybody is interested in "carrots" but I think you want to keep the people that are interested in them around if it's relatively easy to do so.
For me personally the endgame is going to be unsubscribing when GW2 comes out, but I do think TSW is something I'd like to come back to for a couple months at a time if we get some sizable content expansions. As somebody who like to read, I could see how reading up on some of the material that inspired TSW would get me interested in coming back to explore all the various references in the game.
RE: favorite builds
I've been running with primarily a blade and either AR or Chaos. I went with a shotgun main in beta and did not care for it. Blade is awesome in Kingsmouth IMO, but I struggled with it at times during Savage Coast and Blue Mountain. It seems there's no real edge to be found in the tradeoff between killing fast and taking damage, or killing slower and taking less damage, or killing slower but being able to heal between mobs. No matter what my rate of progress is not appreciably different.
RE: crafting
I haven't done much of it yet. I play often enough that I've found in most MMOs I'm replacing gear too regularly for crafting to be worth it (until the endgame) for anything except an alt where I can get them a "head start" on gear at various points. Since I'm not planning on rolling an alt in TSW, that makes mats useful primarily for refining into higher mats for later crafting.
I actually like the concept of the system, but actually wouldn't mind a little more complexity in terms of being able to introduce materials that change stats on weapons and talismans the way they do for glyphs.
RE: the leveling system
I like that it's different. As somebody who likes to "collect" things -- abilities, achievements, pets, outfits, etc. -- the ability wheel is a smorgasbord of "carrots." What I don't like is how as you get deeper into the higher tier you can be playing for a very LONG time before you acquire all the AP necessary to pick up the next ability you're looking forward to. I like feeling rewarded for putting my time in by seeing my character improve, but when you're buying a bunch of "throw-away" abilities to get to the 34 or 50 AP stuff, it goes frustratingly slow at times.
RE: the story
I love the atmosphere. The primary story is not particularly interesting to me; it's all the little subplots going on that are really the meat of the game IMO. Funcom created some memorable quests and locations and the emphasis is really on exploring them.
RE: sub
I didn't go for the lifetime sub. I expect I will sub for the first month or two after my free month, until I'm content that I've seen all I wanted to see in the game.
Have you ever read Stephen King ? especially The Dark Tower Series ?
Can i get the same feel from this game as you get from the King's books ?
Can a make a "gunslinger" of sorts ?
I personally get a different vibe from TSW than I got from The Dark Tower, but King is one of the acknowledged inspirations behind some of the game's content. So you will see references to his work and in fact King himself many times.
TSW is really too focused on the conspiracy angle and faction loyalty to really reproduce Roland IMO, and TSW's combat doesn't mesh with the action from those books. TSW is also not interactive in the way SW:TOR is in terms of developing a personality for your character, so his personality would also be hard to reproduce except in your head or a role-playing server.
That said you can make a character that duel-wields pistols and eventually you can acquire outfits to outfit yourself like a gunslinger. The Illuminati have a deck of abilities that can be built called the Gunslinger deck based on pistols and elemental magic.
Wow ! thats the setup i was planning if i do get the game, awsome. I was sure i would be Illuminati and i'd like to be a Gunslinger, not Roland in specific but just a gunslinger in the core, as Berth with some mixed "magic" like the touch.
I was never interested in this game, but i guess the world lore and all the "mood" of this game will grab me, at least to try it.