You know you can PM the writer with your suggestions? That might have been the better route to take than posting that wall of text.
Why should he do that? He has some valid points that is good if people read and think about as well after reading that review. You could have taken away all his text when you answered him though...
Aesthetics - 7/10, maybe, just maybe Gameplay - 9/10, worst UI ever and horrible control, seriously a 9???? Innovation - 8/10 , you're right, it is Polish - 7/10, more server downtime and rollbacks then any other MMO in history Social - 9/10, did you even try the chat channel? if you had it you'd rate it 0 Longevity - 8/10, not even close, it'll be dead by the end of the year Value - 7/10, watching paint dry is more buck for your money
Did they pay you to write this, or are you a fan boy? This game won't last very long, maybe the end of the year. AV is crap and they won't even post there mistakes on there official website but they post it on Facebook,......
Fair review - though the final score should be 7.85, not 7.6 - based on the values listed in the review.
This.
The only thing that really bothers me about this review is that the screenshots are still showing only 2k prowess earned..... I think the reviewer is just saying what he thinks people want to hear.
He lists cheaters as a problem, but I'm betting he has never encountered any cheaters.
Nonetheless, it is an overall positive review, although I don't believe it's doing the game justice.
And especially WTF on 9/10 for gameplay AND saying crashes are "normal". In a full loot PVP game, a crash = you're dead and you lose everything you had with you. How about a little common effin sense? That alone deserves a far bigger markdown, and there were other things totally missed. Or were the blinders on? Really, this "review" seriously looks paid for.
Good review and I feel this was fair for the game considering it's at such a young and early state. DF:UW is only going to keep improving as it matures over time.
Good job mmorpg.com!
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
OK I know this website is a joke but you are giving DF gameplay a 9/10? Insane. The gameplay is garbage, even worse than the original. The melee combat is clunky, archery is worse, spellcasting is dumbed down. The game is flat out unacceptable. It may be fast and chaotic, but it's sloppy and unrefined: somehow it's even Worse than DF1.
The progression is simply a dumbed down version of the same thing from DF1 with less options presented. Same thing goes for crafting.
The gameplay deserves a 6/10 at the most. Overall the game is a 5 or a 6.
Have to agree with this guy. The gameplay is horrible. Simplistic melee combat with no feeling to it. Graphics are really bad. Animations are really bad. Sorry George, but this is a really bad "professional/journalistic" review. No consistency in comparison with other games of the genre. Glad that you have a job, because being unemployed sucks. But this destroys any credibility you may have had as a reviewer .
Wow, talk about getting people fired up! This game seriously makes people fall on love or become frothing at the mouth rabid! The only comment that I will make is that they need to seriously put out some free trials, buddy keys, or remove the monthly sub. There aren't many MMOs these days that can still justify a sub and with Rift going F2P I don't think a second-rate company like Aventurine is doing themselves any favors by placing so much cost in the way of players giving their game a try. They may need the money because they are a small company, but SWToR apparently made more as F2P than as a sub game.
Edit: The reason I point this out is that I wouldn't mind trying it, but based on the mixed reviews I am not dropping $55 to immediately realize that my mouth is foaming and I feel the urge to type with my fists while I rage on the forums.
Currently playing: Rift Played: SWToR, Aion,EQ, Dark Age of Camelot World of Warcraft, AoC
I see that you've been writing for MMORPG.com since 2012 and are a freelance writer. Okay, so perhaps you're new to MMO games or nobody has ever tried to edit your work to make it better. In my previous life I have written professionally and along the way took a lot of edits from folks (which i initially scorned but soon learned that it made me a far better writer). What follows is a short list of things you really should think about when writing about MMO games and writing in general.
Let's go over your review:
1) Aesthetics: The definition of Aesthics is how it looks. Yet the vast majority of your review (in terms of words spent on the subject) of this section is bad coding and crashing. Did you deliberately put the game crashes in this section because you can't think of what to write about the graphics/images/looks of the game, or did you simply forget you have the Polish section (is the game finished/polished. You did mention optimization again in the Polish section as an aside. Why put it in both?
Second, if you're going to compare graphics to TERA or GW2 and say they aren't as good, why not say which game you think the graphics in Darkfall are better? I mean, if you give it a 7/10, surely there are other MMO games that have worse graphics. Do you mean to imply that TERA and GW2 are the only 2 MMO games that have better graphics than Darkfall? Hard to know since I'm only told what is better than Darkfall, but I don't know what Darkfall is better than so I can't figure out on my own how decent the graphics are.
2) Gameplay -- Okay, you give it a 9/10 after playing this game for several weeks (according to the intro on the top). Then you add this fun gem: "Unfortunately I wasn’t able to experiences the full on sieges and organized clan wars. It is the most interesting aspect about the game, and makes for a hell of a lot of fun." So, you played for a few weeks and didn't get to experience the best part of the game, yet felt compelled to write the review? Who writes a review of the game and admits they didn't do the best part? Furthermore, how do you know it's the best part of the game if you didn't experience it? Is this from someone else's review of the game? Is the 9/10 because you hear that part of the game is really good (and thus the score of the game you actually experienced is lower?), or is it 9/10 based upon the game you actually experienced and would be perhaps a 10/10 based upon getting to experience you have been told is even better?
Did you compare other recent MMORPG.com reviews of games that got a 9/10 for gameplay to try to set as a comparison? Did anyone at MMORPG.com help you in this regard?
You also mention that you have never played in an open world PvP sandbox game. Really? Ever hear of EVE? It's a fairly popular game (often highlighted on this very website) that perhaps people at an MMORGP review site should be familiar with and have played. Maybe get some experience playing other types of MMOs before reviewing MMO games, so as you can compare the gameplay with EVE. It clearly stands out as a big red warning sign for your review.
Innovation - 8/10? You seem to give it a high-score simply because it is a sandbox MMO. While i agree sandbox games are not as common as themepark MMO games, I don't think it qualifies as innovative, just uncommon. So, here's the definition of innovation from Merian-Webster: "The introduction of something new." While sanbox games are uncommon, they are not NEW. However, since you mentioned you haven't played that kind of game before, hence it falls into this section unfortunately.
You do mention the leveling system which you believe is innovative. I would have focused more on this aspect since you said, "[it] is something which I haven’t seen outside a traditional leveling system."
Social: 9/10 - You did say that you played with another MMORPG.com staff member and his guild. Sort of creates a bias if you join people from work in the game. Still, I would agree that in a well-done sandbox PvP game, social tends to be a very important (and fun) part of the game and often leads to very high scores.
Longevity - No comment, that's pure opinion.
Value - I have a comment. You say "In addition to this, content is always being added." Interesting. It would be nice when you say stuff like that to give some facts. How often is "always"? What content was added? If it is on the expensive side, you'd have to compare how often it is added and the amount of content to another MMO game that isn't as expensive and also very popular (so it's easy to compare). You provide no data and no comparison.
Don't say stuff like "the developers are always striving to make their game better." Please tell me which developer of a MMO game isn't trying to make the game better? Was this an attempt to make this section longer and ran out of things to say? See my comment on data and comparisons for things to add to this section, rather than silly "they're working really hard" comments.
End thought to the writer-
Yeah, I'm a harsh critic of MMORPG.com reviews because long ago they were really all glowing with how wonderful everything was. Thankfully, people like Bill Murphy eventually stepped in and changed the review process to remove such bias. While I think most of the reviews have been better since then, I would have to say this review certainly needed an editor.
To my friends at MMORPG.com staff (that are probably tired of me reviewing their reviews):
You should carefully screen people hired to write reviews to ensure that they have played a similar game and are very familiar with several MMO games and have someone provide helpful edits and suggestions to freelance writers. When they give a 9/10 score on something, you have to compare that to other games that also got a similar score (8/10 - 10/10) and make sure that's consistent, especially when the writer comments that game "crashes were normal." A game that crashes all the time just got a 9/10 gameplay score. Is that the new standard? Did anyone but me notice that?
For such a wall of text about the writing style and grammar of someone else, your crap is sure hard to read.
Protip. 95% of the time 'that' is a superfluous word. 100% of the time, you are not as hot as you think you are.
For such a wall of text about the writing style and grammar of someone else, your crap is sure hard to read.
Protip. 95% of the time 'that' is a superfluous word. 100% of the time, you are not as hot as you think you are.
Way to completely miss what he wrote about. Who cares bout some1s writing style, when he clearly has alot of valids arguments against this review? So shouldn't focus on THAT to much. Could be that some are to stupid to get it though. Could be...
For such a wall of text about the writing style and grammar of someone else, your crap is sure hard to read.
Protip. 95% of the time 'that' is a superfluous word. 100% of the time, you are not as hot as you think you are.
For someone to attempt a rebuttal of wit you may fall a bit short. After reading the review and the reviewer on the review .....you sir may want to take a Eng 101 class just to retouch on some points so when someone else writes about placement and paragraph content you WILL find it easy to read. and Protip: it's Pro-Tip
This is a good review, look at other MMO sites and they pretty much mirror this. There's more good reviews than bad.
The best thing about Darkfall is the gameplay. Archery and magic are brilliant compared to Tab targetting. That's how he rated it. If you think hitting Tab is more challenging than aiming at a target and possibly hitting your friend in the back then I have no hope for you.
There's some people that can't get used to the controls. They're institutionalized because they've been hitting tab too long and straight key to action controls. Give yourself a good day or two before you form an opinion. Most people get to like the controls.
I'm not a huge fan of melee. It's so much hopping and sprinting. It is challenging and I think better than tab melee by a mile, but I'd much prefer something a bit more methodical and logical such as M&B style.
My second thing would be just to give people an understanding that this was a small dev team. It doesn't have Blizzards money or SoE's huge staff. I don't give them even a half break for the mistakes and slow content added, but I do give them a quarter. A good MMO grows, so I'll give them a chance to grow.
My last point would be that a LOT of reviews are by people that don't like PvP FFA loot games. That's totally understandable, it's jarring the first time to lose gear, especially because almost all games are so loot centric. Gotta get that super weapon or groups won't even let you play with them. Darkfall isn't like that. Gear just doesn't mean that much. If you don't craft at all you'll almost always know someone you can buy gear from cheap or you just ask in guild and get some for supplying the materials. There's still people that won't like the, PvP and that's fine. I'd personally love a PvE version of Darkfall with lots of mobs and dungeons, but the exact same combat mechanics. I hope someone comes out with a game like that.
it would be nice to have actual editors that are testing games.. instead of people that write some acticle who dont even play videogames but just collect money from writing this..
A: this game is not even a game.. its a beta version of something what is coming.. you pay over 50 dollars with a sub to play this so called game.. and its not even @ 10% working or finished..
- content is lacking
- rolls are not even complete
- no siege equipements/boats etc.. etc..
B: this company is the worst of all companies ever
C: forum is being heavily cencored currently by mods... from people making critisme about above..
zero to none customer support..
Ill bet you 2 my accounts of darkfall that this game will not be finished or @ least in a decent state in the end of 2013
True follower of the old version for 7 years
I have never seen a game which has boats. Hm maybe minecraft but thats no mmo
You know you can PM the writer with your suggestions? That might have been the better route to take than posting that wall of text.
Why should he do that? He has some valid points that is good if people read and think about as well after reading that review. You could have taken away all his text when you answered him though...
Why should I delete his wall of text? Is it because he wrote too much?
Maybe he needs to become a reviewer, since he has such strong opinions about how it should be done and clearly he really really really likes to write.
The SERVERS WERE DOWN FOR A WEEK, WITH NO COMMUNICATION!
That's horrible! For a game you're paying monthly for!
Apparently, the MMORPG.com people didn't want RipperX to do the review because he is too much a fan of the game. However, in having the person that did this review play with RipperX, they got something almost as bad. This review missed MANY of the problems that DFUO has, and obviously ignored others to give it the high ratings it did in several areas. Not a good review, for an even worse game.
Good review. I do not like how they implemented melee combat. If you jump or turn to sprint that should immediately drop your defense rating to zero. A hopper should be a very easy target, they can't move to avoid an attack.
Well, I personally would have scored most areas much lower (I did purchase and play the game at suggestion of people in my gaming community and the game gets a 3/10 or 4/10 at best from me, but it's really not my type of game so I'm biased), but I do take issue with the fact you mentioned "Great Communication with the Community". Really? In what parallel universe did you write this review from?
AV has the worst communication and PR I've seen of any MMO company. Information about the game is buried on their forums, they constantly make PR blunders, and they wait till the very last minute to announce major things (like pushing back release dates). They often go silence when major issues arise. At times they flat out lie. I don't need to list the numerous examples of where this is the case. I just can't possibly imagine how the reviewer even considers AV to have good communication.
A few other minor things I take issue with:
Being a sandbox is not innovative. There are plenty of sandboxes out there, and nearly all unreleased modern games are going a hybrid sandbox/themepark route. I do think Darkfall has plenty of innovative features you could talk about, but I don't feel you can call it innovative because it's a sandbox. In fact this whole section is just lacking, and you mention a lot of innovation in the gameplay section anyway.
Polish, what would it take to get a lower score in this? The game is very incomplete in a lot of areas. It feels rushed. It's poorly optimized. Where exactly is the polish here? You don't mention anything that would give it points in this, only negatives and yet it's a 7/10?
Good review. Only way to make yourself an unbiased oppinion is to try it. Unfortunately there is no trial. That and the quite expensive cost to try it are the only major negatives I see. Anyway, don't build your oppionion about the game just by listening to the haters here.
People claiming there is no cheaters are either blind or cheaters themself.
When you get 3 arrows in your back in 1-2 seconds and you as a skirmisher with speedrunning as your ultimate still have the guy glued to your back then someting is very wrong. Answer is speedhack.
Same with warriors that circle you with the speed of lightning to get their crits in when they hit you from behind and this is actually impossible to miss if you're not a total noob so i go for the ones claiming there is no cheaters is actually cheaters themself.
Aimbot is just as common, some skirmishers never miss, never.
To everyone saying "wtf are you taking about" about pretty much everything. The reviewer most likely is newer to the MMO screen, probably first introduced to AAA titles by WoW circa 2007 or something. Most MMO players are not old fogy's like us who've been playing MMORPGs since the late 90s. Having this in mind, it doesn't surprise me that the reviewer gave UW this score. For someone looking to get away from the WoW model of gaming, UW is a breath of fresh air. For people who never play WoW style games, the game is a disappointment.
Bill Check yourself Make sure you are writing what you want to write. And do it after you have thought everything though. A good ,accurate, well thought out, and true to heart review is the best. In my irises anyway.
Comments
Why should he do that? He has some valid points that is good if people read and think about as well after reading that review. You could have taken away all his text when you answered him though...
+1This.
The only thing that really bothers me about this review is that the screenshots are still showing only 2k prowess earned..... I think the reviewer is just saying what he thinks people want to hear.
He lists cheaters as a problem, but I'm betting he has never encountered any cheaters.
Nonetheless, it is an overall positive review, although I don't believe it's doing the game justice.
Great Review, The game is great and will only get better.
Best MMO since the launch of Warcraft.
Good review and I feel this was fair for the game considering it's at such a young and early state. DF:UW is only going to keep improving as it matures over time.
Good job mmorpg.com!
"Mr. Rothstein, your people never will understand... the way it works out here. You're all just our guests. But you act like you're at home. Let me tell you something, partner. You ain't home. But that's where we're gonna send you if it harelips the governor." - Pat Webb
Spot on review George! Well said and fair and balanced in my opinion!
Have to agree with this guy. The gameplay is horrible. Simplistic melee combat with no feeling to it. Graphics are really bad. Animations are really bad. Sorry George, but this is a really bad "professional/journalistic" review. No consistency in comparison with other games of the genre. Glad that you have a job, because being unemployed sucks. But this destroys any credibility you may have had as a reviewer
.
Wow, talk about getting people fired up! This game seriously makes people fall on love or become frothing at the mouth rabid! The only comment that I will make is that they need to seriously put out some free trials, buddy keys, or remove the monthly sub. There aren't many MMOs these days that can still justify a sub and with Rift going F2P I don't think a second-rate company like Aventurine is doing themselves any favors by placing so much cost in the way of players giving their game a try. They may need the money because they are a small company, but SWToR apparently made more as F2P than as a sub game.
Edit: The reason I point this out is that I wouldn't mind trying it, but based on the mixed reviews I am not dropping $55 to immediately realize that my mouth is foaming and I feel the urge to type with my fists while I rage on the forums.
Currently playing:
Rift
Played:
SWToR, Aion,EQ, Dark Age of Camelot
World of Warcraft, AoC
gameplay :
classes are finished for 50%
dungeons are not ingame
(war)ships are not ingame
siege equipment like canons and warhulks are not ingame
polish :
server has seen some optimization
harvesting has been dumbed down, points spent reduce only time spent and no longer success rate (100% successrate for all attempts)
polished gamecontent is only announced in a post on the forums and is planned for the near future, so is not actually ingame
they're still tweaking the classes
player cities are getting a total overhaul
inventory is not working as intended and will see changes
prowess has not received any polishing
a lot of players consider release as a paid beta
In my opinion the marks given in those categories are way off.
gameplay = 6.5/10
polish = tbd (not enough data and 1/10 is a bit weird to give)
For such a wall of text about the writing style and grammar of someone else, your crap is sure hard to read.
Protip. 95% of the time 'that' is a superfluous word. 100% of the time, you are not as hot as you think you are.
Way to completely miss what he wrote about. Who cares bout some1s writing style, when he clearly has alot of valids arguments against this review? So shouldn't focus on THAT to much. Could be that some are to stupid to get it though. Could be...
For someone to attempt a rebuttal of wit you may fall a bit short. After reading the review and the reviewer on the review .....you sir may want to take a Eng 101 class just to retouch on some points so when someone else writes about placement and paragraph content you WILL find it easy to read. and Protip: it's Pro-Tip
This is a good review, look at other MMO sites and they pretty much mirror this. There's more good reviews than bad.
The best thing about Darkfall is the gameplay. Archery and magic are brilliant compared to Tab targetting. That's how he rated it. If you think hitting Tab is more challenging than aiming at a target and possibly hitting your friend in the back then I have no hope for you.
There's some people that can't get used to the controls. They're institutionalized because they've been hitting tab too long and straight key to action controls. Give yourself a good day or two before you form an opinion. Most people get to like the controls.
I'm not a huge fan of melee. It's so much hopping and sprinting. It is challenging and I think better than tab melee by a mile, but I'd much prefer something a bit more methodical and logical such as M&B style.
My second thing would be just to give people an understanding that this was a small dev team. It doesn't have Blizzards money or SoE's huge staff. I don't give them even a half break for the mistakes and slow content added, but I do give them a quarter. A good MMO grows, so I'll give them a chance to grow.
My last point would be that a LOT of reviews are by people that don't like PvP FFA loot games. That's totally understandable, it's jarring the first time to lose gear, especially because almost all games are so loot centric. Gotta get that super weapon or groups won't even let you play with them. Darkfall isn't like that. Gear just doesn't mean that much. If you don't craft at all you'll almost always know someone you can buy gear from cheap or you just ask in guild and get some for supplying the materials. There's still people that won't like the, PvP and that's fine. I'd personally love a PvE version of Darkfall with lots of mobs and dungeons, but the exact same combat mechanics. I hope someone comes out with a game like that.
Asdar
I have never seen a game which has boats. Hm maybe minecraft but thats no mmo
GREAT COMMUNICATION WITH THE COMMUNITY?!
The SERVERS WERE DOWN FOR A WEEK, WITH NO COMMUNICATION!
That's horrible! For a game you're paying monthly for!
Help get Camelot Unchained made, a old-school MMORPG, with no hand holding!
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/13861848/camelot-unchained
Why should I delete his wall of text? Is it because he wrote too much?
Maybe he needs to become a reviewer, since he has such strong opinions about how it should be done and clearly he really really really likes to write.
Apparently, the MMORPG.com people didn't want RipperX to do the review because he is too much a fan of the game. However, in having the person that did this review play with RipperX, they got something almost as bad. This review missed MANY of the problems that DFUO has, and obviously ignored others to give it the high ratings it did in several areas. Not a good review, for an even worse game.Well, I personally would have scored most areas much lower (I did purchase and play the game at suggestion of people in my gaming community and the game gets a 3/10 or 4/10 at best from me, but it's really not my type of game so I'm biased), but I do take issue with the fact you mentioned "Great Communication with the Community". Really? In what parallel universe did you write this review from?
AV has the worst communication and PR I've seen of any MMO company. Information about the game is buried on their forums, they constantly make PR blunders, and they wait till the very last minute to announce major things (like pushing back release dates). They often go silence when major issues arise. At times they flat out lie. I don't need to list the numerous examples of where this is the case. I just can't possibly imagine how the reviewer even considers AV to have good communication.
A few other minor things I take issue with:
Being a sandbox is not innovative. There are plenty of sandboxes out there, and nearly all unreleased modern games are going a hybrid sandbox/themepark route. I do think Darkfall has plenty of innovative features you could talk about, but I don't feel you can call it innovative because it's a sandbox. In fact this whole section is just lacking, and you mention a lot of innovation in the gameplay section anyway.
Polish, what would it take to get a lower score in this? The game is very incomplete in a lot of areas. It feels rushed. It's poorly optimized. Where exactly is the polish here? You don't mention anything that would give it points in this, only negatives and yet it's a 7/10?
Good review. Only way to make yourself an unbiased oppinion is to try it. Unfortunately there is no trial. That and the quite expensive cost to try it are the only major negatives I see. Anyway, don't build your oppionion about the game just by listening to the haters here.
Have fun what ever you are playing.
People claiming there is no cheaters are either blind or cheaters themself.
When you get 3 arrows in your back in 1-2 seconds and you as a skirmisher with speedrunning as your ultimate still have the guy glued to your back then someting is very wrong. Answer is speedhack.
Same with warriors that circle you with the speed of lightning to get their crits in when they hit you from behind and this is actually impossible to miss if you're not a total noob so i go for the ones claiming there is no cheaters is actually cheaters themself.
Aimbot is just as common, some skirmishers never miss, never.
Games:
Currently playing:Nothing
Will play: Darkfall: Unholy Wars
Past games:
Guild Wars 2 - Xpiher Duminous
Xpiher's GW2
GW 1 - Xpiher Duminous
Darkfall - Xpiher Duminous (NA) retired
AoC - Xpiher (Tyranny) retired
Warhammer - Xpiher
Bill Check yourself