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Gameplay & Community-- Question of MMO-Gamer
philgon
Member UncommonPosts: 7
Guys' Ive been an mmo gamer since 1998 EQClassic. Play since then but have been semi retire since November 2013. Im thinking on playing a game and would like quick inputs on this game following areas:
1. Gameplay
2. Community
Professor Philip
Comments
I've always had a thing for this game, I just love the story and setting, so maybe I am a little biased, but I'll try to give honest answers:
Gameplay is going to be pretty similar to every other MMO you have ever played, TSW doesn't break the mold too much. Where it shines is going to be the Skill Wheel/Lateral Progression and Investigation Missions. You could theorycraft for quite some time about various skill set ups, but suffice it to say you can have a lot of fun just tweaking things and trying different builds, and since you are not tied down to a specific class, you can change roles on the fly (provided you invested some XP). The investigation missions are a ton of fun - basically adventure game styled puzzles that will really make you think, provided you don't just google the answers. Endgame will consist primarily of dungeons and raids, but you can also spend downtime farming xp for more skills/weapons/augments, etc. It would take a pretty long time to unlock every single skill in the game.
Community is really hit or miss. TSW has, for the most part, a mature community (probably as a result of the themes of the game). Most people are very helpful and intelligent, and you won't see non stop dev bashing/politics/chuck norris jokes in local. The group finder doesn't automatically group you, either, its more of a "help wanted" ad and people can see your request and message/invite you, so the game does encourage interaction even on that front. All of that being said... this game is plagued by elitists at times. It is not uncommon to see LFM messages demanding a tier of gear way higher than what is necessary, and be prepared to constantly link your gear/stats to potential PUGs just to get accepted. As with any game - find a Cabal (guild) and find it fast, PUGs are a horrible experience in TSW for a new player.
In any event, with all of that said if what you want is an EQ/WoW style progression raiding endgame, you might want to pass up TSW. It has those elements, but a much stronger focus on just taking in the lore/world and stopping to smell the roses.
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The gameplay is really good. The missions are interesting and varied. There are investigation missions which can be very challenging as the solutions are often not so obvious and you have to interpret quite a few things. But once you figure it out, you just feel awesome. The skill system is one of the best I have seen in an MMO. It reminds me of GW1. You get xp, you earn ability points and you spent them on whatever ability you have. There are about 550-650 abilities in total and you can mix and match those to come up with various builds - 7 active abilities and 7 passive abilities. It's really refreshing that you don't have real levels so even going back to starter zones to help out your friends you still earn quite a bit of xp.
The story and lore are also another strong point of the game. It plays like a horror game. You have witches, zombies, vampires etc. There are tons of lore points scattered around the world which tell you some very interestin stories.
Community - everyone is very helpful. This is one of the very few games where the general chat is nice to read and I have spent many hours chatting to random people on there. If someone asks a question, I have never seen people mock them for not knowing. People will just give you an answer straight away.
I would say for the price you're paying it's amazing and a definite must have.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
1. It's your standard themepark fare with story and copious voice acting thrown in.
The combat is a button-spammy version of CoHs. If you're not familiar with that game, then basically it's 8 buttons where you press 1-2 of them over and over again until you generate enough resources, then press the others. It's quite mindless and incredily boring.
The quest quality ranges from WoW to awesome: that is where the game shines. Some of the quests require puzzle solving of some sort, or at least figuring out where to go, however, roughly half of the quests in the game are the same old.
Without the quests, it would be a crappy version of SWToR.
2. It's very good; it consists mostly of people in their 20's and up. In my cabal (basically guild) there were quite a few people in their 40's+.
However, the game is mostly solo content by design. The group content is atrocious.. but that's because it didn't involve any sort of puzzle solving, but mostly combat (as you'd expect) and by now you know I didn't think much of it to say the least.
1. TSW has no classes or levels, and you can play all weapons and acquire all the abilities with one character (there are 3 factions who more rivals that outright enemies). It still uses the trinity for roles, but you can equip any ability and create different hybrid decks and do lots of customization to your build. Clothes are separate from gear, so you can pretty much do anything you want with your look. It's a theme park, so very much PvE, with lots of missions, though there are 3 types -- action, investigation (puzzles) and sabotage (stealth). There's dungeons in each zone (3 levels of difficulty), a raids, open world difficult areas called lairs, as well as several PvP arenas (mixed opinions on PvP). The lore and story is one of the best around, and very interesting to follow.
2. Community is nice and very helpful to newcomers. Cabals (guilds) are a good way to group up, but the game is also solo-friendly. There are also some elitists when you get to endgame, but pretty normal for that -- overall the community is a bit older and more mature.