Not impressed (pvp+)

Fennris

First off:

Love the milieu/atmosphere

Like the graphics and most of the animations - I play using 2560X1600 (30" monitor) and have no problems but my settings are defaulting to low on my 3-year-old pc.  If I keep playing I'll experiment and/or upgrade.  But the gameplay has been surprisingly smooth for release weekend.

Things that have me on the fence about quitting:

1) Annoying bugs

 a) I can't left-click on most things - I have to tab to target most of the time and often that doesn't work either.  There have been quest endings that I couldn't immediately finish because I couldn't select the glowing thingy to 'U'se it.  This becomes all the more troublesome during pvp when I can't 'select' targets properly.

 b) Some quest objectives have been invisible.

 c) Often, quest objectives stay 'glowy' even after I've met the objectives.

 d) Hiding has lots of bugs - 'can't hide while being observed' when nothing is around and often there's no message at all, just nothing happens for minutes in certain situations.  I basically have to move to another spot and keep trying.

 e) Setting defensive stances was not working for me or else it was just confusing (Control 1-4 had a random effects on my defensive shields every time I hit one of those and often hitting those buttons had -no- effect).  Plus it seems pointless to leave a hole in your defense unless you know a critter doesn't attack from a particular direction so I'm not sure why I'd use it regularly.

2) PVP - ugh - they've made every mistake imaginable.  It seems like Funcom has grossly overestimated the fuzzy sentiments of their player base?  Perhaps they don't realize that most other games that allow pvp have already accidentally trained, encouraged and rewarded players for being royal jerks?  This game is no exception.

 a) Player invisibility.  Anyone that's invisible is tough to see (and everyone can turn invis).  If you search you can do it but you have to actively search.  So basically, non-stealth characters have most of the pvp perks of stealth characters.  This isn't exactly good because classes with a stealth focus are penalized for it (can't wear armor, etc).  Invisibility isn't very useful in pve although it's not useless.  What is the justification/rationale for PCs being able to poof anyways?  Just because WoW did it...?

 b) If you're an invisibility focused character you're almost stuck killing random people while they're doing something else.  In fact, that's the second best way to earn pvp points for anyone (in world pvp).  The people that get the points are going to be the ones that do that a lot - and to lower levels.

 c) Ranged attacks - hunters all over again - they can: stealth, instant-snare, massive damage from range, melee competently - so you can't outrun them and they can outrun you and attack from surprise.

 d) Water - can't fight in water; not sure about ranged attacks or spells though I know that a target in water can be hit with them.  If you want to annoy a melee, stab them then run in the water and laugh at them as they catch you and can't swing.

 e) Zone-killing/camping.  You can kill someone at any graveyard outside of Tort.  People rez at them with next to no health/stamina + they are still zoning and can't control their character while you can start swinging.  This counts as PVP kills.  People aren't doing it wholesale/everywhere yet but they will.  Many regular zone entrance/exit spots can be camped as well.

3) Class balance

 I haven't played with this enough yet but there appear to be some big problems in this department as well.  It's not so noticeable in pve because -I think- everyone can rock there (although not equally), but some classes seem to be way out of control.  I've heard stories but don't want to pass them on here, yet.

4) The game is canned - as others have said but I didn't quite believe them.  You can only follow certain paths to get anywhere.  I don't see any kind of flying ever being implemented because the zones are so narrow.  It's not like other MMOs where you can step back on a large open field, take in the scenery/view, pick a spot and run to it.  There aren't any large open fields that I have seen.  And it's not like other MMOs where a level 1 can safely explore and walk to other cities/towns - I'm not even sure that there are that many cities/towns at all at this point.  For replayability, this is going to be a big weakness.  And there are no boat trips - you don't "get on boats" - you talk to someone or click on something and then zone.

5) I would log in to post this on their official forums and gather more info that would hopefully negate some of my concerns but I'm having problems setting up a forum account there.

I have had a lot of patience; I liked and played Shadowbane, AC1's Darktide and even a bit of EQ1's Rallos Zek and DAOC (and plenty of WoW of course).  But this one is pushing it.  What is there to really like here?  Other than the source material that has been treated well?  The combat system might be revolutionary but I haven't seen that yet.

Enigma

aye the PvP aspect is probably the worse compared to any other MMO that utilizes PvP.  I would recommend rolling a toon on a PvE server until they figure things out