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Pandora Saga... horrible game.

WarvetWarvet Member Posts: 11

Pandora Saga is just the latest MMO I downloaded in my search for a game to play that didn't cost a monthly subscription. As with other MMO's I tried, I'll review what I saw in Pandora Saga.

1) Graphics

The graphics aren't horrible and they aren't spectacular. The cut sequences are fairly well rendered even if the gameplay world isn't state-of-the-art.

2) Game Mechanics

This is a basic "point, click, attack" game and it has problems. Most of the time, you go to attack and you take one hit at the monster then your character stands there forcing you to continually hit the auto-attack button for each monster. At times I did get a "target is blocked" when trying to attack the monster that was right next to my character that was getting pounded upon.

The actual character generation is standard fare, though, they do have different races then just human, dwarf, elf, etc. The stat points you garner from gaining levels seem pretty straight forward but the ability points into skills system leaves a lot to be desired.

The biggest problem I had with the game mechanics was in the quest department. The city map is divided into zones and is clunky at best. You go from one zone to another to find quests which are standard "go kill X monsters". But, where and how do you find the monsters you are supposed to kill? I, and others, spent too much time having to ask in chat where the monsters were actually located. For the most part, it took asking at least 3 times each to get an answer. More on that below. There is an east and west outside zone, so it wasn't like it was easy to figure out, but, once in the correct outside zone the monsters are supposed to be marked with a dot on your map. Even that wasn't the case all the time. I suspect it is a bug in the game, but, it was frustrating nonetheless. It's a poor system and doesn't work well.

Weapons had no way to distingiush attack speed. Sure, a 2-H sword is supposed to be slower then a 1-H sword, but, how much slower? Was the trade off in speed worth it? There was absolutely no way to know. At least in some other MMO's the weapons show their attack speed so a player can judge for themselves if the damage is worth the slower rate of attack. Not so in this game. I finally bought a 1-H sword and a 2-H sword, which was a needless waste of the gold I had gotten to that point, just to see for myself (since nobody would answer my question about weapon speed in chat). I actually saw little difference in the attack speed OR damage dealt between the two. This was at low level, so, it may get more noticable at higher levels, but, by that time you've already put your points into one or the other. Again, just poorly done.

3) Player vending

I'm just going to continue giving this its own spot until game designers learn that this system is terrible. It fills a players screen with everyone's shop and simply clogs the screen with needless garbage. It also puts an undue load on the players graphics card causing the game to drag, lag, and you no longer get a smooth game. But, lo and behold, Pandora Saga even takes this bad system and makes it worse by having the players "stall" show you what they are selling above the stall itself. So, you get even more garbage clogging up your screen.

4) Game Community

This is the first time I've added the community to a critique. Frankly, I didn't spend much time playing this game it was that bad. And, for a game that just launched, I am going to hit the community in Pandora Saga, as well. Too many new people were trying to ask questions in chat that were simply ignored by all, even the games GM's. It's a new game and new players are going to have questions, especially when they don't even know where to find the monsters they need to go kill for X quest because of the games poor design. Having these questions totally ignored by even the games GM's just leaves a bad taste in the mouth as you watch the chat scroll by with the usual adolescent babble.

Sure, it's a free game, but, watching paint dry is also free. My recommendation? Go for watching the paint dry instead of downloading this game.

Comments

  • B1mbleB1mble Member CommonPosts: 148

    Fair comment although it is still new and probably has a long way to go re development wise.  To me its just another ho hum grind until carpel tunnel syndrome sets in, war between kingdoms that has been done a thousand times before.  Nothing new, no imagination put to the test.

    If you want a free game and graphics aren't an issue try Mabinogi.  Its the only one I have stuck with so far because of its scope and depth.  My character has put on weight from over eating and now has a butt the size of Jamaica 0.o.  It surprised the hell out of me that they would put such detail in a MMORPG.

  • skeloyskeloy Member Posts: 4

    Yes This Game Is Totally Crap... Forget About This. If U Rate Y Time Than Play On Good Old Games ..for example Arx Fatalis, Dark Messiah on soo on ... :) Yes i know This game are not mmo, but are much more playable than last released mmo "game".

    ... and do not forget  Advertised Games On Net have only one goal - Money For Distributors... not Fun For Players.. Thats All.

    Cheers.

  • kurtcourtesykurtcourtesy Member Posts: 6

    This whole analysis is the analysis of someone who played for a few mins.  

    Graphics are decent

    And mechanics are similar to WoW.

     

    The quest system is okay, you just actually have to USE YOUR EYES, because they tell you where to go and when you get there, theres nice blue markers on your map to follow.  And if you actually paid attention to the game, you'd have been informed that mobs have a tendency to move away from marks.  And even if you weren't informed its common sense.  Not to mention, at night, different mobs spawn sometimes.  

     

    And with the weapon system, you basically just don't get the whole game system.  

    I don't think you even put out the effort to try to, you must have never made it to lvl 20+

     

    Game community is better than your average mmo, you tried this game at a time where lots of new players were coming in and most higher level players were still experimenting.  What do you expect?  

    GM's are very active and helpful and talk to anyone.  

    There's only one reason, people or Gm's don't help out noobs, its because you probably have a horrible attitude.  

    You could tell by reading what you wrote.  

     

     

     

    THIS GAME IS NOT HORRIBLE,

    It is very community, quest,  and pvp based and the only way you wont have fun in this game is if you don't know how to make friends, or socialize.  

     

    But that's just my perspective, if you really wanna know, try it yourself.  

     

    I usually never post but this review was horrible.  

     

     

  • B1mbleB1mble Member CommonPosts: 148

    Originally posted by kurtcourtesy

    THIS GAME IS NOT HORRIBLE,

     

     

    To you it may not be horrible and to others it may be the worst game ever created.  This doesn't deny the fact, that regardless of personal preference and opinion that this type of game has been done to death and back.  It is nothing new.  It is just shy of a copy paste of every other 'warring kingdoms' game out there. 

    Innovation, creativity, imagination, breaking a mould do not apply here.  A graphicaly enhanced cash for fantasy products shop does.

  • I'm playing it for few weeks now, the game ain't that bad, i'm a guy who ignores the grahpics, sure the movement is a bit clunky, but the concept is good, it's pvp based, and so far i'm happy with results.

    Grinding is simple aswell, you just need to know what you go after.

    Community is bit trollish, but that's okay, newbies (including myself) get their answers from maybe not by the first guy in Realm chat, but 3rd instead.

    And you say GMs don't help out new players or so/answer your (possibly stupid) questions? GMs are in charge of events, if they're on, they're usually testing content (the game is still open beta) or running events regarding pvp and so on. They rely on players in Realm chat to answer these questions concerning the game (quests, mobs, character builds etc).

    Your review seemed like you spent 5 to 15 minutes in-game and thought you can summarize it.

    On a sidenote it ain't time-consuming either, max level is 40, you can get it within a week if you play it daily.

    Sure you may not like it, but please make a review after you've explored the game, not just peek and think you've seen the world.

     

    Your argument is invalid.

     

    Boatwreck, Varik Confederation, level 38 Provocateur.

  • DemonikgodDemonikgod Member Posts: 10

    I downloaded pandora saga and loong  both to try out today. Pandora Saga felt dated but not incredabad like runescape.

    All in all it wasnt a horrible firt impression, but didnt feel like my cup of tea.

    Loong on the otherseems to be very well polished with fluent gameplay and nice graphics. Needless to say Loong will stay on my PC for a bit. As for pandora saga i uninstalled it..maybe ill try again in a few months see if got any better.

  • mhangmanmhangman Member Posts: 3

    it is good game. im playing it, good community, good world. lvling is hard after lvl 20 but you have to find friends to lvl fast.

  • ShadanwolfShadanwolf Member UncommonPosts: 2,392

    Originally posted by Warvet

    Pandora Saga is just the latest MMO I downloaded in my search for a game to play that didn't cost a monthly subscription. As with other MMO's I tried, I'll review what I saw in Pandora Saga.

    1) Graphics

    The graphics aren't horrible and they aren't spectacular. The cut sequences are fairly well rendered even if the gameplay world isn't state-of-the-art.

    2) Game Mechanics

    This is a basic "point, click, attack" game and it has problems. Most of the time, you go to attack and you take one hit at the monster then your character stands there forcing you to continually hit the auto-attack button for each monster. At times I did get a "target is blocked" when trying to attack the monster that was right next to my character that was getting pounded upon.

    The actual character generation is standard fare, though, they do have different races then just human, dwarf, elf, etc. The stat points you garner from gaining levels seem pretty straight forward but the ability points into skills system leaves a lot to be desired.

    The biggest problem I had with the game mechanics was in the quest department. The city map is divided into zones and is clunky at best. You go from one zone to another to find quests which are standard "go kill X monsters". But, where and how do you find the monsters you are supposed to kill? I, and others, spent too much time having to ask in chat where the monsters were actually located. For the most part, it took asking at least 3 times each to get an answer. More on that below. There is an east and west outside zone, so it wasn't like it was easy to figure out, but, once in the correct outside zone the monsters are supposed to be marked with a dot on your map. Even that wasn't the case all the time. I suspect it is a bug in the game, but, it was frustrating nonetheless. It's a poor system and doesn't work well.

    Weapons had no way to distingiush attack speed. Sure, a 2-H sword is supposed to be slower then a 1-H sword, but, how much slower? Was the trade off in speed worth it? There was absolutely no way to know. At least in some other MMO's the weapons show their attack speed so a player can judge for themselves if the damage is worth the slower rate of attack. Not so in this game. I finally bought a 1-H sword and a 2-H sword, which was a needless waste of the gold I had gotten to that point, just to see for myself (since nobody would answer my question about weapon speed in chat). I actually saw little difference in the attack speed OR damage dealt between the two. This was at low level, so, it may get more noticable at higher levels, but, by that time you've already put your points into one or the other. Again, just poorly done.

    3) Player vending

    I'm just going to continue giving this its own spot until game designers learn that this system is terrible. It fills a players screen with everyone's shop and simply clogs the screen with needless garbage. It also puts an undue load on the players graphics card causing the game to drag, lag, and you no longer get a smooth game. But, lo and behold, Pandora Saga even takes this bad system and makes it worse by having the players "stall" show you what they are selling above the stall itself. So, you get even more garbage clogging up your screen.

    4) Game Community

    This is the first time I've added the community to a critique. Frankly, I didn't spend much time playing this game it was that bad. And, for a game that just launched, I am going to hit the community in Pandora Saga, as well. Too many new people were trying to ask questions in chat that were simply ignored by all, even the games GM's. It's a new game and new players are going to have questions, especially when they don't even know where to find the monsters they need to go kill for X quest because of the games poor design. Having these questions totally ignored by even the games GM's just leaves a bad taste in the mouth as you watch the chat scroll by with the usual adolescent babble.

    Sure, it's a free game, but, watching paint dry is also free. My recommendation? Go for watching the paint dry instead of downloading this game.

    Thanks for the review. You answered all my questions and saved me some time considering this game.

  • M00nk3yM00nk3y Member CommonPosts: 18

    Crafting.... no mention of crafting. Is there crafting in this game? Is the system any good?

    Related news: Francis-7 Demands Obama show his Lifejewel or report to Carousel.

  • GrammieGrammie Member Posts: 68

    I had trouble finding quest locations, even at early levels.  That is a killer for me.  I tried to turn down the music and it wasn't responsive.  The graphics are okay, but I favor color instead of various shades of brown.


  • Originally posted by M00nk3y

    Crafting.... no mention of crafting. Is there crafting in this game? Is the system any good?

    No crafting. Except upgrading weapons by plussing them up (1-10, +5,6,7 is superb).

  • Germaximus_SGermaximus_S Member UncommonPosts: 1,061

    lol That review is basically the same as saying "i dont like the bugs in the game so it sucks."

    Get out of here.

    I liked the game, but im tired of the WoW clones myself.

    Jeremiah 8:21 I weep for the hurt of my people; I stand amazed, silent, dumb with grief.
    Join me on Twitch Facebook Twitter 

  • EmoqqboyEmoqqboy Member UncommonPosts: 194

    Regarding the game community.i have no idea what  you're hoping to expect, but much like real life, there will be more nasty people than nice ones. This pertains to every other mmo out there. No clue if  you've tried this, but u could have a go at allods online. Its f2p and a pretty decent one at that.

    <QQ moar plz. kkthxbai.>

  • caitocaito Member Posts: 3

    Alright, for those of you that experienced BETA through a couple weeks after Release, i'll state an update.

    1. The AutoAttack function only happens for the first MOB in the game, Maggots. anything other than that is an Agressive retaliating MOB.

    2. If you haven't joined a nation in the game, it's most likely you wont encounter help because of the sheer numbers in the three nations and very little in the starting areas. Each nation has it's own Realm chat.

    3. Since the start of the release they did constant updates to most weapon/Item descriptions.

    4. They Implemented the crafting system.

    5. The cash shop and customer service has been fixed and openly engaged.

    6. They release third tier job extensions and updated the level cap to 55. (soon they're releasing level 60 cap.) and most of the game's weapons have been released in preparation for this.

    If you can't play the game for long, how can you honestly give an accurate review? Since this game has been on different regional servers, and most of them has closed, the American server has been gradually completing it's HUGE amount of content. You cannot expect for ALL of the content to be released all at once. that would surely crash the servers.

    this game is catching up to it's predecessors. and will continue to get better as the game finishes it's content completion.

    for a more accurate understanding of this game, please play more than a month and a fifth of the games true potential.

    Thank you for reading this update. PLAY ONimage

     

  • drbaltazardrbaltazar Member UncommonPosts: 7,856

    i would say for me the firsat time pandora saga was released .i couldnt play it (everything was wrong and black .)i removed reinstalled but for some reason the game wouldnt work like it is in youtube so i said screw this that was at first lunch now it is relunched maybe they fixed this issue!

  • caitocaito Member Posts: 3

    My appologies. I forgot to mention that for the quest monsters and positions, there is a way to find your target and that is....follow the flag!

    If you look just below your minimap you'll see a black box with a downarrow much like a search bar. Click the down arrow and it will connect your position and the target's with a straight line. Follow the line using the minimap, or press "m" in-game to show a full area map. From there you can see the blue flag marking your target (it's yellow when you set your target line.)

    it's simple really, and for those who play you now have no issue with finding your quest targets.

  • caitocaito Member Posts: 3

    Originally posted by drbaltazar

    i would say for me the firsat time pandora saga was released .i couldnt play it (everything was wrong and black .)i removed reinstalled but for some reason the game wouldnt work like it is in youtube so i said screw this that was at first lunch now it is relunched maybe they fixed this issue!

    when it was initally released the launcher had problems and the game disconnected a lot. it's fixed now. you should have no problem. ^^

  • UNH0LYEV1LUNH0LYEV1L Member UncommonPosts: 571

    Well, i wanted to try the game, but Atlus's website has been down for a few days now and I cant even create a damn account. Kinda made me lose interest in the game if they cant even get their website to work.

  • Requiem6Requiem6 Member Posts: 237

    The game is just another general and boring Free to play.

    Nothing new.

    Don't know what you were expecting aniway...

  • Crunchy222Crunchy222 Member CommonPosts: 386
    Yup all the good games are F2P...its the future...ect...
  • postpwnpostpwn Member UncommonPosts: 87
    I like this game.  It reminds me of Final Fantasy XI.  I even made a friend in-game!
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