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Age of Wushu: My First Impressions
Roxtarr
Member CommonPosts: 1,122
AoW: Probably the Most Flawed Game I've Ever Fallen in Love With
There has never been a perfect game (cliche right?). This has never been more true of a game than Age of Wushu. So why can't I get enough of it? To be honest - when I'm not playing, all I can think about is getting home and logging in.
There are some games that you want to shout from the rooftops and say, "Hey! You need to play this!" But there are other games that you know aren't suited for everybody. AoW falls in the latter category. This game simply isn't for everyone, in fact there are several people I know that would be downright aggravated within the first ten minutes of playing. As of this writing, the 'mass market' MMO crowd has pretty much left this game untouched, but I'm sure this will change as AoW continues to gain traction. I truly hope that this doesn't fall prey to the MMO masses because it just won't do well as a big hyped game.
The Scoop:
Age of Wushu (AoW) is a martial-arts based MMORPG set in ancient China. There are no classes or levels, but you do eventually choose one of eight martial arts schools that will be the foundation for your character. You choose one of four histories that will guide your story, while the rest of your journey will be spent leveling up skills, crafting and helping out various NPC's in the world. The game is an open PvP world with no true safe areas. The biggest penalty for being killed is minor annoyance, the risk of constantly attacking players can eventually lead to a bounty and jail time. When you log off, your character says in game as an NPC performing various jobs. When you log back in, you can see what your character has done for you while you were away. Any offline player may be kidnapped by other players and sold to NPC's for reward. Again, this is more of a minor annoyance to the kidnapped, but puts the kidnapper at risk since he can be attacked by others without penalty to rescue the kidnapped player. Crafting is player dependent since most ingredients have to be crafted by players and cannot be purchased at a vendor. It's is a gorgeous game with graphics that are on par with most MMO's released after 2010. The character movement is smooth and can actually be pretty fun sometimes, especially when you learn some of the flying moves. It's like Aion's gliding on steroids. The combat is very strategic with a rock, paper, scissors mechanic that has some very nice looking combo moves once you have them set up. There is so much more to this game, and my brief description really just hits the high points.
Things that will keep some players away:
Like I said before, the game isn't perfect and some might say it has some serious flaws. The game is is extremely confusing at first - not only because it's so different but because the translations are so terrible, the guide can make things even more confusing. You choose which skills to level but there isn't a reliable way to be sure that what you're leveling is best for your character. Plus, some design choices are downright baffling. For example, there are long cooldowns after leaving guilds or deleting your character. As stated above, many of the translations make no sense whatsoever (it's in closed beta and they say they're working on it). The cash shop and monetization model are also being criticized as being "Pay to Win". While the cash shop seems harmless enough (only cosmetic items, mounts and in-game currency) the optional VIP monthly subscription is another story. As a VIP there are a host of rewards than can allow a paying player faster progression in the game. Now, that's not to say a free player can't mop up the floor with a VIP, it's likely that the free player took longer to progress. I suspect any serious AoW player will get the VIP sub for the $9.99 per month. (And yes, I plan on paying the sub.)
My Take:
For a sandbox, pvp-centric mmo to get my attention is amazing enough - the fact that I'm actually enjoying myself has come to a total surprise to me. I didn't expect to have as much fun as I'm having, and this is refreshing. Perhaps I've spent too much time focusing on the big AAA releases and not enough times finding gems like AoW.
As I've stated, the game has some flaws but they just aren't bad enough to make me want to play something else right now. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to log in to make sure my character hasn't been abducted.
If in 1982 we played with the current mentality, we would have burned down all the pac man games since the red ghost was clearly OP. Instead we just got better at the game.
Comments
Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.
George Washington
This "vip" system seems like an optional pay to play to get 100% of the game or play for free and well get the game with a slower progression and maybe more.
If they can pull it off I don't see the flaw in that.
Dungeons and Dragons online is similar in this department, you can play for free and get a slower progression with races,dungeons locked and you can unlock them from cash shop or pay monthly and have everything for "free".
It seems pretty huge. Haven't noticed any day/night cycle but I have seen some dust storms, but those might be just in a specific area.
If in 1982 we played with the current mentality, we would have burned down all the pac man games since the red ghost was clearly OP. Instead we just got better at the game.
The UI is very familiar, with some hidden surprises: it swaps out your skills based on a particular weapon set you choose (you have to set this and add skills manually). It also swaps out completely when you choose to go into a crafting mode (My Life tab).
The controls are very fluid, and a lot of fun actually once you pick up some of your 'flying skills'. As I said, it feels like Aion's gliding on steroids.
I ran into some trouble in a PvP fight because I usually use my right mouse to move my camera, but in AoW it's your defensive block/parry button so you move very slow with this button down. I'm still getting used to controlling my character while fighting other players.
If in 1982 we played with the current mentality, we would have burned down all the pac man games since the red ghost was clearly OP. Instead we just got better at the game.
Things that I worry about too..
Well there is no "trinity" perse, but some schools get healing-like abilities. You can only make 1 toon per account, so I have only been able to mess around with 3 "Schools" so far. Scholar and Emei seem to have skills that grant healing abilities but they do not seem real strong and I am not sure if they effect other players. Not sure if all classes get one, but there are "stuns" that work well, but I have not seen CC outright like mez or long duration immobilize etc.
http://www.ageofwushu.com/book/8-major-schools/index.html
For more reading on ths schools themselves.
Cool, thanks! I also just found two other links with a bit of info on them as well:
http://en.wulin.gpotato.eu/Game/Sects/Sect-Features
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Wulin
Yes
Yes
I'm not sure about weather, and day/night cycles. I'm pretty sure there will be as detailed as the rest of the enviornment is Leaves falling and such.
The world is really pretty and filled with physics. Grass and leaves move. You bump npcs when running past. If you jump into the water you fall deeper depending on the height you jumped from. It makes me wonder way are western games so laggy with so much less going on. The Wushu programmers are really talented.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
As someone else who is in the beta, I think OP sums up my feelings about it as well.
In many ways I wouldn't even call it flawed, just weird. As stated the translations are pretty bad, but not gamebreakingly bad. Some things about the game are brilliant, and others leave you scratching your head. Playing bejeweled to increase your ability to cook??
I must say, I am impressed with the implementation of the fighting and the pseudo-flying abilities. The PvP fighting, the meat of the game, thank goodness they got that right, cause there are so many other things about it that would make one uninstall if the fighting wasn't done right. I've found the PvP battles to be very entertaining and the animations wells done. I've been able to take down others who were much better geared and leveled so skill is a big factor. However, items certainly make a big difference as I will usually lose to a better geared opponent.
I expected the flying and running on water to be a gimmick, but was very surprised at how well done they are and how useful they are once you get the hang of using them. They also aren't unbelievably ridiculous as I worried they would be.
I also think they did the F2P model well. I think a free player would not feel completely gimped, but the VIP sub fee is low enough that if you play the game, you're gonna want to spring for it.
I differ from OP on one thing though, I don't think I will be subbing and here is the gamebreaker for me: The questing is unbelievably bad. It is a monotonous run to X, talk to an NPC 20 times with ridiculous dialogue that requires you to keep re-engaging (re-interacting) with them after each sentence, then do this with about 10 other NPCs in what amounts to 30 minutes of dialogue, running from point A to B, all to fetch someone a bucket of water.
The weird thing is.... the terrible quest system could have been gutted because you have a great sandbox here. It's like they felt a need to cram in a themepark, but not in a good modern way, but more in a "this was how MMO questing was done over 10 years ago" way. There are so many sandbox things to do they should have just gutted the awful questing and made this a pure sandbox game. The world is gorgeous and so deep. Honestly though, I can't imagine going through these terrible quests again, it's enough to make me think I won't be playing at release. But overall, thumbs up on an original, and yes flawed game. I could see a lot of people sharing the feelings of OP. Becoming hooked despite all the oddities and flaws.
Incognito
www.incognito-gaming.us
"You're either with us or against us"
There is ffa pvp and tons of dueling. There are always a ton of people dueling outside the gates of Chengdu. There are a few reasons behind it. Different branches, or schools, of Wushu are rivals and you can raid the other schools to steal their books which will teach you their skills. The schools raids take place nightly and it is pvp as their will be both raiders and defenders. Endgame wise, guilds will be able to build guildhalls (non instanced I believe) and burn down opposing guildhalls. There is no siege weaponry as far as I know, if that is what you are asking.
How's the player base/ population?
This is the only issue i'm worriing about. I'm playing the Chinese Global NA server, and it's hard to find lowbies to form a group of 5 for the first raid, whatever u call it.
Edit: nvm, somehow finish it with a bunch of npc helpers, lol
GAmes not out...so no one lol
Incognito
www.incognito-gaming.us
"You're either with us or against us"
Dark Soul is not an MMO lol.
Anyway i've had no lag to be honest but if you look on youtube their are plenty of new vids this week.
I agree with mostly everything you stated, OP. My only contention is the character movement and controls. To me it feels clunky, sluggish and more a pain than anything else. I can't use my mouse to turn AND move(meaning I should be able to hold down both mouse buttons to move like I can in WoW, Lotro, Rift etc.), it's one or the other and is counterintuitive to other modern MMO styles. Maybe this can be tweaked, but I haven't found a way. I kind of need this ability just to be able to enjoy all the aerial moves we get AND execute combat moves.
The UI is exactly like all the other horrible korean grinders and yeah, translation is definitely an issue. Other than these 2 issues, the game is surprisingly deep, at least to start, in regards to how xp and skills are gained. Hope the game grows and has more to offer in the same regards in the future. Definitely a different direction for the common eastern F2P.
The good news is that combat and control is getting easier as I get more used to it. Not having the right mouse to control your character (since it puts you in parry mode and limits movement) is the hardest thing for me to get used to. I'm getting there. I would say that it's certainly a step backward, overall, from some of the top MMO's (such as WoW or GW2). This will steer some people away.
Yeah, translation still needs a lot of help. I just ran into this NPC today who might be better named, "Drunken Buhddist Monk" or something other than this:
If in 1982 we played with the current mentality, we would have burned down all the pac man games since the red ghost was clearly OP. Instead we just got better at the game.
I'm loving this game! Its confusing...but fun. I made a very short combat video, the combat is so fun. This is just basic,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sogCk6P8bzc
But watch the two combo attacks
Incognito
www.incognito-gaming.us
"You're either with us or against us"
I never said Dark Souls was an MMO :P. Just a pretty solid of an example of a game I could have loved so much more
.