Albion Online

MasterZedX

Easily one of the best games i've played in a very long time. I can see why the price is so steep, they don't want people to play to judge the game, but playing to actually play. I don't post here often, long time lurker, but this had to be said. 

Kaputzy

Quite a blanket statement without any background information or analysis. Care to indulge as to why it's so good?

hockeyplayr

Originally posted by MasterZedX
Easily one of the best games i've played in a very long time. I can see why the price is so steep, they don't want people to play to judge the game, but playing to actually play. I don't post here often, long time lurker, but this had to be said. 

if you could elaborate it'd be great.  I've been on the fence about purchasing founders, well, since they were announced.

Kyleran

Maybe you have never really played a good game before, so it's easy to improve on your past experience?

Would be helpful if you could elaborate on what makes this game better than others you have played, examples go a long way.

 

mgilbrtsn

Originally posted by MasterZedX
Easily one of the best games i've played in a very long time. I can see why the price is so steep, they don't want people to play to judge the game, but playing to actually play. I don't post here often, long time lurker, but this had to be said. 

You need a bit of meat on them bones.  I recommend elaborating on why you think it's so good.  Your points will be picked apart, but at least it will give people who are thinking about giving it a chance something to think about.

psiic

I bought it as well and am kinda on the other side. I played my butt of the first 3 days and am now kinda like ok this is tedious boring and really just a huge waste of time. 

 

This game is just a task, I mean god if I am going to dig rocks or chop wood for 10 hours a day I may as well do it in real life and get paid for it .

I mean yea there are mobs to kill , some dungeons simple boring dungeons with pathetic bosses, some random spawn world bosses but all the mechanics are the same dps race.

Frankly its really not a great game. 

Lacidious

It's a full loot PvP/territoty control game and the guy above me didn't mention it.   Gee, I wonder why you were bored.

 One of the better MMOs in a while.

psiic

Originally posted by Lacidious

It's a full loot PvP/territoty control game and the guy above me didn't mention it.   Gee, I wonder why you were bored.

 One of the better MMOs in a while.

Only a moron even considered entering the pvp zone until they have T5 skills and gear, which for the 8 hour a day gamer means at least a week of non stop grinding to gear up.. and the whole market is silly as shit seeing as you need to unlock the skill to be able to wear the gear meaning you have to level up your own ability to make the gear so why would you bother buying what you can make yourself.

You can tell whatever bullcrap you want to these people that havent played it, but I have played it. I can make T5 gear, I played for 3 days solid with no sleep I know exactly what is involved and how f'in boring the game is. 

I can cite examples for why I claim the game is boring and its lack of game mechanic, even fighting other players is just a button mashing race that the ranger with self heal armor is going to win EVERY TIME. 

Even the casters with shields only take one bow hit to shred the shields then they are running which is impossible against bows even with flee, which there again only a moron is going to use flee as it strips your defense and kills you faster.

I know exactly what I am talking about. 

Sadly I will cede the point it is indeed one of the better mmo's in a while which is NOT a good thing all that says is how bad all the crap these idiots have released over the last year or so has been.

 

Bluddwolf

I'm actually liking it quite a bit. 

Pros:

1. It has zoned PVP: Green = Safe; Yellow = Partial Loot ; Red = Full Loot.

The zones also determine the tier level of resources available.

Even in the Yellow and Red Zone, you still have to declare yourself "Hostile" and you won't be able to attack unless you do so. Once you declare, a number of Hostiles in the zone will go up by +1. So you can tell how many "Hostiles" in a zone when you first enter or remain there.

2. There is territorial control; player built settlements; GvG and AvA PVP; Player settlements can be captured and or destroyed. 

3. After watching a very brief video, the game mechanics are very simple. The in-game tutorial is good enough to get you started, and takes about 5 minutes. 

4. The game is solo friendly up to about Tier 4, but if you want to have access to tiers 5-7, probably need a group to travel more safely. 

5. It is a PVP based game, and it is designed that way. No penalty for PVPing, unless you lose. No such thing as griefing, the expectation is, if you enter a PVP zone you are fair game. 

6. Crafting - Gathering systems is are top notch; integrated in a way that makes sense; and self sufficient up to at least Tier 4. 

Bottom Line, it is EVE with Swords!!

Cons:

1. The server broke the 6000+ population mark, and they are having some lag and memory leak issues. This is however only alpha, and the largest population to stress the system thus far.  This seems to have been corrected and has been stable at above 9000 subs.

2. Not enough character detail can be seen. It is that stylized cartoonish look anyway, but it would be nice to be able to zoom in a bit closer.

3. Click to move takes a bit of getting used to, but anyone with experience with top-down scrollers (ie Diablo) won't have an issue. 

4.  Rabbits, Rabbits everywhere!

Summary - Comparison:

Albion is well worth the $49.99 price tag to get into the Alpha Testing (which will last for a few weeks).

The game plays more like a beta ready to release in 2 - 3 months, more so than a game that has had only one other major alpha phase.

 

Saur0n

..

 

Franconstein

There are two things you can do in this game, and only two things: gather, and kill. I played for two days, and you need to invest a staggering amount of time doing the same dull chores over and over again. Kind of like Ragnarok Online, but with gathering.

 

Let me give you a brief example. Assuming you can do Tier I because of the starting zone, you now move on to Tier II, which is the real first tier. Fine, you need Tier I gathering tools, and you set out and chop some trees and mine some ores. You can also skin beasts and flatten stones. Let's keep it simple and say you want to focus on gathering just that one kind of resource. There are more, but they require special buildings and plantations that are more "advanced".

 

At any rate, say we get some ores and timber. Now you need to get into a town and find the refinery buildings. The starting city is NPC-controlled, so you'll find every building and they won't charge you for using them, but they're limited to up to Tier III production. You refine the ores into bars and the timber into planks (separate stations, of course), and then you go find the appropriate crafting stations to get your Tier II gear. Which you have to do over, and over, and over again to "level" the crafting enough for Tier III. The grinding is tedious enough, but it's not the worst part.

Here it comes: in order to produce the Tier III metal bars, you need the Tier III ore (logically) AND the Tier II bars. How is that an issue? That zones and cities are limited to what you can gather and refine in them. So, the Tier II ore is farmed in "Zone A", which is adjacent to "City A", so that's cool. But, Tier III resources are in "Zone B", which in turn is adjacent to "City B". So, you need to go to Zone A, farm there, walk to City A, refine, walk to City B, deposit, go to Zone B, and then gather, go back to City B, withdraw the lower resources, crawl towards the station, refine the Tier III, and then crawl into another station, and use them. That's just the Tier III. There are VII so far, so do the math. Why'd I say crawl? Because the more things you carry, the slower you walk. At one point, you're basically not moving at all... And whatever you deposit in City A is only accessible from City A, so if you want to move 4 tiers of resources towards a City D, you're fucked. You can pay for a transport (lots of in-game currency, and only take you to major cities) or get a mount that might or might not help (they have a higher carrying capacity, but it's still limited). Getting the mounts is another thing entirely.

 

Oh, and did I mention it's a pay-to-win game? If you want to craft Tier IV items, you need to spend a shitload of time mindlessly farming and dealing with the transportation issues. BUT, you can always get gold (the in-game currency that is only acquired with cash) and then buy some from a poor sod that did all that farming, essentially giving you an edge with zero downtime. It's a fair system, sure, because the real world works like that (you can make build your own phone or you can purchase it), but it's disgusting in that the amount of grinding required to get to it yourself makes it mind-numbing.

 

Edit: there's nothing "brief" about this example. Sorry about that!

 

Overall, it's the worst $50 I've dropped on any "game", and I've bought a game that I cannot even play (Batman: Arkham Asylum).

Bluddwolf

@ Franconstein,

You don't have to transport goods by the ships, you can transport over land with horse or oxen, it just takes longer and may require taking on some risk (having to travel through yellow or red zones).  

If you are in an organized group, you gain greater access to cargo capacity and protection, if you do have to travel through potentially hostile territory.  

If you want to solely be a gatherer, and bear no risk, you can harvest and refine just tiers I - IV (harvesting) and tiers II - III refining.  However, if you are lucky enough to be in a group that has safe access to their guild island, without traversing yellow or red territory, you can actually refine and craft at higher levels without risk.

The good thing about Albion is that there will never be a lack for need of lower tier refined or raw materials.  

Does the game reward those who play more often than those who don't, sure, but I think that is hard to argue against.

Is the game "pay to win"?  I don't really see it, but maybe I just don't play that way to notice or care.  I have 12,000 Gold and I don't have a clue what to spend it on or a desire to spend it, if I can get the same things from playing.

Is there a solo, non pvp game to be had?  Yes, at least up to tier 4 there is, and I expect even further if you wish to.

The one negative that I notice with this kind of game, and I'm not sure whether it is the game design or vision or the community that creates this negative, is the apparent need to rush to end game!!!!!!!  

I can maybe understand it for a 6 week alpha, everyone is in a hurry to reach....  "I don't know what?"  To me "end game' I take it quite literally, that is when I end my time in the game.  This is why I'm a dabbler, and explorer, and a completionist of individual goals.  If it takes me six months to do what another did in four days, that has no bearing on what I felt about my six months.

 

 

mgilbrtsn

I really wanna start playing, but I don't like spending a lot of time on a game and then have my progress wiped.  Once the wipes are history, I am in.