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L2: Rev, trying this out

RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383
So I was stuck in the airport for about 10 hours this weekend and remembered reading about this game at this site.

Downloaded it and have been playing it a bit, here's my assessment so far:

Graphics are great for a mobile. It looks good, plays very fluid, and the UI works very well, even on a smaller phone. Surprisingly so actually - they pack a lot into a small space, and do it very well. The UI is fairly intuitive - some of the deeper and more complex systems are difficult to pick up, but that isn't because of the UI, it's because it's got a lot of complicated powerup/levelup systems that all overlap a bit (typical for an Asian game I've found). You can dial back the options to help with the battery life/phone temps as well.

Movement is the typical virtual D-Pad. My only complaint with it is that in most mobile games, it will appear anywhere you happen to plunk down your thumb, and then control from there. In L2:R it's fixed to the lower left corner, which did get me a few times. Not a huge issue, but one that had already been solved in plenty of other games before it. Maybe because they are anticipating players leaning on Auto-pathing more than manual walking.

Download isn't huge, which was unexpected for the graphics level. A bonus as I downloaded the game + updates over 3G at the airport, and didn't data cap out.

The game will continue to auto-quest/path/fight in the background while you interact with the UI. Which is a good thing, because early on all you do is interact with the UI. You are thrown so many rewards, tutorials, gear, gear upgrades, items, etc., that it's a full time job just keeping up with it. There were large chunks of time early on that I hit auto-quest and for... long stretches I would do nothing but manage all the popups that came with quest rewards, item claims, achievement rewards, daily rewards, item upgrades, inventory management, etc. The game at that point was just management of the UI, and every now and then you would pop back to your avatar in the world to accept the next quest.

The grind hits about L30-35 (and you still haven't completed all of the tutorial quests). You can feel a very sudden slowdown in ... pretty much everything. Again, fairly typical for this genre of games. But you go from barely being able to keep up with everything the game throws at you, to all of a sudden having to grind (a good deal) for bits and pieces. I'm not arguing against grinding in general, I think the curve just needs to be smoothed out a bit is all.

The quests and dungeons are short, which is fine for something designed for mobile where a typical play session may only have a few minutes at a time. I didn't encounter anything that took longer than 5 minutes to perform, and most quests were under a minute.

For Auto-questing. I actually think it's a good thing on mobile. The control is there, but virtual D-Pad and button pushing does get tiresome for longer play sessions. It allows you to still play the game without getting stuck in the physical limitations of the hardware. That being said, perhaps L2:R goes a bit overboard. The quests occur so quickly and come so rapidly, you can blink and auto-quest is done. If all you do is hit auto-quest, you'll never actually see the game underneath, which is a shame, because it looks and runs great.

Now, auto-quest is not mandatory. So for everyone who says it ruins it - well, no, the simple fact that it's there doesn't. But you can tell a lot of things were designed around it, and that is a legitimate concern.

I didn't encounter a lot of PvP. It has the typical mobile "You fight real players, but they are computer controlled" arena. There is open world PvP but I never encountered any of it. There are a lot of other PvP options that either are not there yet, or are level locked and I haven't unlocked them yet.

Cash shop is your typical F2P asian MMO as well - lots of randomized item upgrades available, and you could argue that it's P2W in that sense. But I haven't felt the need to purchase anything as of yet to just consume the content that's presented in the PvE experience - but that could easily change if the current rate of grind keeps up and I'm no where near max level.

This is your basic asian grinder MMO, only boiled down onto a phone. Netmarble did a great job putting it on the phone, there is not a lot of room for discussion for that - this game plays better than some of the asian MMOs I've played on the PC even. If you like asian MMOs, this is definitely for you. If you are on the fence, it's a free download and was great for killing 10 hours being stuck at the airport, if nothing else. This isn't a threat for anything out there on the PC, or the next evolution in gaming though. The thing that sticks out to me is how well the UI works on the phone, which still amazes me that it works as well as it does/
[Deleted User]

Comments

  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383
    Coming back to this after about a month of playing.

    #1 - I'm still playing. I haven't purchased anything from the cash shop, but my internal  conscience is starting to pick up and I am thinking about supporting with a few dollars. Honestly, there is nothing in the shop that compels me to purchase anything though, and that's largely the reason I haven't.

    #2 - Since my last post, progress is still happening, albeit at a much slower pace. Some of the larger dungeons do require that you manually play to be effective - if you try to just autoplay them you will have a bad time. The game plays fairly well, but has the typical Eastern animation lock that I've never quite been able to get used to. Dailies play a bigger role in progression than story quests or auto-grinding dungeons.

    #3 - Daily quests are actually not all that bad. Being able to auto 95% of the daily quests while I go about my business (reading this site, whatever) makes them much better, actually. It takes about an hour to run through all the dailies that are worth repeating, and in doing so you get enough upgrade material and such that progress continues forward at some perceivable rate.

    #4 - It eats battery life like none other on actual mobile devices. On a Kindle Fire, the tablet battery can't even keep up while plugged in unless you turn all the settings down considerably. My older iPhone 6S can run with most settings on High, and looks great, but only gets about 45min of runtime. An older iPad Air2 can run about Medium, and runs for about 2-3 hours on a full charge.

    #5 - I downloaded Bluestacks and play it on my PC for the most part now. It's a much better experience. On a PC, with max available graphics (there is a Vulkan option, but I don't think Bluestacks supports it), it looks pretty good - as good as most PWI/10cent games I've played. Apart from the lack of right-click support, on Bluestacks it also plays like most other MMOs. 

    I don't think anything from my original writeup has really changed. I often will run through dailies, then let it run in the background on Bluestacks while I play something else, and it makes for a good distraction while my other games are in a slow period or i'm in between activities.
    [Deleted User]
  • Octagon7711Octagon7711 Member LegendaryPosts: 9,000
    I play it from time to time on a tablet and it's not a bad diversion.  Auto questing doesn't bother me and it is strange dueling other players that are computer controlled but overall not a bad game and I've had zero reason to buy anything from the cash shop because they do give you tons of decent drops.
    [Deleted User]

    "We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa      "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."  SR Covey

  • Octagon7711Octagon7711 Member LegendaryPosts: 9,000
    Update, I haven't played this in a long time.  Does anyone still play this game?

    "We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa      "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."  SR Covey

  • Panther2103Panther2103 Member EpicPosts: 5,766
    Update, I haven't played this in a long time.  Does anyone still play this game?
    I did until recently. 

    It's just not fun after a certain point. I think I got to level 90 or so and I was just logging in each day to go through the motions. You go through the daily quests, go through the weekly quests, do each dungeon type, and go collect herbs. Then you are either ready for the next story quest or you grind while afk doing something else until you are. 

    The game is designed around having the game on, but not actually playing. Even PvP is automated. 

    Then you run into the fact that getting high grade weapons and armor is entirely based off of cash shop boxes, and you have to hope you get a good roll. I had most gear in R grade, but getting them leveled up was another waste of gear and time. 

    I felt like I needed to spend money to progress at the point I uninstalled, just because mobs were hitting harder and I couldn't progress much further without a struggle. 


    It had some cool ideas. Actually having the ability to go hang out in the clan hall with other members of your clan and alliance was super cool. Even though most of the time it was spent at the fireplace getting the free exp with other people afk.
    [Deleted User]
  • Octagon7711Octagon7711 Member LegendaryPosts: 9,000
    Update, I haven't played this in a long time.  Does anyone still play this game?
    I did until recently. 

    It's just not fun after a certain point. I think I got to level 90 or so and I was just logging in each day to go through the motions. You go through the daily quests, go through the weekly quests, do each dungeon type, and go collect herbs. Then you are either ready for the next story quest or you grind while afk doing something else until you are. 

    The game is designed around having the game on, but not actually playing. Even PvP is automated. 

    Then you run into the fact that getting high grade weapons and armor is entirely based off of cash shop boxes, and you have to hope you get a good roll. I had most gear in R grade, but getting them leveled up was another waste of gear and time. 

    I felt like I needed to spend money to progress at the point I uninstalled, just because mobs were hitting harder and I couldn't progress much further without a struggle. 


    It had some cool ideas. Actually having the ability to go hang out in the clan hall with other members of your clan and alliance was super cool. Even though most of the time it was spent at the fireplace getting the free exp with other people afk.
    Thanks for the update.  I lost interest in returning after a while.
    Panther2103[Deleted User]

    "We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa      "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are."  SR Covey

  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383
    Yeah I stopped maybe 30 days after my last post here. These little grinders are ok for a bit but it didn’t have any hook that caught me.
    [Deleted User]
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