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Fair Review of Sword of the New World
xSagemanx
Member Posts: 9
I wanted to write a review of this game but keep in mind I have only been playing it for a few weeks.
Sword of the New World is a game with high hopes and expectations unfortunately this doesn't transfer well to the mechanics of the game. Graphically it's a masterpiece, mechanically it's a nightmare. I know that many talk about the Multi-Character-Control system as being revolutionary but honestly it's still seems very buggy. I have experienced times where I can be full on mana and hit my action key repeatedly to no avail. Then there are those skills where you need to click and select a target. This is near impossible to do sometimes when you have 5 or 6 mobs all occupying the same square on the map.
Boss battles are of two extremes, either easy or so hard as to be nearly impossible at the suggested level. All in all it can be frustrating going into a boss battle with a mob supposedly even level to you only to be one shot killed. Then there are times where you attack a boss and knock it down to the ground and immediately your characters lose target and stop attacking. This means you have to click and reset all three of your characters on what they were just doing. A lot of times you don't get the chance before you are, as mentioned, one shotted again.
The world is fantastic and even though I have only been to roughly a 3rd of the zones in the game I am amazed at how well put together they are. I'm also amazed at how original the story is. It's deep and rich and encourages a Role Playing atmosphere in the game. I was suprised to see people actually name their characters very RP names. You see far more RP names on characters than not. Yet this doesn't reflect well on the community as a whole. To be honest, the sad thing is the community is non existent in this game. No one talks to each other in an ooc channel or general chat channel because to do so it costs 500g per sentence. Most people don't want to waste 1,000's of gold to have a conversation. This leads to another conundrum? How can you have a multi-player game when people don't ever want to play with each other? MMORPG's by definition are for people to get together and chat and adventure together. That doesn't happen here because there's no need to do it. In fact 90% of the time people don't even want to talk to each other.
Overall I would say the game is a good game, not by any means fantastic but a good game. It has some definite perks but it also has some major flaws. I think that most could be addressed pretty easily. First off open up chat so people can talk together, this would create a community.
My other major beef is the reliance on equipment to get anywhere in the game. It's sad that just 5 points in a stat can have such a huge affect on the game. This again makes the game frustrating. Especially when the auction house seldom has gear at lower levels, which makes equipping your characters difficult.
Leveling is insane in this game as well. This is because a lot of people bot level or afk level their characters. This makes it frustrating if you have to go to a room to kill a mob only to find the room camped by a player already trying to level his guy's afk. It also means that you will spend an inordinate ammount of time leveling in this game. If you don't mind doing the korean leveling grind then this game will be for you. The rest of the people with full time jobs and a life will find it frustrating.
Overall I would rate the game a 7 out of a 10 but I see it getting better in the future. It's definetely worth a try because I'm sure some of the things I have a problem with wont be a problem for everyone.
Comments
There's a story?
I agree with most of your points and your overall score, though. But the lack of the story is something some people complain about. (Then again, I started playing before the 2.4 patch and a lot of the early text was almost complete gibberish). So it's a bit of a surprise to see you praise the story.
R.I.P. City of Heroes and my 17 characters there
I thought that the story and the line from quest to quest was done very well. You know why you are there you get a sense of history about the world. It could be fleshed out but it definitely promotes a RP atmosphere which was my main point. Other games can have loads of text but still not convey an atmosphere conducive for RP.
I would like to agree and disagree with some points of your review. I'd like to go over them:
- Character Control and Game Mechanics
From when I started out playing this game, I did have a little bit of trouble understanding it, but after about 3 weeks of play, I did eventually come to understand it and see how easy it was to play the game.
From what I understand in what you wrote, you still haven't gotten a grasp on how skills work.. Much less how to approach a situation with certain skills. It's kinda hard to do Close-Single-Target skills where almost everything you kill at low-level is easily One-Shotted. However, when you're mobbed and have to select a specific target, that I understand, but have you ever thought of AoE'ing first? If you have a certain class, you can AoE very early in the game.
When you touch on Boss-Battles, I have never encountered a boss that I was able to knock-back. Either this is made up or you were fighting an elite-version of a monster. This aspect is very hard to believe.
- Community
I agree, there needs to be some sort of way for new players to communicate with each other. To this day I haven't found anyone talking to eachother publicly. Mainly because they're either AFK or prefer to talk in Squad/Clan chat.
- AFK levelling.
Well this aspect is all up to the players themselves. If people have full time-jobs and dont want to click-and-grind, they have the OPTION to AFK Level. If people have no lives and want to click-and-grind, they're more than welcome to. AFK levelling is acceptable and by all-aspects, nothing wrong with that.
Please do note to not confuse Botting with AFK levelling.
Botting - Running around in a set route on a map killing AND picking up stuff with a Scout only.
AFK Levelling - Just killing stuff in one spot.
- Story Line
I found it nice and very intriguing IMHO. However, as you get higher in levels, there's not much story to actually read into due to lack of quests. I hope IMC Games can get to it with that.
- Equipment
From what I understand, you think that this game means you can put Stat Points into your character. This only applies if you're going Veteran (Level 100+) This game does rely on Equipment based on Attack Rating (AR) and Defense Rating (DR). At lower levels, you dont absolutely need good equips to level effectively. I've learned that the hard way.
- Grinding
Personally, I dont find the grinding hard at all. If you know where to level for a certain period, then it's not insane at all. The insane-insane grinding is at Veteran level and higher. Where you get %0.0001 per kill.
Personally I'd retain the rating of this game at an 8.5 (Not what its listed currently. Some idiot downvoted every game and up-voted Age of Conan *roll eyes*)
Other countries might rate this game way higher. I know that in Japan, this game is very highly regarded and is one of the top MMORPG's played over there.
The main beef I had with this game was the multi character control. Not bugginess or anything. Just that it seemed to promote more solo work, less interaction. Like playing a Massive Singleplayer Online Game...
Also we are planning on adding more low-mid level events for new players like Andre's UFC where squading together is almost a must.
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www.apb.com
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Why does one have to pay to chat publicly?
They dont, You Pay for these Microphones to Talk in Global Chat, in the whole server to see, you pay money in game, not real money in real life. Its so they dont have spamming.
Neosteam.com
Ah I see
Spamming-wise that's good.
Even Spamming wise it's not that good...It's a shame not to be able to shout out questions without having to pay 500vis per question.... There's a lot about the game that I don't know, and as the OP mentioned, noone talks, so I don't know where to get my answers.
In the US version, right now it's 2000 vis per mic (before patch, 20000 vis). But other than that, I have to agree with you. No one talks in the game. I would suggest joining a clan, but I've been in two now, and no one really talks in clan chat, either.
At first I thought it was because my first clan was small and lousy. But my new clan is pretty big (we have 60 members and 4 colonies right now). No one talks, because most the people online are just AFKing all the time.
It's kinda depressing to be honest.
R.I.P. City of Heroes and my 17 characters there
I've been playing for a few days and the biggest issue I've noticed is indeed the chat. I don't know whether or not they should open up the current chat, or open a seperate "newbie Q&A" chat. I'd like to compliment the MCC system, I just love it, it's very refreshing to see this used in an MMO.
i also agree but there is one small thing i oppose which is lvling. i think lvling is the easiest. make a team and but a healer with 2 range classes. then put them some where and press (i think it was assult mode) and leave the comp and go chill out and when u come back they will lvl.
the only reason i dont do tht cus its either do something on my comp or be bored all day
i also agree but there is one small thing i oppose which is lvling. i think lvling is the easiest. make a team and but a healer with 2 range classes. then put them some where and press (i think it was assult mode) and leave the comp and go chill out and when u come back they will lvl.
the only reason i dont do tht cus its either do something on my comp or be bored all day
This seems to be a hottly contested issue (depending on where you are in the leveling scheme). But there are a few areas we are looking to speed up and we want to do a general "speed up" through-out all levels. We are going to be introducing a new "Secret Guard" system where you can powerlevel some of your friends to a certain level (esp 1st time players). After that is live we will asses what needs to be tweeked.
Website:
www.apb.com
Twitter:
@G1Neume
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/APBReloaded
I think that's a bad idea, from 1-100 is probably the funnest part of the game.
And already, it's insanely easy to power level characters. Just get someone with a vet to squad up with you on the beach.
My second clan did that to a new member. Gained like 40 levels overnight.
R.I.P. City of Heroes and my 17 characters there