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Review: It's FREE!!!!
MMO_REVIEWER
Member Posts: 371
Hey there!
Well, it's that time again. Time for me to review another MMO and it looks like I've chosen this one. I should warn you that this isn't my first encounter with this game. I got the chance to play it while it was still in beta. When I heard it was free2play I had no choice to hop in. Who can say no to free right?
Well to start off the game is beautiful...in its own way. Its art style combined with the fullscreen post-processing effects make for some serious eye candy. Its not incredibly High poly nor does it have all the intense shaders that Age of conan(or other nextgen mmos) has, but it has its own lemony flavor.
The game starts off on this big Shard ship. This is the tutorial. The very long and sometimes tedious and annoying tutorial. There's no way to skip it so you've got to stomach every second of it. Once you get past the tutorial you'll end up at the Hawk's Mouth Docks. Directly in front of you is a man...thing...standing on a crate with a green book floating above it's head.
That man/thing is the guy that gives you your first quest. The quests are pretty straight forward...kinda. You may get a quest that says “Kill Old Wilfried” but wont tell you where he is. Is this a bad thing not necessarily, but it can build some frustration. If you do happen to blow a gasket trying to find something might I recommend killing hoppies to vent that anger. Other than that the quests are your standard “Kill X amount of Y and bring me Z” and acclaim seldom strayed from that formula. I've heard a phrase on these forums that went something like “If you don't like grinding don't play MMO's” and its completely true for this game. There aren't thousands of quests to do so when you run out of quests you've got to grind to level up. Either that or drink lots of orange juice and milk so you can grow up big and strong.
You'll be killing a lot of things while your playing this game, but don't distress my pointy haired friends you've got a nice little reticle to keep you company. I have to say the reticle system is an interesting twist on game-play. Spellborn is a game that relies on player skill rather than your ability to press 1-9. They fashioned it to feel more like an FPS so hopefully your aim isn't terrible.
Moving through this well laid out beautifully rendered world is more of a chore. You'll find yourself walking just about everywhere. Most quests will tell you to walk half way around the world just to talk to a man about a horse. At least you'll have some nice animations to accompany you on your long arduous journey. All of the animations in the game are well done. Movement is fluid and complements the controls rather than overpowering them. I spent a whole five minutes just pulling out and putting away my sword because it looked so cool. The only complaint I have about the animations are the dances. I've never seen dances that looked this stupid. I typed /dance once and then never typed it again. I think I'm scarred for life by the dance my toon does.
Armor and weapons have to be the most disappointing aspect of this game. I mean seriously. Here's the break down: All of the weapons and armor in the game are exactly the same. There are no armor or weapon stats. So if you just worked your butt off trying to get that new “Flaming Sword of Monkey Shit” then you'll be disheartened to hear that its no better than the rusty old thing your carrying on your back now. To make up for this acclaim made slots for upgrade stones or whatever they're called. We'll just call them Cocoa Pebbles. So basically you take these Cocoa pebbles and you hammer them on your gauntlets and voila! Your armor/weapon is now slightly better than the guy next to you, but don't let Fred Flinstone see you in his Pebbles. You see what he does to Barney. The pebbles are sorta cool, but they take the fun out of playing. Its hard to stay motivated when you know that you cant have that “+9 Flaming Sword of Monkey Shit” or the “+6 Giant's Boots of Curb Stomping”. Getting new gear is purely for cosmetics and nothing else so you might as well keep the armor you start with.
Fighting and questing in this game can get a bit boring. You don't get as much experience as you think you should from the quests and monsters barely give you anything at all. So leveling will take some time. But even if you like grinding it will get boring in this game. You'll often find yourself saying “What now?”
There's crafting, but why craft when its no better than the rags your wearing??
There's some imaginary stuff in this game called pep and fame. Fame is like experience and you get it as you kill things. Pep is a little different. Can't really compare it to anything. Basically the higher your pep level the stronger you are. But if you die you lose all your pep...I was almost to pep level 1 and I died and had to start over. Needless to say I wasn't exactly thrilled about that.
Classes are...a little different. There's Warrior, Rogue, and Mage and they branch off into sub-classes. For warrior theres Bloodwarrior, Wrathguard, and Adept. Mages have Ancestrals, Void Seer, and Rune Mage. Rogues have Deathhands, the ever-useless Skinshifter, and Tricksters. I wont talk much about any of these except one. The ever-useless Skinshifter. I have never played as a more useless class in my life. I decided to become a Skinshifter because I thought I'd be able to fight as a wolf or a bear or something. Instead I get to change into a wolf...and that's it. I don't get to fight, and I don't get to jump. I can't even howl at the moon. All I can do is run around as a wolf. I do move a bit faster and I run past other monsters unnoticed, but aside from that it's USELESS!
The skills and spells are all well animated and have some cool particle effects to boot! But sadly the game seems a bit off balance. One level 6 player can take on a level 10 monster. A level 5 player can take on an entire mob alone. I guess that's because the game relies more on the players skill rather than his/her/it's button mashing ability.
The community is your typical MMO community. Not exactly spectacular and not horrible either. Its leagues away from WoW's child infested chat boxes. The game does have a surplus of nice people though. Acclaim should have some kind of blow-out sale on nice people.
I'm not going to cover PvP and there's a good reason for it. Honestly I haven't had the chance to do any PvP so reviewing it wouldn't be fair.
The game, back when it was in beta, seemed very promising but it's recent move to free2play makes me a bit skeptical. Apparently they're redoing the game? Or something? I don't know...all I know is that it's free now and who can say no to free.
The game has interesting features and wonderful graphics. It's got its own flavor and is sure to provide you with a unique experience, but with a lack of armor and weapon stats the game falls short in a few areas. If you decide to pick the game up then I'm sure you'll have a good time, but I have to lay down the hammer now. So with all things considered I have to give this one a solid 3 shitting donkeys 
out of 5. The game is good but it has many many flaws. Not only that, but there's huge breaks in the background music. I'd give it a 4 or a 3.5 but the lack of stats crosses the line and because I cant make half a donkey. The game isn't absolutely terrible, but it's not the best either. Your just going to have to play it for yourself and see how you like it. Just try not to kill too many hoppies...please.
Cheers,
Your friendly neighborhood MMO Reviewer.
MMO's are the ark of the gaming world. Let it take us in new directions.
Comments
Well gear and weapon is only for visuals you have a limited choice when you create your character so ingame you can get new weapon/armor if you ever wanted to change how you look.
[Edit]
Thanks to the poster below for pointing on the skin shifter, well if you did researched on what does each class is good for you would have known skin shifters transform = "stealth" and that's what I will make my character into. There are some amazing back attack skills so it can surely help you even when you want to pass through mobs without getting attacked.
Please do some research on the game before reviewing it
This game is by no means made by acclaim, its made by a small dutch company.. Acclaim is just publishing it 
Also, there are a thousand quests
and only the beginning ones are the usual X and Y quests ^_^
Armor and gear perhaps dont have stats, but you can put them on though! So yeah.. you grind for the looks of a piece instead of the stats that are on it.. that way at least not everyone walks around with the same Flaming Sword of Monkey Shit, even though they have the same stats on it
So if you really want to feel the urge to get something good, then go farm sigils 
(the beginner ons arent much of a help, but the higher you get, the better sigils drop 
So you can always farm for those and show off with them :P Higher level sigils have effects on the weapons, so that other people can see that its a good sigil). You have to start with an open mind when it comes to the gear.. lots of people go: 'theres no stats, so what is the point?" .. Well.. why do YOU wear clothes ? Because they make you look good right? Or just so your butt doesnt freeze off? :P Just because there is another point as to getting armor, doesnt mean its useless.. I would try to get an awesome looking armor piece, just because it looks so cool 
You dont loose all your pep, just one pep level.. It is a way to still have a death penalty but without making the person loose his exp.. I mean.. no one likes to loose stuff they worked for, so ofcourse you wont like it, but if there was no penalty, you wouldnt like it better.. right?
You had expectations about the skinshifter class.. and they werent there.. so it sucks? I think that is partly to blame on your own expectations. Yes there might not be a way to use the bodyslots in combat, but that doesnt mean its useless.. Just before you said that running was such a pain.. if you shift, you run WAY faster. Next to that, when deshifting you get a buff which is also sort of usefull..
^____^
Do you realize how much sense you didn't make? On the armor stuff that is. Players won't be motivated by looks alone. For example...lets someone in Game X is killing things but getting nowhere...They want a sword to help them be more efficient. Not to say that getting the gear will give them the upper hand, but atleast give them more DPS. Now lets say our imaginary player comes across another player whos got a weapon that looks really cool ("Flaming Sword of Monkey Shit") and he wants one. I think hed be a little disheartened if he knew that it was exactly the same as the sword he was currently carrying. If you see a sword that looks cool but know its not better then theres no point in farming it. The game doesn't do much in the way of motivating the player to want to excell. Farming Sigils sounds fun but where can I get these sigils? I think i remember coming across a shop that sold sigils but my memory may be decieving me. And if it did sell it then it must've been pricy-atleast for a new player. So if this is the case then if I'm new to the game and have very little money and know that money comes slowly then dont you think that I'd be disheartened knowing that I'd be stuck with the same stuff untill i can afford new sigils(Cocoa pebbles)? Even though I can change my look...changing you look is pointless if it doesnt help you. There needs to be some sort of feeling of accomplishment when getting new armor. Not just the feeling of knowing that I'll look sexy as a black gorrilla. Thats not enough to drive a player to want to get new armor or weapons. If were just going to get new sigils...then why dont we just chuck sigils at each other?(joking) Have a big cocoa pebbles war. I talked to alot of people ingame and alot of them agree...having no item stats is "lame" "ghey" "stupid" "retarded" "..." "#@^@# ;#)*@#( ; #@)(#) ;@)!*@#( ;" yea some guy had a mouth full to tell me...haha. All joking aside...its a real downside and almost a flaw to not have item stats. Item stats sortof let you know where you stand. If there not going to have item stats then why have a level requirement for items...why even have items...? Okay yea i get it you look nice...its like wearing clothes...why do we wear clothes by the way? But seriously if thats the case then they should give you a bigger selection of things to wear when you create your character...let you choose from a huge gallery and have all the really cool looking stuff in game. Kind of like designer clothes or something...
Basically what im saying is...no item stats = disheartening and uninspirational.
MMO's are the ark of the gaming world. Let it take us in new directions.
your bigest news to me?the fact you mention it was f2p now !the rest we ll figure out .hell this game was in the rave section for a freaking while if its f2p and raver loved it it cant be that bad lol
and its made by akklaim cool,they did some good game in the past men
i think i just found my f2p fix
Does it really matter that much if you have to farm gear with stats or have to farm sigils with stats that you put on the gear?
I think the OP didn't play the game much...
Remember this game is not WoW, it is different, try to understand
Remember this game is skill based not gear based so it's not something stupid it's meant this way. You see a game which is not a "WoW clone" comes out and people are disheartened because it offers new ideas lol...
this might actually be fun for a change(being not free realm all over again)
Im not disheartened by its new ideas I'm disheartened by its inability to make the player feel accomplished. I like the reticle i like the movements etc etc. You can have a game be skill based and still have item stats...Look at Guild Wars. gear really doesnt matter in that game, but there are gear stats. Max armor in the game is 70(from what i've seen) and it's not hard to get that. You can settle for 60. but It's not hard to get that armor. once your there thats it...Aside form the Armor stats that done mean a whole lot...You have your skills which are way more important than the gear. You could try keeping the starting armor all game if you want If you've got the skills you can survive... Guild wars does a good job of making a game that is not gear based but rather skill based. But guild wars has...wait for it...stats! Just because you want a game to be skill based doesnt mean you should cut out stats all together. Its an interesting idea, but it could've been done better...imo.
MMO's are the ark of the gaming world. Let it take us in new directions.
mm this game sound fun ,and big i think ,its what 5 gig i already downloaded 2gig and it keep going
nice!
Sigils represent the equivalent for stats in this game. Sigils can be placed in spells, armour and weapons and be taken out again to be fitted in new armour or weapons. (I think spell Sigils are just replaced, but not sure after such a long time out of the game). Stats were not cut out of the game but made independent of gear (to some extend, there is a level for some gear and the Sigils that can or cannot be placed in it).
--
Delanor
Sigils represent the equivalent for stats in this game. Sigils can be placed in spells, armour and weapons and be taken out again to be fitted in new armour or weapons. (I think spell Sigils are just replaced, but not sure after such a long time out of the game). Stats were not cut out of the game but made independent of gear (to some extend, there is a level for some gear and the Sigils that can or cannot be placed in it).
del you really make me salivate .
i love the look of this game,a small tuto at start but its cool the way this game control are take the time to learn them it worth it<
graphic are cartoon but different a bit from wow
i read some manga a bit like em very nice,im not sure but you cant just mash control there a inboard delay before you can mash button again i could be wrong but it felt that way
love the customisation colors etc at start.
this is one of the best f2p game i played yet among the like of rom or any titile you loved
im at the start and i already love the game lol
so now i got 2 game i like tcosb and eq2
Just so were clear...I'm not a TCoS hater. I just don't like the fact that theres no stats on anything...sigh...thats my biggest gripe.
MMO's are the ark of the gaming world. Let it take us in new directions.
What is that review? Some kind of joke?
You'd think someone with the name MMO_REVIEWER would at least try to feign professional writing.
But alas, this is the internet.