My overall review, opinion and forecast

Hydroblunt · March 2010

Hi all,

I played Allods in CB3, CB4 and now doing open beta. Just wanted to post my review and stimulate some discussion.

My main is a lvl 27 summoner. I have also played mage to the 20s in CB and messing around with a healer. All empire, I hate the good guy side. I never really played a F2P MMO seriously before, only p2p.

Gameplay, leveling, PvE, etc.

The game is good, fun and polished, considering it is still Open Beta. There are bugs, some funny, some annoying & frustrating, but it is leagues above what the AoC & Warhammer launches were like. The combat is fluid & well designed. Of course, the artwork is very cool & well designed, assuming you like that style. Some of the emotes are just great, especially if you know Russian. The orcs have some of the funniest emotes, it's quite entertaining.

The graphics are fine by me, it's nothing revolutionary but well done. The sounds I have no real opinion on but the music is actually quite good and gets better and better as you progress. It's probably the first time in a MMO where the music actually helped set the mood, this was during a raid of us starting a PvP run. Just wish it would loop correctly

The start of the game aka tutorial is well done, although is the same for all races for each faction, which can get repetitive. XP is driven by quests, which are very similar to WoW with a few tweaks. Grouping is encouraged by a few elite quests, which I think is a good touch along with repetitive quests that involve grinding mobs as a group for reputation.

The talent grids are a feature I like in Allods. More innovative and in-depth than what most other games have, like WoW and Warhammer. There is a main talent tree for which you get a talent point per level and then talent grid where you need to buy a ruby from the trainer every level. I noticed a great potential of customization and have certainly had fun doing my own setup which is now working out quite great. Naturally, top choice builds are already being used but there still seems to be a great amount of customization, which makes the game deeper than your next MMO.

Classes are similar to your standard fantasy MMO but definitely have their own touch to them. Some of the abilities you will recognize and think WoW, but for the most part, the developer definitely put in original ideas in class design. I welcome this, as the standard class system that started in EQ and made more standard by WoW is quite old

Now about combat. A lot of people keep complaining about combat being slow, at least until you get into the 10+ levels. It is slower, but not slow. Most players do not start properly allocating talent points and also do not try learning their class. Your gear is limited and you do not have access to rubies till lvl 10. This may be intentional so that you learn your class, and some classes, like the paladin, are actually complicated. I think the complaint is very exaggerated and also many of the players are just not good. Many do not realize that you get attribute points to allocate per level, nor do they use talent points. They also do not upgrade gear. One more thing, this is not WoW where it is normal to fight mobs above your level. Here it is best to stay in the -1 and +1 your level range. And the boss mobs at your level (the ones group quest are meant for) will whoop you, often in 1 shot.

PvP

Ahh, the fun part. While leveling is done via quest driven PvE, PvP just hits you on the head after level 20 when you get to Holy Lands. Let's just say the game changes, a lot. Questing is no longer easy once the PvP NPCs and the opposing players get involved.

When I first got to Holy Lands, I HATED it, in spite of the fact that I actually like & prefer PvP. It was a pain in the @ss. It became challenging, which is good, but a lot of the challenge was frustrating and was really due to hackers, high lvl ganking, our NPCs not working properly and the rough terrain. But as I leveled, it became more interesting.

This is my first & only PvP zone in Allods so far, but from what I see, I like the direction taken. World PvP is promoted. There are rep quests for solo killing players, capturing sites of power and grinding out faction NPCs. There is a flag system, which every PvPer cried about, but it's actually quite hard to stay unflagged between the NPCs which make you flagged if you fight them or they attack you, along with warbanner used by players which does the same. You can also kill quest giving NPCs for the opposing side. PvP is live and active. There are no battlegrounds/scenarios or RvR lakes, but the PvP is there and it is fun & challenging.

I am not going to comment on PvP imbalance, naturally it is there but it is debatable. I find certain classes plain OP, but that may be just because I am a summoner. I think, and I may be wrong, the building blocks for the PvP balance seem to be solid.

The Dreaded Cash Shop

The not fun part. I will start by saying that Allods would shine best as a p2p game. As a f2p, it will always be gimped by mechanics involving the cash shop. The game took 12 million dollars to create, it is not going to be profitable via vanity items. There has to be a mechanic that generates steady revenue and I understand that.

There was a price change where items were made less to 1/2 to 1/4 of what they were originally priced at. gPotato obviously realized they had a disaster on their hand with the original prices and the outroar by the players. The prices are ok now, I have so far bought two bags, $6 each, for my two characters. I am holding off on buying anything else, which is explained later.

Some of the tiems in the CS which seem reasonable are stuff like Bags,bank space, teleporters and soon to come, water of Life/Death (respecs), mounts and mount food. I think that is okay. The problems start with perfumes, crystal chips and holy runes. Runes are basically the gear modifications, crystal chips are need to combine runes to higher level.

Perfumes work directly with the Fear of Death mechanic. Now this has been exaggerated, as it is not that bad, at least not until end game. I have to deal with it now, and it's more of a gold sink than anything else. It is a problem where you need a perfume in instances, but at the moment, the group can actually afford to wait it out. At end game, you will need perfume. It seems reasonable priced as even the hardcores will not be in a position 100% of the time where they HAVE to use perfume based the FoD mechanic alone. FoD as a death penalty is actually reasonable, it can work as a sort of pay per half hour and emulate a p2p in a f2p game. You can get perfume via Auction House, or a daily for just one perfume or the one time quest at lvl 15 or so for 20 of them. They are reasonable priced now where I think it can work, even for the hardcore players.

Crystal Chips and Holy Runes, I don't like. These are Pay2Win, plain and simple. There is already a thread explaining this, basically the process to getting a top notch rune to embed in your gear is very costly.

The Real Potential Problem

This is a russian made game and the Russian server is 1-2 patches ahead of the rest. The last patch on the Russian server basically killed the game for them. Lot of russian players playing on EU or NA servers now.

Here is the deal. They introduced a patronage system, which on the surface is a cool concept but it is very heavily tied into the cash shop. It is basically a perfume sink, so instead of one perfume, you are downing 10-20 or more at a time to active levels of patronage that make you more & more powerful. Besides that, classes are getting changes, losing key abilities, or getting them nerfed with a general objective of more use of the cash shop. The Astral space mobs (end-game pve) have been significantly buffed to pretty much require patronage hence lots of perfumes aka cash.

It's a very greedy and dumb move by the developers. Of course some players have spent the cash, there are stories of a warrior who is so jacked up that he wipes whole player raids by himself. He is like a PvP elite boss player, which naturally destroys any real balance. All because he spent the ridiculous sums of money. If this patch hits NA, Allods will go into the F2p crapper. Which is sad, because it is a very well done game, better than most p2p. Some of us think it is better than WoW, I would not even play WoW for free nowdays, yet I would pay a sub for Allods.

This patch may not come or may be strongly fixed, because it seems that Gala-net/gPotato (the publisher) realizes what will happen. They did listen to the players regarding the original Cash Shop prices. We will see. For now, I bought $50 worth of the in game currency and spent $12 of it. I am not spending anymore until we see what happens and am actually looking on selling the in-game currency to someone else if I can. This is the situation at the moment, and the next patch will decide the fate of this game from success to failure.

Some people may say, well it's business so this type of patch makes sense. This will result in a big financial loss for the publisher & developer. They just don't get it. The P2Win cash shop model only works for crappy low budget f2p games, which rely on a tiny percentage of players for spending a lot of cash. I personally, do not think it will work with Allods. There needs to be a strong hardcore base, and they will simply not be able to afford to play. What happened on the RU server is a disaster for both the players & publisher/developers.

Anyway, feel free to comment or ask questions.

iwodj · March 2010

Nice review, gj. I got a question about the fight. Whats up with 1 sec hold in every hit? I mean when your charr tries to hit he swings, than a half sec or 1 sec hold than hit. Is that some kind of bug or it was meant to be that way? Its rly annoying

Jackpot27 · March 2010

I definitely agree with almost everything you said. I believe this game has real potential, even as a subscription-based system. However, I do think the game lacks real content beyond a couple instances and some PvP. They have very solid building blocks, but they have yet to use them for anything substantial that would warrant subscribing to the game. I'm starting to feel like this is yet another game where I love the design and the mechanics, but I continue praying they fix their glaring issues, while they continue to...not

Hydroblunt · March 2010

Originally posted by iwodj

Nice review, gj. I got a question about the fight. Whats up with 1 sec hold in every hit? I mean when your charr tries to hit he swings, than a half sec or 1 sec hold than hit. Is that some kind of bug or it was meant to be that way? Its rly annoying

It's a 1 second Global Cooldown, nothing wrong with it. The combat gets hectic and fast one u get higher level and into PvP.

Hydroblunt · March 2010

Originally posted by Jackpot27

I definitely agree with almost everything you said. I believe this game has real potential, even as a subscription-based system. However, I do think the game lacks real content beyond a couple instances and some PvP. They have very solid building blocks, but they have yet to use them for anything substantial that would warrant subscribing to the game. I'm starting to feel like this is yet another game where I love the design and the mechanics, but I continue praying they fix their glaring issues, while they continue to...not

Astral space, Astral mobs, ship combat and instances, on top of PvP. The game has more than what WoW offered at launch.

If you do a fair comparison of Allods versus Warhammer, AoC and even WoW at launch, you will see that this is definitely a p2p worthy game. It is still in Open Beta, although that is a debatable definition with f2p games.

Jackpot27 · March 2010

Originally posted by Hydroblunt
Astral space, Astral mobs, ship combat and instances, on top of PvP. The game has more than what WoW offered at launch.
If you do a fair comparison of Allods versus Warhammer, AoC and even WoW at launch, you will see that this is definitely a p2p worthy game. It is still in Open Beta, although that is a debatable definition with f2p games.

I hadn't considered the astral combat since that's so far in the end game it didn't seem like it'd really become a factor for getting people interested early on. The early levels in Allod's are essentially nothing but a massive quest grind with two instances to give you something to do inbetween. I've had several friends get bored and just quit playing because there wasn't enough content beyond "get quest finish quest, do 1 instance every 10 levels". Once you hit 23 this formula changes to "get quest finish quest get killed do 1 instance every 10 levels" until you've grinded enough levels in the Holy Lands to not get rocked in PvP.

However, you are right in saying there's not much difference between Allods' current content and that of WAR or AoC (although WAR certainly had PvP capability much earlier on). In terms of game content though I would not say that Allods is on par with WoW on release.

knighthonor · March 2010

This game worth it? Better then Guild Wars and RoM?

Hydroblunt · March 2010

Originally posted by Jackpot27
However, you are right in saying there's not much difference between Allods' current content and that of WAR or AoC (although WAR certainly had PvP capability much earlier on). In terms of game content though I would not say that Allods is on par with WoW on release.

Actually, AoC had almost no end game whatsoever, with players quitting en masse due to nothing to do. Warhammer had broken city sieges that people did not want to play. And you're giving WoW way too much credit. It had almost non-existent PvP and what, like one raid? There were some nice instances (BRD, Scholo & Strat), however.

Allods, in comparison, is in way better shape than either of the 3. It's p2p worthy, more so than War or AoC were at launch.

Hydroblunt · March 2010

Originally posted by knighthonor

This game worth it? Better then Guild Wars and RoM?

It's better than RoM and simply different than GW. Guild Wars is not a MMORPG, nor do they bill themselves as such.

Allods is a key point right now, and unfortunately, I think it is going down the same path as RoM, which Pay2Win.

toddze · March 2010

good review I agree with you.

The FoD/perfume is not as bad as people make it out to be. Its the staple of their income, there has to be some reason for people to spend money monthly in the CS. To many people dont understand this. More people need to step back and look at it from a business standpoint. Hell I would just suggest a 10-15$ monthly perfume buff.

Sadly the holy rune/crystal chips do make it p2w. Cant argue there. Take it out of the CS make the chips mob drops and holy runes boss drops. I also dont like the stat potions in the CS either, take those out and leave it to alchemy to craft that stuff.

I have no problem with bag, bank, prices. I do have a slight problem with the best rune pick, because its 30$, However I do have the 2nd best which is in the CS, forgot the name but I quested it with ease, just took a little time.

I personally think if they would add the changes i sugested that the game would be fixed for the masses.

Krygon · March 2010

I've played since cb and the game looks great and thats about all i can say for.

Comparing it to war and wow is laughable though. This is a f2p game and it plays like one. endless grind thats almost boring because of lack of story and non original quest. Many many bugs that can be fixed but they seem to be in no hurry about it. Constant gold spamming on chat. hacks.. typical f2p with the worst cash shop ever.

All everybody ever says is hopefully later....maybe later they will...if they would do this...gpotato continues to do nothing but instal new things in the cashshop for more money.. it's in beta seems to be the popular fanboy answer to all..but the only thing their working on in this open beta is cash shop prices and seeing how high they can make them.

Astral ship this and that....nobody knows if there really are player built astral ships so to include it as something good about the game is really reaching.

Posting on their forum is done with extreme caution. They recruit the worst fanboys to become "astral scholars" which means to patrol the forums and delete or lock and post that start addressing the real issues.

I wouldn't want to be responsible for refering this game to anyone, unless they were rich and didn't mind major bugs in the game.

toddze · March 2010

Originally posted by Krygon

I've played since cb and the game looks great and thats about all i can say for.
Comparing it to war and wow is laughable though. This is a f2p game and it plays like one. endless grind thats almost boring because of lack of story and non original quest. Many many bugs that can be fixed but they seem to be in no hurry about it. Constant gold spamming on chat. hacks.. typical f2p with the worst cash shop ever.
All everybody ever says is hopefully later....maybe later they will...if they would do this...gpotato continues to do nothing but instal new things in the cashshop for more money.. it's in beta seems to be the popular fanboy answer to all..but the only thing their working on in this open beta is cash shop prices and seeing how high they can make them.
Astral ship this and that....nobody knows if there really are player built astral ships so to include it as something good about the game is really reaching.
Posting on their forum is done with extreme caution. They recruit the worst fanboys to become "astral scholars" which means to patrol the forums and delete or lock and post that start addressing the real issues.
I wouldn't want to be responsible for refering this game to anyone, unless they were rich and didn't mind major bugs in the game.

Sorry to burst your bubble buddy but our guilds astral ship is being built as I type this. It takes awhile for it to be completed, but its under construction. all mats gold and quests are out of the way, all thats left is the wait.

Krygon · March 2010

No bubble busted buddy. There are none out there.

Yes and is it a 100 day wait?

Then how many more ships will be out there after your wait? 2? 3?

Will anybody but the top ten guilds be playing by then and if so will you pay enough to the cash shop to keep this game afloat? More could be's, and will be's maybe.

You haven't ridden in your astral ship so therefore you dont even know if there are any out there, which with the wait i'm sure there are not any. And with the major bugs whats the chance your ship will actually fly? Slim, but i'm sure you can buy enough repair kits at the cash shop to get it going.

toddze · March 2010

Originally posted by Krygon

No bubble busted buddy. There are none out there.
Yes and is it a 100 day wait?
Then how many more ships will be out there after your wait? 2? 3?
Will anybody but the top ten guilds be playing by then and if so will you pay enough to the cash shop to keep this game afloat? More could be's, and will be's maybe.
You haven't ridden in your astral ship so therefore you dont even know if there are any out there, which with the wait i'm sure there are not any. And with the major bugs whats the chance your ship will actually fly? Slim, but i'm sure you can buy enough repair kits at the cash shop to get it going.

Its a 30 day wait. We got about 2 weeks left before ours is done, Of course theres none constructed out there yet!!!! OB started feb 16th its march 15 today. But by all means continue trolling because you know nothing about the game you probably never got past level 10, So just stick with WoW its been out a long time theres very few bugs in it. Any MMO vet knows that there is no such thing a a bug free launch p2p f2p nothing.

Krygon · March 2010

I happen to have been lvl 32 before i realized what a pay to win game this is and quit. And just because I point out the flaws in this game doesn't make a troll. I guess anyone that isn't a huge fanboy of this lame cashsoakup game is a troll to you. You fanboys just like to to point at all that is good and hope to draw in a bunch of suckers so you can sit in the nebie zone when your lvl 40 and gank at will.

Also the whole go play WOW thing, thats really old and lame. Bet thats your answer to everything when you disagree with someone. Pretty sad.

Hydroblunt · March 2010

Originally posted by Krygon

No bubble busted buddy. There are none out there.
Yes and is it a 100 day wait?
Then how many more ships will be out there after your wait? 2? 3?
Will anybody but the top ten guilds be playing by then and if so will you pay enough to the cash shop to keep this game afloat? More could be's, and will be's maybe.
You haven't ridden in your astral ship so therefore you dont even know if there are any out there, which with the wait i'm sure there are not any. And with the major bugs whats the chance your ship will actually fly? Slim, but i'm sure you can buy enough repair kits at the cash shop to get it going.

It's been done and explored on RU server, hence the information is out there. Don't be hating, the astral ship and astral space is pretty cool. It is a 100 day wait flat out but lowered to 33 days via certain quests.

The problem is that you need perfumes, high end runes and patronage to even do anything significant in Astral space and this went into effect with the last Russian patch. Astral space became near abandoned when that hit.

Zippy · March 2010

Originally posted by toddze

Originally posted by Krygon

No bubble busted buddy. There are none out there.
Yes and is it a 100 day wait?
Then how many more ships will be out there after your wait? 2? 3?
Will anybody but the top ten guilds be playing by then and if so will you pay enough to the cash shop to keep this game afloat? More could be's, and will be's maybe.
You haven't ridden in your astral ship so therefore you dont even know if there are any out there, which with the wait i'm sure there are not any. And with the major bugs whats the chance your ship will actually fly? Slim, but i'm sure you can buy enough repair kits at the cash shop to get it going.

Its a 30 day wait. We got about 2 weeks left before ours is done, Of course theres none constructed out there yet!!!! OB started feb 16th its march 15 today. But by all means continue trolling because you know nothing about the game you probably never got past level 10, So just stick with WoW its been out a long time theres very few bugs in it. Any MMO vet knows that there is no such thing a a bug free launch p2p f2p nothing.

Besides the cash shop the attitudes of this poster are one of the worst things about Allods. Hands down Allods has the worst community of any MMO. Even worse than AoC. I guess a free game attracts children but this is a little silly. I have never seen more rude childish behavior than in Allods. It is like these people have never played a MMO before. So much ksing, ninjaing of clickies and so on. Normally in MMOs those who get to top level the fastest are generally a lot more polite and courteous than the slower masses. Not a ton of ksing or disrespecting as we all have to put up with each other. But not in Allods. Zone chat even in the high level zones is awful. They should rename the game the Land of illiterate children.

All that being said the game is not bad and actually a pretty amazing game for a free game. Some of the dungeons are very well done. Lab 13 for a medium level dungeon is extremely well done. The boss fights are strategic and well thought out. I have not done the heroics dungeons yet or any raiding but it is a very well made game. Yes there are lots of irritating things like bag space limitations which all seem to be designed to make people use the CS but overall its a surprising well done game. Is it a long term game? Quite doubtful with the way the end game is looking on the Russian servers but its certainly worth playing for a month or two as it easily beats anything that has been released in the last few years.

Hydroblunt · March 2010

Originally posted by Zippy

Originally posted by toddze

Originally posted by Krygon

No bubble busted buddy. There are none out there.
Yes and is it a 100 day wait?
Then how many more ships will be out there after your wait? 2? 3?
Will anybody but the top ten guilds be playing by then and if so will you pay enough to the cash shop to keep this game afloat? More could be's, and will be's maybe.
You haven't ridden in your astral ship so therefore you dont even know if there are any out there, which with the wait i'm sure there are not any. And with the major bugs whats the chance your ship will actually fly? Slim, but i'm sure you can buy enough repair kits at the cash shop to get it going.

Its a 30 day wait. We got about 2 weeks left before ours is done, Of course theres none constructed out there yet!!!! OB started feb 16th its march 15 today. But by all means continue trolling because you know nothing about the game you probably never got past level 10, So just stick with WoW its been out a long time theres very few bugs in it. Any MMO vet knows that there is no such thing a a bug free launch p2p f2p nothing.

Besides the cash shop the attitudes of this poster are one of the worst things about Allods.

LOL, have you played WoW lately?

Zippy · March 2010

Originally posted by Hydroblunt

Originally posted by Zippy

Originally posted by toddze

Originally posted by Krygon

No bubble busted buddy. There are none out there.
Yes and is it a 100 day wait?
Then how many more ships will be out there after your wait? 2? 3?
Will anybody but the top ten guilds be playing by then and if so will you pay enough to the cash shop to keep this game afloat? More could be's, and will be's maybe.
You haven't ridden in your astral ship so therefore you dont even know if there are any out there, which with the wait i'm sure there are not any. And with the major bugs whats the chance your ship will actually fly? Slim, but i'm sure you can buy enough repair kits at the cash shop to get it going.

Its a 30 day wait. We got about 2 weeks left before ours is done, Of course theres none constructed out there yet!!!! OB started feb 16th its march 15 today. But by all means continue trolling because you know nothing about the game you probably never got past level 10, So just stick with WoW its been out a long time theres very few bugs in it. Any MMO vet knows that there is no such thing a a bug free launch p2p f2p nothing.

Besides the cash shop the attitudes of this poster are one of the worst things about Allods. Hands down Allods has the worst community of any MMO. Even worse than AoC. I guess a free game attracts children but this is a little silly. I have never seen more rude childish behavior than in Allods. It is like these people have never played a MMO before. So much ksing, ninjaing of clickies and so on. Normally in MMOs those who get to top level the fastest are generally a lot more polite and courteous than the slower masses. Not a ton of ksing or disrespecting as we all have to put up with each other. But not in Allods. Zone chat even in the high level zones is awful. They should rename the game the Land of illiterate children.

All that being said the game is not bad and actually a pretty amazing game for a free game. Some of the dungeons are very well done. Lab 13 for a medium level dungeon is extremely well done. The boss fights are strategic and well thought out. I have not done the heroics dungeons yet or any raiding but it is a very well made game. Yes there are lots of irritating things like bag space limitations which all seem to be designed to make people use the CS but overall its a surprising well done game. Is it a long term game? Quite doubtful with the way the end game is looking on the Russian servers but its certainly worth playing for a month or two as it easily beats anything that has been released in the last few years.

LOL, have you played WoW lately?

Sadly it appears any P2P game, even WoW, has a vastly better and more mature playerbase. But then again what else can we expect from a F2P game? While a mainstream MMO will generally have a playerbase with the average age in the low to mid 30's a F2P likely will only be in the mid 20's. Which results in quite a huge loss in maturity, life experience, patience, ability to communicate without using juvenile jibberish, more 18-25 year olds running amok with a need to garner attention by offending other players, and players with less MMO skill, knowledge (especially about traditional MMO rules of courtsey), and experience.

Hydroblunt · March 2010

Originally posted by Zippy

Originally posted by Hydroblunt

LOL, have you played WoW lately?

Sadly it appears any P2P game, even WoW, has a vastly better and more mature playerbase. But then again what else can we expect from a F2P game? While a mainstream MMO will generally have a playerbase with the average age in the low to mid 30's a F2P likely will only be in the mid 20's. Which results in quite a huge loss in maturity, life experience, patience, ability to communicate without using juvenile jibberish, more 18-25 year olds running amok with a need to garner attention by offending other players, and players with less MMO skill, knowledge (especially about traditional MMO rules of courtsey), and experience.

I really have no idea WTF you are talking about. WoW is currently notorious for having a horrible community which really went down the toilet with the last xpac. As for Alganon, the community is ok, definitely better than WoW, but not exactly a standard.

[Mod Edit]

Krygon · March 2010

Well all anybody has to do is go to the allods forum and read the posts.

theres one there with people complaining about how people insult constantly on the game chat. Racism, smut, country bashing. it's worse than wow ever was because allods doesn't bother to ban or reprimand anyone.

Rokurgepta · March 2010

The chat in game for Allods is typical of the F2P I have tried. Sadly typical for those games is gutter trash though. Of course it was hard to read with the massive instant spam I saw though. For me Allods is not a game I will play again and will surely delete it off my computer. The tutorial area seemed well done with a story but I felt the next area was a let down and became typical WOW clone stye of kill me 10 of this and bring me their claws.

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