Home › Miscellaneous › LFGame
Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
MMO Newbie (from singleplayer RPGs) want recommendations
Hi,
(First post here - I would really appreciate any helpful replies, opinions and suggestions!)
I'm a longtime computer games player, especially a fan of roleplaying games, who've recently decided to look into MMOs. Partly to see what I might have been missing out on, and partly looking for a different experience than what I can find in singleplayer RPGs. My favourite singleplayer RPGs are the Elder Scrolls series - which sometimes are likened to MMOs for their open worlds.
What am I looking for? The following all appeals to me:
A good solo experience.
A rich world to explore and immerse myself into.
Story, good context for the quests and monster bashing - I want to know why I am supposed to bash 15 gremlins, etc.
Character development - while I am not all that interested in customizing the looks of my character, I want to make choices about skills and stats, come up with a build that is my own to some degree.
Beautiful and varied landscapes
Unique experiences - games that do thing differently or in a unique way, regardless of genre, are always interesting to me.
On the flipside, what do I want to avoid? The following would all discourage me from playing a game:
PvP - I have absolutely no interest in it, and would hate being subjected to it. Same goes for other forms of competitiveness.
Bland, repetitive quests.
Clumsy UI (I can stand old-school graphics... but old-school and clunky UI is a different matter)
Needing to adventure in a party in order to experience stuff
Other points of interest:
Crafting - what I have tried of this, it seems to mostly be pointless busywork, and not very interesting. I would either want a more interesting crafting system than "collect ingredients, follow recipe", or be able to avoid it.
Player interaction - I am a loner by nature. While I want a world that feels lived in, and is populated by other people, I would prefer to not have to interact with them, to be able to go adventuring on my own, gather gear on my own, etc.
Combat system - I am not a fan of the seeming MMO standard of hotbars / cooldowns... where I spend my time watching meters and cooldowns instead of focusing on what is in the middle of the screen - it feels like a fancy game of whack the mole to me (but I'd still happily play such a game if I enjoy the setting or stories). I much prefered Conan's / DC's more action-oriented combat.
F2P vs Cash Shop vs Subscription - I am fine with any of these alternatives, as long as prices are reasonable (... SW:TOR (with its focus on story) looks interesting to me, but the initial outlay of £35 for the game is a bit much, I think) - but I strongly prefer being able to have a go at some form of trial version before paying cash. Also, spending money over time is easier than a big lump sum up front.
Setting - while I don't mind standard Fantasy settings, I like them to be well fleshed out. I am also interested in different settings - pseudo-historical, horror, sci-fi, post-apocalyptic, etc. The Secret World looks interesting, for example.
Over the past few weeks, I have downloaded and tried a bunch of MMO trials, and here are my brief impressions of them. Note that these are impressions gathered from a mere 2-5 hours playing of each... feel free to point out where I have got the wrong impressions of a game.
World of Warcraft:
The interface felt clean and polished. None of the classes ended up capturing my fancy all that much though - perhaps more to do with boring descriptions than how they actually play. Started two characters, and for both, the starting areas felt dull, and the quests were bland and without any interesting context.
Guild Wars:
While the world / story seemed intriguing, I got bored of bashing low-level 0xp mobs all the time while running back and forth doing quests - too much time spent in combat that was no challenge. World also didn't feel very populated.
Lord of the Rings Online:
I am a fan of the setting, and the game gave me a good impression - I much prefered the more serious architecture and landscapes of this to WoW's style, and there seemed to be more and better stories behind the quests. Beautiful landscapes in the small part that I've seen.
Age of Conan:
My favourite out of the trials so far. I enjoyed the different combat, quests felt immersive, and I like the grittier "mature" setting (I'm a fan of Howard's stories). All the voiceacting definitely helped with immersion as well.
Dungeons and Dragons Online:
So familiar, and yet not. Having spent countless hours with Neverwinter Nights 1 / 2, as well as doing Pen & Paper RPG-ing, D&D is quite familiar... yet things have undeniably been changed or adapted here. I liked the tone of the game, reminiscent of pen and paper RPG-ing, and I am a huge fan of the wide open character development options that D&D offers... towns seemed very lively with other people as well. My doubts are how well solo-ing will work though - D&D is by its nature designed for a group.
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning:
I'm a huge fan of the setting (used to pen&paper RPG in it a lot back in my teens / twenties), and I felt they had caught the mood of it very well. Unfortunately, the game did not seem suitable for people wanting to play on their own, and seemed rather underpopulated... public quests aimed at 9+ players having 0-1 people going at them, and so on.
DC Universe Online:
Felt slightly on the simple side, but still fun - combat was fun (which is important, as one spends a lot of time doing that). Quests were on the bland side, but I still enjoyed the overall experience.
Everquest 2:
Felt very old-fashioned to me... things felt clumsy to do, taking more mouseclicks than in other games, weird graphical phenomena (monster animations continuing to run after I'd killed it), boring quests with lots of running back and forth to bash X number of this or that monster. Did not like.
City of Heroes:
Interface felt archaic and clumsy. Character development seemed to have quite a few possibilities. Combat was dull to the extreme.
Voyage Century Online:
Interesting different concept - I like the idea of being an explorer, sailing around the world. I disliked the interface strongly... not being able to move my character with the keyboard, multi-key shortcuts (... I see the point in reserving all the regular keys for chatting, I guess, but to me, it felt awkward). I wish I could have liked this game - I like the setting, the ideas, but the actual game seemed awkward to me.
Atlantica Online:
I like the turnbased combat, but being stressed by a time limit utterly ruined it for me. Apart from that, didn't seem to do anything else all that different or exciting.
Runes of Magic:
Seemed like a worse and less polished version of World of Warcraft.
Champions Online:
Decent fun, but combat was not all that interesting - maybe it would change at higher levels. Worried about solo playability. I don't think I'd want more than one superhero RPG in the mix, and DC made a slightly better first impression.
Rusty Hearts:
Fun in short bursts, but didn's seem like much of an MMO to me - felt like a straight action game.
...
So, given all of this, what MMO should I decide to get deeper into? Which ones that I have already tried deserve a second look? Which more ones out there should I try?
Thanks in advance!
Comments
Skyrim, Witcher 2 or Risen.
I will not play a game with a cash shop ever again. A dev job should be to make the game better not make me pay so it sucks less.
Sounds like Vanguard might be for you.
u have to try lotro ! its not a wow style as i read on this thread...u are not interesting for pvp , so u have to try lotro , lotro have pvp but u can easy avoid it like it doesnt exist.
I'd suggest Vanguard too and Ryzom.
Yeah, Vanguard and Ryzom. I would be partial to Vanguard but Ryzom could be a great choice.
otherwise I was going to suggest LOTRO but it seems he has already tried it.
Having said that, OP, Vanguard is not as polished as some games but the world is absolutely HUGE and if you want to explore then it's a great place to do it.
A downside is that it has a small population but a friendly population.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Vanguard or Ryzom.
Ryzom is awesome fun but not sure how big it is thou. Vanguard is a very big placed from what i have been told.
I tryed it but only race i liked were the fox*rakki*
MYSPACE ACCOUNT
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=80721225
Which FF Character Are You?
Wait for SWTOR to drop in price if you don't want to pony up the money now. Would probably be right up your alley. Beyond that, I would recommend two games to try not on your list and that is Rift and Fallen Earth. Warhammer is not your game for sure. I don't care for AoC, but to each their own. Keep in mind only the beginning has voice actiing (I believe). Lotro would probably fit you as well.
You are asking a lot from a game, you will have to make compromises
There is not really much to see in SWTOR, i loved that game but if he is looking to really get into the world a theme park MMO would not be for him.
MYSPACE ACCOUNT
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=80721225
Which FF Character Are You?
You said you liked LOTRO so far, I recommend you dig deeper there. Try different classes/races, explore more. If you liked a taste I think you might really like a more in depth look.
It offers you a huge amount to do and explore as a free player, and if you get a few Turbine points and watch for the frequent sales you can open a lot of new areas for questing pretty cheaply, as well as unlock different classes and more slots if you want them.
It's rich, immersive and beautiful, with a good story that dovetails with the books as you go along. If you roll on Landroval you will also find a large and active roleplaying community, if that's of interest to you.
Editing to say Ryzom is also a lot of fun, with a really unique world and a lot to do as a free player. The skill cap for free to plat in Ryzom is high enough that you can see a lot of things before you would ever need to sub. Tip for Ryzom, do *every* quest offered on the starter island before you move to mainland. You get lots of gear, money and experience you will really want later.
"As a foulness ya shall know them."
Rift has a 3 day trial. The soul system allows a good amount of skill customization and gives you the ability to switch roles if you are a bit bored of something. The rifts and zone wide events add some flavor to the game also. It does not have separate starting areas for races which can make things repetitive if running an alt. Also the progression from zone to zone is completely linear from what I have seen so far. So you'd be running the same areas again on an alt with no choice. Still, just running a main, I find it OK. Solo is no problem. And of course it has some instanced dungeons requiring a party, that you can complete or bypass.
Dragon Nest is more action oriented like Rusty Hearts, instanced in the same way. I didn't play Rusty Hearts for more than 20 minutes or so though. The combat in Dragon Nest can be fun and satisfying. I'd say it's a bit better than Rusty Hearts, but still it's kind of a short burst type of thing. It's f2p though so, shrug.
If you are strongly interested in story, SWTOR could be your thing. The story aspect of the game is pretty strong. I personally found that I'd rather be actively doing something than watching the stories so while I found them interesting at first, I lost interest in that part of it pretty quickly. The combat is decent, where you'll be facing multiple opponents which gives a feeling of being a bit more powerful than standard 1v1 in many MMO's. Same with Rift, you have mostly solo content with some instanced flash points, complete or bypass.
I haven't played AoC so I can't consider it really, but if I had to pick something from your list with what interests you, I would probably say LOTRO could be worth pressing into a bit more. With the content/story/crafting/price you can't really go wrong with it.
I was going to say rift also! I am looking for a game right now to. I am trying rift with the 7dat tial. It seems very very clean. What I enjoy most though is all of the classes! err well souls you can pick from! I love that. I like the feeling that your class is truely unique and I think rift is like that.
As for the story, Enhhh you will have to see for your self, you might like it.
EDIT; SWTOR's story, at least for me was lame. I was a jedi shadow. For the first 30 levels I felt like I just did the same thing 4 times on 4 diffrent planets....
I agree with that. Try month in LOTRO and if it doesn't work out then consider GW2 that is comming out may-sep (probably).
You could try Rift or Forsaken world as well but frankly have both those games rather badly written quests.
Age of Conan kept me entertained for over a year. One of the only Current MMOs I have stayed engaged in for over a month since Star Wars Galaxies. Alot of free content to play so dig away.
DDO with its varied difficulties for its dungeons can be very solo friendly, with the aid of a henchman of course. Again alot of free content to play so worth digging.
Vanguard is a great world but didn't seem very solo friendly to me.
If you want try an mmorpg for your 1st time your are better off with wow then any titel on market it has the most userfriendly gameplay and will teach you a thing or two, if your an advanced user i would go with anything anyone else on this site recomend. Rift is awsome game with less content then wow but for advanced user it might be choice of game but overall wow beats that game to the ground only reason i would advice rift over wow is if your bored of wow or have played singeplayer rpgs for while befor entering the mmorpg market.
I have not playd wow since bc but that game is pretty much complete and if you truly are new to the mmorpg that is without a doubt the game to aim for.
When you master wow i would branch out as there are some games that do things different from wow.
Swtor follow the singel player path better then wow, but the mmorpg part wow does alot better then swtor do.
Wow, thanks for all the responses and suggestions - I was not expecting that many helpful replies!
Seems quite a few people are suggesting these - I shall download their trials and give them a go. But size is not everything... it's more important to have an interesting and varied world than just sheer size (otherwise, all computer games would be using procedurally generated worlds by now). I am indeed waiting for SWTOR to drop in price... once it drops a bit, I expect I'll pick it up, even if all I do is play through the story once or twice.Rift - what is Rift's hook, why is Rift better than e.g. WoW? I read a few reviews about Rift, but nothing made it stand out in my mind.
Fallen Earth was on my short list of games still to try... I've downloaded and installed it, but trying out all those MMOs takes time - which is why I posted here instead of continuing playing random ones.
Yeah, that one (along with Age of Conan and Dungeons & Dragons Online) is one of my main candidates so far to try to get properly into. It does a lot of things right... I just worry slightly that some of the surprise factor of discovering places will not be there due to being quite familiar with the lore - on the other hand, it means I am already into the theme. Yeah, finding a balance between story and interactivity is a challenge for developers, and Bioware can from my experience with their singleplayer RPGs be a bit heavyhanded in their storytelling - still, I would rather have that than no story. Oh, thanks for telling me that it can be solo friendly - I like the D&D system, and worrying about solo suitability was my main concern with that one. What does WoW feature that makes it so good? To me, while polished, it just seemed exceedingly bland, in my short time with it. It might have been revolutionary when it was new, but it seems to me that most of its good ideas have been copied by other newer games by now? Or is the world less bland once you get further into the game?So... games I still want to try out, with a couple new additions from these responses:
- Fallen Earth
- Ryzom
- Star Trek Online
- Vanguard
- Vindictus
And my main candidates so far for a first game to try to get deeply into:- Age of Conan
- Lord of the Rings Online
- Dungeons & Dragons Online
Cheers!Vanguard is a great game. I highly suggest that if you are new to MMOs. Community in that game is great on the two servers I have played on. The PVE is very good and fun. The world like others have said is huge and has much to explore that is appealing to the eye.
Regarding what Rift has "over" WoW, first I'll just say I haven't played WoW since Lich King, so some of this could be incorrect.
Rift is very similar to WoW, when I did the beta about a year ago, some of the skills were exactly the same as some of WoW's skills with a different name. That really turned me off. However, a year has gone by and I decided to give it another chance after finding myself with no desire to log in to SWTOR.
Main points in my opinion -
The soul system allows you to mix and match 3 souls concurrently under a specific archtype. There are more than 3 to mix and match per archtype. Not sure on the exact number, but I think it may be around 9 different per archtype to mix together and customize your abilities between them. You also have multiple specs you can switch to on the fly as long as out of combat.
Rifts, invasions and zone wide events add a shade of dynamics to the world. I know you stated you prefer to solo, so this *may* not appeal to you as much as it does to me. Howerver, having the ability to jump in with a small to large group of people to stop invasions/close rifts/complete zone wide quests and kill off zone bosses and reap the rewards in the form of special currency you can trade in for gear, is something I appreciate. I'm really a group game type person though. I liked EQ alot way back in 99 and enjoyed the forced grouping and the social ettiquette that came with that.
I have not done any end game stuff so I can't comment on it, nor pvp.
Without those two things, imo, it is very similar to WoW with less content. The company does seem to listen to an extent to the players and also runs some good deals to try and bring in more people. For instance, I think in NOV they were giving the game away for free with a subscription, they just had a free 3 day deal, they are offering an extra month with a multi month sub, things like that.
Also, I stated before Rift had a 3 day trial, sorry I was thinking of the 3 day free thing they were running. According to another poster it's 7 days with a level cap of 20.
Having said that, I don't really know if Rift would be your thing. I think it's decent. Not super special or anything, but I've had fun in it, at least for now. I'm just trying to throw some things against the wall for you, and since it has a trial to check out I figured I'd mention it.
I'd suggest that you read/watch some reviews on various websites before making decisions. Trials are not very reliable as in some games only the starting areas are well polished. While it should be helpful to listen to what experienced players have to offer, a lot of the people here are uninterested in/hostile to some or all of the games present (and they appear in large numbers). As much as I hate relying too much on the authorities, it is sadly the truth that you have to count on official reviews. One advice: if you enjoy playing, start playing a game now and don't care whether it is the "best on the market". Some people waited a lifetime for the ideal game. It's not fun.
If you like Conan - stick with conan
I wouldn't bother with rift, if your not that keen on wow, rift is essentially the same game, with a bit more flexibility in building your char and better graphics, but a smaller world and not as good story.
but any of these give good themepark style PVE, where you can group or solo
WOW
conan
RIFT
LOTRO
COH/COV
I would avoid WAR and AION, and to a lesser extent GW as they are more PVP orientated games
I've pretty much done the opposite of the OP and went from MMO's to Single Player games in the last few months. That being said, i played Vindictus a while back and i'm not sure if its up your alley or not. Its one of those games that will capture your attention when you first start playing but when the novelty wears off, it can get quite repetitive. As far as being soloable, Most of the content in Vindictus is soloable to some extent, alot of it depends on how good of a player you are and how good your gear is. However, there is some raid content that will be near impossible to solo due to boss mechanics. The Cash shop in this game is pretty basic, most of what you'll encounter is cosmetics with some item upgrade regents that are useful but not exactly necessary, so all in all pretty avoidable compared to most MMO's i've tried. The market is meh, but honestly besides a glance recently i haven't looked at it in months.
I was looking into SWTOR myself, played in a few of the beta's and got a chance to see some of the story. My personal opinion about the game was that it is pretty enjoyable. The quests were actually pretty fun to play and while most of the content i played was pretty soloable, the grouping in that game was actually pretty seamless (<3 holocall). That being said, the game just didn't feel like something i wanted to spend $60 + 15 a month on at the time because i was unsure how bioware would handle the endgame, which would be the reason i would stick with the game after i'd level to cap. So i've been just waiting around hoping the price drops and perhaps hear something that would make me want to play the game for an extended period of time.
Currently i'm looking forward to Planetside 2 and Guildwars 2, but in the mean time i've just been sticking to Single player RPG's (Waiting on Mass Effect 3 as well, even though i don't think thats even considered an RPG anymore lol). I've tried pretty much every F2P out there and it just doesn't cut it for me anymore. Good luck to your search OP, I hope you find what you're looking for.