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Unbiased Review #2324235
Cybersig211
Member UncommonPosts: 173
So ive been playing since beta, ive played AA a lot. I don't think its a crap game, im not mad at Trion and im not ignorant to the actual development company being not Trion. I have no bones to pick and nothing to gain from selling the game.
Heres what to expect from the game.
Leveling up process: This part of the game, levels 1-30 at least, feel...sort of out of place in the game. Its not fun, the story is very forgettable, but they do provide you a linear trip. The quests are standard, but youll need to know what to skip.
Here they made some confusing design choices, almost like they developed the game then went "wait lets try to make this more sandbox like" and then changed development after 30. Youll still have quests up until 50, and after youll have dallies...but the questing or gtfo seems to be overshadowed by other things.
Level 30-50 pre endgame: So at this point you've done enough gilda quests to buy something, hopefully its not a house since youll never find a spot to place it, and homes are worthless for the most part, you should have gotten thatched farm house that has more growing space. Not that it matters, youll only be able to place a temporary small farm (gets mailed back to you when the temp time is up and you can replace it)
This part of the game is odd...you still have quests, and you WILL be sick of them. You've learned that you can spam craft cloth sleeves then deconstruct and receive the 1 dust that you needed to make it back, and it eats your labor up and gives you great xp that scales. You've probably started planting stuff and attempting to craft. The craft grind is beyond epic for anything btw. Which is fine, progression can be good, everyone isn't making the best stuff and flooding the market ect. You now quest in areas that are pvp areas with an hour an a half (or is it two hours) of pve peace after the war build up and what not. War just means gank for honor (pvp currency) build up to war means you can gank but for no gain. So you find yourself ignoring zones near war, and during since you wont be able to do stuff easily and wont be able to fight back with much effectiveness.
The endgame: Welcome to Trade Pack runs online! Welcome to Token Farm Online!. These two activites will occupy most of your endgame progression. You will need to find a group in Hasla the level 50 shared area, then find a massive party that doesn't have too many people rolling on your preferred token type (based on weapon reward) and then stand there and farm field mobs. 150 tokens per item. Ive spent about 8 hours total farming here and have something like 50 tokens. Its insane and its boring.
Trade pack runs can be relaxing, you farm the right mats, build a pack that goes on your back and makes you super slow, then either hop in a boat and run it to a pve safe area for like5 gold, or run it on a donkey, or a carriage/air ship. Either way in 22 hours youll get a mail with the gold for it. You can spam the crap out of them, though the reward decreases. If done right its 100% safe. Youll do these a LOT and it becomes a chore you need to do X amount of runs so tomorrow youll have gold to buy workers comp and all the other items everyone said made the game pay to win at launch for in game money (including patron status)
There are also dungeon, but they are very build specific. Hope you have a build maxed that is needed for the dungeon runs so you can get better than lv50 quest armor...less you have like 1000 gold per armor piece...which you don't at this point.
Did you get your Hasla weapon? Good now for endgame!
Endgame:
Ok this is it! You made it to the point where you don't have to grind for gear. Get into the biggest guild you can, get on a boat and go gank people OR run stuff to the enemy faction for big money and crafting supplies.
This can be very fun, but also very....well its gets samey. You see someone on a boat with a trade pack, a clipper harpoons it, you bubble the driver (its always bubble) and you kill the people with packs, then arm the breathing device dive to the bottom of the sea, take their pack, and turn it in yourself.
Or you can go to hasla and terrorize people trying to farm tokens.
Or you can go raid the other factions zones, push it to war, then whiles its under war, go back, get a merchant ship, load it up and head over there...it should be peace time now there and safe, turn in the stuffs you made in your own factions island for good rewards.
The future?:
New continent comes Nov 4th. New token grind, new land for the mega guilds and hackers to claim. it should offer a significant boost to engame content, as boating for packs gets a bit dry.
Verdict ive come to. Its not a horrible game its just they made so many confusing choices in development. Why on earth did they make the token grind for weapons a thing? No one likes it. Its right out of a 2005 Korean game, stand there in a group and farm the mobs as they respawn....The farming system is deep, but if you don't have claimed land you wont get to participate in much of it. You can do a lot with the home but why? Just stuff to craft and you will have wished you got a farm house as 90% of the normal home owners do.
The future of the auroria continent looks like it will certainly add much needed stuff to do for endgame, granted you are in a massive guild. I expect a lot of small guilds to die and merge into larger zerg guilds to claim guild land there.
They need to get botting under control. You can literally go to the enemy faction and farm the 50 or so bots that are always there, they die and run back going straight for the mobs, and you kill them over and over and over to push a zone to war so it goes to peace after making trade runs easier. Problem is...this is even a thing...to farm bots like this to push a zone to war. They also need to fix the packet injection hack people use to claim land after someone abandons it. Nice seeing 100+ people crowded around a plot of land about to go live then having some botter who isn't even there click and claim it before the server can render it as available to everyone.
Bottom line. Its a good looking game with a confusing blend of *sort of* the worst aspects of themeparks and sandboxes meshed together with even more confusing development choices (yes they even had quest bottlenecks at lauch, theres a pic of like 75 people in a tidy line waiting for one mob to spawn for a quest). Its not bad, and once you get hooked on leveling up a craft and trade runs, its pretty damn fun...but theres little variance in these acts and it quickly turns into a job.
its not nearly as bad as everyone makes it out to be but there is reason a lot of people dislike the game. good thing its free.
Comments
That is one of the best critical posts about a game, I have read after a long time.
Could not have written a better post regarding this game.
SALUTE !!!
Cheers
Sourajit Nandi
" Don't listen to anyone who tells you that you can't play this or that. That's nonsense. Make up your mind,and you'll never whine or repent about gaming hours anymore, then have a go at every Game. Open up the Internet, join in all the Mmorpgs you can. Go make the Guild. But never, never let them persuade you that things are too difficult or impossible. "
Once An Addict Always An Addict .
I read the entire thing! I haven't played but for a couple hours and am still waiting to decide to put both feet into it.
I liked the way you wrote your review like you were talking to another geek you met at Gamestop. It had a lot of good information and I don't know what is right or wrong, but I'm a bit more informed on what to expect should I join in.
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
You obviously did it wrong. Did you try to solo it? I got 3 50s and all got 150 tokens within 5-6 hours. You need to find a group where everyone need rolls for one of the tokens and a spot that you don't have to share with others.
It's hilarious that people consider this a "grind". I guess they have short memories or are new to MMOs.
DAoC - Excalibur & Camlann
Spankthetoad
Newsflash: Reviews are opinion pieces and opinions are by their very nature biased. I would remove the word unbiased from your title.
However, I agree with a lot of what you said. Congrats on the work you put into communicating your opinion.
So are you saying it isn't a grind, or are you comparing it to old mmos that you have to grind in? If it's the latter, I think most would agree players don't want games to work this way anymore. Grinding isn't cool for nerds anymore.
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
Fanboys will disagree.
After 3 months of playing the alpha I arrived at the same conclusion as the OP.
I did have fun..until it turned into a job....90k commerce...60k gathering...30k mining...etc...all that in the alpha.
Work is fine, its part of any mmo, but this game turns into all work and no play.
PVP is pretty limited...roaming the seas...praying that you find anything..but how can you find anything when everyone just sticks to safe land routes...they ruined Sea pvp due to Glider Turbulence and the removal of intercontinental Gold trade for packs.
PVP quickly turned into Queing for single 1v1s for hours on end, and naw...not that dude that enjoys the consumable spam fest that they pretty much turn into
MY summary of this game is....fun..for awhile...then its a job.
I'm still waiting to try this game out but I still like reading the reviews, it's free, so when I actually want to try it out it's not like I'll lose anything except a few hours of my time, or maybe I'll love it, who knows.
I did play until like level 10 during the beta, it was pretty boring, but I also know about MMOs and how bad some can be until max level, so it's worth a shot getting there when I can lol.
Yeah my ride to 11 has been the dullest 11 levels I remember experiencing. Also annoying to not be able to chat yet.
I think the "fault" lies with the players who don't have the perseverance to work for anything more, or see things through to the end.
It's actually time to stop catering the lowest common denominator and perhaps try to see if they can better themselves instead.
Perhaps they can be taught after all.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Red - I'm sorry, I had to laugh at that comment. I'm almost sure you were trying to be serious, and I apologize, but... Don't hold your breath.
I disagree. Grinding IS cool for nerds, which is why they're always yammering on about "old school".
Grinding isn't cool for those players who are maturing and trying to find balance between gaming and the rest of their lives.
A review is a review. Why has someone to put in title that this is an "Unbiased" one.
The readers of the review are the only ones who have the right to declare if a review is unbiased.
Alone the fact that the "reviewer" played the game for months should point towards this review missing all the positive elements and good moments the reviewer had and that review is indeed a biased attempt to bash the game.
Yes because you can't grind a couple of hours a day and then come back the day after..I wonder if your maturing players aren't just some instant gratification seekers kiddies
Let me guess, upper left?
I am troubled by this game.
I just made it to level 15 and feel absolutely nothing for the game. I am not immersed, I am not compelled, I am not enjoying myself. True, I haven't seen the PVP nor the crafting, but at this point I'm already bored with the experience.
The story is as unengaging as it gets. The quests are paint by number. I've seen people praise this game and others bash it. I guess I just don't get this one.
I constantly feel a "been here; done that" sort of emotion when playing and I find that I am playing for the sake of playing rather than the sake of having fun.
I will try to continue on, but fear I am reaching the point where I may stop.
I'm afraid bottom left, i don't have much time left for games; but i still enjoy working for my rewards instead of getting everything spoonfed ^^. People like different things.
Also i suggested a couple of hours, so i don't see where i said i play 15 hours a day? Do you even english?
That pic is irrelevant as there is no skill involved in crafting.
Spot on review.
You really have not scratched the surface at lvl15. You need a large and active guild to enjoy this game, land myabe not so much but it helps.