Today the Closed Beta ends for Allods Online. At least, we are pretty sure this is the last one before Open Beta and release. They have not communicated to us their plans for after today but from prior communication we have every reason to believe this is the last.
I approach today’s ending with torn feelings. On one hand, I am excited for release. On the other hand, I really do not want to see my characters get wiped. I have become pretty attached to a couple of them.
I am going to give my final impressions here shortly but to sum up, for those who do not want to read it all, I am mightily impressed. The greatest thing about my feelings on the game is that I got more impressed as my gameplay increased instead of less. The game is very well put together and has been fun the entire way through. Read on to find out my more detailed final impressions!
Graphics and Animations
Allods impresses early with this one. Though the graphics are not near as detailed as Age of Conan, they have a nice feel to them. The art direction is amazing in Allods. It begins in the tutorial and stays sharp and creative the entire way through. Both sides (League and Empire) have their own style, one that is immediately distinguishable from the other.
Animations are superb and creative as well. For the most part, every race moves and fights fluidly. The sole exception is the Empire humans, which seem to move a bit stiffly. The magic animations are a nice balance between flashy and too flashy to run on most systems and they are creative as all hell.
For instance, the level seven Human racial for the Psionicist is an ability that makes you immune to damage for ten seconds, while also making you unable to move or cast spells. The first time I triggered the spell I figured I would see the standard “bubble shield” animation that you normally see for this type of spell. But no…
Instead, my Psion took off straight into the air like a rocket, reached a high altitude, exploded in an impressive display of light and fell back to the ground right where he took off. By the way, he also left his boots on the ground.
It is little things like that and the artistic “feel” of the game that really set Allods Online apart from the myriad of WoW-clones out there. It has its own feel that is completely its own, despite having the “cartoony” style graphics of WoW. Allods Online has a world all its own and it looks fantastic.
Character Customization
The character creation is pretty standard in Allods Online. You can choose from a few different faces, add hairstyles, facial hair, a few facial features (paint, jewelery, etc.) and character height. It is a little better than WoW but nothing as in-depth as Aion or Champions Online.
The models and armor, however, look great and unique. Many have a Soviet or Nazi “style” to them, with WWII-style helms and armor. I never noticed characters all looking the same as I did in WoW either.
Where Allods Online really separates itself is in the stat/talent customization. There are four different talent trees, with one recieved at level two and the other three picked up at level ten. In addition, there is the ability to distribute stat points, gained from level two. This allows you to put points in intelligence, strength or wisdom and not have to completely rely on gear.
Theory-crafters are going to have a field day with Allods Online. There are so many ways to customize your character and each can be completely different from the other. It is a refreshing change from Aion and WAR, both of which seemed to allow for less customization than WoW.
User Interface
This is where Allods Online falters. The U.I. is not bad but lacks many of the features that I have grown used to over my years of playing MMOs. It is not able to be resized, does not allow you to move any bars or targeting windows and feels very “vanilla”.
With that being said, they are adding U.I. functionality with every patch and I expect them to get it up to speed fairly quickly. It is not a bad U.I., just very basic.
Combat
WoW has always been the standard by which I measure the fluidity of MMO combat. It is fast, responsive and almost FPS-like in its controls. Aion nearly matched it but was off just a bit, Warhammer never came close and always felt like I was playing in quicksand in comparison. Allods Online nails it. It is fast and responsive and a joy to play. Melee and ranged are both quick and never feels “floaty”.
The one thing that will take getting used to is the lack of an auto-attack of any kind. After years of “auto-attacking” MMOs, Allods was a surprise. After getting used to it, however, it feels right. There are enough abilities by level ten that you never miss “auto-attack” and find that there is really no reason for it.
Questing and PvE Game-play
Early questing is fairly standard with kill-quests, Fed-Ex quests and all the standard quest types you have come to expect. Again, Allods Online surprises not at first glance, but with deeper inspection. The lore is amazing and very well told, with almost none of the translation problems that Aion had. The stories are actually interesting and, for once, I read quest text.
The PvE itself is a nice mixture of solo and group content, with group content mixed in early and often. For this reason, it feels a lot like the early days of WoW, before all the group content was nerfed. There is still lots to do as a solo player but they have a bigger emphasis on group play, which is obvious right to the end-game. While this might be a problem for some, it is a breathe of fresh air for me and something I enjoyed very much.
PvP Game-play
Allods Online PvP reminds me of a cross between DAoC and WoW. It can be as tactical as old-school DAoC, while maintaining the fluidity and frenetic pace of WoW. All the classes fit together well and each has a place in a PvP group, be it healing, DPS’ing, CC or soaking up damage. Taunts work in PvP and give even tanks something to do and making them a necessary part of a PvP group.
The new PvP-flag system was a bit of a let-down for me and one thing I did not want to see implemented. Hopefully, Gpotato will decide to do both PvE and PvP servers, so every player can enjoy their favorite play style. Flags are a bad compromise to the constant arguments between the PvP’ers and the PvE’ers and will only server to anger both sides. Separate servers are really the only way to go here and I hope Gpotato comes to this realization quickly.
Instances
Having only done a few instances, I do not have much to say here. I will say that the ones I did do were very well done. They not only had good game mechanics but also had pretty damn good lore surrounding them. They were of a good length and were all fairly difficult for on-level groups. One thing I really liked was that the boss fights were not tank and spank, there was strategy involved and the mechanics worked well. This bodes very well for end-game raiding and instancing.
The Infamous Cash Shop
No impressions post about Allods Online can be complete without some mention of the cash shop. Though the cash shop has not been implemented into the North American client yet, we do have a bit of information leaking out. We have seen the items up on the cash shop in the Russian client and have even seen the cash shop in our client, though nothing could be purchased.
It is fairly obvious that Gpotato is trying to find a solid seller that will not overpower those who buy it and this looks to be achieved with the implementation of “Fear of Death” debuff and Perfume on the Cash Shop. “Fear of Death” is a debuff that you get after death. It debuffs all stats for varying amounts of time (dependent on level) for 25%, also it stacks. So, four deaths will debuff your character 100%. Sounds bad, huh? The Allods forum agrees.
But, it isn’t so cut and dried as the forums make it seem. First, “Fear of Death” can be removed with in-game gold. At level 40 the cost is around four gold. Not a big investment, though if you die a bit in PvP it can certainly make a large dent, very quickly. Secondly, you can make yourself completely immune to “Fear of Death” through Perfume.
Perfume can be gotten in a few quests in-game, some random drops and through the cash shop. If the exchange rate between Russian Allods and North America holds true, you can buy a fifty-hour supply of Perfumes for less than ten dollars. Perfumes last through death and keep their immunity buff for thirty minutes. Now “Fear of Death” does not sound so bad. It simply gives Gpotato a perpetual and desired buy on the Cash Shop, regardless of level of your character.
The rest of the items on the cash shop are vanity items (costumes and the like), backpacks and potion-type items that can all be made in-game. There are NO overpowering objects on the Cash Shop. All items can be obtained in-game, through questing, crafting or random drops.
Might this change? Sure, it could, but as of this moment, it looks to be the most well-balanced cash shop I have seen in a game of this type. We will have to wait and see what the future holds.
What Sets Allods Online Apart
There are a metric ton of MMOs out there and at first glance Allods has nothing that separates it from the WoWs of the world. That impression could not be more incorrect.
First, it is an entire new world. If you are sick of slogging through Azeroth and the old, tired WoW lore, then this is a good game to pick up. The lore is fresh and well-done. You get all the fluid gameplay of WoW, in a new package, with fresh graphics and deep lore. It’s a great combo.
Secondly, the Astral ship combat in end-game looks to be something completely new to MMOs. I have always wanted to be a pirate (hasn’t everyone?) and Allods Online will allow me to do so. The entire end-game mechanic of Allods and Astral ships is new and fresh. It looks to be simply awesome and there is a lot of room to build upon it.
There are other reasons to play Allods Online but I urge you to give it a try and find out for yourself!
Final Thoughts
Allods Online came out of left-field for me. I had never heard of it before Keen’s first impressions.
I went into it very, very skeptical. I have always hated the F2P model, I always equated F2P with cheap and broken and I expected Allods Online to be more of the same.
I am happy to report that I was wrong. Very, very wrong. It is a fantastic game, fantastically made. The care and enthusiasm that the development team has for the project is obvious everywhere you look. I think it may be the most well-rounded MMO release since WoW released way back in 2004. There are small things that lack here and there but it is truly a great game. I look forward to playing it for quite some time.
BYE!!!!
How can you say perfume is not OP when it gives a 50% health boost with a lv 3 martyr, it reduces the duration of sleep and ice by 70%, It takes Damage Over Time spells and puts 20 seconds between ticks, Makes you immune to FoD,
One single cash shop item does all this and you still say its not OP
And you get one a day if you farm the quest at 40 where the P2W guys get 50 hours for $10
First, the buffs are not that big. Not as far as I have seen. Secondly, it is ten dollars for a month supply. TEN. Freaking TEN DOLLARS! Its not like the more you buy the more OP you get, its simply like a gametime card that you can put as much time on as you play.
The ONLY people who have a problem with the Perfumes are those who never intended to pay anything for Allods nor support them in the least and to those people I say, Good riddance.
Ten dollars for an item that, basically, acts as a game time card. Small price to pay to support the game.
Well that’s just all in all ignorance.
A number of successful F2P games have a variety of vanity/PvE items that plenty are willing to invest in.
The problem comes when CS items are NECCESSARY in order to stay competitive – which with the perfume’s insane buffs, is certainly the case.
Saying that ‘ten bucks isn’t alot’ is a pure cop-out and doesn’t address the facts that game-breaking items shouldn’t be in the CS to begin with. By that reasoning, I could easily state that the only people gung-ho for the perfume are PvE carebears that want to buy their way through PvP because they’re afraid of real confrontation. That makes for a very dull and lame gaming experience – you may as well go back to WoW. Alternatively, there are plenty of F2P scams that will give you all the gear and glory for simply dishing out the green.
Game breaking items aren’t the only thing people are willing to invest in, and for a fact there are people entirely TURNED OFF to the idea of putting alot of money in now for the sake of that principle. You really miss the point of the objection with this.
Let’s just usher in the slightly more expensive perfumes that cost just a slight bit more. I’m sure the cop-out excuses will hold until the money isn’t something you can easily write off. Maybe then, you’ll see the point of the objection.
No, no isn’t.
I agree to a point, I wish they would tone down the buffs a bit, though I think the DoT buff is not correct, as I have not heard any of my friends (one of whom is a summoner) who plays on the Russian client complaining about it.
A number of successful F2P games do not have a $12 million dollar budget to finance either. Astrum-Nival does and, as such, they need a sustainable form of profit. The perfumes give that and do not require an artist and programmer to be devoted to Vanity item creation. Vanity items are not a sustainable form of profit. Once people get what they want, they stop buying and/or the developer has to devote time and money to creating entirely new items. Perfume allows for a sustainable profit item that they do not have to keep creating content for.
Again, no. No it isn’t. Ten bucks a month is nothing and if it helps keep Allods Online alive, I am all for it. I paid Blizzard $15 bucks a month for 4 years, I think I can throw $10 or $15 at Astrum Nival every month for what I consider to be a superior game.
Never said they were, nor do I think Perfume is game breaking at this time. I think the buffs can (and probably will) be toned down over time but other than that I think it is a perfectly acceptable way to create a sustainable profit.
I will cross that bridge if and when I come to it. At this point it is very affordable, so I could care less.
Looking forward to giving this a shot when it fully opens. I’ve really enjoyed your takes on it over the past few weeks.
i totally agree with you and will have fun like you but i play on EU server and im tired of those guys that are QQ about the death penalty! It gives the game more challenge and there must be some punishment for dying!
Have fun maybe we meet someday ingame who knows hehe
I want to second your opinion on perfume and add that you can play completely FREE and use perfume as well. All it takes is a bit of grinding/leveling alts. For instance, if you want to play for 2 hours of pvping every night and not pay anything, you can level 4 characters past lvl 15, do the daily perfume quest for each them (it took me around 10 minutes to do it league side) and mail your perfume to the main character. Yes it is troublesome, but yes, it can be gotten through in-game means.
Yes and, don’t forget, that FOD can be removed with in-game gold as well. Costs about 4 gold at level cap and gold is fairly easy to come by in Allods.
Have you settled on a “main” class yet? I’m strongly leaning to a League Psionicist and an Empire Warden, though I may do a Paladin in there somewhere someday.
I’m not a fan of PvP, especially open world PvP. When I do want PvP, I detest the ganking zergfest that open world PvP inevitably turns into under the DIKU system. I think you’re correct to recommend PvE and PvP servers, since I know people with tastes quite opposite my own. You just can’t cater to both with one world.
EVE works because you don’t have to go through a content pipeline and a leveling grind. When you’re funneling all of your players through one area just so they can level up and experience the whole game, but there is nonconsensual PvP in that area, you’re just asking for trouble.
Funnily enough, I think I have settled on an Empire Psionicist as a main. This is pretty big change for me, because I normally hate the “mage” types. Psion is just too unique and fun.
I am just the opposite of you, I want to see as much non-consenual PvP as possible. But, I totally understand why you feel the way you do, so the only way to satisfy both of us is separate servers.
Yup. I don’t want to be forced into nonconsensual PvP, but I don’t want to force those interested in it to play in carebear mode.
@Wolfie
Actually there is a change coming down from RU that makes the initial quest give 1 perfume not a stack of 20. So chances are in OB you will not be able to do this tactic.
I have no problem with perfume. It can be traded so people will be selling them for gold. Most of the things “wanted” by non-paying players can be traded or accessed through drops.
As to FoD… My guild leader brought up a good point… there is not money sink from repairing items in this game. How much gold have people spent on repairing items in WoW, EQ2, etc… FoD is the money sink in this game. It is much less then in comparison to other games, but also happens in PvP. People got spoiled and lack perspective.
I agree that FoD is the money sink, but it’s will get harsh (and possibly expensive) when PvPing. I don’t mind having FoD debuff from PvE, and this makes sense, especially having to think what potions (Allods case perfumes) to bring for an instance.
It won’t get bad in PvP, simply because perfumes last 30 minutes and do not go away after death. You can die as many times in 30 minutes as you want and keep your perfume.
Actually this game desperately needed a money sink! There is just way too much currency entering the game (which the nerf to multiple chests per day helps to contain a little) and very little money sinks in comparison. Without something such as this it would be an invitation for gold-farmers to make real money out of the game by playing the market with cash shop stuff.
I dont mean the initial perfume quest that gives you a stack of 20, what I mean is doing the daily perfume quest on all characters. Each character can get 1 perfume bottle per day, which can easily supply a main character’s PvPing addiction (after all, how often do you die in PvE? I dont)
I dont think it was fair of you Bran to use the excuse that those who odnt plan to pay any money towards perfumes just want everything for free. Youll have to come up iwht a better excuse than that considering most of us have been long standing customers of GP since its conception!
I have paid in well over $500 in Rappelz and over $300 in Flyff. We will have to see exactly how FoD will affect PvP as a whole as well as PvE. But remember, if you choose not to raise a flag and die to a banner then you get FoD whether you like it or not! Now does FoD sound fair to those who dont PvP and still have to deal with FoD?
Wait till all aspects of this mechanic kick in before we all start shooting our mouths off as if its the greatest thing since sliced bread!
Look, its ten dollars a month basically. 90% of the people who are griping about FoD and Perfumes are doing it because they do not want to pay anything to play. The other ten percent are like you, they just want to see how the mechanic plays out, and I can understand that.
From all the information I can get, both from the beta and the Russian release, it is just not a big deal. Pay some money monthly and you will be fine. Even if you don’t pay money, you can still remove it with in-game gold and, as was said by a number of people in these comments, there is no big money sink in the game at the moment. You will have plenty of gold to remove FoD, even if you do not use the cash shop.
Ok well like I said we will have to see exactly how this mechanic plays out, cause at a glance it seems to be as you put “no big deal.”
But I got a feeling it will affect a wider range of people than those just PvPing or merely doing instances for PvE. Like I said it will be a non discriminative mechanic that will in a lot fo ways affect those who dont deserve it, and personally thats where the mechanic fails the most!
You still keep assuming that those who are against the FoD are those who want everything for free. Still, this is only speculation on your part and is still a bit unfair as its being used as a tactic rather than a fact to get your views across.
If anyhting, ask those why they feel its a epic fail and counter their arguments, if you have any, but leave the speculation out if you plan to be a non-bias game reviewer.
Overall I liked what I read and seemed informative and fairly written.
So how about that FoD now? LOL!