ArcheAge Beta Thoughts and Impressions

I have been on again/off again interested in ArcheAge since it first reared its head in Korea.  When I first heard of it, it really piqued my interest.  A huge world, pirates, house building, castle sieges?  What’s not to like about that?  But, as time drew on, my interest waned considerably.  First, there was no telling when, if ever, it would hit the North American market.  Secondly, I dreaded the “asian” aspects of the game.  Not really game design, although that is part of it, but the art style really doesn’t appeal to me and never has.

When it was announced that Trion had acquired the rights to publish ArcheAge here in the U.S., my interest went up again.  Trion is a fantastic company and if anyone could do the game justice here in the U.S., its Trion.  I thought heavily about investing in one of the Founder’s Pack but decided it was simply too much to spend on a game at that time.  After that, my interest waned again as I started looking into ESO and Wildstar.

Last week I happened to surf over to MMORPG.COM and happened to see that they were giving away beta keys.  The stars aligned and I not only got a key but I was off from work for the next four days!  What better way to spend it than trying out a new game?

The following impressions are based on the last four days.  I have leveled one character to 14 and a couple of others up to 10-12.  I have tried both factions (East and West) and tried every race as well.  Although I am certainly no expert on the game, I have been able to get a pretty good idea of the game play.  Read on for my thoughts!

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Wildstar the Second Shot

In a strange reversal of fortune, I am trying Wildstar out.  This is particularly strange when you consider Pitrelli just reversed himself and decided to give Elder Scrolls Online a go and drop Wildstar.  Now I need to explain; I did not pick it up again of my own free will.  I have a friend who is begging me to play it.  He got further than I did and seems to love it and he really wants me to play with him.  Me, being the great friend I am, decided to give it another go.  What follows is an updated impression.

First of all, many of my problems in my earlier impression post still stand.  Though I have gotten used to the telegraphs and have even come to understand what they are trying to do, it still makes the game to damn bright at times.  There is entirely too much flashing going off on the screen constantly.  I really do not recommend this game if you are prone to seizures because there is no doubt this game will give you one.

Not only that but the background environment is entirely too busy, especially the tutorial zone.  Every square inch is covered with whirling doodads, laser scanners, surveillance droids complete with flash bulbs and a myriad of other things.  I am reminded of when George Lucas discovered CGI and reissued the Star Wars movies.  He wasn’t content to just update Jabba the Hutt, he also had to throw new CGI into every single frame.  There is really no need for this.  The tutorial is so jammed packed with stuff that its distracting.  There is simply no need for so much stuff jam packed into everywhere.

I decided to make a Chua Spellslinger named Gizzbro this time.  I will say the Chua are one of the greatest races in any game.  They are basically cute Gremlins that are insanely smart at making weapons.  I really like everything about them, which is good because I don’t like most of the other races.  I really dislike the human walking animations, the mechari aren’t appealing and the beast race has some strange animations as well.  But, the Chua make up for it.

Combat-wise Wildstar is solid.  Perhaps better than I thought initially.  The combat is fast and frantic and there is a pretty good skill curve involved here.  I can certainly see arena and rated battlegrounds being a big thing here.  I am still not sure the telegraphs add or detract from the skill needed to play it but its fun regardless.

Further AoC Impressions: The UI, Quests and PvP!

Following up my earlier post on AoC, here are my further impressions on other aspects of the game.  I am going to talk a bit about the UI, Quests and PvP.

The UI in AoC is….adequate.  At best.  For a game with such a complex combat system, the UI is certainly lacking.  I believe this might be a sacrifice to the possible X-Box AoC port and they developed it with the port in mind.  There is a serious lack of customization options available.  You can not resize any of the UI and you are unable to move the targeting windows around.  In addition, the UI takes up a large chunk of screen real-estate.  I enjoy a minimalist UI design in my MMOs.  Keep the size and function of the UI as invisible as possible.

In WoW most of my bars were completely invisible and my screen only displayed the mini-map, the targeting windows and the group windows.  This is not possible in AoC.  Luckily, there are a number of UI mods out there and I am experimenting with them at the moment.  I hope to find one I like soon but I really hope Funcom improves the UI in the upcoming expansion.

Questing in AoC is just like every other MMO out there, though the stories might be a bit more interesting.  Much of that is because of the world.  Hyboria has always been an interesting intellectual property and it certainly strengthens the quest lines in AoC.  The cut scenes are fairly cool but, again, they are something I do not need. There is a bit of traveling involved which, coupled with the amount of instancing, can get a bit annoying.  Still, I am having a lot of fun overall and I enjoy the quests.

Now for the all-important PvP.  I rolled on the Cimmerian server, which is a PvP server.  In AoC that means that, other than the cities, you can be attacked almost anywhere, by anyone. There are no factions, so you really have to be on your toes.  You can consider no one friendly and you have to watch your back constantly.

My first experience in PvP was not out in the world but in the mini-games, AoC’s version of Battlegrounds.  They are very enjoyable and not unlike WoW at all.  The only problem I had with them is how infrequently they popped at my level.  I think a lot of this, at low level at least, is because the queuing interface is so difficult to find.  It is tucked away in a screen that you would never know was there, unless you went looking for it.  I would imagine a few new players miss it entirely, which really could cut down on the number of pops at low level.

The first mini-game I entered was a standard “capture-the-flag” affair.  I, of course, entered the game and found myself in a PuG against a pre-made.  Aaaah, memories of WoW!  We were summarily annihilated and I had very little chance to do anything at all.

The other three games I played were in a mini-game called Totem Torrent.  This is a bit different than any BG in WoW.  Basically, the two teams have to just kill each other.  At each end of the playfield there are totems, which can be destroyed.  If your teams Totem is destroyed, your team can no longer respawn after death.  Which means it is only a matter of time before you lose.  Alternately, you can simply concentrate on killing the other team until the timer runs out and the team with the most kills wins.

Again, upon entering, I found myself in a PuG against a pre-made.  This time was different, however.  We beat them.  Three straight times in fact!  We decided to simply defend our totem and not attack theirs at all.  They tried multiple times to attack the totem and we pushed them back every time.  They changed tactics and tried to lure us away from the totem but we stayed disciplined and did not allow it.  In the end, every game was a massacre.

We were also lucky in that we had three healers.  Myself, another Bear Shaman and a Priest of Mitra were able to keep our team healed pretty well.  It took some getting used to as far as healing is concerned.  I am so used to targeted healing but all the Bear Shaman’s heals are AoE or cone effect.  Indeed, I believe all heals in the game are like that, so you never have to target the player you want to heal.  Because of this, positioning is very important and took some getting used to.

So far my strategy with the Bear Shaman is to stay at the periphery of the fight and rush in after battle is engaged.  Keep my HoTs up and help finish people off.  What I heard about the Bear Shaman is true; they are slow builders.  You really feel inadequate at low levels, before your heals get stronger but, at level 20, he is starting to come into his own.

Of course my first PvP experience was marred by what I call “new-player” lock up.  You know, when something new happens and you suddenly forget what every key does and what order to push them in?  Yeah, that was me.  It happens most often in PvP, until you finally figure it out.  I stood there and watched myself die, all the while muttering:

Oh shit, what do I do?  What do I press first?  Damn….I’m dead.

After that first experience, I slowly started to figure it out.  And I had fun.  A lot of fun.  The games went quickly and my machine handled them like a champ, with nary a hiccup.  I am so proud of my little PC!

Other than the mini-games, my only other PvP experience was a coupla higher level ganking me, though there was one really interesting and fun encounter.

I was about to zone into the sewers for a quest and I saw a Bear Shaman that was two levels higher than me standing at the door.  I parked myself at the door (outside the instance is non-PvP) and went to get a drink.  When I came back he was gone.  I figured he had went inside so I zoned in and prepared myself to get jumped.

Upon zoning in, I heard the sounds of battle and found myself watching the level 21 BS laying the smack down on a couple of level 12 players.  Being the awesome person that I am, I could not allow that!  So, with a mighty battle roar, I launched myself into the fray.

With only a few hits, and the help of the two level twelves, I had the Bear Shaman down to a sliver of life.  Of course, he decided at that moment that discretion is the better part of valor and made for the zone exit.  Ah-ha! I was ready for this and this time did not lock up.  I used my Ferocious Smack.  This ability does a bit of damage but, more importantly, knocks the target down.  The Bear Shaman promptly landed on his ass and I finished him with my Shrewd Blow.  Even better, it ended up a fatality and I knocked his head off his shoulders!

Triumph!!

The two level twelves thanked me and I zoned out to the save zone to take a quick break.  When I returned I saw that the level twelves had just zoned out and were both at less than half health.  Of course, the Bear Shaman had jumped them again after I left.  They invited me to group and we went Bear Shaman hunting.

We zoned back in, only to find the Bear Shaman gone.  Heading down a ramp and into a bigger room we ran into the Bear Shaman.  He initially only saw my group mates and he charged in, only to find himself on the receiving end of my massive Warhammer.  He tried to get up the ramp and escape but I blocked him off (collision detection ftw!) and we ended him again.

This time he griped in the general channel about how I was ruining his fun and that I should leave him to gank the level twelves in peace.  Oh, the irony….

That’s it for now.  I will probably post more later but now I am heading back to Hyboria!

Impressions of Age of Conan

Age of Conan has been out for quite awhile but I am just now giving it a shot.  Because it has been out for so long, I am not going to go in depth with a lot of the features of AoC but, instead, give my overall impressions of the game.  I downloaded the demo version just a few nights ago and I am currently level 17 on my first character, a Bear Shaman.  I am almost done with the Tortage area, I believe, and should be heading to Cimmeria soon.

I had done quite a bit of reading while I waited for the huge demo to download and had pretty much decided on a Bear Shaman.  A big brute that uses a huge two-handed hammer and calls on the spirit of bears to heal and strengthen him?  Come on, how can you go wrong with that?

After the download finished and I got into game, I found a decently deep character creation system.  You find yourself on board a slavers ship, where you pick gender and race first.  Bear Shaman can only be Cimmerians, so that was an easy decision and since I rarely play female characters, this decision was easy as well.

From there you pick a basic face type and body type, as well as body and face “markings” (think of the warpaint in Braveheart!), to go with it.  After that, you are able to choose eye color, hair style, facial hair and hair colors.  All very standard but it works well.  You also get to pick body  type, so you can be short and fat or tall and skinny or anywhere in-between.

Next comes even more individualization, as you can tweak every aspect of the body and face type you just decided on.  Sliders for making your arms more muscled, your cheeks more pronounced or your nose more crooked.  By the time you are done, you have a pretty unique looking character.  My end product looks like a metal guitarist on steroids, with long black hair and big, thick sideburns.

Done with that, I named my character and headed off into the world of Hyboria.  And what a world it is! You are initially treated to a cut-scene, which shows your character stranded on the isle of Tortage after your ship is caught in a massive storm.    Washed up on shore, you are greeted by some old dude who tells you the basics of the where/when/why of the story.  The story is actually decent and the voice-acting is superb, surprising for a MMO.

The first thing that will catch any new player of AoC a bit off-guard is how amazing the graphics are in the game.  I messed around with the settings quite a bit and played in both DX9 and 10, at various detail levels.  It doesn’t matter where you set it, it looks amazing. Interestingly, it also ran well at every setting, though on max in DX10, I was only getting around 40-60 FPS.  I finally settled on DX10, with a few of the options set down a bit.

The detail in the game is stupendous.  Textures are convincing and look better than any MMO I have ever played.  Rocks, trees and water all look breathtakingly real.  Diving below the waves is a real treat, with light rays fracturing as they hit the surface of the water and diffusing down below.  It is all almost overwhelming.

Just as important, if not more so, than the technical side of the graphics, is the art-direction.  Technically good graphics do no good in a game if the art-direction is not there.  For an example of good art-direction, one only has to look at WoW.  WoW certainly does not have the best graphics engine in the genre but their art-direction is phenomenal and makes up for it.  I still remember walking into Stranglethorn Vale and being amazed at this jungle environment.  It felt like a jungle, not because every tree and leave looked real but because the art-direction was so good it felt that way.

AoC has both.  An amazing graphics engine, coupled with great art-direction.  This is the most realistic jungle I have ever traversed in an MMO.  Bar none.  Everything about it screams quality and talent.  Funcom outdid themselves with this game graphically.  They really did.

But, who cares about graphics if the game is not good?  Not me, I will tell you.  Well, I am happy to say that, so far, AoC is not disappointing me in that area either.  The game plays much different than any MMO out there.  The combat system is truly unique and adds a “freshness” to the game that I have not experienced lately in MMOs.  At its core it is still a “button-smasher” but the idea is fresh enough to make you forget that.

Combat is combo based and every swing in combat is controlled.  No auto-attack here.  You decide when you attack and from which direction your attacks are going to be aimed at.  At the start, you have four swing attacks; a high-left, a high-right and a overhead swing.  Your enemy has “shield” icons around him, denoting which side he is concentrating his defense on.  Your opponent guarding his left side?  Then swing to the opposite side or overhead and do more damage.

As you level you will get additional abilities that add to your melee arsenal.  These abilities normally consist of combos that must be “chained” together to complete the combo.  For instance, one may require the starter and then a swing to the left and then it will go off.  At the beginning the chains are short, two keys at most but later turn longer and more complex.  This makes for a high learning curve but also an involved experience.

No more going through your “rotation” while watching your character auto-attack.  Yes, you are still hitting buttons, just like you would in WoW or Warhammer but there is a difference in feel that makes all the difference.  In WoW, if you miss a spell in your “rotation” its not too big a deal…you will just lose a bit of DPS.  If you do not get your combo off correctly in AoC, the entire ability does not fire and bad things can happen.

There are other intricacies in combat that I have not even begun to master.  In addition to your enemy having “shields” that he can move around to different sides, you do as well.  This means if you notice your opponent concentrating his attacks to one side, you can adjust your defense to that side to compensate.  Of course, this leaves you open on another side, so you have to really watch whats going on.  This makes for a very intense combat system and one that, I imagine, is very, very difficult to master.  I would assume that there is a huge discrepancy between the really good player and the mediocre ones in this game.

Adding to the combat is the visceral feel of it.  The animations are superb and blows land with satisfying smacks.  Wading through multiple enemies feels like something out of a movie.  Many fights involve you against multiple enemies and it is a lot of fun wading in and decimating three or four enemies at a time.  Finishing with a fatality is even more satisfying.

This post has went a lot longer than I intended for it to be.  I will post more tomorrow about my impressions of the UI, quests and the all important PvP.

A Very Short Initial Impression of AoC.

Hrafenkell, the Heavy Metal Bear Shaman. Also plays bass in Motorhead.

So, I jumped in the trial tonight and rolled up a Bear Shaman.  I thought about going Priest of Mitra, per Kaldeem’s advice but they just seemed to “wimpy” for me.  I picture them as “anti-war” demonstrators.  Bleh.  Bear Shaman, on the other hand, seem big and strong and mean.

Bear Shaman it is.

Got up to level 10 tonight.  So now for my initial impression:

Amazed

More to come tomorrow night, gotta go to sleep for work tomorrow!

Mortal Online Open Beta Impressions

While browsing the MMORPG.com forums, I discovered that Mortal Online is now in Open Beta. Now this is a game that I have kept a bit of an eye on, as many players tout is as Darkfall with better graphics, superb crafting and even more freedom.  I love Darkfall, so Mortal Online is very intriguing.  I headed to the website, signed up and started the download.  After a couple of hours, it finished and I began the install….

Only to find that the file package refused to install.

Not a good way to begin a game experience.   After fiddling with it for a bit, I found a torrent for the installer on Pirate Bay or some such and restarted the download.  This time the install went fine and I started it up.  Here are my very early impressions of Mortal Online.

Initial Boot-up/Character Creation

The first thing I noticed when I got into Mortal Online was the fairly interesting character creation and the professionalism of the log-in and character selection screen.  Darkfall has always felt “amateurish” in its initial presentation.  Not so with Mortal Online.  At first glance, it is all done and presented very well and professionally.

Allods Online’s Closed Beta closes today; Final thoughts and Impressions.

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.