Weekly MMO reviews

This game wasn’t so bad. It is free to play, with an item mall and all that, but it wasn’t nearly as deplorable as some of the others I’ve tried (namely Fiesta). Its main strength is in the graphics department. Its weak area… well, just read ahead.

To start with, this game is run by an item mall. That means it is cheap, unfortunately. There’s only one game ever that’s drawn me in enough to actually spend money at an item mall and that was Dream of Mirror Online. I doubt there will ever be another, either. I do have one major, major gripe – the camera doesn’t auto adjust to your movement. The only way to get the camera to follow your character is to constantly adjust and move it. It is a huge pain. The community was OK, but it is very top heavy. All the advertisements I saw to join guilds were for maximum level players. Most advertisements for groups for max level players that were already familiar with the dungeons involved. So I tried, but was unable to really join a guild. One last problem: when they say International they mean it! Lots of weak English skills. No one was incomprehensible, but it can be annoying when other players are speaking in broken english.

The major saving grace of this game is the graphics. They are really, really nice. Best I’ve seen after Allods Online. The game, at least early on, is also quest based. So you don’t have to just sit there and grind to level. You get starter gear and levels just by follow the introductory quest chain. Part of the intro is a crafting intro, which always makes me happy. I’m not too fond of MMOs with weak or no crafting system. Another positive is the population. Lots of people playing this game! You don’t have to worry about ghost servers here. Really, the game was a lot like Aion without all the wings and PvP. Not nearly as polished, but similar. Although I’d have to say after my experience with this game that Chinese MMO > Korean MMO. I’ve just been burned too many times by Korean grinders…

So for a score, I’d give this F2P game the same score I gave Dragonica, a 6/10. There wasn’t a lot to draw me and keep me playing, but the time I spent playing was also kind of enjoyable. Next week: Pirate of the Caribbean.  My friend TC is making me play this, so expect another destructive review next time. See you then!

This week’s game was City of Heroes. I wasn’t too impressed. This one had age and community issues. I did play it a couple years ago and had fun. This time was very, very different.

I log in and do tutorial. It was very boring and unimaginative. I had to log once and come back to even finish it. I read that you could get a badge by killing 100 baddies in the tutorial, but there was no way I was subjecting myself to that. Then I got into the real game. First thing that happened was some guy approached me and asked if I wanted to  level fast. I said, “Um, sure I would.” He proceeded to shape change a bunch, throw snowballs at me and then slap me across the face a bunch. This is not fun even when it is virtual. He invited me to a group and I accepted, since there didn’t seem to be many other people around. 5 minutes later he said, “Let’s fight crime!” and we were off! We killed some thugs on the sidewalk. Then he ran too fast and I lost him. Without a word he dropped group and was gone. Needless to say, I was not having fun.

Next I decided to do some quests by myself. It was just some running around and killing 5 or 6 villains inside an instance. Kind of boring. I couldn’t find any way to have fun in this game, grouping or soloing. So I just gave up.

There were some positives about the game. Character creation was a blast. I had tons of fun creating a costume for myself. It didn’t turn out to be all that cohesive, but I still had fun designing it. Another plus is that the game has a player content creation system. The stuff players come up with have to be better than the single mission I found of “kill 10 rats”.  Besides that, I can’t really say much for the game.

Maybe I was just unlucky here. I could have put more time into the game, but when my first experience was so horrible I just didn’t feel the need to get insulted any more. I am kind of shocked that I am rating this lower than Aion, but it was a lot more fun. 5/10. Next week I will be playing the Star Trek Online open beta, if I am able to anyway, which is under NDA. If the NDA is dropped for open beta, that will be what I review. If not, I will just write a general opinion piece on games I am looking forward to. See you then!

This week’s review is of Everquest II. If you want a content rich, good looking game, then this is for you! Years of polish has gone into this product that is unrivaled in the industry. OK, so I logged in a bit because I got an account renewal for free until the 31^st. I didn’t actually play, though, just kind of looked around. I spent my MMO time playing FFXI yet again, farming lots and getting my Red Mage to 43. Probably will spend most of my time next week doing the same, I can’t recommend this game highly enough for those of you tired of easy single player games like WoW.

First for the bad: Low end population is dwindling. It can be a little hard to get groups. I didn’t have that much problem, really, but the flaw is there. Many people play unwanted classes and totally unable to get groups. I mostly spent time leveling up a warden, so I was fairly wanted. Another problem is the linearity of the game. Each area is for a specific level. No crossover, no going back to zones. If you are level XX you are in one of 2 or 3 zones. No ifs ands or buts. This leads to a lack of socialization in the game that is needed to keep new players. Which brings me to another flaw – this game has little advertising for such a high quality product. The player base wishes heartily for more players but Sony does not help them.

Now the good! The graphics, even years later, are spectacular. Landscapes draw you in, character models are awesome and the monsters inspire fear. It is incredible that a product this old still looks so breath takingly awesome. I’ve seen few games that I feel have better graphics. Next is the content. There is tons and tons at all levels! You’re going to have to play through with 3 or 4 characters from level 1 to max to experience it all. Plus the content is fun! There is a lot more here than just kill ten rats. You have to interact with your environment and solve puzzles to complete the myriad of quests here. The game is also very group friendly. Although many people speak of soloing the whole way, you can get in a group and level 5x as fast as anyone can solo. It makes it worth the wait when you can level so fast with the right group.  And anyone can group with anyone in this game! The high levels just mentor down and help the lower levels through their quests and dungeons. This is a great mechanic which helps with the top heavy game servers. Which brings me to the end game; there are endless things to do.  You won’t grow tired with your high level characters. Raiding progression alone can keep you busy for life. Some of these raids are HARD, too. This makes for a great feeling when you finally beat an encounter. Rewards are on par with the challenge. But there are always alternate routes to similarly powered equipment, but maybe one or two notches below.

Really I can’t say enough positive things about this game. It is one of the most mature, full bodied games out there. I give it a 9/10. Why? It is because I got bored with the game. I don’t know why, I think it was because I only made 2 or 3 good friends in it. This seems strange, but oh well. I still search for my perfect game. Will it be next week’s game, Aion? Not bloody likely. I got this one for Xmas and started playing a little already. Should be complete opposite of this week’s review where I can’t say enough bad things about the game…. >< I’m on Meslamtaeda server and my character’s named Komplexx. Come see if you can convince me that this pile of crap is actually gold!

This week’s game was EVE. I mostly played FFXI, though. I am too addicted to it. Even the pull of unlimited player driven content couldn’t pull me away. Because, yes. EVE is a great game. It is one of the best out there. I just had a hard time focusing when I signed in to play. I have played a bunch in the past, though, so this review is based on that.

The bad: EVE is a cesspool. All the lowlifes of the MMO world seem to congregate and breed here. If there ever was a  shyster or grief inducing player killer they seem to have found there way here. You have to be careful every step you make and every trust you place. There are safer areas, but none is completely safe. If you can’t take that, then stay far far away from this game. Another stumbling block is the steep learning curve. When you pick this game up you have a lot to learn. There is an in game tutorial, but plan on relying on other players for a lot of your rise in EVE too. Of course as stated before that can be difficult…

The good: EVE is an unlimited sandbox. You can do whatever you feel like. I chose to mine. I like the game most for its peaceful atmosphere when no one is trying to blow you up. Just amassing wealth the grass roots way, taking a laser to ‘roids. Of course you can choose a more exciting career, say player killing griefer pirate. I think ultimately this may be more fun, but there’s no chance I’ll ever try it. In RPGs when there is a good path and an evil one I always take good. When I try the evil path I squirm and give up easily. Of course you can have a life deicated to destroying the evil pirates. This I can see myself doing, but it would cost me my nerves. Which is one of the best things about EVE – it evokes a visceral response. There is nothing else like it I’ve encountered in the virtual world.

Bottom line: if you haven’t tried this game you are missing out on one of the best pieces of electronic entertainment ever created. You owe it to yourself to at least use the free trial. If it wasn’t for the lowlifes that are everywhere this would have gotten an perfect score. As it is, I give it a 9/10. Next week: Allod’s online. This one is still in beta, but the NDA has been dropped, so look for a review of the cream of the free to play crop! As always, I’ll be Komplex or Complex. See you in game!

This week I played Final Fantasy XI. Quite a large number of sequels for the last in line, huh? I know the story: Square was failing. Their final hope of going in the black was set on one game: Final Fantasy. And they haven’t looked back from there! Anyway, I played this game quite a bit more than I did Dragonica Online. I leveled 2 classes, first a Red Mage (RDM) to 18 and then White Mage (WHM) to 15. That may seem pretty low for a whole week, but it took an awful lot of work! Here’s a picture of my character, Komplex. From now on that is what I will be naming my characters in game for testing, Complex or Komplex. Add extra Xs if both are taken.

While I did like this game an awful lot, it has a lot of problems! First and foremost it is a game made for a console, not PC, which is what I played it on. There are menus inside menus and without macros doing any kind of action can take a few clicks and mouse movements. It is very clunky for a modern video game. About 1/3 of the times I attempt to click on a person or mob I miss and get a menu, which then must be exited before you try again. So frustrating! On top of all that, the nation I chose, Windurst, has a poor economy. The auction house is always empty. I understand this, though, since I am only allowed to sell 7 items at a time. Way too few! I can’t buy what I need and my stuff all sells slowly too. I’ll never have enough money to buy all the boyohda moss I need for a faction quest! ; ;

Now for the good parts: the community is excellent! Never have I had so many people offer help to me as a newbie. I had lots of questions, too. This is not bad, it is actually a positive. There is a level of complexity there that kept me playing. My one friend, Nightwalk the Galka, even offered me a large quantity of money (which I turned down)! Besides the wonderful people you’ll meet, the visuals are on par with the usual games in the FF series. It is great if you like Japanese cute anime style with a maturity about it not seen in anime or manga itself. Then there is addictiveness. This game is a huge carrot on a stick. What you want is just out of reach, but you get fed enough rewards to keep you going. With the fact that any character can advance all the classes to 75, there is no end in sight for improving you character. You will never be done. This game could last forever if they keep adding to it the way they do!

Now for the big question: will I stay subscribed. I decided I like the game enough to play until the end of my free trial month and then make a decision. This is not my perfect game, no. And the interface is so terrible that it affects the score I gave this drastically. While you might be expecting a 9 or a 10 I only give this game an 8. Hopefully all the problems will be fixed in FF XIV. High hopes here for that being a 9 or a 10! Next week: I haven’t decided. I’ll post about my decision later in the comments section. Thanks for reading!