Well I knew it was going to end sooner or later. The fail of having a semi smooth launch just made it come a bit sooner. Quite simply it outlasted my drive to play something 'new and shiny'.
Fact is I think that's the only reason why I played it to start with. Being a MMO vet, I am starting to think that its the leveling in a new game and learning the mechanics is all the joy that is left out of new offerings. The more of a change from the games that came before it, the longer it holds my interest. Which is kind of why I should have known my interest in AA was not going to last long and based on beta experiences, should not have played at all.
What was old is new again.
Basically there is very little new or innovative in AA. Most all of it has been done before. Many of it would have been decent around the time RIFT was released, but not at this day and time.
PvE: C-
tldr; Uninspired even 4 years ago.
Can't really hammer them too hard here. They do the standard MMO trope for questing: kill x mobs, go to waypoints and Fed Ex style missions. Outside of those core missions, they have zone bosses you can take down that are not guaranteed to drop loot. There are no such things as public quests where anyone can join in outside of an organized group nor are there random events occurring in the world.
They have dungeons with level gaps between them so there will be points in your progression where you are left without any to level in. Unlike the zone bosses, these did drop loot upon boss kill. As a bonus, you can be mentored by higher level PCs. I have been told the upper level ones need the traditional trinity to win whereas the mid to lower level ones you can do without. The few I have been in were not too bad.
Mob intelligence is next to nothing. Bring a friend AI is practically non existent. Abilities thankfully get used more often as you level up making combat more of a challenge.
PvP: Not Rated
tldr; First impression is meh. Ship combat seems cool.
I did not do any PvP combat save for that which occasionally in contested zones. One on one combat basically came down to who could CC the most. I did not see much in the way of organized PvP but the game is freshly out and the population has yet to converge on level 50.
One thing to note, contested zones go through phases from level 30 on. They go from peace time, through several danger level to war. In peace time, you can PvE to your hearts content without being able to be attacked by the enemy. During danger levels, you can PvP against the enemy faction but no honor can be gained or lost. During war, you can PvP against the enemy faction but can gain and lose faction.
Labor Mechanic: D
tldr; Bad mechanic to force you to play for premium.
All players gain it while they are logged in, albeit at a faster rate if you are a Patron. Only Patrons gain it when logged off. The resource needed to participate in crafting and to identify loot/open loot bags. It is also used in the creation of Tax Certificates to maintain land ownership. For some it is very easy to blow through it especially if you participate in farming. It is a severe bottleneck for those who really love to craft.
I get why it is there, its a mechanism to get F2P players to Patron up as well as a way to limit how much land a player can hold. It is a shame they did not separate Taxes from this. It's a big negative.
Crafting: C-
tldr; Better handled by bots. Too much time and resource intensive.
The crafting system is fairly complex with many of the trades overlapping into each other. From the initial outset, this looks great as folks would have to be interdependent and a robust economy created. However you are fighting against two things, creation of resources and how much labor you have at a give time. If you are an avid crafter and want to own property as well, it will be a delicate balance.
Additionally, the crafting points needed to level are very high and appear to be extremely laborious to accumulate. Take alchemy for example. Each healing potion recipe builds on the one prior and each needs materials farmed to make them. So not only do you need to farm materials, you then need to convert them into materials used in the potion recipe. The next tier need the prior tier potion and then need more materials made from farming. As you can see, to make more powerful potions, the time and energy spent continually increases.
As if that is not bad enough, you have very high totals you need to hit to unlock more powerful potions. In general, they occur every 10k points but some recipes may be unlocked earlier. The issue comes when making a batch of potions, health in this case, yields a mere 3 points per batch...
Travel: B
tldr; Lots of diverse options.
You can earn travel by land, sea and air. As a matter of fact, they give you entry means if you do the early PvE quests. You can breed different mounts, make better gliders and create a variety of craft to sail the seas or use to transport goods. The game has a good bit of diversity and with no zone walls, you can get to some crazy spots.
Property: C+
tldr; Bummer its limited on where you can place and how its paid for.
Land is the name of the game if you plan on doing any crafting, running trade routes or playing the AH selling materials. There is limited amount of land to place plots. Plots tend to be used for farms and housing. Some farms can be on land and others in water. Houses may allow you to plant around some of their property or not.
All of it is paid for by taxes. As you would expect, the amount of taxes goes up in a non linear fashion as the number of properties you own increases. Its a good mechanic to help limit folks from having too much land, since tax certs are made via labor. A delicate balance needs to be made to be able to keep your land and to participate in crafting.
Overall: C
tldr; If there is nothing new out that looks good and you have the time to waste, play it.
The would have been a solid B if it was released prior to RIFT. The mechanics and overall feel like a decent MMO produced around that time frame. But in today's market and a mature MMO player base, it will be a flash in the pan. Just like it was for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment