Yeah. It’s a very solid base game, and I did genuinely enjoy myself until the repetition got to me. But Rift remains my benchmark for an engaging MMO experience; it’s the only game that didn’t bore me once before I hit the level cap. New World isn’t even close to Rift yet, but it might get there in time.
Regarding crafting; I’ve made all my own gathering tools so far (flint, iron, and starmetal) and some of my weapons and armor. Sometimes you have to sub in a better quality mat to get a higher gear score. I have a little over 100 hours in so far and finding the game quite fun. Inventory management can be challenging at times, but that’s what houses with chests are for. :) Certainly the best looking MMO I’ve seen in years. I’m confident they’ll get the bugs sorted out and add new content over time. Could be my all time favorite MMO in the long run.
I’ve put a few more hours into this now (and finally got a life staff). The graphics are lovely, it looks very pretty. The game engine itself is decent, runs well and the UI is very polished. It’s a solid technical achievement. I am not a fan of the game design though.
This feels like a game without any clear vision, like it was designed by committee. I understand that the idea is crafting/player economy but I’m not a huge fan of crafting in MMOs. It’s mainly just busywork to me which means I just feel “meh” about a large chunk of the game. I dislike that by following the main quest I’m being forced into decisions I don’t necessarily want to make. e.g. sword + shield, skinning, weaponcrafting, choosing a faction etc. I want to be a wizard character, why then am I skinning animals and smashing boulders.
Still, the world has been relatively fun to explore so far. I’ll give it a few more hours and see if it clicks with me.
It does have a bit of an identity issue because it was originally a purely PVP game. To their credit they listened to the feedback they were getting in their alpha tests and built out PVE aspects to the game, but it’s definitely left the design in a weird place at times.
It feels like a game that really wants to be sort of EVE-like with territory control, crafting, economy, etc. but the current design contradicts a ton of that. Tons of gear drops from mobs which invalidates crafting for most of the game. Gear is permanent and never breaks so there’s not really much of an economy. Arcana has been a total joke because the game showers you with potions. However, to craft a single Powerful Regen Potion I need to get a rare T4 find that only comes from Life flowers, which aren’t really things you can focus and farm. Even if I were to manage to get one, that’s only enough to craft ONE consumable potion. I’ve had some town board quests for those potions for weeks where all I’ve been doing is gathering and wasn’t able to find a single one of those rare mats in that time. Then the other day, I ran out to clear some Faction missions and ended up with 3-4 potions as mob drops. So much for a crafting-based economy.
Ahh that makes things clearer - thanks.
I keep walking around thinking, man… they made a really nice world here. It’s a real shame they went and filled it with boring crafting and shitty PvP :)
Giving you a sword to start isn’t making a decision for you. You can ditch it within a few minutes, typically. You are complaining about tutorial stuff, basically. It is a crafting-heavy game in terms of opportunity, but there’s virtually nothing you MUST do. It’s already a very complex game, if they didn’t show you some of that stuff, it would be completely bewildering (like if they didn’t show you how to make your first set of tools).
@KevinC you should consider getting some harvesting gear (with luck) and harvesting luck food. There are ways to shift the balance in your favor. But it is certainly true that some things in the economy are screwy like that.
One thing I do like about it is the relative freedom you have to define your character. You can use any of the weapons, and choose how deep down each rabbit hole you want to go. You can wear whatever types of armor you want, and mix and match. You don’t necessarily have to craft at all, though there are things that will be more annoying if you don’t do at least a little crafting. You can dabble in all the crafting, or focus on one, as you are not locked out of any areas by choosing something else.
I also find it enjoyable to pick and choose what sorts of quests I do and when, for the most part. The story line stuff is there of course and you’ll have to eventually go through that if you keep playing, but there is a lot of other stuff to do along the way. Combat is reasonably engaging, for the most part, and exploration is generally solid if not spectacular (like the graphics, really).
It’s flaw as others have noted is it lacks a clear sense of what it wants to be. Personally, I prefer games to focus on one core experience, rather than a bunch, as usually the former yields better execution and often a better experience. The trade off is that if you don’t like the focus, you’re pretty much 100% left out. Like a lot of games, New World is trying to be all things to all people, and they actually don’t do a terrible job of it. Part of me wishes though that they had stuck to their guns and delivered the pure PvP experience they seem to have intended. Dunno if I would have played it for long, but it would at least have had more soul.
For myself I would have never played that game. Except in very very rare circumstances (EVE) they just don’t work. And that’s what AGS was finding in their alphas, from the sound of it.
If they had stuck to their guns, it wouldn’t have been nearly as popular as it is, but I contend that it would have been a better game. (I probably wouldn’t be playing it either.)
Oh, yeah, commercial viability is not the same as conceptional coherence of course. I would never recommend a company cut their own throat,
It’s probably not commercially viable, and is hard to do, but I’m just musing about concepts and focus. No quibble with their decision from a technical and commercial POV.
I spend hours and hours just wandering through this world, gathering herbs and mining ore. The sound design is fantastic, the environments and terrain are varied yet feel authentic. The music adds to the feel of each location. It’s so easy to get lost in the experience.
I’ve played a whole lot of MMOs. Never felt that way about any of them. If that ain’t soul, then I don’t know what it is.
I concur completely. The audio design is better than any MMO, and maybe any other game, I have played. Not only the ambient music, but combat and gathering sounds are practical from a gameplay cue perspective (e.g. if you approach a mining node, you can hear the other player’s pick striking in the distance so you know to move on to the next node).
Absolutely. Man, so good. The first time I played was in the beta and I remember leaving the beach and approaching my first town, which I believe was Everfall. As I worked my way up the road, I heard all the cracks and thunks from miners and lumberjacks, the sound of falling trees, etc. It totally made the setting, it sounded like an industrious colony settlement at work.
Not to mention the squeals of little bunnies as I slaughter them for their lucky feet!
My only disappointment is that I can’t skin other players after killing them in PvP…
That escalated quickly!
I agree the environment is rather good, and the world feels interesting, and not a rehash of Ye Olde Medieval Theme Park. The game itself though seems perfunctory; competent but there really isn’t any compelling narrative or energy for me. Not that I actually need that, but from a critical POV, the game is very by the numbers IMO. But as it is executed competently, it certainly works, and some parts are quite lovely.
Ah, this is not good…client side authentication in an MMO, not clever at all. When I worked for the company proposing to publish Jumpgate Evolution we discovered it was client side authenticated. After Netdevil waved away our concerns initially we had a meeting where our tech guy manipulated the client to give himself infinite range weapons with maximum power on one of their milestone builds. As the guy responsible for trying to keep the Archlord players in check at the time I had one of those “ah crap” moments at the possible CS implications when supporting the game…
I believe Fallout '76 had/has a similar issue?
I thought the invulnerability glitch (moving the window) was already patched
1.0.3 notes
- Fixed an issue that caused holding and dragging around the client while in windowed mode to constantly retrigger invincibility.
1.0.4 notes
- We have fixed several known causes of players being invulnerable. This issue is a top priority for our team, and we are continuing to track down fixes for additional causes of this issue.
