Post
by OfLoathing » Sun Apr 01, 2012 2:52 am
Okay, so I played this game for a couple of hours today to get a general impression of it. It's not bad, and for a price tag of zero, it's definitely going to be great on final release for a free-to-play game. Game looks quite nice, except that the point of view is currently very close. This leaves an extremely short field of vision that I don't really like.
Overall, just like it's Diablo clones before it, this game is so much like Titan's Quest, Sacred.
At first - the skill tree was both impressive and intimidating. This tree attracted me to the game more than any of its other features, so I really wanted to figure out how it works. Now that I have a better idea after going through the forums and playing a bit - I don't particularly like it. It really ends up limiting your characters development more than it expands it.
In the end, it's no different than any game with a unique skill tree for each class, since what you're left with is one to three different choices you can make with each class. You're certainly free to do other things with the class if you really wanted to, but based on the arrangement of the classes on the skill tree - there's really only those few options that work. That is, unless you count choosing to increase damage in swords rather than axes to be a completely different build (I do not) - you're really not going to end up having all that much freedom in designing your character. Plus, the similarities of the common skills all blur the lines so drastically that even though you can definitely tell the differences between two character builds - you're not really going to see much difference in the gameplay beyond melee tank/ melee DPS/ archer/ spellcaster. There are a couple interesting builds within the tree - like making an Avatar of Fire Templar - which converts all his physical damage to fire damage or a Witch based around Chaos Inoculation (which makes your maximum life 1 but allowing you to rely on an enhanced energy shield) and Pain attunement which increases your spell damage by 25% whenever you have low life - which is always. But, in the end, there's so little of this that there's just not much to maintain interest.
Also, there are so few dynamic skills. The vast majority of the skills are so dull and static - like just adding a flare to your swing, or shooting out yet another colorful bolt - that it really makes combat feel exceptionally stationary.
Unless it adds some interesting skills, an amazing storyline, or ends up with some really interesting PVP mechanism - I don't particularly recommend this game. I give it a 6 - because while it is slightly better than your average game, everything is does is just meh.
. The game client should be up for download on Friday. Probably.
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