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Post Date: 09:22 17-06-2009
Rating: 7
Author: mackdawg19
Comment: I have played this game very extensively. I have not reached level cap, but I have played with quite a few high levels and had a blast in the arena. Before I through out my review, I will give you some lowdown information.
- This game is a Pay2Play game with a "Freemium" model.
- "Freemium" means you can play upto level 9.9, where your character becomes level locked until you pay a subscription. You can still login and chat. The only restrictions are that you cannot level past 9.9 and you can only visit the first two area's.
- This game is in more way's a hybrid of MMOFPS and MMORPG. The control scheme is MMOFPS, the elements are MMORPG.
Intro / Tutorial - 6
The introduction is supposed to be the teachings of the game. It should show you the basics of how to play the game and give you valuable information on how to basically get started. While the introduction in this game does give you that, it also leaves out some things. For instance, crafting which is a central part of this game, is skimmed over and only mentioned in text through a pop-up. The introduction also has some issues. You cannot skip the introduction once you've been through it once. And it really is pretty basic and falls into the boring category. So while highlighting the basics, it tends to become tedious after the first time through making alt creation rather limited because you just don't want to suffer it again and again.
Graphics - 8.5
This game utilizes the Unreal 2.5 engine modified to fit this game. Some things to note about the engine is that it is not GPU dependent and rarely utilizes it. Therefore everything lies pretty much in your CPU power. Now this doesn't mean the game doesn't look great. What Spellborn NV has done is amazing in my eyes. With an engine that dates back about 4 years, they have pulled off some great artistry. The world really feels unusual but in a good way. If you have played Fable or Ryzom, then you know what I mean. Character armor seems to be nicely detailed, the world feels like you could live in it, and the NPC's and scenery go with each zone. My only down falls with the graphics are the Non-GPU intensive and limited controls to tweak the appearance.
UI / Interface - 6.5
While the game has a rather sleek UI, it falls short in a lot of area's. Some of the elements cannot be moved or re-sized. There is no quest tracker at this very moment, but one is being added, and there needs to be some type of action bars for food/drinks. There are some other elements it lacks, but they don't bother me as much as some people.
Quests - 7
This game is literally filled with quests. The issue is starts after level 20. You will fall into this area of missing quests and finding gaps because you decided to skip quests. Some people will take this as missing content, but that is not it. This game has a lot of quest chains, some that span over 10+ levels, and this is what they are noticing. And this is a major issue also. The good thing is there are still quite a few quests, just make sure to grab them up and do them all. Some of the quests are dynamic which is cool, meaning they effect what quests you get in the next chain. These are very limited though and should be bumped up in value. A lot of the quests though are your regular kill/fedex quests but this is a MMORPG, so you really cannot get by without having them.
Combat - 9.5
The combat in this game has a really good FPS feel to it. On my system it plays out really well. The combat is actually so good, I've fallen in love with it. It is twitch based like Fury but has dodging capabilities like DDO. It leads to some very engaging and strategic fights that have you thinking a lot. I've sat around for quite a few arena fights just figuring out good combination's. I will say this though, after playing this combat, it's hard to go back and play static combat and enjoy it. If your on the edge about this game, I'd try it out if just for this. It really is that good!
PvE - 6.5
I generalized this for a few reasons. It's just an OK PvE game. This game has a decent amount of dungeon's throughout leveling but nobody does them nor cares about them because quests don't really seem to make you want to go to them. They are also very buggy and have more issues than anything else in this game. The boss fight's are good, but no one cares about going to and instance just to kill a boss when it may bug out on you. Besides instances, the PvE is good though. The AI actually has strategy and will own you if you don't keep on your toe's.
PvP - 6.5
This game really shines in PvP but there is a limit to what you can do in PvP. The arena, while a great idea, is nothing more than a static arena. No leader boards and bad gear leads to nobody really using the arena at all. There really is no reason to que up because you will never get a match. People moreso use it for testing skill decks in skirmish mode, which is why it has a useless factor. The demon chest is the Open PvP of the game but has it's issues also. It is a good idea but placed in a bad area with bad mechanics. Stuck in the bottom of a district, it attracts nobody and really can be taken by anyone without notice. With no system messages or alerts, you can walk in with 3 keys and walk out with loot untouched. It also only spawns once a day, which while fine, in a group leads to some bad loot luck and really bad mechanics because only one item drops.
Now there is more I could add but I really don't want to make this a huge story. This game while great in some area's, has major issues in others. This game is plagued by low population and a not so good end-game for both PvE and PvP. This game also has a single player feeling to it, as you really don't need a guild/house or anyone for that matter. Chat is non existent after the first two zones, and there is no LFG grouping tool to speak of. There is also no world chat across all zones which is really needed. This game does however offer the best RPG combat to date which is why it's hard to judge this game. This game needs some serious patching, and not once a month as it has been going. I would hate to see this game pass by, but it very well could if it doesn't start doing some drastic measures. My suggestions would be:
- Test server to get things rolling
- more frequent patching and/or hotfixing major issues with quests/skills.
- Instances need to be debugged quickly and be more rewarding
- this game needs a LFG group tool
- more group type quests need to be added
- this game could really benefit with a higher group count and/or raid group with content.
- PvP and PvE for endgame needs to come fast and swiftly. This game is losing high level players at a enormous rate.
Now this game is about to receive a new patch here soon (1.0.5) so some of these things will change from my statement. Please Spellborn NV, pick up the pace and pump this game up. It could really be a diamond in the ruff but is only looking like crystal at the moment.
Overall Rating is: 7.2
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