Originally Posted by
Nemamiah
Me and a friend had the chance to play the game a few days ago, during the last day of the beta. We didn't play much, but enough to judge the game ourselves.
So, i can say that were both excited, just like when we started WoW a few years ago. The game is much better than i imagined!
We wanted to try the dark side this time, so we made Asmodeans. I chose a Warrior, and he chose a Scout. First, the game took us at the character creation scren.
You can make your character look just the way you like. You can make him short, tall, thin,fat, muscular, huge etc. and change every part of his body. You're never gonna see 2 same chars in this game.
You can also change his skin and eyes colour, haicuts, beards, add piercings, scars, tattoos, and change every part of the face.
When you finish, you can check what you created in starting gear, underwear (!) and end-game gear. What we liked about the Asmodeans, is the fact that when they fight, their eyes glow red.
After we created our characters, it was time to see the actual game. We were amazed by how beautiful and colourful the world is. Also, you can see every detail in the players' faces. And man, i've never seen armor looking so good.
It seems that the guys in NCSoft really put effort in creating spectacular looking armor, with great details. Even the Scouts in leather look so mean. Even the starting gear looks good.
We visited a lake in the starting area, and the water reflected the surroundings - that was the best place we saw in the game.
The music has an action feel in it, being a mixture of electronic and rock. It's purpose is to boost your adrenaline, instead of being medieval. Depends on your taste, but we liked the music.
But what really matters in a game, is gameplay.
The developers did the right thing. They took the basic elements from the best MMO out there(WoW), and added some very smart ideas from their own.
So, you'll know what to do when you start the game. The buttons are the same as WoW, and you'll search for the NPC to get a quest.
What i like in this game, is that it doesn't use addons. But you don't need them, because you can track every quest on your map, and you'll always know where to go next. You can also track elite mobs, which throw better items.
The mobs' tooltips, also tell you what rank the mob is. So, lvl 5 veternas are more hard than lvl 5 normal mobs. Also, you can see each mob's aggro radius in the radar, so thaat you don't accidentally pull an X number of mobs.
Now, i'll explain the combat system. First, the way you move affects your stats. So, for effective tanking, one should move backwards, which boosts your block and defence, but lowers your attack.
In PVP, it's smart to strafe, which raises your evasion. Thing is, that battles are not static. You can stand of course in one place and fight, but if you move you'll be pro.
Secondly, the game uses a combo system. Here is how it works: Let's say that you can choose between special moves A, B or C. Let's say that you choose to start with move A. When you do move A, youn get 3 more options, to follow your attack with the move D, E or F.
If you chose to start with move B, you would get the option of moves G, H, I, and if you started with move C you'd get different moves as follow ups. Depending on what you choose next, you then get the option of other moves, and so on.
So, as a gladiator, you can juggle an enemy on the air, then make your char jump and hit him fiercly while he's up there. He will drop on ground. While he is laying on the ground, you jump on him and stab him in his chest.
With my Warrior, i started fights with a special attack, that did 50 damage. When i landed the first blow, 2 icons would appear next to my player, representing the moves i could choose to do next. I could choose between another special move which did a fair amount of damage, or a move called Rage, which boosted my Warrior's stats.
I'll now explain a typical Scout duel, at lvl 5. The Scout enters stealth, and sneaks behind his opponent, resulting in a backstab. He then opens a move called evasion, which not only boosts the evasion, but also helps the Scout avoid movement impairing effects, like Roots. Then the Scout uses his other special attack, and continues to hit.
If Evasion procs (and it will), the Scout has the chance to counterattack by pressing the appropriate button. Works like the Warrior example. Sometimes, the Scout's counterattack, stuns the opponent. So, if he gets stunned, the Scout moves again behind him, and gives him one more backstab.
Now imagine this combo system, while fighting in the air - first time a 3D air battle in an MMO.
While i was fighting the mobs, i got a drop called Manastone. With these stones, you can enchant every piece of your gear. And they drop often. So, i enchanted my chest with +20 HP, and later, my dagger with +4 critical strike. Sometimes, you also get some items called soul shards or something like that. By equipping them in your weapon, you do added damage, but they are consumables.
So, you must save them for the really important fights. You can also gather things, like herbs. It's actually fun. Each time you try to gather, 2 bars appear, beginning to fill. The first bar is for success, and the other for fail. If the first bar fills, you succeed in harvesting the herb. If the second fills, you fail.
I also have to mention, that there are 6 professions, and you can have all of them at the same time. But, you can be master, in only 2 of them, making better items. Sometimes, when you make let's say a weapon, you get a weapon with the same name, but with much better stats - if u get lucky.
The developers saw other MMOs flaws, and corrected them. For example, you can't talk until level 5. This is, to prevent the level one guy from spamming: Gold for sale, visit X.com.
We didn't get the chance to explore more the game, but imagine the raids, and the nice PVP system. You don't only fight the opposite faction, but also the server controlled faction, called Balaur. These guys drop from their flying ships, and randomly raid both factions. They may also appear between an Elyos - Amsodean battle, resulting in total mayhem.
There are fortress sieges, with the faction that controls the fortresses gaining bonuses, random rifts that teleport each faction in the other faction's teritory resulting in huge Raids, and the good old ranked woW pvp system. Oh and there is no resilience here. So, you can choose to PVE, to PVP, or to do both, without needing 2 different gear sets.
I forgot to mention that you can further customize your character with stigma stones. So, you can add a fireball attack in your Warrior, or a heal in your Scout. can't find a healer for your party? No problem! Just equip a heal stigma stone, and heal the party yourself. This results in infinite char customization.
I can't wait until 20 Sept.
Soz for the wall of text :P
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