After a year committed to this game, I am finally leaving my review and closing this chapter for a new adventure.
It will be a long review but I think the devs deserve it, hope you read it and it makes you want to try this game.
I have been lucky enough to get close to the devs and work with them daily, on ideas, on balancing, on testing, it has been an amazing experience and all I can say is thank you to them, for letting me be part of this, I leave happy thinking some of the things that exist in the game I have been part of.
The reason I am stopping is because WoW Forever is releasing and I plan to make that my permanent game, but for this same reason, as an old school MMO player, this game has been that for the past year. It is a true gem, with so many aspects of the old games I loved and while the game is mostly inspired by Everquest, one of the devs is also a WoW lover and you can find things in the game that will remind you of this game.
The game is not perfect, but it is made by just 2 guys, with a lot of love for the genre and good ideas and for the price, it is sooooo worth it. Seeing how much I pated to this day I would have paid so much more, but this is my personal case.
It is not for everyone, it is slow, requires time, doesn't always feel rewarding at first, some features might not click, balance isn't perfect, but none of this existed in the old games we played so let them figure it out and help them doing so if you have the energy to do so, no game is ever solved.
The game has a leveling experience that for a first time, it reminded me a lot to WoW Classic when I picked it up in 2005, getting to new areas and seeing skull level monsters, big enemies chasing me, dungeons to explore with great rewards. Some people find it slow but it is a very good pace for a new player, with moments of, I can't wait to come back to beat this guy's ass, it looks like it will drop something good, and that ends up happening.
There is a profession system that fits the grinding fantasy of some people, fishing, herbalism, hunting animals for meat. This then connects to alchemy, cooking, some gear crafting. Hunting bosses for lore books that provide permanent stats, killing bosses for a boost on resistances, spark hunting for some miracle effects. It is not a perfect system and they need to find a way to make the player feel like they want to do all this, but it is well worth it in the end game and the rewards/consumables are very powerful, I hope they find the key to make early/mid players invest in this sooner than later.
The classes are cool, they are fully functional, as in every RPG there are better and worse classes, but you can play ANYTHING to endgame, some players claim they can't or it is too hard, me and other players have proven that you can beat the entire game with any class if you invest enough time, there is a progression, there is min max. You will need your professions (Slayer and Scroll mastery), your augments on gear (multiple kills on the same enemies for low % drops), some testing on the best mercenary comp. But the game is beatable, so if you read someone saying it is not, they should get good. Challenge is fun and this game has it.
As said not everything is perfect, so heading to 1.0 as they are, I will write down some current negatives that I would love to see looked at for other players to enjoy the game even more when it releases, hoping it helps retain players and grow into an amazing game:
- Make a proper pass through each class, not everything needs to be usable everywhere and I fully understand that, but there are holes in every class, some very minor, some major, that it would be a shame if they are released this way. Of course every player will always want more for their class but there shouldn't be spells/passives you would never consider taking. And while I can buy the argument there will always be a player finding use or wanting to try everything, we live in a moment where people have been gaming for years and can quickly tell when something is just not it, and this game still has some of those. I think the game is still small enough to achieve this point with proper talks with players involved with each class. Classes are the Core of the game.
- I like not wanting to hand-hold the players and let them explore and discover, is a great decision. Still I think some earlier quests for different aspects of the game could exist to help retain more players without feeling too friendly or tutorial like. Professions introductions, Augments, some chains around reputations with lore or cosmetic attachment to those factions for the character or the housing system. There is room to improve here and make the player feel like, while lost in the world, there are some NPCs that would like to interact with you, get to know the player, share knowledge about the world and how the player can grow and improve without feeling like someone is saying, take this and do that. Profession benches (cooking and crafting) are not that easy to figure out from the beginning as an example.
- Make a decision between multiplayer and singleplayer. This can be done in many ways, I would not consider cutting down multiplayer as playing with people is so much fun, but currently there is a world between playing with 2+ players and playing solo, and with more people joining this would create a lot of conflict. My wish is that mercenaries are more powerful and them being an AI is the downside, more than gutting them in every aspect, from damage to buffs and to roles. This needs a big change before 1.0 as balancing dungeons and classes with these 2 factors in mind have been a nightmare and created more issues than it solved.
- Last, and this is a message for Tornar, open yourself to the community, don't be afraid of bad feedback and engage with the players who love the game as much as you do, you don't need to be friends with the player base but you need to be approachable, and while that has been the case for me in many cases via DM, not every individual has the energy to go via DM and a lot of talks will happen in the Discord where people like to talk and share and interact. The outcome of the game will come from improving on this aspect, at least I 100% think this point will be the success or failure for this game, as you will need the community to achieve something great.
Anyone who got here, buy the game, give it a chance, it is a great game to play on your own, on your console, when you are traveling (doesn't require internet), it is a trip to nostalgia for old school games. And if you are looking for that but with other players, the community discord is a great place, at the time of this review it is still a small community but there are great people, you will find lots of hands to help you, to share information and to guide you without destroying the experience of a new player traveling through the game world.
The game has been a 100/10 for me, hope it is at least 10% of that for many others.
Gracias por crear Ancient Kingdoms
