What I’m Playing:
Due to an extremely busy summer, I’ve put my RIFT account on hold for awhile because I simply don’t have enough time to commit to it right now. I’ve also “finished” all the 5 person content and since my guild is small (and many are quitting), there’s not much for me to do on my main character at this time. As a result, I’ve been trying out some Free to Play (F2P) MMOs when I have the time. I haven’t spent a very long time with them, (only somewhere around 10 hours with each), but I though I’d let you guys know about them in case you want to try them out. If I end up playing either of them more seriously, I’ll definitely do a full MMOCO article on it to let you know more about what I think they have to offer in the co-opportunities department. As of right now, however, I only have my first impressions to offer up.
Forsaken World
Forsaken World is the westernized sister of the older F2P MMO Perfect World. It was one of the games that Steam started offering when it began to support F2P games. The game offers several different races and classes (with some racial restrictions on certain classes), character customization via talent trees, and has pretty good graphics for a F2P game. There are dungeons you can do (though only a certain number of times a day), and there’s even a group queueing system in place for the dungeons, so you can pop in queue for a particular dungeon and eventually get placed into a group and teleported in. A nice feature it has (which is becoming more popular with a lot of F2P MMOs) is the ability to auto-run to a particular quest NPC or enemy type for quests. You simply click on their name on the window that pops up when you hover above the quest tracker, and away you go.
I do have a couple complaints with the game, however. As is the problem with many F2P MMOs, many things are not explained very well, which results in spending a good amount of time doing research on the internet, or simply plodding along until you figure it out. I also have yet to be excited about much I’m doing in the game. This may get better later on, but right now as I’m just auto-running from quest to quest, it’s hard to feel very immersed in the world. The questing system itself has a few hiccups for players who are trying to play consistently with friends. Lots of times my friends and I ended up with different daily quests from the same person (seems to be random dailies from some NPCs). I’ve done a few dungeons (some which yielded amazing XP), but I didn’t feel very challenged - it was mostly attack the enemy until it dies, spam potions if needed, move onto the next. Again, though, hopefully this changes later on in the game. I’ll certainly keep playing and see how it goes.
Eden Eternal
Eden Eternal is currently in open beta, which, as far as most F2P MMOs go, is basically the same as release version. It features a job system similar to Final Fantasy Tactics (or FFXI, perhaps?) where you level up different classes on the same character and can swap between them. Only the basic warrior and mage are available on character creation, but at character level 5 you unlock the cleric, at 10 the hunter, etc, with a dozen classes available eventually. You must level up the class level in addition to your character level, however. You level up the basic skills for each class by spending in-game currency and special skills via CP (which is not shared between classes). There is also a talent system which appears to be mostly passive abilities. Only humans are available for play currently, with other races promised to be implemented at a later time. There’s also a dungeon for every zone, and also a quest auto-run feature very similar to the one I mentioned for Forsaken World.
As far as downsides go, Eden Eternal is not the most graphically impressive game. It’s anime style, which may turn some players away. You also can’t see your gear on your character (excepting hats, I think) - each class has a unique appearance, though you can unlock a few more class-specific appearances as you level up. You can, however, dye your components of your appearance to give you a sense of customization. Some players may also be frustrated that they can’t immediately start playing the class they’re most interested in (some unlock at character level 50+), and some classes have level requirements of other classes, so you may be stuck leveling up a class you don’t really like just so you can play the class you want. And, again like Forsaken World, many essential parts of gameplay aren’t explained. Most of these things don’t bother me so much, but I know that they may be deal breakers for some players.
What I Have My Eye On:
Guild Wars 2
Co-opportunity updates: Dungeons and Underwater Combat
The end of June saw a lot of meaty information released on Guild Wars 2 aspects. It’s been a known fact for a long time that GW2 would feature underwater combat, but a recent blog post provided some specific details about it. First off, there will be no breathing bar when you’re underwater. As soon as you jump in a breathing apparatus will appear on your character’s face. Second, there will be special underwater weapons, including spears (for close combat), tridents (for long ranged magic combat), and harpoon guns (for long ranged non-magic combat). Your class will dictate which of these weapons (and the skills that go along with them) you’ll be able to utilize underwater. Third, your utility skills (the last 5 skills on your skillbar) will be different underwater than on land. These changes as well as the accompanying suitable underwater enemies will certainly give players a unique experience underwater compared to above ground.
Details on dungeons were also announced at the end of June. If you played the only true GW1 expansion, Eye of the North, you’ll already know that there’s a difference between “dungeons” and “missions.” Dungeons in GW1 were for max level players and often involved more teamwork and skill than the regular story missions. They also rewarded loot for all players upon completion. In this vein, GW2 dungeons are group activities that are much more dangerous than the normal GW2 fare. Dungeons may be a misleading term, as some of the GW2 dungeons are not underground. Currently, there are 8 dungeons planned for GW2, the first being available at level 35. When you first go and do a dungeon, it’s only available in story mode. These story modes focus on the heroes of the former Destiny’s Edge, one of whom is your character’s mentor. The overall story theme of the dungeons is to explore the feud between these heroes and to reunite them, a metaphor for uniting all the races to combat the Elder Dragons which are destroying the world.
After you complete the story mode of a dungeon, the exploration mode for the dungeon is unlocked, which is supposed to be the area after the events of the story mode. These exploration versions have multiple options (usually three) which in turn create different challenges and goals for the dungeon. So eight dungeons actually turns into 32 or so dungeons (as each dungeon has a story mode and three different exploration modes). So what’s the incentive for doing these dungeons? Why, the loot of course! Each dungeon has dungeon-specific weapons and armor pieces which are aesthetically tied to that dungeon. So players can complete a dungeon multiple times and get multiple pieces of loot! Check out the pretty sweet intro video to one of the dungeons, the Ascalonian Catacombs, below!
What major game updates has your chosen MMO experienced in the past month? Or are you currently trying out an MMO and want to share your impressions? Let us know!