I have been in the Darkfall beta for a while now. Over a month, less than a year.
During that time I have put roughly 50 hours of game play time over various characters and I have decided that I won't be playing the game on release. This is just my personal feeling and the following is my opinion on the game and why I won't be playing it. I will try to leave out any critiques on things that I know are bugs or are planning on changing (such as multi-hits to turn rogue).
Things that I like about Darkfall:
- Huge world, I haven't explored even close to all of the areas of the game yet. (Maybe 30%) Some of the areas I have seen are just amazing.
- Graphics are ok, they aren't great, but you get used to them. Not as bad as some people would make them out to be.
- Crafting is a substantial part of the game and seems almost necessary.
- Combat feels like Oblivion or some other FPS fantasy game.
- Open PvP. No hand holding and no safe areas (kind of) is how it should be. Danger around every corner.
- Huge amount of skills and spells.
- You get a feeling that you are in a virtual world, not just a game.
Things that I dislike about Darkfall:
- It almost feels like real-time when you are playing. Nothing is sped up, everything you do takes a very long amount of time. This was fine back in the days of EQ when I had countless hours to play a video game, but today I have a family and a career.
The free time that I do have I don't want to spend doing tedious, repetitive tasks like fishing or mining. The combat is also very slow paced. It is much better when in a group, but it's so easy to hit other people on accident a lot of more experienced players refuse to join PUGs.
Joining a guild and adventuring with those people is your best way to go when the game is released. - Server sync problems. Maybe it's just because there is no NA server and this problem will fix itself when there is one, but playing from Seattle I have a lot of issues where even if I am swinging through someone I will miss them, or I will watch my arrow go through someone. Then other times I will be facing the opposite direction and hit someone or my arrow won't be even close to someone running around and it will hit them.
This can be very frustrating when I know I should have won a fight. - Monsters spawn very slowly. This seems to have been sped up last patch but I haven't had a chance to do any thorough testing yet. Before the last patch though monster spawns were ridiculously slow.
- Not enough content. The game is really about PvP and GvG warfare. The content that I have experienced is sparse and pretty boring (read: NPC interactions).
- The game does not know what it wants to be when it comes to grouping. The mechanics of the game are very solo friendly. Skill based, non-targeted attacks, sparse loot, hard to target heal spells. All of these would lean toward a solo friendly game. Unfortunately when you actually are in the game it is much better to group, even though it can be very frustrating at times, because this way you have people to watch your back and you can grind mobs without worrying about getting an add and dying. If the game wants to be solo based they need to make monsters easier, if they want it to be group based they need to change it so you can't attack your group members and increase the loot drops.
Right now the game just doesn't fit anywhere. Maybe that's their idea? If it is, good luck to Aventurine.
There you have it, a quick look at some of the likes and dislikes I have for Darkfall. This is in no way a complete or specific list, I was just thinking off the top of my head.
3 comments:
Hello, thanks for the videos.
I have a few questions/requests. Could you make any videos of a more advanced character? Perhaps show us some of the crafting beyond tree-hitting for resource gathering. Also, maybe show some of the requirements for a few items so we can make a link between time spent gathering and what that gets us?
Also, what about magic? I've heard that the higher level spells cost more + reagents but don't give an increase in damage.
Have you seen any mounts yet? Does mounted combat work, and how.
Pretty much things that can be seen outside the beginner area when you have a more seasoned character please.
I have a video up showing how crafting works after gathering resources. It's the cooking video. All crafting is done in this manner.
Higher level spells do more damage, just not what a lot of players feel is enough to warrant the increase in reagent cost. No one that I know of has achieved a high enough skill level in Greater Magic to get to one of the sub specialties of the magic skills to know if it's worth it. It takes a very long time and a lot of money to raise the magic skills.
I will see about making an exploration video when I have the time. It probably won't be until I get back from vacation next week, though.
Mounts are in the game, except for the Mahirim. You create a mount by purchasing the Taming skill, a whistle, and you have to get a grass component (can't remember the exact name off hand). You then create the mount like any other crafting skill.
You get a statue that can summon the mount. If you die, someone can take the mount, if the game crashes while you are on the mount it's gone. That happened to me twice, so I stopped trying. It's expensive to make one.
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