MMORPG.com . ... thanks for rating the game a little better I guess but next time you may want to have someone over 20 who is actually willing to play the game long enough to give an actual review.
Its blatantly obvious that he hasn't really played . .. and has the point of view coming from a 20yr old who is used to the latest console game graphics, etc. LOL
Sorry but this is a pretty FAIL review .. . please have someone age 30+ review the game after the next expansion!
If the game requires a month (or more) of indepth gameplay before it becomes fun, it isn't worth reviewing. (three times)
I am surprised myself by Sid's response. I wouldn't have thought Darkfall, with all it's hardcore old school cred, would have been home to the rabid fanboism that has unfortunately engulfed many other games. Sid, correct (civilly) me if I'm wrong, but your response came off as "You don't like it?! Well you're... DUMB!"
EDIT: I also strongly agree with Quake. If a game takes that long to begin to enjoy, it stops being a game. You shouldn't have to suffer through a month (that you're paying for) to enjoy a game. I realize I'm about to be flamed for being a carebear or somesuch nonsense, but it's a game. Those are supposed to be fun. Remember? I don't need to be l33t from day one ingame, but I should be having fun.
I don't mean to be rude but I doubt that someone who is 20 is old enough to see their vision and what they are doing unless you have been gaming since you were born . .. I guess but still most of my favorite games would be considered crap by todays average 20 yr old.
I very much appreciate the review, I would just have picked a different person is all. He didn't seem to want to play it at all. Read the survivor thingy he posted before that.
I would rather have someone who was into way into EU or UO when it came out review the game. Coming from other types of games is a very difficult adjustment, especially todays gamer who is spoiled from easy MMORPGs and high-graphic solo games. They definitely tend to raise the bar higher imo but lower in areas that do not matter for many of us old-school gamers.
But if you have someone review it who already likes that kind of game, the review will be biased. But I also agree with you. Honestly we have to accept that reviews will be biased (like Anthony Lane's review of "Watchmen" in the New Yorker which was horrific, and barely deserved the minimal honor of being called a review). The only way a review can be in the middle is when the writer understands where the media in question is coming from artistically, but isn't already a fan of other, similar media.
Its obvious to any player that he hasn't played . ...
First paragraph is the most obvious:
"Throughout the past couple of months I have been chased, beaten, robbed, murdered and taunted. A simple task such as travelling a dozen metres into the woods has left me emotionally scarred as a result of the numerous online-brigands constantly pursuing me. In reality I have become a quivering wreck: a short journey to the local shops is spent with panicking eyes, a twitchy mood, and equipped with a small blunt weapon just in case someone takes fancy of my jeans or indeed, my trainers - If someone so much as eyes my jacket, there will be panic swings."
LOL seriously?
He was playing cataclysm or something haha and looked up some info about Darkfall and found some photos from over 2 years ago .. .. revisting Darkfall after 2 years! I know, lets use 2 year old photos! . ..
The first time someone did a Darkfall review he gave the game a score of 2/10 and only played a couple hours LOL (AV checked the logs and were enraged just like the community was).
He probably would have been killed only once or twice during a 2 week trial unless he was asking for trouble or not paying attention. He makes it sound like there is actually PVP all over the place. The world is HUGE! I call BS that he played beyong making a character and maybe getting killed by some goblins.
NEWS FLASH!"A bank was robbed the other day and a man opened fire on the customers being held hostage. One customer zig-zag sprinted until he found cover. When questioned later he explained that he was a hardcore gamer and knew just what to do!" Download my music for free! I release several albums per month as part of project "Thee Untitled" . .. some video game music remixes and cover songs done with instruments in there as well! http://theeuntitled.bandcamp.com/Check out my roleplaying blog, collection of fictional short stories, and fantasy series... updated on a blog for now until I am finished!https://childrenfromtheheavensbelow.blogspot.com/Watch me game on occasion or make music... https://www.twitch.tv/spoontheeuntitled and subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUvqULn678VrF3OasgnbsyA
I very much appreciate the review, I would just have picked a different person is all. He didn't seem to want to play it at all. Read the survivor thingy he posted before that.
I would rather have someone who was into way into EU or UO when it came out review the game. Coming from other types of games is a very difficult adjustment, especially todays gamer who is spoiled from easy MMORPGs and high-graphic solo games. They definitely tend to raise the bar higher imo but lower in areas that do not matter for many of us old-school gamers.
Do you think it's like if Urkel was reviewing Harley Davidson motorcycles and leather jackets?
No he might actually like it if he tried it . ... maybe when he hits the new cap in WOW he will give it another go?
NEWS FLASH!"A bank was robbed the other day and a man opened fire on the customers being held hostage. One customer zig-zag sprinted until he found cover. When questioned later he explained that he was a hardcore gamer and knew just what to do!" Download my music for free! I release several albums per month as part of project "Thee Untitled" . .. some video game music remixes and cover songs done with instruments in there as well! http://theeuntitled.bandcamp.com/Check out my roleplaying blog, collection of fictional short stories, and fantasy series... updated on a blog for now until I am finished!https://childrenfromtheheavensbelow.blogspot.com/Watch me game on occasion or make music... https://www.twitch.tv/spoontheeuntitled and subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUvqULn678VrF3OasgnbsyA
This game is the worste thing I have ever played. I couldn't delete the free trial off of my computer fast enough. The graphics are horrible. The animations are even worse. The sound are just laughable. There is absolutely no polish what so ever. Not to mention the game world itself is totally empty which isn't surprising considering they only have around 3,000 people left playing.
From a business stand point this game is a complete failure considering they obviously didn't even make a penny in profit off of it and never will anymore
Do not waste a minute of time on nonsense like this. I mean seriously who is going to play something like when you can play games like Guild Ward 2 or RIFT?
Someone obviously only ran around for 2 minutes, couldnt figure out the UI, then rage quit when some dude killed him.
MMORPG.com . ... thanks for rating the game a little better I guess but next time you may want to have someone over 20 who is actually willing to play the game long enough to give an actual review.
Its blatantly obvious that he hasn't really played . .. and has the point of view coming from a 20yr old who is used to the latest console game graphics, etc. LOL
Sorry but this is a pretty FAIL review .. . please have someone age 30+ review the game after the next expansion!
If the game requires a month (or more) of indepth gameplay before it becomes fun, it isn't worth reviewing. (three times)
I am surprised myself by Sid's response. I wouldn't have thought Darkfall, with all it's hardcore old school cred, would have been home to the rabid fanboism that has unfortunately engulfed many other games. Sid, correct (civilly) me if I'm wrong, but your response came off as "You don't like it?! Well you're... DUMB!"
EDIT: I also strongly agree with Quake. If a game takes that long to begin to enjoy, it stops being a game. You shouldn't have to suffer through a month (that you're paying for) to enjoy a game. I realize I'm about to be flamed for being a carebear or somesuch nonsense, but it's a game. Those are supposed to be fun. Remember? I don't need to be l33t from day one ingame, but I should be having fun.
I don't mean to be rude but I doubt that someone who is 20 is old enough to see their vision and what they are doing unless you have been gaming since you were born . .. I guess but still most of my favorite games would be considered crap by todays average 20 yr old.
I very much appreciate the review, I would just have picked a different person is all. He didn't seem to want to play it at all. Read the survivor thingy he posted before that.
I would rather have someone who was into way into EU or UO when it came out review the game. Coming from other types of games is a very difficult adjustment, especially todays gamer who is spoiled from easy MMORPGs and high-graphic solo games. They definitely tend to raise the bar higher imo but lower in areas that do not matter for many of us old-school gamers.
But if you have someone review it who already likes that kind of game, the review will be biased. But I also agree with you. Honestly we have to accept that reviews will be biased (like Anthony Lane's review of "Watchmen" in the New Yorker which was horrific, and barely deserved the minimal honor of being called a review). The only way a review can be in the middle is when the writer understands where the media in question is coming from artistically, but isn't already a fan of other, similar media.
Its obvious to any player that he hasn't played . ...
First paragraph is the most obvious:
"Throughout the past couple of months I have been chased, beaten, robbed, murdered and taunted. A simple task such as travelling a dozen metres into the woods has left me emotionally scarred as a result of the numerous online-brigands constantly pursuing me. In reality I have become a quivering wreck: a short journey to the local shops is spent with panicking eyes, a twitchy mood, and equipped with a small blunt weapon just in case someone takes fancy of my jeans or indeed, my trainers - If someone so much as eyes my jacket, there will be panic swings."
LOL seriously?
He was playing cataclysm or something haha and looked up some info about Darkfall and found some photos from over 2 years ago .. .. revisting Darkfall after 2 years! I know, lets use 2 year old photos! . ..
The first time someone did a Darkfall review he gave the game a score of 2/10 and only played a couple hours LOL (AV checked the logs and were enraged just like the community was).
He probably would have been killed only once or twice during a 2 week trial unless he was asking for trouble or not paying attention. He makes it sound like there is actually PVP all over the place. The world is HUGE! I call BS that he played beyong making a character and maybe getting killed by some goblins.
Sigh.
The review is proceeded by a 'Survivor' Series of articles that accounts for around 3 weeks of play. I have played the game for roughly, a little more than two months and actually enjoyed it. The content of my review is not overly negative so why blindly pick on what I said that was bad?
As for my age, yes 20 you may feel is a little young. Well if it makes anyone feel better, I have been gaming since the wee age of 2 with my Megadrive and then graduating to PC Gaming for the advent of Windows 95. I bought and played EverQuest on release with my dad and even a little later played loyally for around 4 years on my own. Nobody was more into EQ that this kid here, I adore the game even today.
If you want to go over my MMORPG credentials go ahead, I have played every major release since 97' and still continue to do so. Sure I didn't put in time with Atari consoles, Commodores or Spectrums but we are not all perfect are we?
The review is proceeded by a 'Survivor' Series of articles that accounts for around 3 weeks of play. I have played the game for roughly, a little more than two months and actually enjoyed it. The content of my review is not overly negative so why blindly pick on what I said that was bad?
As for my age, yes 20 you may feel is a little young. Well if it makes anyone feel better, I have been gaming since the wee age of 2 with my Megadrive and then graduating to PC Gaming for the advent of Windows 95. I bought and played EverQuest on release with my dad and even a little later played loyally for around 4 years on my own. Nobody was more into EQ that this kid here, I adore the game even today.
If you want to go over my MMORPG credentials go ahead, I have played every major release since 97' and still continue to do so. Sure I didn't put in time with Atari consoles, Commodores or Spectrums but we are not all perfect are we?
Well thanks for the review anyways. I appreciate what would be a generous rating since it did not seem like its your type of game. Good luck to you and thanks for clearing that up.
: D
Feel free to send me a tell on NA if you want someone to group with and show you around some of the cooler stuff.
If you used in-game screenshots, frapsed a vid, or wrote anything indicating that you actually played I wouldn't have had that assumption. I am almost certain that most DF players would read that and think, "lol I bet he didn't even play it".
NEWS FLASH!"A bank was robbed the other day and a man opened fire on the customers being held hostage. One customer zig-zag sprinted until he found cover. When questioned later he explained that he was a hardcore gamer and knew just what to do!" Download my music for free! I release several albums per month as part of project "Thee Untitled" . .. some video game music remixes and cover songs done with instruments in there as well! http://theeuntitled.bandcamp.com/Check out my roleplaying blog, collection of fictional short stories, and fantasy series... updated on a blog for now until I am finished!https://childrenfromtheheavensbelow.blogspot.com/Watch me game on occasion or make music... https://www.twitch.tv/spoontheeuntitled and subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUvqULn678VrF3OasgnbsyA
This game is for the True Hardcore MMO Gamer and they will pride themselves on that! They are no carebears, they are the best of the best!
Actually, to normal folk, the True Hardcore MMO Gamer is one of those people that will happily grind all day that a non-gamer would Literally not last one minute doing. They'll grind for that 0.1% improvement and all that wood and gold. Then lose it all after being ganked by 6 other people.
Do not fear for the True Hardcore MMO Gamer though, for he has nothing else to do and can start again all over tomorrow. In fact, he and his Hardcore friends will be ganking 6 vs 1 tomorrow to gather a stash of goods!
The 6 vs 1 is irrelevant, of course, because the game involves skill! Skill to destroy your opponents (oh, and stats which you have grinded (and grinded (and grinded)) for!
Enough of that. In the end darkfall was a baaad game. It suits a certain type of gamer, but would be completely unrewarding for anyone that is unable to dedicate a large part of their week to it. Its really just not worth it.
I like the idea of open world PvP, but it inevitably ends up being about uneven numbers and not 1v1. The day someone invents an MMO with a genuinely entertaining questing system and a PvP system that actually encourages skill and teamplay over ganking and stats... and we might just have a WoW beater. Its probably not going to happen (Well... maybe until Blizzard's next game?)
This game is for the True Hardcore MMO Gamer and they will pride themselves on that! They are no carebears, they are the best of the best!
Actually, to normal folk, the True Hardcore MMO Gamer is one of those people that will happily grind all day that a non-gamer would Literally not last one minute doing. They'll grind for that 0.1% improvement and all that wood and gold. Then lose it all after being ganked by 6 other people.
Do not fear for the True Hardcore MMO Gamer though, for he has nothing else to do and can start again all over tomorrow. In fact, he and his Hardcore friends will be ganking 6 vs 1 tomorrow to gather a stash of goods!
The 6 vs 1 is irrelevant, of course, because the game involves skill! Skill to destroy your opponents (oh, and stats which you have grinded (and grinded (and grinded)) for!
Enough of that. In the end darkfall was a baaad game. It suits a certain type of gamer, but would be completely unrewarding for anyone that is unable to dedicate a large part of their week to it. Its really just not worth it.
I like the idea of open world PvP, but it inevitably ends up being about uneven numbers and not 1v1. The day someone invents an MMO with a genuinely entertaining questing system and a PvP system that actually encourages skill and teamplay over ganking and stats... and we might just have a WoW beater. Its probably not going to happen (Well... maybe until Blizzard's next game?)
Uhhh . .. I have never grind nor macroed dude so how do you explain that?
NEWS FLASH!"A bank was robbed the other day and a man opened fire on the customers being held hostage. One customer zig-zag sprinted until he found cover. When questioned later he explained that he was a hardcore gamer and knew just what to do!" Download my music for free! I release several albums per month as part of project "Thee Untitled" . .. some video game music remixes and cover songs done with instruments in there as well! http://theeuntitled.bandcamp.com/Check out my roleplaying blog, collection of fictional short stories, and fantasy series... updated on a blog for now until I am finished!https://childrenfromtheheavensbelow.blogspot.com/Watch me game on occasion or make music... https://www.twitch.tv/spoontheeuntitled and subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUvqULn678VrF3OasgnbsyA
Really good review that touches on the most important aspects of the game. It only fails to mention one thing and that is the archaic and horrible UI that will in itself turn of many people.
If Darkfall is to be a serious contender to Eve then it has to fix the shortcomings of its UI, graphics and animation. It currently shows clearly that the game is developed by an indy company.
And this is why many people don't play these games after reading stuff like this. "The UI is bad". Okay, define bad; specifically. I dual client WoW and have the other client set to not load any addons (aka stock game) I see no difference from Darkfall's UI compared to WoW's UI (or LoTRO, Warhammer, STO, Rift, Lineage II, EQ 1 & 2, and yes..even EVE).
If you say it's bad because you can't truly customize it. I agree completely. But I also know that LoTRO didn't have LUA-support until very recently. So, I can't knock DFO.
You do know it's human nature to stack the odds in your favor. Even in WoW's Arena System the healers get alpha-ed (aka 2v1,3v1,5v1) because anyone smart enough to pvp knows that if the healer goes down you've almost certainly won.
To date I have only been in 7 true 1v1 pvp fights. I count true 1v1 fights as the opponent was out looking for a fight and not "oh you're low on health; lemme help you with that!". However, I have been in countless fights of 1v2+ (Gank Squads). In fact, there is no game (MMO, RTS, or FPS) that I've played where the other side didn't gang up on one player.
Questing:
What would be a genuinely entertaining system? You have your choice of "Defend This", "Escort That", "Collect/Gather This", and "Kill Those".
PS: for those wondering, yes I played DFO..for about a month and a half before I got tired of grinding my stats/skills only to find it still wasn't enough to be pvp viable; only macro was my buff macro...rarely macroed due to lack of reagents :P
Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising everytime we fall.
I jumped on the hype for this game recently and I guess you can call me the 2 min players as I stayed for about ten minutes of combat and uninstalled the game. You can say darkfall is for the hardcore true mmo players but considering there is a ton of players that dont want to play past the ten minute mark should say something about that game... IF I want to play a fps that doesnt have a crappy UI I'll stick to left4dead.
1) Grind is heavy, more than a standar f2p korean game, after 1.5 year i'm not maxed in my stats and skills i use more.
2) Cause point 1 tons of people do MACRO and afk tasks
3) Low population, world feel empty
4) Towns are owned by the same guild with 1 alt in every town to gather resource
5) New players are fucked up and the only thing they do is grind grind grind, and macro the night trying to catch the vets that with the ultra slow progression has 1.5 adavantage stats/skill
6) No content apart grind and macro, only random pvp
7) All are hybrids, battle mages everywhere. You don't have alternatives, mages with piece of infernal own specialized people, make specialization useless
For hardcore people with a lot of free time that like quake arena. Av do a great job in making this game but they should focus more, in diversity, content and spedd up character progression (afk meditation is a beginning though).
You do know it's human nature to stack the odds in your favor. Even in WoW's Arena System the healers get alpha-ed (aka 2v1,3v1,5v1) because anyone smart enough to pvp knows that if the healer goes down you've almost certainly won.
To date I have only been in 7 true 1v1 pvp fights. I count true 1v1 fights as the opponent was out looking for a fight and not "oh you're low on health; lemme help you with that!". However, I have been in countless fights of 1v2+ (Gank Squads). In fact, there is no game (MMO, RTS, or FPS) that I've played where the other side didn't gang up on one player.
Questing:
What would be a genuinely entertaining system? You have your choice of "Defend This", "Escort That", "Collect/Gather This", and "Kill Those".
You're right that its human nature to try to alter the battles in your favour, through ganging up or perhaps uneven levels/gear. The dream, for me, is that one day someone can help to remove this imbalance through the game (Restricting the imbalance). I find that PvP (or in general, competitive gaming vs other players) is most rewarding when fights are balanced and you come out on top. Even just to lose, to have fought well is still a rewarding feeling.
In reality, I mainly got this from playing games such as Unreal Tournament, where you had many 1v1s, 2v1s, 1v2s with pretty much equal footings (armour/weapon dependent) but then also the factor of the teamplay. To win (or compete well) in your individual battles is rewarding and to do some great teamplay is even more rewarding!
A lot of PvP games have started to focus on these Epic battles, but inevitably it ends up being zerg vs zerg and there's no skill there either. Open world is always open to ganking, etc. Perhaps they need to look at changing the way kills work, e.g. rewarding XP for the amount of health taken off an opponent before they die (so ganking someone at 20% is of little benefit, so is 5 people attacking someone at 100% health) and having it being more encouraging to attack someone of a higher level and very discouraging to attack someone of a lower level.
Who knows, but trying something different and getting the rewarding feeling for a kill would be the way to make a truely great PvP game.
1) Grind is heavy, more than a standar f2p korean game, after 1.5 year i'm not maxed in my stats and skills i use more.
2) Cause point 1 tons of people do MACRO and afk tasks
3) Low population, world feel empty
4) Towns are owned by the same guild with 1 alt in every town to gather resource
5) New players are fucked up and the only thing they do is grind grind grind, and macro the night trying to catch the vets that with the ultra slow progression has 1.5 adavantage stats/skill
6) No content apart grind and macro, only random pvp
7) All are hybrids, battle mages everywhere. You don't have alternatives, mages with piece of infernal own specialized people, make specialization useless
For hardcore people with a lot of free time that like quake arena. Av do a great job in making this game but they should focus more, in diversity, content and spedd up character progression (afk meditation is a beginning though).
Really you should trial the game again the grind is nothing now compared to what it was .. i got my archery skill up from 20 to 95 in a few days and lvled up the skills to go with it along the way..
Magic is just as easy now I have 2 main schools at 50 as i ssaid before and really each one took a night of hunting to get to that lvl..
I dont macro or anything like that, maybe a bit of afk mining while watching a film but im still by the computer..
Darkfalls grind si nothing now compared to some of the asian f2p games... or even the PVP lvls in age fo conan now thats a boring grind..
Ok, I played Darkfall in Beta, again months later and I am currently playing now.. I played A MONTH without ever getting killed and I finally died, and I had actually gotten my stuff back, noone looted my gravestone.. I trained up just about every crafting skill, trained up my combat skills and did quests for the first month while I had my newb status.. Then I focued on crafting and maxed out blacksmithing, woodcutting, tailoring, cooking, you name it.. It was a long and very fun process, living the life of a merchant in Darkfall, almost any clan will take you, but it is very harsh because they dont offer the protection you are required.. It'll get you rich fast, but nobody sticks out for the merchants it seems.. That is my only complaint, all I ask of clans for my services is their protection..
"Darkfall is a commercial failure primarily due to the grind, because it takes so long to develop a competitive character. The game is top heavy with Vets, many of whom used exploits that are now closed or aren't as well known.
Most players, besides grinding, also macro swimming, in order to raise their attribute stats, because they go up so painfully slow. It's ridiculous that at night probably 80% of those logged into the game are just swimming AFK or casting self-buff spells using a macro AFK."
What put me off after 3 months of being a newbie was that it seemed macroing = cheating was what you had to do and what most players had done to become competitive.
Also combat is so fast paced and the UI so quirky that as a beginner you rarely have a chance to defend yourself or even run away from the regular gankings.
Was actually in the process of downloading this game when I came upon this article and the posts about the article.
Honestly, thanks very much for helping me reaize that this really wouldn't be the game for me.
I could to without more little f'idiots and a bunch of 'generation smacktard' players. No thanks.
Originally posted by Ozmodan
I found the community to be highly elitest which I did not like at all. Without skill caps the game will never be anything more than a wanna be. Heck I had far more fun in UO than in Darkfall. Of course all just my opinion. You should decided yourself.
The community is probably one of the worst part of the entire game.
I've never seen such a clueless community in my life playing MMOs.
Sure FFA full loot pvp attracts the more aggressive folk but thats not the issue.
The issue is where these players come from.
These arent oldschool sandbox players from UO, SWG or EVE these fucking twats come from WAR & WoW.
No self respecting oldschool sandbox player would stand for a game that called itself a sandbox yet only had one viable skill spec...
These guys prefer it!!! its pathetic and makes me sad that these people cal themselves both sandbox players and hardcore...
"The game was originally designed with a skill cap in mind they just couldn't get in implemented before launch so they pulled it. No skill cap + a horrible UI is why this game is failure plus. Also the game was heavily exploited in the early days. I think if they overhauled the UI, added a skill cap, and wiped and relaunched the game it would be much more successful."
Darkfall isn't perfect but it is one of the best games out. Over the past 6 years there have been countless WOW clones that all sucked but Darkfall IS the anti-WOW.
1. FPS style combat instead of tab targeting(WOW).
2. End game is PVP instead of PVE raiding(WOW).
3. Crafted gear is actually the best gear in the game instead of a waste of time(WOW).
4. Player owned houses/cities vs neither in WOW.
5. Naval combat vs no naval combat (WOW).
6. Day 1 riding a mount, participating in Naval combat and city raiding(clan dependent/manning of cannons etc.) vs day 1 in WOW being a lvl 1-15 nothing.
7. Having the ability to level ALL the crafting skills vs only 2 in WOW(per character).
8. Free expansions vs $50 expansions in WOW.
9. Destroyable/player made everything(cept housing) vs static everything in WOW.
10. Skill based combat vs gear based (WOW).
11. Full loot vs no loot PVP (WOW).
12. Total freedom to play anyway you want vs quest based follow the the bouncing ball (WOW).
13. (unfortunately) little lore vs expansive lore (WOW).
14. mounted combat vs no mounted combat (WOW).
15. The mob AI in DFO is amazing and by far the best of any game vs tab target/spam attack while watching tv and still killing everything (WOW). Lets see someone play 5 characters at the same time in Darkfall. The mobs in DFO will kite you, will work as a team, will heal each other etc. It makes the PVE much more interesting than any other game I have played.
For those that complain about the grind, think of this... if you played WOW from day 1 and your character is max'd you will soon have to pay $50 to restart the grind to max level and then the constant grind of getting more gear. In darkfall once you max your character you are done with the grind forever, Don't think your fresh lvl 85 gear (blues) in WOW can compete vs the vet with all high end epics. You can now level your magic, defensive skills and stats via offline meditation... it is a bit expensive but money is easy to come by in darkfall.
In WOW you feel like playing a warrior, so you level to max level and then grind a million dungeons/raids to get your gear...great, now you are bored with doing the same thing over and over and you want to cast magic. grats you get to start over at lvl 1 and lvl to 85 then grind gear until the next patch which will make your gear obsolete and now you have 2 characters to grind gear on. If you were to only level melee in DFO (the equivelent to WOW) it would take no time. How long would it take you to level every class in wow to max level and to get high end gear on every character... the grind in WOW is endless by design. The grind in DFO is brutal but realize that even in the carebear WOW the grind is HUGE to try to equal the ability of DFO.
Darkfall does have its downsides as mentioned in numerous posts above but the upsides more than make up for it, IMO. Also AV is updating the game much, much more often than in the past as well as planned complete UI revamp, complete revamp of animations/sounds, complete revamp of the world graphics and many more updates to come (more player housing). Darkfall IS NOT the game for everyone without a doubt but if you give it a chance then you will never want to go back to the army of WOW clones.
Comments
Its obvious to any player that he hasn't played . ...
First paragraph is the most obvious:
"Throughout the past couple of months I have been chased, beaten, robbed, murdered and taunted. A simple task such as travelling a dozen metres into the woods has left me emotionally scarred as a result of the numerous online-brigands constantly pursuing me. In reality I have become a quivering wreck: a short journey to the local shops is spent with panicking eyes, a twitchy mood, and equipped with a small blunt weapon just in case someone takes fancy of my jeans or indeed, my trainers - If someone so much as eyes my jacket, there will be panic swings."
LOL seriously?
He was playing cataclysm or something haha and looked up some info about Darkfall and found some photos from over 2 years ago .. .. revisting Darkfall after 2 years! I know, lets use 2 year old photos! . ..
The first time someone did a Darkfall review he gave the game a score of 2/10 and only played a couple hours LOL (AV checked the logs and were enraged just like the community was).
He probably would have been killed only once or twice during a 2 week trial unless he was asking for trouble or not paying attention. He makes it sound like there is actually PVP all over the place. The world is HUGE! I call BS that he played beyong making a character and maybe getting killed by some goblins.
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No he might actually like it if he tried it . ... maybe when he hits the new cap in WOW he will give it another go?
NEWS FLASH! "A bank was robbed the other day and a man opened fire on the customers being held hostage. One customer zig-zag sprinted until he found cover. When questioned later he explained that he was a hardcore gamer and knew just what to do!" Download my music for free! I release several albums per month as part of project "Thee Untitled" . .. some video game music remixes and cover songs done with instruments in there as well! http://theeuntitled.bandcamp.com/ Check out my roleplaying blog, collection of fictional short stories, and fantasy series... updated on a blog for now until I am finished! https://childrenfromtheheavensbelow.blogspot.com/ Watch me game on occasion or make music... https://www.twitch.tv/spoontheeuntitled and subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUvqULn678VrF3OasgnbsyA
Someone obviously only ran around for 2 minutes, couldnt figure out the UI, then rage quit when some dude killed him.
So now a "Refreshing skill system" is one that grows skill-optimiced-clones.
Sigh.
The review is proceeded by a 'Survivor' Series of articles that accounts for around 3 weeks of play. I have played the game for roughly, a little more than two months and actually enjoyed it. The content of my review is not overly negative so why blindly pick on what I said that was bad?
As for my age, yes 20 you may feel is a little young. Well if it makes anyone feel better, I have been gaming since the wee age of 2 with my Megadrive and then graduating to PC Gaming for the advent of Windows 95. I bought and played EverQuest on release with my dad and even a little later played loyally for around 4 years on my own. Nobody was more into EQ that this kid here, I adore the game even today.
If you want to go over my MMORPG credentials go ahead, I have played every major release since 97' and still continue to do so. Sure I didn't put in time with Atari consoles, Commodores or Spectrums but we are not all perfect are we?
Well thanks for the review anyways. I appreciate what would be a generous rating since it did not seem like its your type of game. Good luck to you and thanks for clearing that up.
: D
Feel free to send me a tell on NA if you want someone to group with and show you around some of the cooler stuff.
If you used in-game screenshots, frapsed a vid, or wrote anything indicating that you actually played I wouldn't have had that assumption. I am almost certain that most DF players would read that and think, "lol I bet he didn't even play it".
NEWS FLASH! "A bank was robbed the other day and a man opened fire on the customers being held hostage. One customer zig-zag sprinted until he found cover. When questioned later he explained that he was a hardcore gamer and knew just what to do!" Download my music for free! I release several albums per month as part of project "Thee Untitled" . .. some video game music remixes and cover songs done with instruments in there as well! http://theeuntitled.bandcamp.com/ Check out my roleplaying blog, collection of fictional short stories, and fantasy series... updated on a blog for now until I am finished! https://childrenfromtheheavensbelow.blogspot.com/ Watch me game on occasion or make music... https://www.twitch.tv/spoontheeuntitled and subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUvqULn678VrF3OasgnbsyA
This game is for the True Hardcore MMO Gamer and they will pride themselves on that! They are no carebears, they are the best of the best!
Actually, to normal folk, the True Hardcore MMO Gamer is one of those people that will happily grind all day that a non-gamer would Literally not last one minute doing. They'll grind for that 0.1% improvement and all that wood and gold. Then lose it all after being ganked by 6 other people.
Do not fear for the True Hardcore MMO Gamer though, for he has nothing else to do and can start again all over tomorrow. In fact, he and his Hardcore friends will be ganking 6 vs 1 tomorrow to gather a stash of goods!
The 6 vs 1 is irrelevant, of course, because the game involves skill! Skill to destroy your opponents (oh, and stats which you have grinded (and grinded (and grinded)) for!
Enough of that. In the end darkfall was a baaad game. It suits a certain type of gamer, but would be completely unrewarding for anyone that is unable to dedicate a large part of their week to it. Its really just not worth it.
I like the idea of open world PvP, but it inevitably ends up being about uneven numbers and not 1v1. The day someone invents an MMO with a genuinely entertaining questing system and a PvP system that actually encourages skill and teamplay over ganking and stats... and we might just have a WoW beater. Its probably not going to happen (Well... maybe until Blizzard's next game?)
Uhhh . .. I have never grind nor macroed dude so how do you explain that?
NEWS FLASH! "A bank was robbed the other day and a man opened fire on the customers being held hostage. One customer zig-zag sprinted until he found cover. When questioned later he explained that he was a hardcore gamer and knew just what to do!" Download my music for free! I release several albums per month as part of project "Thee Untitled" . .. some video game music remixes and cover songs done with instruments in there as well! http://theeuntitled.bandcamp.com/ Check out my roleplaying blog, collection of fictional short stories, and fantasy series... updated on a blog for now until I am finished! https://childrenfromtheheavensbelow.blogspot.com/ Watch me game on occasion or make music... https://www.twitch.tv/spoontheeuntitled and subscribe! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUvqULn678VrF3OasgnbsyA
And this is why many people don't play these games after reading stuff like this. "The UI is bad". Okay, define bad; specifically. I dual client WoW and have the other client set to not load any addons (aka stock game) I see no difference from Darkfall's UI compared to WoW's UI (or LoTRO, Warhammer, STO, Rift, Lineage II, EQ 1 & 2, and yes..even EVE).
If you say it's bad because you can't truly customize it. I agree completely. But I also know that LoTRO didn't have LUA-support until very recently. So, I can't knock DFO.
@NinjaGaz
PVP:
You do know it's human nature to stack the odds in your favor. Even in WoW's Arena System the healers get alpha-ed (aka 2v1,3v1,5v1) because anyone smart enough to pvp knows that if the healer goes down you've almost certainly won.
To date I have only been in 7 true 1v1 pvp fights. I count true 1v1 fights as the opponent was out looking for a fight and not "oh you're low on health; lemme help you with that!". However, I have been in countless fights of 1v2+ (Gank Squads). In fact, there is no game (MMO, RTS, or FPS) that I've played where the other side didn't gang up on one player.
Questing:
What would be a genuinely entertaining system? You have your choice of "Defend This", "Escort That", "Collect/Gather This", and "Kill Those".
PS: for those wondering, yes I played DFO..for about a month and a half before I got tired of grinding my stats/skills only to find it still wasn't enough to be pvp viable; only macro was my buff macro...rarely macroed due to lack of reagents :P
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Slainte Mhath!
I jumped on the hype for this game recently and I guess you can call me the 2 min players as I stayed for about ten minutes of combat and uninstalled the game. You can say darkfall is for the hardcore true mmo players but considering there is a ton of players that dont want to play past the ten minute mark should say something about that game... IF I want to play a fps that doesnt have a crappy UI I'll stick to left4dead.
Played for 1.5 years, not a bad game but:
1) Grind is heavy, more than a standar f2p korean game, after 1.5 year i'm not maxed in my stats and skills i use more.
2) Cause point 1 tons of people do MACRO and afk tasks
3) Low population, world feel empty
4) Towns are owned by the same guild with 1 alt in every town to gather resource
5) New players are fucked up and the only thing they do is grind grind grind, and macro the night trying to catch the vets that with the ultra slow progression has 1.5 adavantage stats/skill
6) No content apart grind and macro, only random pvp
7) All are hybrids, battle mages everywhere. You don't have alternatives, mages with piece of infernal own specialized people, make specialization useless
For hardcore people with a lot of free time that like quake arena. Av do a great job in making this game but they should focus more, in diversity, content and spedd up character progression (afk meditation is a beginning though).
This is an 'edit' of the 2 year review, what happened?
Good to see it going strong but FFA was never my style.
You're right that its human nature to try to alter the battles in your favour, through ganging up or perhaps uneven levels/gear. The dream, for me, is that one day someone can help to remove this imbalance through the game (Restricting the imbalance). I find that PvP (or in general, competitive gaming vs other players) is most rewarding when fights are balanced and you come out on top. Even just to lose, to have fought well is still a rewarding feeling.
In reality, I mainly got this from playing games such as Unreal Tournament, where you had many 1v1s, 2v1s, 1v2s with pretty much equal footings (armour/weapon dependent) but then also the factor of the teamplay. To win (or compete well) in your individual battles is rewarding and to do some great teamplay is even more rewarding!
A lot of PvP games have started to focus on these Epic battles, but inevitably it ends up being zerg vs zerg and there's no skill there either. Open world is always open to ganking, etc. Perhaps they need to look at changing the way kills work, e.g. rewarding XP for the amount of health taken off an opponent before they die (so ganking someone at 20% is of little benefit, so is 5 people attacking someone at 100% health) and having it being more encouraging to attack someone of a higher level and very discouraging to attack someone of a lower level.
Who knows, but trying something different and getting the rewarding feeling for a kill would be the way to make a truely great PvP game.
DF is still a p.o.s. after two years.
Ok, I played Darkfall in Beta, again months later and I am currently playing now.. I played A MONTH without ever getting killed and I finally died, and I had actually gotten my stuff back, noone looted my gravestone.. I trained up just about every crafting skill, trained up my combat skills and did quests for the first month while I had my newb status.. Then I focued on crafting and maxed out blacksmithing, woodcutting, tailoring, cooking, you name it.. It was a long and very fun process, living the life of a merchant in Darkfall, almost any clan will take you, but it is very harsh because they dont offer the protection you are required.. It'll get you rich fast, but nobody sticks out for the merchants it seems.. That is my only complaint, all I ask of clans for my services is their protection..
The utter retardation of the fans in this thread is absolutely hilarious.
"Darkfall is a commercial failure primarily due to the grind, because it takes so long to develop a competitive character. The game is top heavy with Vets, many of whom used exploits that are now closed or aren't as well known.
Most players, besides grinding, also macro swimming, in order to raise their attribute stats, because they go up so painfully slow. It's ridiculous that at night probably 80% of those logged into the game are just swimming AFK or casting self-buff spells using a macro AFK."
What put me off after 3 months of being a newbie was that it seemed macroing = cheating was what you had to do and what most players had done to become competitive.
Also combat is so fast paced and the UI so quirky that as a beginner you rarely have a chance to defend yourself or even run away from the regular gankings.
But it has great potential!
Nice review,
Just have to add that they added meditation to Darkfall and they already lowered the price and increased the gain from it.
Atm its all magics schools and rigor, ignor pain and reflex, that can be meditated upon (you pay some gold and skill goes up when you ofline)
They will be adding more to meditation, probably even Stats will be added, so .........
AND also overall skill gain has been double again, with upcoming skill gain increase for crafting.
Oh and charecter animation while fighting feels very natural (not like some other FP mmo's out there, ex: Mortal online)
Oh and what engine lets you shoot an arrow straight into the air wich will land, after some waiting, a few feet away from you ?
Thus concludes Ed Zitron's 2 year re-review.
Was actually in the process of downloading this game when I came upon this article and the posts about the article.
Honestly, thanks very much for helping me reaize that this really wouldn't be the game for me.
I could to without more little f'idiots and a bunch of 'generation smacktard' players. No thanks.
The community is probably one of the worst part of the entire game.
I've never seen such a clueless community in my life playing MMOs.
Sure FFA full loot pvp attracts the more aggressive folk but thats not the issue.
The issue is where these players come from.
These arent oldschool sandbox players from UO, SWG or EVE these fucking twats come from WAR & WoW.
No self respecting oldschool sandbox player would stand for a game that called itself a sandbox yet only had one viable skill spec...
These guys prefer it!!! its pathetic and makes me sad that these people cal themselves both sandbox players and hardcore...
"The game was originally designed with a skill cap in mind they just couldn't get in implemented before launch so they pulled it. No skill cap + a horrible UI is why this game is failure plus. Also the game was heavily exploited in the early days. I think if they overhauled the UI, added a skill cap, and wiped and relaunched the game it would be much more successful."
Agreed.
Darkfall isn't perfect but it is one of the best games out. Over the past 6 years there have been countless WOW clones that all sucked but Darkfall IS the anti-WOW.
1. FPS style combat instead of tab targeting(WOW).
2. End game is PVP instead of PVE raiding(WOW).
3. Crafted gear is actually the best gear in the game instead of a waste of time(WOW).
4. Player owned houses/cities vs neither in WOW.
5. Naval combat vs no naval combat (WOW).
6. Day 1 riding a mount, participating in Naval combat and city raiding(clan dependent/manning of cannons etc.) vs day 1 in WOW being a lvl 1-15 nothing.
7. Having the ability to level ALL the crafting skills vs only 2 in WOW(per character).
8. Free expansions vs $50 expansions in WOW.
9. Destroyable/player made everything(cept housing) vs static everything in WOW.
10. Skill based combat vs gear based (WOW).
11. Full loot vs no loot PVP (WOW).
12. Total freedom to play anyway you want vs quest based follow the the bouncing ball (WOW).
13. (unfortunately) little lore vs expansive lore (WOW).
14. mounted combat vs no mounted combat (WOW).
15. The mob AI in DFO is amazing and by far the best of any game vs tab target/spam attack while watching tv and still killing everything (WOW). Lets see someone play 5 characters at the same time in Darkfall. The mobs in DFO will kite you, will work as a team, will heal each other etc. It makes the PVE much more interesting than any other game I have played.
For those that complain about the grind, think of this... if you played WOW from day 1 and your character is max'd you will soon have to pay $50 to restart the grind to max level and then the constant grind of getting more gear. In darkfall once you max your character you are done with the grind forever, Don't think your fresh lvl 85 gear (blues) in WOW can compete vs the vet with all high end epics. You can now level your magic, defensive skills and stats via offline meditation... it is a bit expensive but money is easy to come by in darkfall.
In WOW you feel like playing a warrior, so you level to max level and then grind a million dungeons/raids to get your gear...great, now you are bored with doing the same thing over and over and you want to cast magic. grats you get to start over at lvl 1 and lvl to 85 then grind gear until the next patch which will make your gear obsolete and now you have 2 characters to grind gear on. If you were to only level melee in DFO (the equivelent to WOW) it would take no time. How long would it take you to level every class in wow to max level and to get high end gear on every character... the grind in WOW is endless by design. The grind in DFO is brutal but realize that even in the carebear WOW the grind is HUGE to try to equal the ability of DFO.
Darkfall does have its downsides as mentioned in numerous posts above but the upsides more than make up for it, IMO. Also AV is updating the game much, much more often than in the past as well as planned complete UI revamp, complete revamp of animations/sounds, complete revamp of the world graphics and many more updates to come (more player housing). Darkfall IS NOT the game for everyone without a doubt but if you give it a chance then you will never want to go back to the army of WOW clones.
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