First impressions of Dawn of Fantasy

eddieg50

This game just recently came out of beta and is now in full release. Potential is a good word to describe this game , also good , bad and ugly.  This is a first impression so it will not be in in depth look yet more of a surface look so here goes.

graphics- 5      as you hike up your resolution it looks a little better but the game has kind of a washed out look, it needs a contrast and gamma slider bad, your characters are almost see through. Your resolution is run at your desk top setting so dont try to change it in game you will just get frustrated, you may want to see if you can change the look through your card.  When you are in battle with an ai or another player it is hard to distinguish them from you, but you have that problem in Rome total war also so I dont know what you do about it except try to get better contrast. There are several sliders for weather and shadows , etc but none of them work, I would say at this point the graphics are in alpha state

Communication and help from Dev-10     This is what is hopefully going to save the game, Dev are online with you in game and will answere your questions in the chat room . You can pm the dev and they will pm you right back.  They are very helpfull and really want their game to succeed, and they want you to have a good time

UI and ease of controles- 5      Some of the icons are really dificult to read, there are no sliders to change the font anywhere, as far as i know you cannot move the UI or change it in any way. The controles are not very intuitive, there is no tutorial (by now everyone should know about w-a-s-d and the right button moving your camera around)  it is basically figure it out as you go along, there is a manual and you should read it if you want to play correctly. Once you get used to the controles it becomes easier but at the beginning it is confusing

chat and comminity-8     You have to put in slash commands to change settings so that is old school . the community seems really helpfull for a PvP based game, when ever I asked a question I usually got an answere unless it was something the community considered to elementary to bother with LOL- so far very good community

PvE and quests-6      for a PvP game the PvE quests are pretty good, there are just not many of them, yea there is your go kill this but it seems like there is a good reason to kill. I understand that there are not a ton of quests and that later you will have to buy quest packs which kind of sucks but LOTRO does the same things except of course they have hundreds of quests before you have to buy anything.

PvP- 5     This is an RTS game simailar to the total war games so they do a nice job of integrating rpg elements.  However even after a major patch which took place just a few hours ago there are major bugs in PvP. The Lag in PvP is well almost game breaking there are times when the camera may freeze for 5 seconds , if they can ever fix that than you will have a good game as you can assign groups of fighters to your keys and keep archers in back swordsmen in front etc. However with the Lag and it is very bad even on low performance it is difficult to move your men anywhere.   This is what they need to work on now and I think they will.   Edit----with the fixes in Lag , PvP has gotten a bit better

value-6       It cost $29.99 to buy the game , the weird thing was the developers had no idea how much the game cost and there were all kinds of problems with their distributor, but that is fixed now.  I give this game a 5 for value because it is still riddled with bugs and should still be in beta, an example of beta  there is an Alliance Icon in game and when you press on it , it says something like comeing soon, well I would expect that in beta but when the game is fully released to have a comeing soon icon NO.  This is a unique game so there certainly is value to it, they have a store but it does not seem to work and they dont have any quest packs ready yet. As time goes on I think the value will increase, but yes this game should still be in beta. 

       Overall a game that has great potential with careing and very helpfull developers and community (its needed) but a game that really is not ready for release and was released anyway.  Should you buy it?  If you have patience and can live with all the flaws than yes,If you are willing to grow with the game yes, if you are expecting a smooth product with all functions working than no.  I am currently playiing this and Atlantaca online , so when this gets frustating I just go to Atlantaca

   Again keep in mind this is a First Impression , I will update as I play,

   EDIT--Lag is now much better but still not good enough for PvP play although getting better every week. Developers continue to add features like Sieges, but there are still alot of missing features like Alliance play, it is getting better!

MumboJumbo

Thanks for sharing this, useful read.

KenFisher

Description of it sounds fascinating.  MMORTS...  cool post, thanks!

eddieg50

No Problem, I have not checked in with the game in about 10 days and with Skyrim I am not sure when I may get to it, but I may check in later in the day and see how the lag is and any improvements, I will let you know

RelytDnegel

Things are getting a little better. Biggest patch so far coming this monday introducing army vs town PvP and a lot more. The thing that is really killing this game for me at the moment is the small player base. I know they haven't started their marketing campaign yet but if I could consistantly find PvPs I could play all day cause the PvP is really fun. Hopefully it picks up soon when they start to advertise it a little more!

MumboJumbo

I read a disappointing early review (maybe it was steam, not sure) but nothing a few patches could not resolve I think, I'll give this one a whirl in a few months time hopefully, should make up for a disappointing Stronghold 3 release : (.

eddieg50

  I checked in yesterday I only played for about an hour but the lag  is starting to get much better , I dont know if it was a fluke but there was less lag, so they are improving the game