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PC Gamer Blade & Soul review. 5/10.

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Comments

  • nationalcitynationalcity Member UncommonPosts: 501
    I also agree that it should have been at least 70+, I mean the combat and visuals alone it should of hit that.....

    Seems this game gets pretty harsh reviews from most sites, I don't know maybe it was the 4+ year wait it really jaded people......


  • TealaTeala Member RarePosts: 7,627
    Go fight the Spider Queen - that is an intense dungeon fight.   
  • Joseph_KerrJoseph_Kerr Member RarePosts: 1,113
    Good review, bad game.
  • scorpex-xscorpex-x Member RarePosts: 1,030
    edited January 2016
    Honestly I don't think it's "bad" it's just not for you, unless you can cite specific reasons it's worse than anything else that really matter.

    There will be players who love this game to death and play it for 5-10 years, different strokes.
    Post edited by scorpex-x on
  • PepeqPepeq Member UncommonPosts: 1,977
    DMKano said:
    The only important question is 

    Am i having fun?


    What others say or think or do - irrelevant when it comes to entertainment.


    I thought Freddy Got Fingered was one of the funniest movies i watched period - the fact thst it was universally poorly reviewed meant diddly squat to me
    Actually, for today's gamers... merely having something new to do is all that matters.  It's why they try every new title (finished or unfinished) that comes along.  They know they won't play it for long, but then seem to have selective memory loss when that point in time occurs, and act like they were wronged in some way.

    Love it then bash it...
    Hate it then bash it...
    Indifferent then bash it...


    Let's remember one simple fact, for x period of time, you were doing something that distracted you... it's a mild form of entertainment... but compared to preparing your taxes, a welcome diversion at the time.
  • Viper482Viper482 Member LegendaryPosts: 4,099
    If only them one million people cared.......

    I could not find one quote stating what constitutes an "active" player. My guess is one million people have created accounts, logged in, and played the game. That in no way means that many are actively playing it. I played it for about 2 hours and uninstalled. I am sure they counted me in that million.
    Make MMORPG's Great Again!
  • scorpex-xscorpex-x Member RarePosts: 1,030
    inb4 "the game is growing because it now has 1.2 million players!"

    I wonder if people will be so eager to drink the cool aid if it's coming from Ncsoft instead of Square Enix.
  • OhhPaigeyOhhPaigey Member RarePosts: 1,517
    I'd give it about a 5/10 too.

    It's kind of meh.
    When all is said and done, more is always said than done.
  • esc-joconnoresc-joconnor Member RarePosts: 1,097
    If only them one million people cared.......
    The one million people that are trying a new free to play game for themselves? 
    I was one of them. Don't like it at all. I've tried most decent free to play games, and some not so decent. See how many will be playing in 6 months or a year. SWTOR, Wildstar, WAR, TERA, they all had good turn outs the first month, and they were sub games to start.
    It's free and new. It's expected.
  • nationalcitynationalcity Member UncommonPosts: 501
    edited January 2016
    I keep seeing people comment on my one million comment..

    I just basically meant that it's pretty good for the game to have that many already I'm not under any delusion that they will all stay but what game in recent memory that has came out can even boast that, it takes most games years to reach that number of active accounts.....  And yes I know there probably also counting just people logging in once then never playing again......

    Lately there lucky to even reach half that when first released, even if they lose half of them in the first month that's still more then any other game that's released in the past year or so can brag about........

    I also meant that people are probably on there playing the game not really caring about a review that gave it a 5/10....
  • jmcdermottukjmcdermottuk Member RarePosts: 1,571
    edited January 2016
    Zen00 said:
    Plus as usual unlocking storage is a $100+ purchase, depending on how many characters you have, which is stupid.
    I haven't paid a penny in real money to unlock storage, just make do. Bank storage can be increased for silver anyway, for the first couple of lines. Then again I've never been a hoarder.

    Edit:
    I'd give it a 7-7.5. Combat is awesome. Levelling is very fast, and not boring because, combat is awesome. You don't have time to think of it as a grind, the levels fly by.

    I'm also quite fond of boobs. Yes, these are a bit over the top, but I don't really care. It's a game and it's fun. I could care less if the boobs bounce. For the record you can actually make them pretty small if you want to.

    All evidence says that nobody want to make small boobs. It's not the game, it's the people playing those toons.
  • AkemieAkemie Member UncommonPosts: 50
    Heyo! I wrote this review, so I'm happy to chat about the game with people if they want to have an honest discussion.

    Bill's got the right of it, I had no say in those older games scores. But I do think that its worth understanding that games are scored based on the larger context of what they exist in. I won't comment on whether or not I agree with what PCG gave WildStar or SWTOR in terms of scores, but those were also games that launched years ago and didn't feel nearly as tired at the time as Blade and Soul does now (for me).

    Another big thing to understand is that, in terms of raw features, both SWTOR and WildStar are vastly "wider" games than Blade and Soul, with robust housing systems, tons of meaningful group content for new players (Blade and Soul has about 6 "traditional" dungeons, and the rest are more like mini-dungeons), and, in the case of each, really distinguishing elements that really set them apart from the pack (SWTOR's amazing story and unique legacy system and WildStar's combat, great housing, and unique personality -- also a dozen or so little tweaks that make playing really enjoyable). Blade and Soul does have great PVP, but I didn't like how it felt chained off until you leveled fully -- it's a philosophy other MMORPGs use ("Just wait, the real game begins at the endgame!") that I'm very tired of and feel is particularly harmful to Blade and Soul because of how the rest of the game feels lacking.
    The problem is you gave a severely immature biased review.  It is ok to not like a game, but you really came off sounding like a Troll.  That isn't anything  you can say at this point or there isn't any amount of fans that can dig you out of the hole that your review has put you in.  You lost respect from many people who have truly played Blade and Soul.  
  • MikehaMikeha Member EpicPosts: 9,196
    Only thing that matters is what NC Soft's next report shows. How much did Blade and Soul's revenue increase from the Western Launch?

    Thats the only thing that matters and its the only way to see if the game is a success. 

    A 5/10 is just silly. 

    Even though its been only a couple weeks the game would not have even lasted that long if it was a 5/10. 

    Just another reason why the West is in the state that its in. 


    Now back to my Lynn Force Master. 
  • simsalabim77simsalabim77 Member RarePosts: 1,607
    scorpex-x said:
    inb4 "the game is growing because it now has 1.2 million players!"

    I wonder if people will be so eager to drink the cool aid if it's coming from Ncsoft instead of Square Enix.
    Good to see you found a new game to rant about. 
  • rapatpamprapatpamp Member UncommonPosts: 144
    If only them one million people cared.......
    I was one of those 1 million, not so much anymore.  People need to understand those 1 million were just trying out the game when it first came out, pretty sure its not that number anymore.
    Same I hit max level and had nothing to do. Couldn't even craft due to the soulstone issue.
  • observerobserver Member RarePosts: 3,685
    The game was shockingly bad after all the hype for the last 3+ years.
  • Colt47Colt47 Member UncommonPosts: 549
    Games like this kind of feel like trying to force a triangle into a square slot.  It can fit, but it's not the best format for the game it is trying to be.  Then again, this is from Asia and they have had a rather interesting history with consoles and PCs vs the western world, so I'm not at all surprised to see games like this one.
  • JDis25JDis25 Member RarePosts: 1,353
    Tough score for the 5th most played game in Korea. But everyone does have different tastes...
    Now Playing: Bless / Summoners War
    Looking forward to: Crowfall / Lost Ark / Black Desert Mobile
  • StevenMessnerStevenMessner Staff WriterMember UncommonPosts: 31
    Akemie said:
    Heyo! I wrote this review, so I'm happy to chat about the game with people if they want to have an honest discussion.

    Bill's got the right of it, I had no say in those older games scores. But I do think that its worth understanding that games are scored based on the larger context of what they exist in. I won't comment on whether or not I agree with what PCG gave WildStar or SWTOR in terms of scores, but those were also games that launched years ago and didn't feel nearly as tired at the time as Blade and Soul does now (for me).

    Another big thing to understand is that, in terms of raw features, both SWTOR and WildStar are vastly "wider" games than Blade and Soul, with robust housing systems, tons of meaningful group content for new players (Blade and Soul has about 6 "traditional" dungeons, and the rest are more like mini-dungeons), and, in the case of each, really distinguishing elements that really set them apart from the pack (SWTOR's amazing story and unique legacy system and WildStar's combat, great housing, and unique personality -- also a dozen or so little tweaks that make playing really enjoyable). Blade and Soul does have great PVP, but I didn't like how it felt chained off until you leveled fully -- it's a philosophy other MMORPGs use ("Just wait, the real game begins at the endgame!") that I'm very tired of and feel is particularly harmful to Blade and Soul because of how the rest of the game feels lacking.
    The problem is you gave a severely immature biased review.  It is ok to not like a game, but you really came off sounding like a Troll.  That isn't anything  you can say at this point or there isn't any amount of fans that can dig you out of the hole that your review has put you in.  You lost respect from many people who have truly played Blade and Soul.  
    Not really sure how I sounded like a troll. People obviously seem to be upset that I didn't enjoy Blade and Soul's stylistic approach to characters (and, to be fair, I did say in the review that the art style would be contentious), but there seems to be this idea that I arbitrarily docked the game 20 points just on that fact alone, which is false. Even if the art style wasn't what it is, the game would still be a by-the-books F2P MMORPG in a market absolutely saturated by them. Its best qualities would still be locked away behind a very pointless grind that does a poor job of hiding how shallow it can be, along with its bigger problems. 

    But at the end of the day, my opinion of Blade and Soul does not need to stand in your way of enjoying it. There was no great injustice done when I wrote that review, just like how you might not enjoy a certain book or movie that someone else does. You can certainly try and blame it on the fact that I didn't "truly" play the game, but I did and I found it very mediocre, which the score reflects.

    Anyway, you sound like you're really enjoying the game which is great! Reviews aren't meant to paint those who enjoy things that the reviewer doesn't as people with poor tastes or any of the things I get the sense that a lot of people feel. They are meant to be an assessment of the game through the lens of the person playing it. Just because I found its design to be tedious and boring doesn't mean that you're wrong for feeling differently. That's the beauty of any form of media, each person can have a different interpretation of it! Even reading these comments you can see that opinions on the game seem to differ greatly, so why you feel that my review has dug me into a hole I don't understand.

    Hope that helps clear some things up!
  • azurreiazurrei Member UncommonPosts: 332
    Akemie said:
    Heyo! I wrote this review, so I'm happy to chat about the game with people if they want to have an honest discussion.

    Bill's got the right of it, I had no say in those older games scores. But I do think that its worth understanding that games are scored based on the larger context of what they exist in. I won't comment on whether or not I agree with what PCG gave WildStar or SWTOR in terms of scores, but those were also games that launched years ago and didn't feel nearly as tired at the time as Blade and Soul does now (for me).

    Another big thing to understand is that, in terms of raw features, both SWTOR and WildStar are vastly "wider" games than Blade and Soul, with robust housing systems, tons of meaningful group content for new players (Blade and Soul has about 6 "traditional" dungeons, and the rest are more like mini-dungeons), and, in the case of each, really distinguishing elements that really set them apart from the pack (SWTOR's amazing story and unique legacy system and WildStar's combat, great housing, and unique personality -- also a dozen or so little tweaks that make playing really enjoyable). Blade and Soul does have great PVP, but I didn't like how it felt chained off until you leveled fully -- it's a philosophy other MMORPGs use ("Just wait, the real game begins at the endgame!") that I'm very tired of and feel is particularly harmful to Blade and Soul because of how the rest of the game feels lacking.
    The problem is you gave a severely immature biased review.  It is ok to not like a game, but you really came off sounding like a Troll.  That isn't anything  you can say at this point or there isn't any amount of fans that can dig you out of the hole that your review has put you in.  You lost respect from many people who have truly played Blade and Soul.  
    Not really sure how I sounded like a troll. People obviously seem to be upset that I didn't enjoy Blade and Soul's stylistic approach to characters (and, to be fair, I did say in the review that the art style would be contentious), but there seems to be this idea that I arbitrarily docked the game 20 points just on that fact alone, which is false. Even if the art style wasn't what it is, the game would still be a by-the-books F2P MMORPG in a market absolutely saturated by them. Its best qualities would still be locked away behind a very pointless grind that does a poor job of hiding how shallow it can be, along with its bigger problems. 

    But at the end of the day, my opinion of Blade and Soul does not need to stand in your way of enjoying it. There was no great injustice done when I wrote that review, just like how you might not enjoy a certain book or movie that someone else does. You can certainly try and blame it on the fact that I didn't "truly" play the game, but I did and I found it very mediocre, which the score reflects.

    Anyway, you sound like you're really enjoying the game which is great! Reviews aren't meant to paint those who enjoy things that the reviewer doesn't as people with poor tastes or any of the things I get the sense that a lot of people feel. They are meant to be an assessment of the game through the lens of the person playing it. Just because I found its design to be tedious and boring doesn't mean that you're wrong for feeling differently. That's the beauty of any form of media, each person can have a different interpretation of it! Even reading these comments you can see that opinions on the game seem to differ greatly, so why you feel that my review has dug me into a hole I don't understand.

    Hope that helps clear some things up!
    I will be interested in your opinion of the game once you are reviewing the BnS of today and not the game that was released 3 years ago (which we currently have) - NA/EU should be caught up to the current game by the end of the year fwiw.  I think, aside from some skill updates, people forget that the game we are currently playing is (literally) from 3 years ago.  Out of curiosity, what was your opinion of the exact same boring questing in W*, which came out AFTER BnS?
  • reeereeereeereee Member UncommonPosts: 1,636
    Akemie said:
    Heyo! I wrote this review, so I'm happy to chat about the game with people if they want to have an honest discussion.

    Bill's got the right of it, I had no say in those older games scores. But I do think that its worth understanding that games are scored based on the larger context of what they exist in. I won't comment on whether or not I agree with what PCG gave WildStar or SWTOR in terms of scores, but those were also games that launched years ago and didn't feel nearly as tired at the time as Blade and Soul does now (for me).

    Another big thing to understand is that, in terms of raw features, both SWTOR and WildStar are vastly "wider" games than Blade and Soul, with robust housing systems, tons of meaningful group content for new players (Blade and Soul has about 6 "traditional" dungeons, and the rest are more like mini-dungeons), and, in the case of each, really distinguishing elements that really set them apart from the pack (SWTOR's amazing story and unique legacy system and WildStar's combat, great housing, and unique personality -- also a dozen or so little tweaks that make playing really enjoyable). Blade and Soul does have great PVP, but I didn't like how it felt chained off until you leveled fully -- it's a philosophy other MMORPGs use ("Just wait, the real game begins at the endgame!") that I'm very tired of and feel is particularly harmful to Blade and Soul because of how the rest of the game feels lacking.
    The problem is you gave a severely immature biased review.  It is ok to not like a game, but you really came off sounding like a Troll.  That isn't anything  you can say at this point or there isn't any amount of fans that can dig you out of the hole that your review has put you in.  You lost respect from many people who have truly played Blade and Soul.  
    Not really sure how I sounded like a troll. People obviously seem to be upset that I didn't enjoy Blade and Soul's stylistic approach to characters (and, to be fair, I did say in the review that the art style would be contentious), but there seems to be this idea that I arbitrarily docked the game 20 points just on that fact alone, which is false. Even if the art style wasn't what it is, the game would still be a by-the-books F2P MMORPG in a market absolutely saturated by them. Its best qualities would still be locked away behind a very pointless grind that does a poor job of hiding how shallow it can be, along with its bigger problems. 

    But at the end of the day, my opinion of Blade and Soul does not need to stand in your way of enjoying it. There was no great injustice done when I wrote that review, just like how you might not enjoy a certain book or movie that someone else does. You can certainly try and blame it on the fact that I didn't "truly" play the game, but I did and I found it very mediocre, which the score reflects.

    Anyway, you sound like you're really enjoying the game which is great! Reviews aren't meant to paint those who enjoy things that the reviewer doesn't as people with poor tastes or any of the things I get the sense that a lot of people feel. They are meant to be an assessment of the game through the lens of the person playing it. Just because I found its design to be tedious and boring doesn't mean that you're wrong for feeling differently. That's the beauty of any form of media, each person can have a different interpretation of it! Even reading these comments you can see that opinions on the game seem to differ greatly, so why you feel that my review has dug me into a hole I don't understand.

    Hope that helps clear some things up!
    Yeah yeah, Western developer makes quest heavy games like ESO and Wildstar and you're swinging from their balls with 9/10 8/10 but if it comes from Asia oh that must 5/10.  Questing was just as tired and boring two years ago. 
  • StevenMessnerStevenMessner Staff WriterMember UncommonPosts: 31
    reeereee said:
    Yeah yeah, Western developer makes quest heavy games like ESO and Wildstar and you're swinging from their balls with 9/10 8/10 but if it comes from Asia oh that must 5/10.  Questing was just as tired and boring two years ago. 
    Didn't review either of those games so not sure where you're getting those scores from. And you're making some assumptions for which there is no real basis in! 

    It's also worth noting that both of those games do have some interesting innovations on the quest design. Whether they're to your tastes or not is a different matter, however.

    azurrei said:
    I will be interested in your opinion of the game once you are reviewing the BnS of today and not the game that was released 3 years ago (which we currently have) - NA/EU should be caught up to the current game by the end of the year fwiw.  I think, aside from some skill updates, people forget that the game we are currently playing is (literally) from 3 years ago.  Out of curiosity, what was your opinion of the exact same boring questing in W*, which came out AFTER BnS?
    I'm interested as well and will likely dip back into it to see if the new content changes my perspective in any way! 

    Now, WildStar's questing definitely shares the same boring roots that BnS's does, but there's several aspects of it that I found did a much better job of hiding those roots. For one, WildStar is plagued with tired questing design. But little tweaks to the formula like the addition of challenges, which reward you based on how well you complete them, were an entertaining way to add another layer to the questing so that you weren't always preoccupied with just killing everything in sight. And, compared to BnS, there was still a far greater variety of quest objectives that you had to complete which meshed really well with WildStar's quirky personality. But yeah, both games were pretty dull to level in.

    One thing worth noting is that you also have to take into account how a system like questing plays into the game as a whole. For example, WildStar feels like it has quite a number of features which you could enjoy if the questing got tiresome, like housing, tweaking your cosmetic items (which is a system much more advanced than BnS), and really A+ dungeon design. Blade and Soul, on the other hand, doesn't offer much outside of the quest progression until you hit the more challenging dungeons later on or level fully to 45 and can become a serious competitor in PVP.

    But yeah, WildStar's quests aren't that great either.
  • svandysvandy Member UncommonPosts: 277
    Now, WildStar's questing definitely shares the same boring roots that BnS's does, but there's several aspects of it that I found did a much better job of hiding those roots. For one, WildStar is plagued with tired questing design. But little tweaks to the formula like the addition of challenges, which reward you based on how well you complete them, were an entertaining way to add another layer to the questing so that you weren't always preoccupied with just killing everything in sight. And, compared to BnS, there was still a far greater variety of quest objectives that you had to complete which meshed really well with WildStar's quirky personality. But yeah, both games were pretty dull to level in.

    One thing worth noting is that you also have to take into account how a system like questing plays into the game as a whole. For example, WildStar feels like it has quite a number of features which you could enjoy if the questing got tiresome, like housing, tweaking your cosmetic items (which is a system much more advanced than BnS), and really A+ dungeon design. Blade and Soul, on the other hand, doesn't offer much outside of the quest progression until you hit the more challenging dungeons later on or level fully to 45 and can become a serious competitor in PVP.

    But yeah, WildStar's quests aren't that great either.
    This nails it pretty well. I like Wildstar even if I am not playing it at the moment, but the game overcomes it bland questing with robust systems surrounding it, at least a moderate feeling of character building, great character customization, and a quirky sense of humor. BnS is quite literally bland quests, decent combat, and a good PVP scene. If all I wanted was good PVP, I would just play Battlefield or a MOBA or something (In fact, Battlefield sadly has better teamwork than this supposed MMORPG from what I have seen).

    I keep trying to push myself forward in BNS but I just cant do it. The piss poor performance on my admittedly not so new laptop may have a part to play in that, but the game is 4 years old and I should not be having these problems at all.

    Please visit my youtube channel for some H1Z1/DayZ casual roleplay videos!


    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrQoK5VZlwBBzpsksmXtjMQ

  • StevenMessnerStevenMessner Staff WriterMember UncommonPosts: 31
    Oh yeah performance is all over the place. Even on a decent gaming rig, stutters and frame dips were common enough to be really annoying.

    In Blade and Souls, there is this extra expectation that everything should be fluid and graceful, but the constant hitches really detract from that feeling. Windstriding is another area that I think was really poorly designed (though I didn't get to touch on it in the review) and really detracts from the game. Mount systems have been around forever, so why they decided to scrap convenient faster travel for a system that makes you expend stamina rapidly and regain it painfully slow is really bizarre. 

    I like the idea of windstriding in theory, but its implementation is just not good. I was constantly getting stuck on level geometry, causing my character to run in place (on things even as minor as a single stair), and the levels are often so flat and spaced out that you rarely get a chance to use the glide effectively. Also, why do monsters pull you out of windstriding when they damage you? Monster populations are so dense on the narrow maps that getting from point A to point B easily can be so frustrating when monsters you don't even have a quest to kill are constantly aggroing you and pulling you into combat, which has a really slow movement speed. Then, when you finally kill the thing, sometimes it takes dozens of seconds before the game recognizes you're out of combat, leaving you to move at a dreadfully slow pace until it does. I suspect it might be glitchy too, as I've had a few instances in single-player dungeons where the game never recognized combat was over and I had to slowly run back to the entrance to leave (and it wasn't one of the dungeons with the convenient teleports at the end).

    Anyway, just a few other pain points in Blade and Soul.
  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332
    edited January 2016
    People see a 5/10 and auto think scandal when in reality,that is what i would rate MOST of the mmorpg's

    I break down a rating system like this ...

    10/10 no game exists and never will

    9/10 absolutely top of the line everything tech,graphics,depth,tons of systems,every single aspect of the genre is in the game.Highly unlikely this game will ever exist either.

    8/10 AMAZING game pretty much covers all ground and i would want to play it.

    7/10 This is where MOST of the great games would reside,only 2-3 should be in this category per genre.

    6/10  A basic decent game that i would play

    5/10 basic decent game that i don't want to play.

    4/10 lazy effort but still somewhat decent. might or might not play,likely play it for a month or two but no more.

    3/10 weak lazy effort ,not many systems ,low end tech. (Moba's,TCG's,ARPG's)
    2/10 Crap game not worth investing any money into or even playing
    1/10  utter crap not worth even looking at and developer should be ridiculed for trying to sell such rubbish.




    Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.

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