What's sad is that is probably the only way to actually write a good review of horizons. As soon as you compare it to any of the major MMORPG's out there it's easy to see just how poor a game it is. Back long ago when I was still grinding through lvl's in EQ a friend of mine pointed out this name game he heard about. At the time it sounded amazing and looked like they would do things that were never done before but sadly most of that original idea was completely cut out. Just curious if anyone else actually saw that back in 1997/98 I beleave it was.
aye, I guess your right on that one.I never followed the game before tbh, but since i joined beta i read a lot and tried to find as muhc info as possible. The game design was taken away from the original dev & creator of it David Allen.
Its just all personal preference anyway, I've known people who loved SWG and hated EQ simply because they like sci fi. I've seen only a few massives actually shut down, so far most of them seem to keep a following for some reason or another.
This is the first game I've wanted to beta in that I didn't get to, kinda sucks but there you have it. mostly what I've been told by everyone is that you can craft. You can do that in any game, at least in the ones I've played. Could someone tell me if there is another reason other than crafting and city building why anyone would want to play? Really, I've been told that you can't find any decent items on quests, I've been told that quests are little more than stadard numerical kill sprees, and there are no dungeons or other interesting structures.
I'm not bashing, really, I'd like to hear someone with a positive viewpoint on what makes the game good, and what makes it different than other games in the market?
Here is my short version opinion, as I have really gotten tired of typing the same thing over and over and over again on the beta boards. I'll give the bad first since thats how I like doing things in general.
The Bad:
The races need to be more distinctive, as it stands there are 2 main races. Bipeds and Dragons. Although AE would have you believe there are many more. The differences at the beginning LOOK significant, but since you gain stats as you level in a predetermined manner, the higher level you get, the less and less of a difference this makes, and it doesnt make that much a difference to begin with. However you can make your biped LOOK like a Fiend, Half-Giant, Elf, Gnome, Dwarf, Human, Saris, or Sslik. It really makes no difference which one you choose, unless you choose dragon.
The classes should be more geared toward specific races, as it stands now, there is little if no difference between a gnome beserker and a half-giant beserker. or a elf wizard and a half giant wizard. IMHO that latter should not even be able to exist, but thats a matter of preference I suppose. (All those years of reading good fantasy fiction must have currupted me)
Combat is too easy, plain and simple. You need to make the challenges for yourself by creative fighting and pulling, Horizons does not provide the challenges for you. (Maybe thats a good part... not sure. It wasnt for me though)
There is no item degradation, in 5 months, no item in Istaria will cost more than 50 coppers because of this. 50 copper btw is next to nothing.
FPS with tons of players on the screen VS the undead = slideshow, or complete stop. Similar to the levels of lag/fps like in the opening weeks of AO when they would have events like the giant worm attacking a city. This particular one can be fixed however and isnt one of my top "bads". (Its more the ones that will probably never change that I see causing the most damage here)
Saying that the fact that there are no doors is because it is against Istarian culture, almost made me ROFLMAO, not responding to the question of why there were no doors would have been better than this sad, sad, sad reason.
There is no "Life" in Istaria. The players and their trainers are nearly the only people on this world. As such, it was very hard to "believe" in this world.
No reason to go adventuring. There is no dropped equipment in Horizons... none, whatsoever. All you get is more money to make the crafters rich. There is nothing a crafter would want from an adventurer, the drops of crafting supplies doesnt cut it, as no crafter will even bother paying for 10 cedar logs, when he can go out and chop them with his own hands from a tree in 60 seconds. And I dont know where the crafting formulas were dropping but since the last player wipe, my fiance and I leveled up to 27 together and didnt see ONE SINGLE formula drop. Thats changable however... and I am getting off topic on this one... No reason to go adventuring. If you werent in beta, let me tell you there were countless posts about what could be done about this, different ways that drops could be added without impacting crafters. Every single one of them was ignored, or perhaps never read.
The Good:
This is the best crafting system I have seen yet in a Fantasy MMORPG. I really was impressed. Ultima Online quality in 3D... unfortunately no item degredation will make this pointless in short order.
The storyline really is fitting to the whole respawn 20 million times thing, and I enjoy the way they worked with it.
The number of Classes (or schools as they are reffered to in Horizons). Very nice list. And in time they could become even more unique to each other, making this an even better "good" point.
House and Community building was done very nicely. No wide open plains littered with hundred of houses (ala UO), nice and orianized plot system for purchasing land plots.
Thats all I can think of at the moment, If I come up with more, I'll add on.
Comments
What's sad is that is probably the only way to actually write a good review of horizons. As soon as you compare it to any of the major MMORPG's out there it's easy to see just how poor a game it is. Back long ago when I was still grinding through lvl's in EQ a friend of mine pointed out this name game he heard about. At the time it sounded amazing and looked like they would do things that were never done before but sadly most of that original idea was completely cut out. Just curious if anyone else actually saw that back in 1997/98 I beleave it was.
aye, I guess your right on that one.I never followed the game before tbh, but since i joined beta i read a lot and tried to find as muhc info as possible. The game design was taken away from the original dev & creator of it David Allen.
read the interview with him:
http://www.mmorpg.net/article.php?a=1011&p=1
and here is a very good review on vault:
http://vnboards.ign.com/message.asp?topic=60553472&replies=77
most worked out and complete beta tester post i saw
S.
Its just all personal preference anyway, I've known people who loved SWG and hated EQ simply because they like sci fi. I've seen only a few massives actually shut down, so far most of them seem to keep a following for some reason or another.
This is the first game I've wanted to beta in that I didn't get to, kinda sucks but there you have it. mostly what I've been told by everyone is that you can craft. You can do that in any game, at least in the ones I've played. Could someone tell me if there is another reason other than crafting and city building why anyone would want to play? Really, I've been told that you can't find any decent items on quests, I've been told that quests are little more than stadard numerical kill sprees, and there are no dungeons or other interesting structures.
I'm not bashing, really, I'd like to hear someone with a positive viewpoint on what makes the game good, and what makes it different than other games in the market?
Here is my short version opinion, as I have really gotten tired of typing the same thing over and over and over again on the beta boards. I'll give the bad first since thats how I like doing things in general.
The Bad:
The races need to be more distinctive, as it stands there are 2 main races. Bipeds and Dragons. Although AE would have you believe there are many more. The differences at the beginning LOOK significant, but since you gain stats as you level in a predetermined manner, the higher level you get, the less and less of a difference this makes, and it doesnt make that much a difference to begin with. However you can make your biped LOOK like a Fiend, Half-Giant, Elf, Gnome, Dwarf, Human, Saris, or Sslik. It really makes no difference which one you choose, unless you choose dragon.
The classes should be more geared toward specific races, as it stands now, there is little if no difference between a gnome beserker and a half-giant beserker. or a elf wizard and a half giant wizard. IMHO that latter should not even be able to exist, but thats a matter of preference I suppose. (All those years of reading good fantasy fiction must have currupted me)
Combat is too easy, plain and simple. You need to make the challenges for yourself by creative fighting and pulling, Horizons does not provide the challenges for you. (Maybe thats a good part... not sure. It wasnt for me though)
There is no item degradation, in 5 months, no item in Istaria will cost more than 50 coppers because of this. 50 copper btw is next to nothing.
FPS with tons of players on the screen VS the undead = slideshow, or complete stop. Similar to the levels of lag/fps like in the opening weeks of AO when they would have events like the giant worm attacking a city. This particular one can be fixed however and isnt one of my top "bads". (Its more the ones that will probably never change that I see causing the most damage here)
Saying that the fact that there are no doors is because it is against Istarian culture, almost made me ROFLMAO, not responding to the question of why there were no doors would have been better than this sad, sad, sad reason.
There is no "Life" in Istaria. The players and their trainers are nearly the only people on this world. As such, it was very hard to "believe" in this world.
No reason to go adventuring. There is no dropped equipment in Horizons... none, whatsoever. All you get is more money to make the crafters rich. There is nothing a crafter would want from an adventurer, the drops of crafting supplies doesnt cut it, as no crafter will even bother paying for 10 cedar logs, when he can go out and chop them with his own hands from a tree in 60 seconds. And I dont know where the crafting formulas were dropping but since the last player wipe, my fiance and I leveled up to 27 together and didnt see ONE SINGLE formula drop. Thats changable however... and I am getting off topic on this one... No reason to go adventuring. If you werent in beta, let me tell you there were countless posts about what could be done about this, different ways that drops could be added without impacting crafters. Every single one of them was ignored, or perhaps never read.
The Good:
This is the best crafting system I have seen yet in a Fantasy MMORPG. I really was impressed. Ultima Online quality in 3D... unfortunately no item degredation will make this pointless in short order.
The storyline really is fitting to the whole respawn 20 million times thing, and I enjoy the way they worked with it.
The number of Classes (or schools as they are reffered to in Horizons). Very nice list. And in time they could become even more unique to each other, making this an even better "good" point.
House and Community building was done very nicely. No wide open plains littered with hundred of houses (ala UO), nice and orianized plot system for purchasing land plots.
Thats all I can think of at the moment, If I come up with more, I'll add on.
Farulosonoth
The Dark Wizard