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Review: Far Better Than One Would Think
LtJohnnyRico
Member Posts: 214
Kingdom Heroes
So I have been recently in desperation mode for a good MMO to play. Past disappointments have left me jaded and continued issues with certain companies has left a bad taste in my mouth. When I went looking for a new MMO, I checked out the pay ones first and found that there was little enough change with most to warrant my return. And then I moved on to the infamous F2Ps! (This is the part where you gasp in shock.)
I found my fair share of disappointment with them as well. Most are grindey, have terrible lag, and sub-par graphics that inspire little confidence as it seems they just want a quick buck from the item shop as they drag out your sense of competition. Kingdom Heroes was the next stop on my list as MMORPG.com announced their giveaway of CB keys. The initial troubles I experienced with downloading Kingdom Heroes was really turning me off. First, I tried their official downloader and it ended up spazzing out on me like a schizophrenic homeless man. I then opted for the Gamershell download and that faired better until my wireless cut out. Another day later, came home from work, plugged in the ethernet wire and downloaded it again with much better results. (Never heard of torrenting Aeria?)
Registering was fairly easy at least and creating my character is always fun but the lack of options in character creation can only mean that if you want to be truly unique, you're going to have to cough up the cash. I went for a Fencer named Obutanaka (I don't speak Chinese, Japanese or any other eastern language so I threw together some words that sounded cool...sue me) who now serves the Kingdom of Shu! The tutorial is great but definitely could be better! It teaches you the basics of every MMO (movement, attack, item selection, HUD) and gives you the opportunity to see how vast and unique the world is even from the start. What they definitely need is a higher level tutorial as the Country chat is filled with people asking questions about mounts, your NPC soldiers, and crafting.
The quests are the usual "go there, kill this" style but leveling is super fast and you really feel like you are accomplishing something. What isn't copacetic with me is the fact that they have these traveling high level bosses that pop up in newbie areas and slaughter everyone. Though such occurances seem rare, you still have to watch your back. So far, I've reached level 18 in about 2 hours of play and I will continue this review when I have achieved higher levels because that is when new content is opened up (mounts, crafting, etc.). I also can't wait to see what the cash shop will be like (or can I...).
Graphics: 7/10 (Not AOC but definitely not RuneScape. The water is top notch and the Chinese architecture is great. But considering that this is an Asian company, why does China's landscape look similar to rural Kansas in some parts? Where's the bamboo? Where are the sunken rice patties? Why are the jungles so neatly trimmed!?)
Audio: 5/10 (Get more music! The same songs are driving me nuts! I am also tired of the characters speaking Chinese to me as I am pretty sure they are saying "Yo Momma!" to me.)
Gameplay: 8/10 (Fun, interesting, a bit grindy but unique with the command of so many NPC soldiers at your side).
Population: 7/10 (Lots of people is nice but sometimes too many is a pain. Everyone going for one boss gets on my nerves, especially when it is someone just farming the boss for the bonus XP and loot.)
Quests: 7/10 (Nothing special here, same old stuff. But at least they aren't broken like when AoC was first released. Though I do love the fact that you can click on a quest objective and it will take you to the location of the quest. Click on the Quest title and it takes you back to the quest giver. That alone adds 3 points.)
Community: 8/10 (Almost everyone in your Country chat is friendly and helpful. Afterall, you're on the same side against 2 other enemies! But, like I said, there are jerks who camp bosses or kill a MOB you needed just for the heck of it as they are running by.)
Overall: 7/10
The game can use some improvements and I think if the developers look toward some of the other MMOs out there, they can see what stuff would definitely work in their game. Crafting seems extremely hard in KH and if they did it LOTRO style, they'd be tops in that department. I just hope that the cash shop, when introduced, isn't so overly expensive that it makes it financially burdening to play competitively. The economy is in the tanks globally, remember that Aeria!
Comments
I'm downloading it right now. There's nothing to lose anyway. I'm just wondering how the pvp will be in this one since it's mainly a pvp game ... and will I have to grind much only to be able to participate in it.
When you'll get to later levles give us an update of your review!
Yea, PVP is definitely something I can't wait to try but I wanted to get to at least Level 20 first. I've seen some NPCs around that advertise Historical Battles and Arena style fighting so I will definitely give those a try first. It's interesting though because the server options are both "PVE." Does that mean they are not letting us test open PVP yet? Or does that mean a true PVP server to them would allow us to kill our own faction?
They do need a better, more informative website. But yea, you have nothing to lose and I am right now waiting to get home from work so I can play again!
Part 2
In part one, I covered the very start of my experience in the game and my initial reactions. I have to say, one of the biggest obstacles to this game seems to be the polish. There are a lot of people having issues with the launcher and a lot of stuff in the game that has not been finished/translated/implemented. This is NOT to say it is a bad game so don't go and put words in my mouth! In fact, I am having more fun in this than I did in my entire year of WOW.
As I've reached higher levels, I am now able to control 4 other soldiers who run around like my little minions, dealing death to my foes. The biggest pain is when they die because you have to resurrect them AND they lose "Loyalty." When they get to 0 loyalty, they leave you and you are left to having to retrain a new soldier. Raising loyalty is hard as the only items that do it for you are extremely expensive (quite possibly the most expensive items in the game - silk) or part of a promotional, beginners package (you get 2 tablets that raise loyalty by 60 one time). They definitely need to put in a way for people to raise the loyalty of their soldiers through questing or just how you treat your soldiers. Do you constantly make them farm while you sit AFK? Then you should be punished by having their loyalty go down. That's just my own idea.
Which leads me to AFK Farming. It's in this game and it gets a tad bit annoying BUT...one great thing is that if someone is AFK farming in an area that you need kills, if you participate in attacking the MOBs you need to kill, then you get the kill rather than them. So, you can kill your 10 Kung-Fu Thugs and leave the AFKer to continue his farming with him none the wiser you were there.
There was also supposed to be a War today. War is when the gates between factions lift and anyone can invade the other faction. The event was called off though as I think the Developers are having issues with this still. I'd rather them fix it then kill the game though. A few people were disappointed and were lamenting about how "THIS GAME SUCKS!" but I am constantly reminding them that this is a FREE Closed Beta. We're actually here to test and shouldn't expect a totally finished or refined game.
So...what else is new...Oh yes! I got a mount at level 20 which is far easier than getting one in WOW. Mounted Combat is the greatest. I used to ride around with a lance, stabbing my enemies in the face....UNTIL...I discovered the wonders of riding around and shooting them down as a mounted archer. I now ride circles around my fiercest of foes and drop them with minimal damage. The PVP is what I truly look forward to as this game lends itself to some interesting use of tactics. Will there be hordes of mounted archers on each side? Will there be shield walls? Will there be a long line of longbowmen raining arrows down on you from across the battlefield? It's truly an exciting thing to look forward to and seeing Siege Engines today...I can't wait to watch them fire!
This game is exciting me like only my first MMO (Asheron's Call) did. It has SO much potential and no stupid elves. I hope I start to see more people in-game. There are beta keys left so grab them while you can.
Your soldiers loyalty does go down if you AFK grind.
You should try climbing into one of the ballista in town, it's quite interesting. Can't wait till we can get to fire them. I also like the Sky Balloon transport system. You actually have to wait to get around the world instead of teleporting everywhere but it is still much faster than running. It's a pretty interesting game and even though there is quite a bit of grind, the fact you can afk grind makes up for it a bit. Quests also give quite a lot of EXP.
I'm also on Shu, ingame name Asch.
They badly need to implement some way to raise loyalty or we are all going to have soldiers with 0 loyalty and fighting horribly.
There are silks which are a relatively rare drop.
There are also items in the Merit shop (Merit is gained from killing bosses, certain quests, and killing other nation players)
Silk is extremely rare as you said and if it is on the auction block, it is the most expensive item there.
And have you ever killed a boss for merit? If you got a full 10 merit for every boss you killed, that would be 350 bosses you have to kill for 1 merit item that restores 20 loyalty.
I got 11 from killing a level 55 boss (solo) and I hear it scales by the boss' level. If you gain merit from warring as well, it should not be too difficult to get the merit you need. The only problem is that the gates to other nations are closed.