I have played this game for almost 3 years now. I can see myself playing this game as long as Rolf devotes his time to developing and maintaining it and stay true to his ideals.
I enjoy the slow pace, the sense of accomplishment, the complexity and the challenge. I love the small and loyal (mostly...) community, players that are so involved in the game that they spend time and money to help bring new players to the game and teach them the basics. I love that I can do whatever I want to, there is noone holding my hand or forcing me to do anything. It is the ultimate sandbox game.
Admittedly, the pace of development has sometimes been slow and Rolf has probably made a few mistakes over the years, but he is only human afterall. The future of Wurm looks bright, with updated graphics, animations, customizable avatars, visible armour, more crafting options, and hopefully improved pvp for those that enjoy that all soon to come within the next year I am sure.
There is no reason to wait for those improvements though, Wurm has been playable for several years now so just jump right in and don't hesitate to ask for help.
I've been playing this game on and off for a couple of years now, and I have to say I've been playing MMOs since around 1998 or so and haven't ever seen anything as... unique as Wurm.
I'm typically a light PVPer, in any online world that allows it, and one of the things I really enjoyed about Wurm was the fact that while there was PvP, and while it was REALLY a grind to get your character to the point where you could actually be more than just an arrow pincussion in a fight it could really be interesting.
While I don't really PvP any longer when I do play it really hasn't made me like the game any less for what it is an that is an immersive environment.
When you climb a mountain in this game, you are in true fear for your life most of the time since if its a mountain like I like to climb there is a really good chance you could fall off and lose all your gear, or at least it would take you hours if not days to figure out a way to scale down to where your corpse landed.
That's just the least of the dangers ya face if ya live up on a mountain. At the end of the day though when you look out over the terrain and you can see all of your kingdom and your village far below you, it was worth it to run across that narrow ridge leading your prize, irreplaceable war-mount and while carrying that best set of armor and a powerful sword, but knowing that you might lose it all to that that that troll swinging his club at you while you run for your life and pray you don't fall off the sheer drop on either side..... it's worth it, and a risk you rarely have to fear from your natural enviroment as an advanced player in other games.
Its not like some games I've played where escape is a mere teleport away most of the time, but when you are far away out in the wilderness.... you are truly removed from civilization and how well you know that terrain, where a horse can run an where it can't can save ur life when your being chased by an irate enemy on a mount twice as fast as yours and armed with a longbow.
When you call an area home its YOURS, you form it to your specifications, as well as your able to, you build your house, and you pick your destination in the game. My hobby in game has always been making wine, to do that I have to pay attention to the seasons, plant and tend the grape fields and maple forests around my village. It's something that is very slow paced but I really don't do it for the wine, heck its mostly useless.
I do it because I can and it's just enjoyable, relaxing and provides me with an excuse to hike up said mountain and get my blood pumping when I want to add another barrel of wine to my stash to age.
Some people like to build massive monuments, or try to corner the market on prize horses, for everyone it's just that kind of game where you pick one of the hundreds of skills and you just do what you want to do.
I do have to say however, if you have a short temper and are use to eating the rats rather than them eating you, as a new player ur going to have serious issues with this game.
If you like to PvP and pretty much walk over anybody you feel like, and basically have an ever-man for himself attitude ur going to have problems, though it is admittedly possible to play that way once your experienced enough to know how to do it. (just not a good idea)
The biggest reason I play on the PvP servers despite the fact that you can get killed is that you can dispatch ur pesky neighbor if he decides there just HAS to be a highway through your grape field and decides to chop up said prize grape bushes because he claims they were incontinently in their way.
Not everyone will get along, on those servers, as they are really competitive but I've found them to be very polite most of the time, at least between neighbors because you never know when you will need that guy's help to rebuild or access to his tunnel network when your being chased by a horde of enemy players.
I don't always agree with the development staff about all their decisions, but I won't lose faith in the game anytime soon because it has given me a truly unique experience I've never had before in an online game, as infuriating as it can be sometimes there are many moments I've had where I just stand there and say... yea it was worth it.
I've been playing this game on and off for a couple of years now, and I have to say I've been playing MMOs since around 1998 or so and haven't ever seen anything as... unique as Wurm.
I'm typically a light PVPer, in any online world that allows it, and one of the things I really enjoyed about Wurm was the fact that while there was PvP, and while it was REALLY a grind to get your character to the point where you could actually be more than just an arrow pincussion in a fight it could really be interesting.
While I don't really PvP any longer when I do play it really hasn't made me like the game any less for what it is an that is an immersive environment.
When you climb a mountain in this game, you are in true fear for your life most of the time since if its a mountain like I like to climb there is a really good chance you could fall off and lose all your gear, or at least it would take you hours if not days to figure out a way to scale down to where your corpse landed.
That's just the least of the dangers ya face if ya live up on a mountain. At the end of the day though when you look out over the terrain and you can see all of your kingdom and your village far below you, it was worth it to run across that narrow ridge leading your prize, irreplaceable war-mount and while carrying that best set of armor and a powerful sword, but knowing that you might lose it all to that that that troll swinging his club at you while you run for your life and pray you don't fall off the sheer drop on either side..... it's worth it, and a risk you rarely have to fear from your natural enviroment as an advanced player in other games.
Its not like some games I've played where escape is a mere teleport away most of the time, but when you are far away out in the wilderness.... you are truly removed from civilization and how well you know that terrain, where a horse can run an where it can't can save ur life when your being chased by an irate enemy on a mount twice as fast as yours and armed with a longbow
When you call an area home its YOURS, you form it to your specifications, as well as your able to, you build your house, and you pick your destination in the game. My hobby in game has always been making wine, to do that I have to pay attention to the seasons, plant and tend the grape fields and maple forests around my village. It's something that is very slow paced but I really don't do it for the wine, heck its mostly useless.
I do it because I can and it's just enjoyable, relaxing and provides me with an excuse to hike up said mountain and get my blood pumping when I want to add another barrel of wine to my stash to age.
Some people like to build massive monuments, or try to corner the market on prize horses, for everyone it's just that kind of game where you pick one of the hundreds of skills and you just do what you want to do.
I do have to say however, if you have a short temper and are use to eating the rats rather than them eating you, as a new player ur going to have serious issues with this game.
If you like to PvP and pretty much walk over anybody you feel like, and basically have an ever-man for himself attitude ur going to have problems, though it is admittedly possible to play that way once your experienced enough to know how to do it. (just not a good idea
The biggest reason I play on the PvP servers despite the fact that you can get killed is that you can dispatch ur pesky neighbor if he decides there just HAS to be a highway through your grape field and decides to chop up said prize grape bushes because he claims they were incontinently in their way.
Not everyone will get along, on those servers, as they are really competitive but I've found them to be very polite most of the time, at least between neighbors because you never know when you will need that guy's help to rebuild or access to his tunnel network when your being chased by a horde of enemy players.
I don't always agree with the development staff about all their decisions, but I won't lose faith in the game anytime soon because it has given me a truly unique experience I've never had before in an online game, as infuriating as it can be sometimes there are many moments I've had where I just stand there and say... yea it was worth it.
I can't say that about every game I've played.
Badass post. I'm going to give this game a serious chance because of this post. Wurm might just be what I was looking for all along and I just never saw it before.
Yea, Wurm's Motto: "In wum, you don't eat rat, rat eats you." Heck no mater how mutch woopass you can dish out its all about the situation you manage to get yourself into that can determine how or if you survive. That troll that was chaseing me, on even ground, riding that horse instead of leading it I would have had a very very good chance of killing it or at least getting away from it easily if I had a run of bad luck and it rips my face off. Instead I was depending entirey on my shield skill and sword skill to parry and block every blow, becuase I couldn't actually wear my armor and still run fast enough to get away from the stupid bastard. (I also couldn't ride my horse because of the terrain)
Fights in Wurm are rarely as much about pure stats as the situation and advantages or disadvantages you make for yourself. You somehow can't get on your horse and are being attacked by a relentless pack of deadly scorpions? Climb above them on a sheer cliff for that combat rating bonus you need to kill them and pray you don't run out of stamina before you kill them. You use your enviroment as defence as much as it tries to kill you you can use it to kill others and local wildlife that just loves to find a way to woop ur ass.
In PvP its allways as important to build your fortress and network of defences as it is to build your stats. Many players on those servers rarely just fight. They often derive pleasure from planning out that massive fortress that will take real life weeks if not months to fully realize and then test it against a very clever and relentless foe. You don't allways suceed, many players have lost entire villages to enemies, and watched their creations crumble and fall. Part of the fun is knowing that if you have a good group of friends that one day... it shall rise again.
Looks like I'm slowly about to change my mind about wurm. All negatives I said before are still there exept no performance issues anymore. They either improved it massively or it's my better rack than that from 5 years ago. The game now runs smooth with almost every option on max with 60 fps, just a bit more fan noises. Turning around with mouse is almost a bit too fast now and I wished I could decelerate it somehow.
But all what I called "immersion killers" in my former posts surprisingly sank into insignificance once I let myself drag a little deeper into this world. After a while the environment feels so much more *real* than every other game I played before which is what actually forms the immersion in wurm online.
My first few hours on independence where quite furious: No clue about much but what I've learned from the tutorial (which every noob should do thoroughly unless you don't want to have asking tons of questions afterwards) my first aim was to find some virgin land which was anything else than easy. All over the terrain I saw various corpses from wild animals but also from players that didn't make me feel all too comfortable. When I decided to stray from the surfaced path and climbing up a small hill I was soon attacked by one of those wild cats at a very bad moment where I haven't learned yet that weapons and shields are to be equipped (and not just activated). Soon I realised my health going rapidely down the tube and I ran for my life. At this point I learned that you can't run and turn your head to watch your distance from the attacker and so I ran as long as my stamina would allow me, desperately sneaking into a nearby unknown cave. Phew, I barely survived, hungry, thirsty, with several wounds all over my body and nothing achieved that could aid in surviving the next morning.
But then I was lucky and found an abondoned decaying player corpse with 4 rations of spider meat (yuck) which I roasted an a campfire while licking my wounds.
Needless to say that I almost got too late to work, but who cares. Once wurm gets you it's highly addictive. I'm still safe and sound besides a nasty cut in my stomach from the wild cat that don't want to heal. No time to write anymore, need to fix that...
I have seen a lot of talk about graphics and animations, some talk about gameplay, very little about sense of accompishment, and hardley any about community.
Sonic and Mario did not become cultural icons because of awesome graphics and animations; even WOW would be lackluster compared to some games out now. So I doubt that really has as much impact as others are making of it.
Those games became Icons because they were fun to play. Wurm is not a fast paced game but it is fun to play due to I get a greater sense of accomplishment building a cart or boat in it than I ever did crafting 'purples' in WOW.
The one thing Wurm has better than any other game I have ever seen is a snse of community. The CA help channel is there for anyone to ask those questions that in any other game would be responded to with " L2P you Noob". The questions are not answered strictly by those that have volunteered to be CA's but other regular players as well.
A really good example of the difference in Community of Wurm to other games is thier Christmas event called the ' Impalong'. At this event some of the highest skilled players in the game volunteer thier time and materiels to improve the tools, weapons, and armor of the lower skilled players to nearly maximum QL. This means any new player can drop his 10ql hammer in the forge and pick it up later after it has been imp'd to 70ql! Others even donate some of the best equipment in the game (like drake sets valued at 50 silver) to be used as prizes in games played by everyone with no entry fee.
I have never seen a game with more of a community connection.
"abhorrent" - Inspiring disgust and loathing; repugnant.
Extremely harsh, I think it looks nice, the graphics are being updated constantly here and there. Alot of which aren't that different to other games more high budget games. I gotta say the big turn off for Wurm has to be the tutorial, it's long and tedious, but thankfully once you pass it you are a free man/woman!
I've been playing this for a few years in terms of content there's enough to do, working on skills daily whether you mean to or not, slaying foe's, helping villages or just strolling around.
The subscription models kinda cool, even if you can't afford to buy with real money you can work in game to earn your monthly subscription in silvers, although at low levels that incurs alot of hard grinding or a generous player.
Overall it's an amazing community driven game, everyone should try it once. Ever around Exodus server, be sure to pop in to Turani for a hearty meal or two~!
About half way through the tutorial. So far it has been enjoyable. One thing so far that is taking away from the immersion factor is the blue outlines on items that I can interact with, a hover over text would be much better but I might be missing a way to turn that off. No game is perfect and some can be so frustrating that you get no enjoyment out of it. So far I am enjoying this game and thankful for the review here or I would not have found out about it.
About half way through the tutorial. So far it has been enjoyable. One thing so far that is taking away from the immersion factor is the blue outlines on items that I can interact with, a hover over text would be much better but I might be missing a way to turn that off. No game is perfect and some can be so frustrating that you get no enjoyment out of it. So far I am #enjoying this game and thankful for the review here or I would not have found out about it.
That and the missing animations where exactly my concerns at first but trust me, once you realise what the game actually has to offer (and it's so much more than just the basics you learn in the academie), these things won't bother you much anymore. Oh wait, I'm already talking like a fanboi... LOL
On the Launcher settings, first tab is a checkbox called "outline hovered objects" that turns off most outlines. You can also toggle it on/off ingame by Escape-Settings- uncheck the box.
if you get used to them though, they are nice to have on. They are especially handy for spotting "red" outlined hostile animals that you might therwise miss seeing.
Well, I never thought I would ever post a comment like this, or even any comment at all (although I do read many and find most either entertaining, informative, even provocative, and so on and so forth etcetera blah blah).
Anyhow, would somebody please clarify the first point listed under "Cons"?
Does it mean that the only "feels" a little bit? Or that it starts to "feel" (you, the player), only to pull back and tease you with the anticipation that it was going to "feel"? Or does it mean that it itself has no "feeling", and cannot, therefore, "feel" pain or joy? I could continue, but at this juntuce I shall presume you "get my drift"...
Or, is this simply a matter of, once again, where the editors have failed to proofread an article before letting it loose on the public?
Alright, I've finished ranting.
On a more subjective note:
Regarding the "Pros":
All 3 of the "Pros" remind me of Ultima Online "back in the day", and brings back fond memories. If indeed these 3 points are true, then by golly, good job! Based on this premise alone the game is worth checking out! (In my humble opinion).
As for the "Cons":
The first one I mentioned above. What if the game does not seem to be complete? Give the studio/developer some support and time; perhaps this "impression" will then go away as the game gets improved?
And isn't the second "Con" really only superficial? As some say or might say: "Don't judge a book by the cover". I guess that means don't just read/look at the the cover / dust jacket; open the book and dig into the story. Use your imagination, and enjoy!
Finally, the third "Con" is really something that could be considered to be "normal". The same applies here as it does for the first "Con"
So there you have it: my first post. Hope to not have stepped on any toes, or hurt any "feelings" (no pun intended. well, maybe a little^^)
To all the rest of you, writers and forum posters alike, keep on doing what you do. I for one certainly appreciate it. It has often provided me with hours of reading enjoyment.
Ok to me WURM is like a fantacy house that is yet unliveable.
its exactly the game im looking for as soon as some of the fatal flaws are fixed.
terrible nearly non existant tutorial,,, crude rudimentary combat,,, only a single world spawn point (if you die in the wilderness you are screwed as you respawn at this world point reguardless if your 10 feet or 1000 miles from your corpse..
there is effectivly no useable economy they have these great beautiful ships and nothing for them to do!!! you can grow all sorts of crops but so can everyone else so there is very little need for transports/trade except maybe for dirt
you can build homes and walls and equipment but they unexpectadly collapse because there is no visible decay warning built into them so oops down goes a wall and all yourlivestock is gone, or opps your house wall collapses and all your stuff is pillaged.
This game could be a pleasure to play with a slight upgrade in graphics and spend sometime on the stupid anoying crap that ruins the fun and less time tweeking the tree models for the 20th time.
I would love to know when they are going to start a brand new world map it appeals to me to explore a totally unknown untouched world from scrach especially now that ive been out of the world so long everything I own is either stolen or decayed.
make a world, not a game, we dont want another game.
Ok to me WURM is like a fantacy house that is yet unliveable.
its exactly the game im looking for as soon as some of the fatal flaws are fixed.
terrible nearly non existant tutorial,,, crude rudimentary combat,,, only a single world spawn point (if you die in the wilderness you are screwed as you respawn at this world point reguardless if your 10 feet or 1000 miles from your corpse..
there is effectivly no useable economy they have these great beautiful ships and nothing for them to do!!! you can grow all sorts of crops but so can everyone else so there is very little need for transports/trade except maybe for dirt
you can build homes and walls and equipment but they unexpectadly collapse because there is no visible decay warning built into them so oops down goes a wall and all yourlivestock is gone, or opps your house wall collapses and all your stuff is pillaged.
This game could be a pleasure to play with a slight upgrade in graphics and spend sometime on the stupid anoying crap that ruins the fun and less time tweeking the tree models for the 20th time.
I would love to know when they are going to start a brand new world map it appeals to me to explore a totally unknown untouched world from scrach especially now that ive been out of the world so long everything I own is either stolen or decayed.
Atleast there is a tutorial now, before 2010 there wasnt even that players were simply thrown into the game without anything, much easier for any new players coming into the game now.
The economy is totally player run, players set up the markets and people go to them, you would be suprised. Some people dont want to farm so they buy it off other, or some people cant make the high quality tools so they have to sell those.
And for new maps, well in the last 4 months 5 new servers have opened. Exodus, which now adays is pretty well populated, and the epic trio. And not to mention Wild/Chaos which has recently been finally opened to non premium players.
My wife and I were chomping at the bit for the recent release of a big AAA but for various reasons became disenchanted and shut our computers off with disgust this last weekend. On a whim I decided to visit Wurmonline and check it out. Ya know to be honest, I just to not understand why….but my wife and I have just spent the last weekend “literally” immersed in Wurm.
This game is about as far from “polish” as you can get. For all the reasons mentioned in this fine article that I see no reason to repeat. But we have been sucked right past the “unfinished” and infuriating parts of the game, deep into the undeniable beauty of the game. Maybe we were lucky, but we have found a great village to be part of right off the forums. And now we are off and running loving the game, enjoying the community, and looking right past the clunky animations while we are being sucked into the world waiting to be explored. Exploration, survival, independence, and yanking that “themepark” ring out of my nose have been an amazing treat this weekend. Will it last? To be honest I do not know. But for now, after this weekends experience, we have canceled our sub to the AAA game, and jumped unashamedly into the adventure called Wurm with the modest premium fee. The only reason we put up the fee was in a show of support for the Wurm team. We will see what we can create.
I tried Wurm Online before, and while I would say that it is in fact a considerably good game, the biggest turn-off (and the reason for all the criticism in the comments, probably) is that it has a RIDICULOUS learning curve. The tutorial teaches you nothing about actually surviving and finding food and water, and gives you not a drop of advice on combat; the only thing I recall is that it taught you how to make a fire before throwing you out into the wide world. I starved to death, needless to say. So while I like the idea of Wurm Online, it has to either be more user-friendly or, like EVE Online, give some serious tutorials on its more complicated aspects.
It sure doesn't hold your hand and is anything else than beginner friendly but meanwhile there is this at least http://wurmonline.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page and a lot more to read elsewhere. Wurm isn't easy and don't want it to be but I'm pretty sure dedicated wurm players love it exactly for this (and for a lot of other things that are unique in wurm). Most other modern games are easy and so you are easily spit out again out of sheer boredom. This one is quite the other way around, you have to conquer your life in wurm.
As a side note, in worm chat someone spoke about a huge mass exodus not long ago when skyrim was published. The servers where suddenly alarmingly empty for a while: Anyone apparently wanted to check out this brand new oh so hyped "sandbox" single player. Meanwhile they all (or most of them) are back to wurm again... Think about it!
I really got into this for the first month of play. The graphics are not that bad to my taste, but the polish is aweful though, I did'nt mind that much tbh. Animation is one of the worse thing about it looks like I am playing a 15 year old game. Anyhow the gameplay depth and things to do is pretty impressive, I would recommend anyone to try. The grinding for skills where you hit a button every 15sec put me off and the aweful market system, (nothing close like eve or Perpetuum) make trading really hard, to get ingame money you probably need to find work from other player. Pay to win mechanics that I dont like either.
A great concept really imersive and sandboxy style, lacks some important features but with a great pontential that really has not shown in all these years in development.
Ok to me WURM is like a fantacy house that is yet unliveable.
its exactly the game im looking for as soon as some of the fatal flaws are fixed.
terrible nearly non existant tutorial,,, crude rudimentary combat,,, only a single world spawn point (if you die in the wilderness you are screwed as you respawn at this world point reguardless if your 10 feet or 1000 miles from your corpse..
there is effectivly no useable economy they have these great beautiful ships and nothing for them to do!!! you can grow all sorts of crops but so can everyone else so there is very little need for transports/trade except maybe for dirt
you can build homes and walls and equipment but they unexpectadly collapse because there is no visible decay warning built into them so oops down goes a wall and all yourlivestock is gone, or opps your house wall collapses and all your stuff is pillaged.
This game could be a pleasure to play with a slight upgrade in graphics and spend sometime on the stupid anoying crap that ruins the fun and less time tweeking the tree models for the 20th time.
I would love to know when they are going to start a brand new world map it appeals to me to explore a totally unknown untouched world from scrach especially now that ive been out of the world so long everything I own is either stolen or decayed.
Obviously you have not tried ir in a while as there are now at least 4 PVE servers and 5 PVP servers to explore. Also it sounds as if you played for a very short time as a F2P only. If you had put a little more time or effort into it you would have found even as F2P you can improve the quality of your fences and walls and they last for months IRL time. Although if you do not spend money on a 'Deed' you will have to spend time on maintenance.
The tutorial does not give combat training. the reason for this is combat should not be your first concern. Your first concern is finding a safe place to live wether that be as a part of a village or a 1x1 shack surrounded by a fence. Then you can start hunting, farming, and foraging for food safely.
People should do more research if they think this is a F2P game, unless you spend REAL money you can't own land and alot of other features are only avaiable to paying members which i get they gotta make money, just pointing out since some think this is a F2P game that it is only to a very small limit. No cash shop so either you pay the monthly fee or you play F2P and are basically like the landscape and trees to paying players.
You could not be more wrong, no offense to your gameplay experience or anything but f2p accounts can own land. They cannot however own a deed which helps protect land more than walls. However you can build a house and some walls and that land is now yours, noone can come along and deed it. It is unequivocally yours.
Also to those who have had bad gameplay experience through crappy player attitudes that is not how we all are. I help as many new players as I can in as many ways as I can and there are a lot more like me. This game deserves a real chance which most people don't give it. Once you get past the "rough parts" the game becomes something very beautiful.
Thanks to the reviewer for capturing the game perfectly in words, it needs work and our devs are hard at it to make the game more visually appealing and less glitchy. But you have to realize that a game on such a scale as this with so few staff to man it is going to be a very slow going process.
In all give the game a real shot(past the tutorial and the player BS) and I garuntee that you will come to appreciate it more and you even might start playing for real, who knows.
I've played WURM off and on for years now. It is by far the most sophisticated, richest, most rewarding MMO out there. It is also the most frustrating and graphically un-inspiring. But I will always say the benefits outweight the drawbacks. It attracts a very specific style of gamer - more patient, more intelligent, more willing to forego short-term oohs and aahs in exchange for more satisfying long-term gameplay. In other words, more mature.
I'll play WURM for a while, then when I need my graphics and action fix I'll swtich over to BF3 or SWTOR for a bit. Eventually, however, I will feel the urge to go back to WURM and check up on my crops, or to repair a section of fence that seems to be crumbling a bit.
Yes, the game has a steep learning curve, and survival is tough at first. But once you have a decent set of skills and stats, with a nice sturdy house built, a fire in the fireplace, and plenty of food in the larder, you will have a wonderful sense of accomplishment.
So I would say, if you are looking for something a bit slower and richer than your standard click-fest MMO , and like the idea of crafting-for-your life, then give WURM a try.
Having recently started playing this I have to say its definately grants a huge sense of accomplishment that you just don't get from recent mainstream games. This is a survival game to its core, the immersion due to the difficulty of being out there in the wild trying to survive surpasses most if not all other mmo's out there.
As others have mentioned, its not super pretty shiny graphics and certain aspects need much improvement (which is in the works) but the gameplay is rich, engaging and challenging.
If your looking for a game to 'live' in wurm online offers that to an extent that no other games do.
Yes this game does have most of what we sandbox people want but unfourtunately it looks like shit. There is no way I am playing a game, on my high end rig, that looks like something from 10 years ago.
Just because we like sandbox MMOs does not mean we will accept archaic visuals.
I could'nt disagree with you more. I have an Intel I7 970 with a geforce GTX 580, windows 7 ultimate and 12 gigs of ram, which qualifies as an upper end rig im sure, and I LOVE this game.
Quite simply put, I am sick and tired of these so called AAA MMO's coming out with really nice and flashy graphics and animations and an absolutely hollow game when it comes to depth. I care more about depth and gameplay than I care about graphics.
Of course I am also the type of person who will load up a nintendo emulator and play AD&D games because newer games simply can't get it done sometimes. Look at Tera.... All fluff and nothing else. Boring humdrum everything, other than graphics and combat, completely one-dimensional.
If you are looking for a game with incredible depth and a robust crafting and skill system, then look no further, this game rocks in that department.
Comments
seems like a lose/lose situation for everyone, sad to see it happening like this.
[Mod Edit]
Secondly, my review of Wurm Online:
I have played this game for almost 3 years now. I can see myself playing this game as long as Rolf devotes his time to developing and maintaining it and stay true to his ideals.
I enjoy the slow pace, the sense of accomplishment, the complexity and the challenge. I love the small and loyal (mostly...) community, players that are so involved in the game that they spend time and money to help bring new players to the game and teach them the basics. I love that I can do whatever I want to, there is noone holding my hand or forcing me to do anything. It is the ultimate sandbox game.
Admittedly, the pace of development has sometimes been slow and Rolf has probably made a few mistakes over the years, but he is only human afterall. The future of Wurm looks bright, with updated graphics, animations, customizable avatars, visible armour, more crafting options, and hopefully improved pvp for those that enjoy that all soon to come within the next year I am sure.
There is no reason to wait for those improvements though, Wurm has been playable for several years now so just jump right in and don't hesitate to ask for help.
I've been playing this game on and off for a couple of years now, and I have to say I've been playing MMOs since around 1998 or so and haven't ever seen anything as... unique as Wurm.
I'm typically a light PVPer, in any online world that allows it, and one of the things I really enjoyed about Wurm was the fact that while there was PvP, and while it was REALLY a grind to get your character to the point where you could actually be more than just an arrow pincussion in a fight it could really be interesting.
While I don't really PvP any longer when I do play it really hasn't made me like the game any less for what it is an that is an immersive environment.
When you climb a mountain in this game, you are in true fear for your life most of the time since if its a mountain like I like to climb there is a really good chance you could fall off and lose all your gear, or at least it would take you hours if not days to figure out a way to scale down to where your corpse landed.
That's just the least of the dangers ya face if ya live up on a mountain. At the end of the day though when you look out over the terrain and you can see all of your kingdom and your village far below you, it was worth it to run across that narrow ridge leading your prize, irreplaceable war-mount and while carrying that best set of armor and a powerful sword, but knowing that you might lose it all to that that that troll swinging his club at you while you run for your life and pray you don't fall off the sheer drop on either side..... it's worth it, and a risk you rarely have to fear from your natural enviroment as an advanced player in other games.
Its not like some games I've played where escape is a mere teleport away most of the time, but when you are far away out in the wilderness.... you are truly removed from civilization and how well you know that terrain, where a horse can run an where it can't can save ur life when your being chased by an irate enemy on a mount twice as fast as yours and armed with a longbow.
When you call an area home its YOURS, you form it to your specifications, as well as your able to, you build your house, and you pick your destination in the game. My hobby in game has always been making wine, to do that I have to pay attention to the seasons, plant and tend the grape fields and maple forests around my village. It's something that is very slow paced but I really don't do it for the wine, heck its mostly useless.
I do it because I can and it's just enjoyable, relaxing and provides me with an excuse to hike up said mountain and get my blood pumping when I want to add another barrel of wine to my stash to age.
Some people like to build massive monuments, or try to corner the market on prize horses, for everyone it's just that kind of game where you pick one of the hundreds of skills and you just do what you want to do.
I do have to say however, if you have a short temper and are use to eating the rats rather than them eating you, as a new player ur going to have serious issues with this game.
If you like to PvP and pretty much walk over anybody you feel like, and basically have an ever-man for himself attitude ur going to have problems, though it is admittedly possible to play that way once your experienced enough to know how to do it. (just not a good idea)
The biggest reason I play on the PvP servers despite the fact that you can get killed is that you can dispatch ur pesky neighbor if he decides there just HAS to be a highway through your grape field and decides to chop up said prize grape bushes because he claims they were incontinently in their way.
Not everyone will get along, on those servers, as they are really competitive but I've found them to be very polite most of the time, at least between neighbors because you never know when you will need that guy's help to rebuild or access to his tunnel network when your being chased by a horde of enemy players.
I don't always agree with the development staff about all their decisions, but I won't lose faith in the game anytime soon because it has given me a truly unique experience I've never had before in an online game, as infuriating as it can be sometimes there are many moments I've had where I just stand there and say... yea it was worth it.
I can't say that about every game I've played.
Badass post. I'm going to give this game a serious chance because of this post. Wurm might just be what I was looking for all along and I just never saw it before.
Yea, Wurm's Motto: "In wum, you don't eat rat, rat eats you." Heck no mater how mutch woopass you can dish out its all about the situation you manage to get yourself into that can determine how or if you survive. That troll that was chaseing me, on even ground, riding that horse instead of leading it I would have had a very very good chance of killing it or at least getting away from it easily if I had a run of bad luck and it rips my face off. Instead I was depending entirey on my shield skill and sword skill to parry and block every blow, becuase I couldn't actually wear my armor and still run fast enough to get away from the stupid bastard. (I also couldn't ride my horse because of the terrain)
Fights in Wurm are rarely as much about pure stats as the situation and advantages or disadvantages you make for yourself. You somehow can't get on your horse and are being attacked by a relentless pack of deadly scorpions? Climb above them on a sheer cliff for that combat rating bonus you need to kill them and pray you don't run out of stamina before you kill them. You use your enviroment as defence as much as it tries to kill you you can use it to kill others and local wildlife that just loves to find a way to woop ur ass.
In PvP its allways as important to build your fortress and network of defences as it is to build your stats. Many players on those servers rarely just fight. They often derive pleasure from planning out that massive fortress that will take real life weeks if not months to fully realize and then test it against a very clever and relentless foe. You don't allways suceed, many players have lost entire villages to enemies, and watched their creations crumble and fall. Part of the fun is knowing that if you have a good group of friends that one day... it shall rise again.
Looks like I'm slowly about to change my mind about wurm. All negatives I said before are still there exept no performance issues anymore. They either improved it massively or it's my better rack than that from 5 years ago. The game now runs smooth with almost every option on max with 60 fps, just a bit more fan noises. Turning around with mouse is almost a bit too fast now and I wished I could decelerate it somehow.
But all what I called "immersion killers" in my former posts surprisingly sank into insignificance once I let myself drag a little deeper into this world. After a while the environment feels so much more *real* than every other game I played before which is what actually forms the immersion in wurm online.
My first few hours on independence where quite furious: No clue about much but what I've learned from the tutorial (which every noob should do thoroughly unless you don't want to have asking tons of questions afterwards) my first aim was to find some virgin land which was anything else than easy. All over the terrain I saw various corpses from wild animals but also from players that didn't make me feel all too comfortable. When I decided to stray from the surfaced path and climbing up a small hill I was soon attacked by one of those wild cats at a very bad moment where I haven't learned yet that weapons and shields are to be equipped (and not just activated). Soon I realised my health going rapidely down the tube and I ran for my life. At this point I learned that you can't run and turn your head to watch your distance from the attacker and so I ran as long as my stamina would allow me, desperately sneaking into a nearby unknown cave. Phew, I barely survived, hungry, thirsty, with several wounds all over my body and nothing achieved that could aid in surviving the next morning.
But then I was lucky and found an abondoned decaying player corpse with 4 rations of spider meat (yuck) which I roasted an a campfire while licking my wounds.
Needless to say that I almost got too late to work, but who cares. Once wurm gets you it's highly addictive. I'm still safe and sound besides a nasty cut in my stomach from the wild cat that don't want to heal. No time to write anymore, need to fix that...
I have seen a lot of talk about graphics and animations, some talk about gameplay, very little about sense of accompishment, and hardley any about community.
Sonic and Mario did not become cultural icons because of awesome graphics and animations; even WOW would be lackluster compared to some games out now. So I doubt that really has as much impact as others are making of it.
Those games became Icons because they were fun to play. Wurm is not a fast paced game but it is fun to play due to I get a greater sense of accomplishment building a cart or boat in it than I ever did crafting 'purples' in WOW.
The one thing Wurm has better than any other game I have ever seen is a snse of community. The CA help channel is there for anyone to ask those questions that in any other game would be responded to with " L2P you Noob". The questions are not answered strictly by those that have volunteered to be CA's but other regular players as well.
A really good example of the difference in Community of Wurm to other games is thier Christmas event called the ' Impalong'. At this event some of the highest skilled players in the game volunteer thier time and materiels to improve the tools, weapons, and armor of the lower skilled players to nearly maximum QL. This means any new player can drop his 10ql hammer in the forge and pick it up later after it has been imp'd to 70ql! Others even donate some of the best equipment in the game (like drake sets valued at 50 silver) to be used as prizes in games played by everyone with no entry fee.
I have never seen a game with more of a community connection.
"abhorrent" - Inspiring disgust and loathing; repugnant.
Extremely harsh, I think it looks nice, the graphics are being updated constantly here and there. Alot of which aren't that different to other games more high budget games. I gotta say the big turn off for Wurm has to be the tutorial, it's long and tedious, but thankfully once you pass it you are a free man/woman!
I've been playing this for a few years in terms of content there's enough to do, working on skills daily whether you mean to or not, slaying foe's, helping villages or just strolling around.
The subscription models kinda cool, even if you can't afford to buy with real money you can work in game to earn your monthly subscription in silvers, although at low levels that incurs alot of hard grinding or a generous player.
Overall it's an amazing community driven game, everyone should try it once. Ever around Exodus server, be sure to pop in to Turani for a hearty meal or two~!
Looks like a sweet game. I am downloading the game now to try it out. I haven't been this excited for a new sand box in quite some time.
Maybe it will hold me over until Archage or GW2
Love Guild Wars? Final Fantasy? Harry Potter? Lord of the Rings?
Here is an excerpt from the new series:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/79738399/Archeon-and-the-Virgo-Moon-Excerpt
About half way through the tutorial. So far it has been enjoyable. One thing so far that is taking away from the immersion factor is the blue outlines on items that I can interact with, a hover over text would be much better but I might be missing a way to turn that off. No game is perfect and some can be so frustrating that you get no enjoyment out of it. So far I am enjoying this game and thankful for the review here or I would not have found out about it.
** Mistrust Authority. Promote Decentralization **
That and the missing animations where exactly my concerns at first but trust me, once you realise what the game actually has to offer (and it's so much more than just the basics you learn in the academie), these things won't bother you much anymore. Oh wait, I'm already talking like a fanboi... LOL
On the Launcher settings, first tab is a checkbox called "outline hovered objects" that turns off most outlines. You can also toggle it on/off ingame by Escape-Settings- uncheck the box.
if you get used to them though, they are nice to have on. They are especially handy for spotting "red" outlined hostile animals that you might therwise miss seeing.
http://brashendeavors.net/
Quote:
Pros
Cons
Unquote.
Greetings everybody!
Well, I never thought I would ever post a comment like this, or even any comment at all (although I do read many and find most either entertaining, informative, even provocative, and so on and so forth etcetera blah blah).
Anyhow, would somebody please clarify the first point listed under "Cons"?
Does it mean that the only "feels" a little bit? Or that it starts to "feel" (you, the player), only to pull back and tease you with the anticipation that it was going to "feel"? Or does it mean that it itself has no "feeling", and cannot, therefore, "feel" pain or joy? I could continue, but at this juntuce I shall presume you "get my drift"...
Or, is this simply a matter of, once again, where the editors have failed to proofread an article before letting it loose on the public?
On a more subjective note:
Regarding the "Pros":
All 3 of the "Pros" remind me of Ultima Online "back in the day", and brings back fond memories. If indeed these 3 points are true, then by golly, good job! Based on this premise alone the game is worth checking out! (In my humble opinion).
As for the "Cons":
The first one I mentioned above. What if the game does not seem to be complete? Give the studio/developer some support and time; perhaps this "impression" will then go away as the game gets improved?
And isn't the second "Con" really only superficial? As some say or might say: "Don't judge a book by the cover". I guess that means don't just read/look at the the cover / dust jacket; open the book and dig into the story. Use your imagination, and enjoy!
Finally, the third "Con" is really something that could be considered to be "normal". The same applies here as it does for the first "Con"
So there you have it: my first post. Hope to not have stepped on any toes, or hurt any "feelings" (no pun intended. well, maybe a little^^)
To all the rest of you, writers and forum posters alike, keep on doing what you do. I for one certainly appreciate it. It has often provided me with hours of reading enjoyment.
Thank you kindly!
Ok to me WURM is like a fantacy house that is yet unliveable.
its exactly the game im looking for as soon as some of the fatal flaws are fixed.
terrible nearly non existant tutorial,,, crude rudimentary combat,,, only a single world spawn point (if you die in the wilderness you are screwed as you respawn at this world point reguardless if your 10 feet or 1000 miles from your corpse..
there is effectivly no useable economy they have these great beautiful ships and nothing for them to do!!! you can grow all sorts of crops but so can everyone else so there is very little need for transports/trade except maybe for dirt
you can build homes and walls and equipment but they unexpectadly collapse because there is no visible decay warning built into them so oops down goes a wall and all yourlivestock is gone, or opps your house wall collapses and all your stuff is pillaged.
This game could be a pleasure to play with a slight upgrade in graphics and spend sometime on the stupid anoying crap that ruins the fun and less time tweeking the tree models for the 20th time.
I would love to know when they are going to start a brand new world map it appeals to me to explore a totally unknown untouched world from scrach especially now that ive been out of the world so long everything I own is either stolen or decayed.
make a world, not a game, we dont want another game.
Atleast there is a tutorial now, before 2010 there wasnt even that players were simply thrown into the game without anything, much easier for any new players coming into the game now.
The economy is totally player run, players set up the markets and people go to them, you would be suprised. Some people dont want to farm so they buy it off other, or some people cant make the high quality tools so they have to sell those.
And for new maps, well in the last 4 months 5 new servers have opened. Exodus, which now adays is pretty well populated, and the epic trio. And not to mention Wild/Chaos which has recently been finally opened to non premium players.
My wife and I were chomping at the bit for the recent release of a big AAA but for various reasons became disenchanted and shut our computers off with disgust this last weekend. On a whim I decided to visit Wurmonline and check it out. Ya know to be honest, I just to not understand why….but my wife and I have just spent the last weekend “literally” immersed in Wurm.
This game is about as far from “polish” as you can get. For all the reasons mentioned in this fine article that I see no reason to repeat. But we have been sucked right past the “unfinished” and infuriating parts of the game, deep into the undeniable beauty of the game. Maybe we were lucky, but we have found a great village to be part of right off the forums. And now we are off and running loving the game, enjoying the community, and looking right past the clunky animations while we are being sucked into the world waiting to be explored. Exploration, survival, independence, and yanking that “themepark” ring out of my nose have been an amazing treat this weekend. Will it last? To be honest I do not know. But for now, after this weekends experience, we have canceled our sub to the AAA game, and jumped unashamedly into the adventure called Wurm with the modest premium fee. The only reason we put up the fee was in a show of support for the Wurm team. We will see what we can create.
I tried Wurm Online before, and while I would say that it is in fact a considerably good game, the biggest turn-off (and the reason for all the criticism in the comments, probably) is that it has a RIDICULOUS learning curve. The tutorial teaches you nothing about actually surviving and finding food and water, and gives you not a drop of advice on combat; the only thing I recall is that it taught you how to make a fire before throwing you out into the wide world. I starved to death, needless to say. So while I like the idea of Wurm Online, it has to either be more user-friendly or, like EVE Online, give some serious tutorials on its more complicated aspects.
It sure doesn't hold your hand and is anything else than beginner friendly but meanwhile there is this at least http://wurmonline.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page and a lot more to read elsewhere. Wurm isn't easy and don't want it to be but I'm pretty sure dedicated wurm players love it exactly for this (and for a lot of other things that are unique in wurm). Most other modern games are easy and so you are easily spit out again out of sheer boredom. This one is quite the other way around, you have to conquer your life in wurm.
As a side note, in worm chat someone spoke about a huge mass exodus not long ago when skyrim was published. The servers where suddenly alarmingly empty for a while: Anyone apparently wanted to check out this brand new oh so hyped "sandbox" single player. Meanwhile they all (or most of them) are back to wurm again... Think about it!
Try Perpetuum, if you like eve and sand box games, you might like it.
I really got into this for the first month of play. The graphics are not that bad to my taste, but the polish is aweful though, I did'nt mind that much tbh. Animation is one of the worse thing about it looks like I am playing a 15 year old game. Anyhow the gameplay depth and things to do is pretty impressive, I would recommend anyone to try. The grinding for skills where you hit a button every 15sec put me off and the aweful market system, (nothing close like eve or Perpetuum) make trading really hard, to get ingame money you probably need to find work from other player. Pay to win mechanics that I dont like either.
A great concept really imersive and sandboxy style, lacks some important features but with a great pontential that really has not shown in all these years in development.
Obviously you have not tried ir in a while as there are now at least 4 PVE servers and 5 PVP servers to explore. Also it sounds as if you played for a very short time as a F2P only. If you had put a little more time or effort into it you would have found even as F2P you can improve the quality of your fences and walls and they last for months IRL time. Although if you do not spend money on a 'Deed' you will have to spend time on maintenance.
The tutorial does not give combat training. the reason for this is combat should not be your first concern. Your first concern is finding a safe place to live wether that be as a part of a village or a 1x1 shack surrounded by a fence. Then you can start hunting, farming, and foraging for food safely.
You could not be more wrong, no offense to your gameplay experience or anything but f2p accounts can own land. They cannot however own a deed which helps protect land more than walls. However you can build a house and some walls and that land is now yours, noone can come along and deed it. It is unequivocally yours.
Also to those who have had bad gameplay experience through crappy player attitudes that is not how we all are. I help as many new players as I can in as many ways as I can and there are a lot more like me. This game deserves a real chance which most people don't give it. Once you get past the "rough parts" the game becomes something very beautiful.
Thanks to the reviewer for capturing the game perfectly in words, it needs work and our devs are hard at it to make the game more visually appealing and less glitchy. But you have to realize that a game on such a scale as this with so few staff to man it is going to be a very slow going process.
In all give the game a real shot(past the tutorial and the player BS) and I garuntee that you will come to appreciate it more and you even might start playing for real, who knows.
I've played WURM off and on for years now. It is by far the most sophisticated, richest, most rewarding MMO out there. It is also the most frustrating and graphically un-inspiring. But I will always say the benefits outweight the drawbacks. It attracts a very specific style of gamer - more patient, more intelligent, more willing to forego short-term oohs and aahs in exchange for more satisfying long-term gameplay. In other words, more mature.
I'll play WURM for a while, then when I need my graphics and action fix I'll swtich over to BF3 or SWTOR for a bit. Eventually, however, I will feel the urge to go back to WURM and check up on my crops, or to repair a section of fence that seems to be crumbling a bit.
Yes, the game has a steep learning curve, and survival is tough at first. But once you have a decent set of skills and stats, with a nice sturdy house built, a fire in the fireplace, and plenty of food in the larder, you will have a wonderful sense of accomplishment.
So I would say, if you are looking for something a bit slower and richer than your standard click-fest MMO , and like the idea of crafting-for-your life, then give WURM a try.
Having recently started playing this I have to say its definately grants a huge sense of accomplishment that you just don't get from recent mainstream games. This is a survival game to its core, the immersion due to the difficulty of being out there in the wild trying to survive surpasses most if not all other mmo's out there.
As others have mentioned, its not super pretty shiny graphics and certain aspects need much improvement (which is in the works) but the gameplay is rich, engaging and challenging.
If your looking for a game to 'live' in wurm online offers that to an extent that no other games do.
I could'nt disagree with you more. I have an Intel I7 970 with a geforce GTX 580, windows 7 ultimate and 12 gigs of ram, which qualifies as an upper end rig im sure, and I LOVE this game.
Quite simply put, I am sick and tired of these so called AAA MMO's coming out with really nice and flashy graphics and animations and an absolutely hollow game when it comes to depth. I care more about depth and gameplay than I care about graphics.
Of course I am also the type of person who will load up a nintendo emulator and play AD&D games because newer games simply can't get it done sometimes. Look at Tera.... All fluff and nothing else. Boring humdrum everything, other than graphics and combat, completely one-dimensional.
If you are looking for a game with incredible depth and a robust crafting and skill system, then look no further, this game rocks in that department.