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[Preview] Albion Online: Hands On the Alpha
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Last week while many gamers were celebrating the release of Diablo III: Reaper of Souls another lesser known MMORPG was opening its doors for an alpha test. Sandbox Interactive, a developer based out of Berlin,Germany, allowed players trickle into their freshman effort, Albion Online. We got our hands on the game, and have our own first impressions to report.
Read more of Rob Lashley's Albion Online: Hands On the Alpha.
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Comments
this game reminds me of the early days of mmos. back in the long long ago before they were so dumbed down to most of what you see today. the game actually reminds me of the early days of eve online the most. if youre big on eve, theres a good chance you will like this game.
AO seems like a real sandbox.
One thing to note is that someone saying "zerging" in relation to this game would be about ~10 players running around the world. Which is the amount of manpower a small guild could manage to match . Territory control can only switch hands based on multiple 5v5 matches that must to be won a set amount of times before it switches over(if the attackers win). That also makes "zerging" a non factor in the grand scheme of things.
The game feels like an open world sandbox MOBA. Group coordination, timing, and gear setups is key to beating others. You can even tackle bigger groups with good coordination and proper use of terrain.
Dedicated crafters have a good standing in this game. It's best for a guild to take in dedicated crafters and funnel them the mats to supply everyone(having a dedicated crafter is basically a requirement by T4 gear, though useful at T3). Having to repair crafting stations, upgrade buildings, and replace destroyed gear, will leave crafters with an endless supply of tasks to keep them busy. Crafters are without a doubt the most valuable players in the game.
With that said, this game is NOT meant for the faint hearted. You do lose all your gear upon death, and although in some cases you can get it back, you will find that most of it will probably be broken. If you're into Risk vs Reward type of games though, then this is a great title to play. The battles will surprisingly have your blood pumping during each engagement. If you've never tried a game like this or are worried about losing gear, then I would say still give it a try. Most "hardcore" gamers didn't start out as full loot lovers. Most of us just gave one game a shot and fell in love with that style of play. Do not compare losing your gear to losing gear in WoW(or similar). The gear "grind" in this game is not similar to grinding weeks for a raid set.
The game is in alpha so it still needs some work. As someone that has tested this game since the start, I can say that you can see the devs passion through their work. Each test is a significant upgrade from the last. Most importantly, they have a rare trait you don't see in many devs these days. They actually listen to ALL feedback. If your feedback is reasonable, then they will consider it.
Albion is an old name for Great Britain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion
So it makes perfect sense that the world in the game would actually look similar to the UK and Ireland, considering Great Britain and Ireland are actually part of the UK.
Careful there... only Northern Ireland is and by what I remember Scotland was toying around with the idea of splitting from Great Britain.
Can´t wait for Albion Online to be released. Been playing in alpha stages and the game is going to be HUGE. Another great feature is being multi platform. You can play it on your browser or your pc, linux, mac OSX, android and iOS.
Free for all games like this never work. People really get tired of investing a lot of time in a game and then losing it all. The idea of a game is to have fun and that ends up being majorly unfun. Yes it is thrilling initially, but the thrill only last so long then dejection sets in.
It is kind of humorous that developers never seem to learn this. We have these indie's constantly trying to convince themselves that they can make it work. Maybe some day, someone will come up with a formula for this type of game that works. This game is not it. They have made all the classic mistakes that have fail written all over them.
people are tired of gear treadmills and mudflation. They want crafting based economies and persistant worlds.
item decay and full loot keeps the wheels spinning for