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Windwalking my way to uninstallation...
Kappadonna
Member UncommonPosts: 119
I will preface my /bile against this game by shortly indicating that I am an old-era MMORPG player, starting on MUDs in the 90s and spending years on Ultima Online and Everquest both. I consider the MMORPG genre my favorite genre, although I am completely jaded by what it has become in the current gaming market - a pure result of gaming becoming ultra-popular, ultra-profitable, over-saturated, casually-driven, and dominated entirely by micro transactions and horrid F2P systems.
Additionally, don't take my bashing of B&S as a personal insult just because you like the game. You didn't make it - I'm not insulting you - only what this game represents, and only from the perspective of yet another gamer who has been around the MMORPG block long enough. So please read all of this before responding, or don't read any of it. Okay, that aside...
Blade & Soul is as shallow as the ankle-deep ponds you first frolic through during your intro tutorial. This game offers little. And rather than right a novel, I'll bullet point to some extent:
Combat
Character Creation/GFX
And I'm going to go off on a tangent here and break this down so people understand my view point completely. Let's take a game we all have played (and 98% have loved at some point in their lifetime), the fabled WoW. What did WoW do correctly that put it on the map back in 2004? It made a vast world, full of colorful zones, unique quests, and a non-linear path that the player followed when progressing. What I mean is that say I rolled a NE Warrior. Cool - I start in Darnassus for my first 20ish levels and see the NE lands before taking the boat to Darkshore. Then I quest in Darkshore and navigate to Ashenvale or Stone Talon. Or I become brave and venture off across the continent in hopes of going to some of the other level 20+ zones that offer diffeernt environments, quest lines, and experience. Awesome! Now I roll a Human Warrior, or a Dwarf Warrior --- same class, yet completely different early level experience. That keeps the game fresh. And best yet, say I flip sides to Horde and roll an Undead Warrior. Now I can quest in some of the same zones (some unique to my race) yet have a completely different experience since factions had different control points. Yay! Awesome! Keeps game fresh and new, even if you played the same class over and over. Additionally, WoW's world was open - not instanced - and if you opted in for world PvP, it was dangerous - especially during the Vanilla + BC days. And what's even better is when I venture into a zone, I can pretty much run wherever I want, regardless of where the road leads. Zones are large and fairly open-ended.
Now lets venture over to the Blade & Soul land! So I make a race (who cares what) and I pick a class (again, who cares what). I follow the same exact progression path as every other character; every other race. My replay has just diminished substantially. My love of the world = non existent. I'm pushed along a limited path where little to no freedom to venture of it. Quests are as redundant as they come and have no character outside of a couple cute NPC voices. I roll a new character ... I do the exact same thing. Hell I even get the EXACT SAME ITEMS! Which brings me to my next point...
Continuing in next post...
Additionally, don't take my bashing of B&S as a personal insult just because you like the game. You didn't make it - I'm not insulting you - only what this game represents, and only from the perspective of yet another gamer who has been around the MMORPG block long enough. So please read all of this before responding, or don't read any of it. Okay, that aside...
Blade & Soul is as shallow as the ankle-deep ponds you first frolic through during your intro tutorial. This game offers little. And rather than right a novel, I'll bullet point to some extent:
Combat
- Combat is fun! It's fluid, fast paced, combo-orientated, and strategic ... but sadly that only really manifests itself in 1v1 PvP. That's not a bad thing, as 1v1 PvP is extremely engaging in this game and I'd argue that it's more enjoyable than most 2D and 3D fighting games. Fights last can be lengthy at high levels and skill trees give you flexibility, mixed with your own unique character that fighters lack. But, that being said combat is underutilized to the extreme. Outside of 1v1 PvP:
- Combat is short and over before it begins
- Characters can decimate PvE enemies before mobs know what hit them --- even multiple enemies at a time roll over like you dropped a nuclear warhead on them point blank.
- 6 man Dungeons can be cleared solo if you build HP regain into your build, outside of the bosses which would be soloable if not for their grab mechanics which force the group need.
- No teamwork, need for builds, or tactics in any PvE content (and I've cleared top level dungeons, so if I'm missing something please chime in here as to what so I can give that a go).
- Faction PvP is a joke and group PvP in this game has little-to-no purpose. Gank-fest driven with no penalty of death.
Character Creation/GFX
- Fantastic. Models are pretty and the morphing system is very good. Yes, games like BDO and Bless have better systems but they are also newer games (this being a 2011/12 game). I've created some cool looking avatars I've become attached to, which is the only reason I have any desire to continue to play ... which isn't enough to keep me doing so beyond this week.
- Do wish there were more races. 3 flavors of human? Yawn.
- Graphics are extremely pretty. I've been running 120 FPS and dip into the 60's during heavy combat (dungeons). I do recommend anyone playing to max their FPS setting in options as if you are hitting the default 60 cap, it makes your game experience worse.
- Love water effects!
- Perhaps the most underachieving aspect of this game. It's flat out awful:
- Linear progress through all maps, although some are a little more open-ended later in-game but not much point since the world has no point or nothing to do/explore within it.
- I draw you a large circle and say "This is a forest" and then I draw you a path and say "but you see all those trees? You can't go to them! You can only walk down this path and slightly outside of it! For if you do venture beyond the gravel path you will hit invisible walls! You will hit hills and rocks that you have no chance of ascending! And best yet ... you will camera stutter into oblivion as your character freaks out while getting caught on areas you should not be able to access, before finally dropping you back onto your dirt path road that you never should have never ever left". And then that's this game, through almost every zone.
- Too instanced.
- Channeled (opposite of open-world, which I am an advocate of - I hate channels).
- Windwalking is a cool concept but it is never fully realized in any meaningful way, and this is due to the limited map system and movement mechanics. I actually find super running and jumping in a fossil like Champions Online more thorough from a design/implementation standpoint. And more enjoyable to boot.
And I'm going to go off on a tangent here and break this down so people understand my view point completely. Let's take a game we all have played (and 98% have loved at some point in their lifetime), the fabled WoW. What did WoW do correctly that put it on the map back in 2004? It made a vast world, full of colorful zones, unique quests, and a non-linear path that the player followed when progressing. What I mean is that say I rolled a NE Warrior. Cool - I start in Darnassus for my first 20ish levels and see the NE lands before taking the boat to Darkshore. Then I quest in Darkshore and navigate to Ashenvale or Stone Talon. Or I become brave and venture off across the continent in hopes of going to some of the other level 20+ zones that offer diffeernt environments, quest lines, and experience. Awesome! Now I roll a Human Warrior, or a Dwarf Warrior --- same class, yet completely different early level experience. That keeps the game fresh. And best yet, say I flip sides to Horde and roll an Undead Warrior. Now I can quest in some of the same zones (some unique to my race) yet have a completely different experience since factions had different control points. Yay! Awesome! Keeps game fresh and new, even if you played the same class over and over. Additionally, WoW's world was open - not instanced - and if you opted in for world PvP, it was dangerous - especially during the Vanilla + BC days. And what's even better is when I venture into a zone, I can pretty much run wherever I want, regardless of where the road leads. Zones are large and fairly open-ended.
Now lets venture over to the Blade & Soul land! So I make a race (who cares what) and I pick a class (again, who cares what). I follow the same exact progression path as every other character; every other race. My replay has just diminished substantially. My love of the world = non existent. I'm pushed along a limited path where little to no freedom to venture of it. Quests are as redundant as they come and have no character outside of a couple cute NPC voices. I roll a new character ... I do the exact same thing. Hell I even get the EXACT SAME ITEMS! Which brings me to my next point...
Continuing in next post...
Comments
- Hahaha. I mean seriously? Take a moment to stop in your game and look around. Do you notice that every character, regardless of a cool character creation system, is wearing the exact same thing as you? Do you realize that they all are brandishing a LEVEL 1 Epic weapon that grows with you until max level? You have? This does not bother you? Guess this is your game.
- Equipment is identical for every class.
- Item drops in the world serve no point other than to feed your OP weapon and make it level with you. Who cares that I just found a bronze staff? None of it matters. We all have the same weapon and gear - nothing to strive for or individualize. This is polar opposite concept of what MMORPGs were based off of.
- You are forced to grind the same mindless easy-breezy dungeons to get a loot chest.
- You then use a key to unlock the chest in hopes of receiving your class weapon needed to transform your weapon (hidden emphasis here is that you buy a class-specific key from NCSoft store so that you don't waste time grinding dungeons for your weapon). Chalk 1 point up to a game built around micro-transaction systems.
- You then need a seal to unlock your weapon (eventually you may/not purchase these on the store, depending on how frequent you play - so more emphasis on buying things). More points to micro-transaction.
- You get your item! Great! You morph it into your weapon to power it up to the next stage. You repeat this cycle until you realize the game is pointless.
- Want weapon skins? Go buy them, for the most part.
- Armor? What armor? Oh it is just appearance, that's cool. But we've had things called skins that do that since ... I don't know, the 90's.
- And for a game that's been out for years overseas, they sure don't have many costumes (you can view them all in game). I expected a lot more considering that's their ultimate cash-shop selling point. Very disappointing.
Look, my point is that unlike the concept of what makes MMORPGs successful, and that is the goal of obtaining what you don't have, and possibily someone else does (much like real life - obtain the unobtainable), this game does the polar opposite and provides everyone the exact same thing like a FPS or regular fighting game. That's fine in those games --- but in an MMORPG what keeps the player invested for long periods of time? You are hurting yourself here as a company at the base-design level of the genre.In the End
Does it really matter? I mean, it's what you get out of it. I would not label this an MMORPG - more of an action-based MMO, akin to maybe a Vindictus with a little more open-world. Honestly, it's TERA 2.0 with better combat but less world PvP (not saying much).
For those of us MMORPG veterans, we see it as soon as we log in and move around for a few minutes - complete a few quests - and get used to same recycled gift we've seen for ages, just with a different wrapping. This is simply another Asian MMORPG that is based off the worn, tried, and never-great Lineage 2 system. Point + click overhauled to keyboard movement (you can even opt to use point + click movement if you desire in classic mode). But unlike Lineage 2, and much like Aion, TERA, and a host of other recycled games us NA/EU players receive from the Asian area, the game is so straight forward, linear, and simple that there is nothing that will keep a player engaged for any length of time. And as an MMORPG model, that is a failure.
But I guess that's my issue -- I look at the market of past: liked MMORPGs that were deep, took time investments to accomplish things, and offered a whole large world to explore with both PvE and PvP options w/o full instancing. This is a dying breed that will eventually be revitalized with time, but not with Blade & Soul. For anyone in the same boat as me, you know what I'm talking about. For the newer folks to this market or gaming in general, enjoy your experience but keep an open mind as you jump from casual game to casual game, dropping 20 bucks on that item, 30 on this one, 15 on that, 5 there, and realize you're funding this system and allowing these types of games to survive. Would you rather have one awesome game that is extremely deep, enjoyable, but costs a flat 15.00 a month? Yeah - trust me, you might not know that, but you would. It would save you money and your enjoyment would be up ... but until people stop casual-jump funding these recycled games this genre is a lame duck. Eventually we'll have an independent publisher pull a gem .... but it's harder and harder to fund games iwth growing costs when a cheap win like this can make such a quick buck for a publisher. NC Soft is laughing right now. They hardly have to do anything content wise and they profit off a medicore title. Hey, good business move - take advantage of your audience, but damn guys - realize this game is nothing special. It isn't something to write home to mom about.
I'm done. Had more fun writing this than playing the actual game. I know 95% won't read it, but whatever. Gave me something semi-entertaining to do tonight while I download BDO's character creator (yeah, I know ... BDO will probably be lackluster too, but I doubt near as bad as B&S - at least the fights last longer than 1.2 seconds over there).
Thanks for reading! Enjoy windwalking!
Another spot open.
playing: Dragon Age
Waiting: for FF14, Mass Effect
Want to try: Fallen Earth
I'm speaking from a general enjoyment level to your average game player. Sorry, failed to say that but I wrote a lot and didn't want to go down that path in my novel above.
Some of those Tournament fighting guys are amazing. I'm a big BlazBlue fan, and overall I'm also a horrible fighting game player, but I like that elements from B&S are thrown in from fighting games and the combos are easy and enjoyable to pull off, but still punish you for making some mistakes in PvP. But, unlike a fighter, B&S offers 1) customizing your own avatar and 2) customizing your skill builds. In a fighter you have no options there - get what the devs gave you and maximize it. Balancing nightmares, but that's why a fighter isn't an MMO I guess.
I felt the same way about feeling OP in pve, especially in the beta. Your leveled weapon (only weapon that matters) felt just too strong.
It took me around 15 runs (30 weapons seen) to get my upgrade weapon at the level 20 dungeon. It stops being fun, and is just annoying after awhile. But I mean what else are they going to do? The single weapon system is just not something I enjoyed.
The soul shield system just didn't feel fun for me, I'm sure a lot of people like it, but it was just another thing that turns me off from the game.
I think I prefer the "this game sucks" threads.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
/scratches head
I was going to check this out (once the hype and queues died down) for something different and because, strangely enough, I didn't mind Aion back in the day... but it sounds like the No. 1 thing I like about MMORPGs, namely a world to explore, is sorely lacking.
Thanks for saving me the download.
Edit: Apparently this forum turns # 1 into a hyperlink
He is criticizing the MMORPG industry and the shallow garbage that companies try to pass as a MMORPG these days.
Blade&Soul should have been designed and marketed as a multyplayer fighting game as Street Fighter or Mortal Combat or some shit like that.
Very good OP.
I care about your gaming 'problems' and teenage anxieties, just not today.
Can't win for losin' around here.
Questing sucks, exploration sucks. Okay.
World design could be better sure.
My character looks unique, not too many people I've seen look the same, not sure what you meant there.
You said WoW was an example of a great game, but vanilla wow was grindy, tab target combat, looked somewhat bad, gear dependent pvp grind. Similar questing.
We all want the game that does everything, but fail to realize the limitations of game design. For me paying almost nothing, I am having a good time playing what the developers created with the resources they have.
Looking forward to: Crowfall / Lost Ark / Black Desert Mobile
This is the main issues that shows just how stupid devs really are, they design all the new games to have a shelf life of a few months based on gamers jumping around game to game. They never can actually think to themselves if they did something outside of the box that was feature complete from the start and working on a patch cycle of new content that we might actually get the next wow like sub numbers but instead they take the easy route to quick cash instead.
Its not that serious though. Every MMORPG doesn't need to be a complex and indepth piece of gaming art, and BnS certainly never sold itself as such. It's free to play for crissakes. It's been out for 4 years and anybody that knows about games knows that it's just an arcadey, light hearted, action combat, MMORPG. The type of game you can jump into for an hour or more and just have a little fun messing around. These types of threads come out in bunches every time an MMORPG is released and for the life of me I don't know what they are meant to accomplish other than to illustrate the obvious, and that is basically ... "different strokes for different folks."
Has there ever been an MMORPG release in which a stream of negative nancies did not come out in droves criticizing it? Do we really need to know every player's "I quit" opinion as to why they didn't like a game before they ride off into the sunset? Nothing seems to ever be good enough for this entertainment medium. That said, I will conclude this post by countering the OP's opinion with a brief ... none of those things he had an issue with are game breaking for me. I didn't come into the game with these unreal expectations about what this game had to offer and I enjoy it for what it does offer, and most of all I am grateful that I am able to play it for ... free.
What bothers me is that it's labeled MMORPG when it's clearly not.
I don't think 'twitchy arcade arena 1vs1" when I hear MMORPG.
I think 'twitchy arcade arena 1vs1" when I hear Street Fighter.
If you go to a rock concert and the band starts playing turkish folk songs... would you complain?
Our beloved genre is taking it up the pooper for like a decade now and it pisses me OFF!!
Carry on..
I care about your gaming 'problems' and teenage anxieties, just not today.