Post by Gilvan Blight on Mar 4, 2006 19:48:47 GMT -5
Okay been playing the Free Weekend thing all weekend and think I have enough info for a pretty good review.
Quickly: very different action based MMO, some great things, but has a lot of the problem that other MMOs have.
Summary: This is an MMO set in a post apocalyptic world where evreyone drives souped up cars ala Mad Max or Car Wars. There are three factions to chose from, Mutants, Humans and Cyborgs and 4 classes for each faction. You make you character and start out with a basic starter card and are dumped right into the action. Game starts in a noob area and you complete missions to get xp and eventually unlock the rest of the world. The usual party system (called convoys) exists as well as crafting, skills, powers (magic like abilities that do things like damage, repair your vehicle, etc). The world was a unique creation and the story revolves around the relations of the three factions. PVP arenas and events exist but the game plays co-op otherwize. There is an instancing system, but it only kicks in when an area is too full. Missions are not instanced.
The good: a nice change. Playing an MMO where you are driving around shooting things real time with FPS like controlls is very different and a ton of fun. The background and story thus far are rather good, better then expected. There is a different story for each faction, and I currently play a Mutant, but based on the mutant plot I have to assume the others are just as good. Controls are inuitive, responsive and easy to learn. The graphics even on the low setting are well done. The physics are suprisingly good (not perfect but better then expected). Everyone I met in the game was also very helpful assuming you had read the instructions and weren't asking questions that were stated within them. The convoy system seemed to work well. Without instancing I was worried that my targets would get taken out by other players. This does happen but everything has an insanely high refresh rate, and there was always another one of what I was looking for poping up so no time was wasted. There are some interesting story based missions that I just thought were cool, they really didn't involve much but were a cool addition. An example, find a guy who asks help fixing a truck, he says go talk to another guy and get a wrench, you do that (litterally 1second away) and get back then you help the guy fix the truck by clicking on it. It really wasn't much but with the text that went along with it it made the world seem more real. The best thing thus far though, no penalty for death at all... it doesn't even make you fail your current mission. You just get air lifted to the nearest repair shop and head out, and thus far none of them are far from where you died.
The bad: Its an MMO which requires leveling up, and that takes time. This really doesn't change for all MMOs really. Thus far there has always been a mission to do at my level and I have been advancing steadily but it is getting slower (only level 4). You fight an aweful lot of the same things, it's no killing rabbits, but fighting one VW beetle with a machingun on it is just like fighting another. This I can see getting borring. The missions as well, except for the short 'roleplay' ones mentioned above are getting repetative already. Go collect this, or go kill this or bring this there. That's it. Now I am only in the first city so that my change. The cities - they just aren't that intersting, it's a big outdoor area you walk around in just to shop or get missions, you can't emote, there is no bar to hang at or anything like that. It literally could have been handled with a menu (shop, missions, sell, etc) Lastly, you can't get out of your car! They made a big deal about getting in and out and really you can't. Okay not totally true, when you enter a city you are on foot, but I expected to be able to run around on foot at all times if I wanted to.
The Ugly: hopefully it's all due to being a beta, but the game has issues. The biggest being some server error that pops up now and then and you have to click accept, and when you do you loose control of your vehicle. This has killed me twice. Also ATI radeon cards are having some odd issue just this weekend, I have had it crash twice due to video issues.
Overall: this is definately a change for the MMO genere and a welcome one. It won't be for everyone, and there are still some big issues (level treadmil, needing parties for hard missions, multiple people chasing the same thing, etc). Its just not quite up to the expectations I had for it. I am truely enjoying it, but it's free right now, at this point I can think of other MMO's I would rather spend my money on. If this was a stand alone, one time purchase I would definately consider it though.
Quickly: very different action based MMO, some great things, but has a lot of the problem that other MMOs have.
Summary: This is an MMO set in a post apocalyptic world where evreyone drives souped up cars ala Mad Max or Car Wars. There are three factions to chose from, Mutants, Humans and Cyborgs and 4 classes for each faction. You make you character and start out with a basic starter card and are dumped right into the action. Game starts in a noob area and you complete missions to get xp and eventually unlock the rest of the world. The usual party system (called convoys) exists as well as crafting, skills, powers (magic like abilities that do things like damage, repair your vehicle, etc). The world was a unique creation and the story revolves around the relations of the three factions. PVP arenas and events exist but the game plays co-op otherwize. There is an instancing system, but it only kicks in when an area is too full. Missions are not instanced.
The good: a nice change. Playing an MMO where you are driving around shooting things real time with FPS like controlls is very different and a ton of fun. The background and story thus far are rather good, better then expected. There is a different story for each faction, and I currently play a Mutant, but based on the mutant plot I have to assume the others are just as good. Controls are inuitive, responsive and easy to learn. The graphics even on the low setting are well done. The physics are suprisingly good (not perfect but better then expected). Everyone I met in the game was also very helpful assuming you had read the instructions and weren't asking questions that were stated within them. The convoy system seemed to work well. Without instancing I was worried that my targets would get taken out by other players. This does happen but everything has an insanely high refresh rate, and there was always another one of what I was looking for poping up so no time was wasted. There are some interesting story based missions that I just thought were cool, they really didn't involve much but were a cool addition. An example, find a guy who asks help fixing a truck, he says go talk to another guy and get a wrench, you do that (litterally 1second away) and get back then you help the guy fix the truck by clicking on it. It really wasn't much but with the text that went along with it it made the world seem more real. The best thing thus far though, no penalty for death at all... it doesn't even make you fail your current mission. You just get air lifted to the nearest repair shop and head out, and thus far none of them are far from where you died.
The bad: Its an MMO which requires leveling up, and that takes time. This really doesn't change for all MMOs really. Thus far there has always been a mission to do at my level and I have been advancing steadily but it is getting slower (only level 4). You fight an aweful lot of the same things, it's no killing rabbits, but fighting one VW beetle with a machingun on it is just like fighting another. This I can see getting borring. The missions as well, except for the short 'roleplay' ones mentioned above are getting repetative already. Go collect this, or go kill this or bring this there. That's it. Now I am only in the first city so that my change. The cities - they just aren't that intersting, it's a big outdoor area you walk around in just to shop or get missions, you can't emote, there is no bar to hang at or anything like that. It literally could have been handled with a menu (shop, missions, sell, etc) Lastly, you can't get out of your car! They made a big deal about getting in and out and really you can't. Okay not totally true, when you enter a city you are on foot, but I expected to be able to run around on foot at all times if I wanted to.
The Ugly: hopefully it's all due to being a beta, but the game has issues. The biggest being some server error that pops up now and then and you have to click accept, and when you do you loose control of your vehicle. This has killed me twice. Also ATI radeon cards are having some odd issue just this weekend, I have had it crash twice due to video issues.
Overall: this is definately a change for the MMO genere and a welcome one. It won't be for everyone, and there are still some big issues (level treadmil, needing parties for hard missions, multiple people chasing the same thing, etc). Its just not quite up to the expectations I had for it. I am truely enjoying it, but it's free right now, at this point I can think of other MMO's I would rather spend my money on. If this was a stand alone, one time purchase I would definately consider it though.