Yes, there may be one or two of us who have this game, but for the rest, I will tell you what I played through in my brief trial period.
1) Graphics. I have to say, for an MMO, the graphics are spectacularly realistic, yet they lack the style seen in games like world of warcraft. On a side note, the character creator, while robust, is incredibly randomised, which means many people will get screwed and look like dweebs. Appearance can be altered, but that costs a boatload of in game money, called dollars, and isn't totally perfect looking.
2) Interface. Initially, I thought the controls sucked. There's no manual (although some more experianced players mock noobs by claiming there is) or even a pause menu. Once you do grasp the controls (which some have said can take years) the experiance is remarkably intuitive. Many skills can take a while to develop, such as juggling, or many of the optional mini games, like gambling, or drinking. The HUD is very natural, in fact, it consists solely of a blurry image of a nose, which serves as a health meter, although it only measures blows to the head, and only some of those. Maybe that can be patched later.
3) Gameplay. This is what will make or break your opinion of the game. The pacing in this game, frankly, sucks. There may be hours, days, even YEARS that go by with nary a boss fight or even filler enemies. Random violence is incredibly discouraged, as I discovered when I shot an NPC who was blocking a doorway. When the authorities tried to "arrest" me, I kindly explained that if they didn't want this happening then they should fix the path finding of their NPCs. Whereabout I discovered that I had shot another player, I was mollified, given the atrociosly high death penalties in this game. I offered to give financial restitution to him when he respawned only to remember you only get one life. ONE (Although some think you go on to play another game upon death. After what I considered a kangaroo court (they gave no thought to the fact that as there was no glowing text over his head, I couldn't identify him as a player) I was sat down in a strange chair and the demo promptly ended.
4) Balance. You might be wondering why I put balance here. Because the balance in this game blows. When you start out you are a week little blorb, so thoroughly useless that I can't remember more than a few snippets of that stage. You also are "born" to a "family" of more experianced players, which family you get will dictate both monetary wealth and social standing. Some players will look down on you because of your race, which is even more annoying then being looked down on as an elite on Halo because at least there you had a choice. On a sidenote, the player community generally sucks.
And thus my review is complete, this game is a flawed and ultimately failed social experiment, although interesting to look at, it shouldn't hold your attention for to long. I do have to remark that it is a pain to log out, I actually wasn't able to figure out how.
1) Graphics. I have to say, for an MMO, the graphics are spectacularly realistic, yet they lack the style seen in games like world of warcraft. On a side note, the character creator, while robust, is incredibly randomised, which means many people will get screwed and look like dweebs. Appearance can be altered, but that costs a boatload of in game money, called dollars, and isn't totally perfect looking.
2) Interface. Initially, I thought the controls sucked. There's no manual (although some more experianced players mock noobs by claiming there is) or even a pause menu. Once you do grasp the controls (which some have said can take years) the experiance is remarkably intuitive. Many skills can take a while to develop, such as juggling, or many of the optional mini games, like gambling, or drinking. The HUD is very natural, in fact, it consists solely of a blurry image of a nose, which serves as a health meter, although it only measures blows to the head, and only some of those. Maybe that can be patched later.
3) Gameplay. This is what will make or break your opinion of the game. The pacing in this game, frankly, sucks. There may be hours, days, even YEARS that go by with nary a boss fight or even filler enemies. Random violence is incredibly discouraged, as I discovered when I shot an NPC who was blocking a doorway. When the authorities tried to "arrest" me, I kindly explained that if they didn't want this happening then they should fix the path finding of their NPCs. Whereabout I discovered that I had shot another player, I was mollified, given the atrociosly high death penalties in this game. I offered to give financial restitution to him when he respawned only to remember you only get one life. ONE (Although some think you go on to play another game upon death. After what I considered a kangaroo court (they gave no thought to the fact that as there was no glowing text over his head, I couldn't identify him as a player) I was sat down in a strange chair and the demo promptly ended.
4) Balance. You might be wondering why I put balance here. Because the balance in this game blows. When you start out you are a week little blorb, so thoroughly useless that I can't remember more than a few snippets of that stage. You also are "born" to a "family" of more experianced players, which family you get will dictate both monetary wealth and social standing. Some players will look down on you because of your race, which is even more annoying then being looked down on as an elite on Halo because at least there you had a choice. On a sidenote, the player community generally sucks.
And thus my review is complete, this game is a flawed and ultimately failed social experiment, although interesting to look at, it shouldn't hold your attention for to long. I do have to remark that it is a pain to log out, I actually wasn't able to figure out how.
