Free to play, or at least non-subscription. I do not give a single shit about PvP.
In order to help describe what I'm looking for, I'll go into the few I've played a bit of and what I liked/didn't like about them.
Neverwinter:
Good gameplay, very well crafted world that feels real. It felt a bit like playing a decent single player Action RPG. Story actually managed to hold my interest for a while and I still remember parts of it quite well. Downside of this was that it was quite a small world and although the classes felt quite different, playing through with a second character felt like you were doing almost exactly the same as before. Endgame was crap, nothing much to do, the expansion helped a little but it still felt like farming shit and grinding to get a few crappy passive bonuses.
Very little variation in gear, your outfit and weapons look pretty much the same throughout, just slightly fancier versions as you level up. Prior to the endgame, no grinding that I noticed.
GW2:
Big expansive and well designed/immersive world, lots of lore, lots of different areas. Skills, levels, gear etc fed to you at a decent rate. Lots of variety in the look of gear. Feels like an eastern take on western fantasy but they've managed to hold down the animu style bullshit, which makes it familiar in ways, but different enough to be interesting. Story is serviceable enough that I generally know what I'm doing and why. Lots of different things to do to keep you occupied while levelling and in the endgame
Despite all that, the gameplay is what lets it down for me. All the above keeps you occupied but after a while I realised that I wasn't really having "fun" playing the game. The actual running around killing monsters was kind of meh, not bad, just meh. I was never really a hardcore player, but I just got to a point where I realised the game was good at keeping me playing something that wasn't as fun as the time I was spending playing it justified. Deleted all characters and left.
SWtOR:
Blech.
TERA:
Gameplay wise I love this. Some classes may not be my thing but overall the combat actually feels engaging, having to aim and dodge means that I've actually had some difficult fights that felt good to beat them because it took a bit of skill and it doesn't feel like you're just pressing a button over and over until the enemy dies.
The world however always felt like it was an artificial arena filled with enemies that had no real reason to be there other than to be killed by players. Which is exactly what it is of course, but GW2 and Neverwinter did a much better job of hiding it IMO and I have precisely zero idea what the story is.
The whole aesthetic felt far too frilly and over designed, from the world itself to the player characters being porcelain animu fuckdolls and the armour and weapons being very ornate and ostentatious as well as thoroughly impractical.
So really I think maybe something that played like TERA or Neverwinter but had a world like GW2 might be good. Any suggestions?
In order to help describe what I'm looking for, I'll go into the few I've played a bit of and what I liked/didn't like about them.
Neverwinter:
Good gameplay, very well crafted world that feels real. It felt a bit like playing a decent single player Action RPG. Story actually managed to hold my interest for a while and I still remember parts of it quite well. Downside of this was that it was quite a small world and although the classes felt quite different, playing through with a second character felt like you were doing almost exactly the same as before. Endgame was crap, nothing much to do, the expansion helped a little but it still felt like farming shit and grinding to get a few crappy passive bonuses.
Very little variation in gear, your outfit and weapons look pretty much the same throughout, just slightly fancier versions as you level up. Prior to the endgame, no grinding that I noticed.
GW2:
Big expansive and well designed/immersive world, lots of lore, lots of different areas. Skills, levels, gear etc fed to you at a decent rate. Lots of variety in the look of gear. Feels like an eastern take on western fantasy but they've managed to hold down the animu style bullshit, which makes it familiar in ways, but different enough to be interesting. Story is serviceable enough that I generally know what I'm doing and why. Lots of different things to do to keep you occupied while levelling and in the endgame
Despite all that, the gameplay is what lets it down for me. All the above keeps you occupied but after a while I realised that I wasn't really having "fun" playing the game. The actual running around killing monsters was kind of meh, not bad, just meh. I was never really a hardcore player, but I just got to a point where I realised the game was good at keeping me playing something that wasn't as fun as the time I was spending playing it justified. Deleted all characters and left.
SWtOR:
Blech.
TERA:
Gameplay wise I love this. Some classes may not be my thing but overall the combat actually feels engaging, having to aim and dodge means that I've actually had some difficult fights that felt good to beat them because it took a bit of skill and it doesn't feel like you're just pressing a button over and over until the enemy dies.
The world however always felt like it was an artificial arena filled with enemies that had no real reason to be there other than to be killed by players. Which is exactly what it is of course, but GW2 and Neverwinter did a much better job of hiding it IMO and I have precisely zero idea what the story is.
The whole aesthetic felt far too frilly and over designed, from the world itself to the player characters being porcelain animu fuckdolls and the armour and weapons being very ornate and ostentatious as well as thoroughly impractical.
So really I think maybe something that played like TERA or Neverwinter but had a world like GW2 might be good. Any suggestions?
