Invited to beta this weekend, just played about an hours worth. Or should I say I just forced myself to play about an hours worth.
Utterly horrible. Poor character creation, crap graphics even on max (seriously, ESO, 1995 called and they want their MMO graphics back) and a horrible combat system that tries desperately to shoehorn number key activated typical MMO attacks into the normal Elder Scrolls mouse fighting system.
Good idea. Poor implementation. Avoid like the fucking plague.
When all the reviewers and press releases were assuring you, fervently, that the game played exactly like a multiplayer version of Skyrim, I knew that it wasn't going to be anything at all like Skyrim, or any elder scrolls game.
For a game with a rumored $200 million budget, there seems to be very little compelling, polished or original about it's development. The combat and character progression are scarcely disguised clones of Guild Wars 2. Combat still feels very non-realtime despite repeated assurances from the developers, you still spend all your time targeting things and pressing hotkeys, and ranged attacks are homing missiles.
Sure, you can "soft target" by looking at something and swinging your sword, but it doesn't change the way you play. It's still the same old shit. The worlds aren't even particularly inspired. Compared to much lower profile games like Aion and even SWTOR, everything I saw was pretty plain.
All in all, I am unimpressed, but unsurprised. The development standards on display are more what you'd expect from a Korean free to play. Maradon! fucked around with this message on 01-10-2014 at 07:39 PM.
quote:
Maradon! said:
For a game with a rumored $200 million budget
Listen to some of the voice actors.
They got big names. With big pay checks.
quote:
Mortious had this to say about John Romero:
Listen to some of the voice actors.They got big names. With big pay checks.
And then you talk to a lizardman who sounds like Microsoft Sam.
Edit: My opinion of the game: Tries really hard to make you think that you're playing an Elder Scrolls game, but then the MMO side of the game constantly lingers and reminds you that it isn't. It also doesn't help that the game just doesn't feel as open as a typical TES game as well. Willias fucked around with this message on 01-12-2014 at 01:31 AM.
80% World of Warcraft
10% Guild Wars
10% Warhammer Online
0% Skyrim
Reality:
70% Guild Wars 2
20% Dark Age of Camelot
5% World of Warcraft
5% Skyrim
Honestly, I just wish they'd go full bore and completely scrap some of the MMO elements (I shouldn't need to make a new full suit of iron gear every two levels, come the fuck on) and just go full on Elder Scrolls. Too late in development for them to do that, but there's enough of a TES vibe here that I'm not convinced that it couldn't be done.
I'm really happy I didn't wait in line last year at PAX East to play it, because that would have been the biggest waste of the day.
