I actually think that for a first week review of an mmo just out of beta, this was decently accurate.
I have to agree, the game is beautiful. The cutscenes are acceptably well done (I do have one giant glaring ommission on the uldah one where you are accused of evesdropping....while standing in the room....next to everyone....for about 5 minutes. And really? Silent protaganist? C'mon.)
The faults they poke in this review are not "bugs" but rather ommisions or design flaws.
The leve system is a poor excuse for not having legitimate quests. But since there is nothing out there other than the camps, it almost makes a twisted sort of sense.
The retainer system is a disaster in so many ways its almost frightening, no I am not talking about the lack of AH, I actually kind of like the flea market bazaar, but not forcing everyone to set up at a stall with a little speak bubble over their head with a description of their wares is like asking for a big pile of Fail. Oh and, no renaming the nickname? really?
Crafting is amazingly in-depth and wonderful.....but the gear created is a semi permanant fixture of the world once crafted. Gear made today could theoretically still be used by low rank characters 4 years from now, it simply needs to be repaired and its either 100% or 75% as good as the day it was made. I expect eventually most of the work of crafters will be repairing gear rather than creating gear as the sheer amount of gear available will force prices to the floor.
Mix and match classes, great idea, cant complain, but why bother having a physical exp level if it essentially means little to nothing? I would have been perfectly content with rank levels alone and have gear make up the difference in regards to stats. As for the Rank leveling system....random is bad. you can use Variance, but random is just bad.This is especially true when the best possible way to gain said skill points is to spam the same default rank 1 ability repeatedly interwoven with the occasional heal or TP based move.
As for the UI, what can I tell you that you dont already know. First of all, I've heard that the UI is processed Server side, this would explain the lag and also means that the lag will never go away. I can only imagine that such a horror of a design decision was made to fight botting which usually uses hacks that speak directly to the UI processing client side. I could go on a tangent for 10 pages on the word "bot" but I'll spare you. The chat limitation is so stupid its mind boggling. It was also likely one of the first things noticed in beta and alpha....yet its still here. Targetting is abysmally slow and far too reliant on line of sight considering the camera line of sight doesnt always match the character....who stands at an odd angle which makes it difficult to quickly ascertain what ability will or will not work. Considering that plus the agro hopping monsters my heal spells are usually met with "target is not in sight" halfway through the cast.
I had a whole section here just for grouping, but I'm going to turn it into more of a discussion than a rant and post it elsewhere.
So, I agree with the Gamespot review, much like FF13, I find it visually striking and developmentally stunted. Can it be turned around? yes. The question is if the turn around will be fast enough or big enough to make us care and keep our monthly subscription.
I have to agree, the game is beautiful. The cutscenes are acceptably well done (I do have one giant glaring ommission on the uldah one where you are accused of evesdropping....while standing in the room....next to everyone....for about 5 minutes. And really? Silent protaganist? C'mon.)
The faults they poke in this review are not "bugs" but rather ommisions or design flaws.
The leve system is a poor excuse for not having legitimate quests. But since there is nothing out there other than the camps, it almost makes a twisted sort of sense.
The retainer system is a disaster in so many ways its almost frightening, no I am not talking about the lack of AH, I actually kind of like the flea market bazaar, but not forcing everyone to set up at a stall with a little speak bubble over their head with a description of their wares is like asking for a big pile of Fail. Oh and, no renaming the nickname? really?
Crafting is amazingly in-depth and wonderful.....but the gear created is a semi permanant fixture of the world once crafted. Gear made today could theoretically still be used by low rank characters 4 years from now, it simply needs to be repaired and its either 100% or 75% as good as the day it was made. I expect eventually most of the work of crafters will be repairing gear rather than creating gear as the sheer amount of gear available will force prices to the floor.
Mix and match classes, great idea, cant complain, but why bother having a physical exp level if it essentially means little to nothing? I would have been perfectly content with rank levels alone and have gear make up the difference in regards to stats. As for the Rank leveling system....random is bad. you can use Variance, but random is just bad.This is especially true when the best possible way to gain said skill points is to spam the same default rank 1 ability repeatedly interwoven with the occasional heal or TP based move.
As for the UI, what can I tell you that you dont already know. First of all, I've heard that the UI is processed Server side, this would explain the lag and also means that the lag will never go away. I can only imagine that such a horror of a design decision was made to fight botting which usually uses hacks that speak directly to the UI processing client side. I could go on a tangent for 10 pages on the word "bot" but I'll spare you. The chat limitation is so stupid its mind boggling. It was also likely one of the first things noticed in beta and alpha....yet its still here. Targetting is abysmally slow and far too reliant on line of sight considering the camera line of sight doesnt always match the character....who stands at an odd angle which makes it difficult to quickly ascertain what ability will or will not work. Considering that plus the agro hopping monsters my heal spells are usually met with "target is not in sight" halfway through the cast.
I had a whole section here just for grouping, but I'm going to turn it into more of a discussion than a rant and post it elsewhere.
So, I agree with the Gamespot review, much like FF13, I find it visually striking and developmentally stunted. Can it be turned around? yes. The question is if the turn around will be fast enough or big enough to make us care and keep our monthly subscription.
~Tzain Nival (Balmung)